Animal Blanket That Mommy Made Me!

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A Mystery Bouquet

My husband had two dozen roses delivered to me a few days ago for a “Just Because”. It made me think back to the time before I got to know him. I knew who he was before this time, but I didn’t know much about him. I came to work at the church office one morning in February and there was this stunning bouquet of roses and tropical flowers in a vase sitting on my desk, but it didn’t have a card. I asked everyone in the office, if they knew where it came from and no one did. I kept the flowers on my desk until they faded and then I washed the vase and set it on the counter behind my desk and in a few days the vase would be gone. This happened several times and it really got my curiosity up. I even wrote about my mystery bouquet in my journal. One day when I came back from lunch there was another beautiful bouquet on my desk. I immediately asked the gal watching the desk, where they came from. She described the guy who brought them in and I said, Oh, that is Rich C. When that bouquet was over, I saw Rich at church, greeting people outside and I told him I had his vase. The next day he came in to get it. He said he would bring the bouquets on Sunday and put them in our bookstore for people to enjoy and then he asked the deacon that locked up, to put the flowers in the church office for people to enjoy over there. He worked part time for a party decorator and she had left over flowers that she would give him and he wanted to bless the people at the church with them! I was so impressed by that. I told him I had worked as a florist for a number of years and I really like flowers. Well, the flowers lead us into other subjects and we would always have a nice chat each time he came to pick up his vase. I began to really like him. He was funny, intelligent, humble and very thoughtful. So, I told a girlfriend how much I liked him. She knew him through the usher ministry. She wanted to tell him right away, but I held off because I wasn’t sure if he was just being friendly or was interested in me. After several months and the insisting of my friend, I relented and told her she could talk to him. She told him one Sunday that I really liked him and would like to get to know him better. She said he was pleasantly surprised and said that he would be calling me soon! He was 45 and had been single all of his life and had pretty much given up hope in finding the one God had for him. He told the Lord that he was tired of trying to make something happen, so he asked the Lord to bring something obvious along. Me conveying my interest to him through a friend, brought hope to his heart, that this is what God wanted. He called me the next night and the rest is history. Now he loves to give me beautiful flowers, because that is what God used to bring the spark of friendship and love between us!

Foody Friday Butter Beans

The Foody Friday thing that Jenny at A Latte Talk started sounded like so much fun that I decided to join in. My recipe could be used as a side dish or as a main dish. It is a Southern dish that is one of my husband's family's favorites and they are from Oklahoma. When my husband first said he was going to fix me butter beans, I didn't know what that was. When he told me it was cooked large dried Lima Beans, I wasn't too thrilled. My only exposure to Lima Beans was when I was a kid and my mom cooked green lima beans from the garden and I hated them!! Part of the hatred came from being required to eat them even if it took me an hour, gagging all the way. But I lived through it =) All my mom's good intentions on getting us kids to eat our vegetables did not work on Lima Beans!! I liked all my vegetables but as an adult I would pick the green lima beans out of mixed vegetables and throw them away. I'm telling you all this to say I was converted about Lima Beans when I ate this dish for the first time. It is yummy and you feel so good after you eat them! I have embellished a little bit from the original recipe. So, here you have Ma Cardwell's Butter Beans:

Ma Cardwell's Butter Beans

1 lb bag of large white dried lima beans
1 country style pork rib (or meat of choice)
1/2 chopped white onion
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 package of Lipton's dried soup mix
2 drops of smoke flavoring
Low sodium chicken broth


Soak beans over night in a bowl of water covering beans. Drain beans and put in a slow cooker and pour chicken broth over it until it covers the beans. Chop the country style rib into small pieces and brown in a skillet and add to beans. Add 1 pkg of dried onion soup mix, 1/2 white onion chopped, 1/2 tsp of minced garlic and smoke flavoring. Mix thoroughly and set on a medium heat for a slow cooker or a low heat on the stove and let cook for 8 hours. Stir occasionally. Enjoy!

Our Baby Girl

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An Angel Unaware?

It was a cold grey winter’s day and I was working as a florist in a small shop a little bit out of the way. I was in the back room making some arrangements for the display cooler when I heard the bell ring on the front door. I went out to see who it was and there at the counter was a small lady in her late 70’s. She had white hair that made soft curls around her face and she wore a tailored, blue, wool coat that was fastened with two large plastic buttons. She told me that she wanted to wire some flowers to her daughter in Florida as it was her birthday. I showed her some pictures of arrangements in the FTD book. She picked one with brightly colored flowers and party horns in it. We went back to the counter and I made out her order. She began to tell me how she had 4 children. Two of them she had in her twenties and two after she was forty. She said she loved all her kids very much but she said, “Oh, how I enjoyed the children I had after I was forty.” With the sweetest look on her face, she reached over and patted my hand and said, “Dear, don’t feel bad if you have children after you are forty. They will be such a joy!” I thought that was interesting as I had not told her that I was single, 30 years old and was waiting for God to fulfill the desires of my heart for a husband and a family. Little did I know that in two years I would be afforded the opportunity to come on staff at a local church as their secretary and that the job would provide wonderful fellowship and purpose, that would insulate me from the pain of loneliness that would have been too hard to bear during the 12 more years that I had to wait. I met my sweet husband, Richard, at that church and we married when I was 42 and he was 47. Four years later, when I was 46, I gave birth to our precious daughter, Mary Ellen. She is such a joy!

When the little old lady paid for her order of flowers that day, she walked out the door. I looked away for a moment and when I looked again, she was gone. I don’t know if she made a quick turn up the hill to the retirement center that was near the flower shop or hopped into a car I did not see or....she was an angel and just disappeared? Whatever the case, she was an angle to me. Angel means messenger and she gave me a powerful message that day that I will never forget and it filled my heart with hope during my wait!

“Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” 1Peter 4:19