Author Archives: Janell

The Second Day

12 Saturday Dec 2009

Posted by in Far Away Places, Life at Home, The Great Outdoors

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Eyes grow soft when gazing upon any created thing held dear.  Whether it is person or place, it doesn’t much matter.  Eyes grow greedy, drinking without thought of ever feeling sated.  Changes are looked for and found.  But soon the eye accepts the change  so that what once stood out no longer becomes discernible.

It will be just like this when I see those cherished faces of dear friends; and so it already is between me and this area I called home for most of my adult life.

Never mind that it’s a dreary gray day where horizon disappears between sea and sky.  There are no sharp clear lines today; everything my eye falls on becomes a fuzzy smudge.  I know that imaginary artist line is out there somewhere, covered by fog.  Even as my eye follows the white cap surf to the shore line, the sky seems to hover slightly above the churning water.   There’s a closed-in stuffy appearance to my ocean view today; walking out on the cottage deck is like walking into a smoke-filled dive after a night of big business.  Only the smokey fog lingers to hint to what has come before.

And what was it that came before?  It was on the second day that God created an expanse between waters and sky.  And when the separation had come, the first creation account tells that God separated the water under the expanse from the water above it — “And it was so.”  And  God called the expanse sky.

Today the expanse has slipped a bit, for a light mist falls out of the sky on me as I drive to pick up the morning papers and a cup of coffee.  And I feel so loved that my husband would transport his work site for a few days so that I can fill my lungs with salt air and reacquaint myself with the old God in the sea.

Standing before the sea shrinks me to the proper proportion.  I am small  against the  mighty created sea.   And compared to God, I sing with the Psalmist: “What are humans that you are mindful of them?”

It’s time to attend to this mass of sea that blurs into expansive misty sky on this, our second day.

Peanut Butter Cookies

11 Friday Dec 2009

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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I racked my brain for a particular story that goes with these cookies.  But there’s not one.  Maybe because these cookies have just been an everyday fixture in my life, from those days of earliest childhood.

My first memory of these cookies was preserved while swinging on a backyard swing set, in those long ago days when I still called Shawnee “home.”  I must have been seven or eight at the time.  I had a cookie in one hand and a banana in the other, and even now, I partake in the occasional splurge of having this double childhood delight.

My mom liked these cookies.  They may have been her favorite cookie, though I’m not sure.  This cookie is a multi-generational favorite in our family — from Don’s mother Janice, to my daughter Kate and son-in-law Joe to both of my sons to my niece Abigail to my grandson Jackson.

And while they may not be everyone’s favorite cookie, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like them.  They stay fresh a long time, which may have accounted for their popularity with the boys.  During college dorm years, I must have made 200 of these cookies a month.  Perhaps I’m coming into my ‘grandma own’, since this is one recipe I can make without need of words on paper.

These cookies became birthday gifts twice this year.  And now they become my gift to you, at least with words.  From my life to yours.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar (plus 4 Tbsp for coating)
1 16 oz jar of Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter
3 extra-large eggs
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour

Put 4 Tbsp sugar in a bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix eggs, water and vanilla.   In another small bowl, combine flour and baking soda.  In a large bowl, mix first four ingredients until creamy; gradually add egg mixture and mix well; then gradually add dry ingredients and mix well.

Pinch off 2 Tbsp of dough and form into ball.  Roll balls in bowl of reserved sugar.  Using a large salad fork, criss-cross each cookie, pressing it down to flatten.   The cookies will flatten more in baking process.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes in a 375 oven until slightly golden.  Cool on baking sheet.

Sit Loose

10 Thursday Dec 2009

Posted by in Life at Home, Soul Care

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The dogs missed me today.  After all, they know that Thursdays are my homebody day.  Today I should have been sitting at my writing desk, but instead I was out and about, running around town tying up loose ends.

Well, that’s not exactly it.  I had planned to tie up a few loose ends in between attending to everyday life.  But I never had the time for loose ends.  All I did was sit around town, moving from one chair to the next. From laundromat to spiritual direction to the dentist, I sat for more than four hours today, not counting the sitting I did behind the wheel.

And I arrived home to happy, happy dogs and oh how I wish I’d taken time to sit with them a bit, so that we could have greeted each other properly.  But instead, I didn’t sit for three hours straight.  I immediately began making a fresh batch of Rocket Rolls to take with us to Texas.  And then I made a fresh batch of Tomato Basil Soup for tonight’s prayer group.  And in between all the baking, I began gathering things for our trip.

I didn’t sit down again until I was behind the wheel driving toward church.  And finally, after all the different chairs I sat in today, this one was the loveliest sit of all.  Just me and God tying up a loose end.

And as God said, when he was tying up his own loose ends, after a hard day’s work, it was good.  It was very good.