Better Than Fried Chicken

I have a new story for Peanut Butter & Grace up on their website.  I encourage you to check it out.  Also, please say a prayer for my son, John, who makes his First Holy Communion this Sunday, that he always want to be as close to Jesus as he can get. 

Happy Feast of Corpus Christi!

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I was scanning my bag of carrots in the grocery store self-checkout lane when I heard the lady behind me say loudly and enthusiastically, “You should come to our church!”

The words caught my attention, and I looked up to see her chatting with another woman who was obviously a friend of hers.  Their conversation went on.

“Bring your family.  We meet at the park just up the road.  It’s really wonderful, AND WE HAVE FOOD!”

I finished bagging my groceries and headed out the door, but as I loaded my bags into the back of my SUV, the conversation between these two ladies kept playing in my head.  Church?  In a park? Outside? With food?  I was intrigued.  I imagined young families like mine, gathered for prayer and fellowship in the picnic shelter; afterwards, the ladies would be enjoying friendly conversation while the men flipped burgers and played horseshoes and the children played in the playground.  Prayer plus play.  Such a winning combination, I thought.   And the food.  Oh yes, the food.  I’ve been to enough Appalachian potlucks to know what that would be like.  Heavenly.  Fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, biscuits and gravy, deviled eggs and homemade potato salad.  Watermelon, fruit salad, and BBQ potato chips. Three kinds of cobbler, some kind of whipped-topping dessert, lemonade and sweet tea.  I could imagine it all.  {Read the rest here...}

Dandelions For Dinner

“Mom, can we have dandelions for dinner?”

I’m guessing this isn’t a phrase heard very often in most American homes, but when the cold, cloudy days of our Appalachian winters slowly begin to give way to sunny, blue skies and warm winds, my children and I start anxiously watching for that first herald of spring known to many but appreciated by few…the golden flowers of the dandelion.

I suppose the appearance of dandelions in the yard causes most Americans to groan. Other harbingers of spring such as seeing the first American robin, or perhaps the first daffodil in bloom, or maybe hearing snow geese as they fly overhead to their breeding grounds, are more likely to stir feelings of anticipation for the long summer days that we know lie ahead.  But a dandelion?  Regarded as a weed and despised by lawn care enthusiasts, the lowly dandelion has become for most of us merely a symbol of everything unwanted and unkempt, and is a plant considered worthy of no mercy nor appreciation.

But for children, a dandelion is a thing of beauty and in many ways, it is a plant made especially for them. Romping through the overgrown grass in early spring, my children love to pick dandelion flowers and turn them into delicate bouquets that they then take to our little statue of the Blessed Mother (and sometimes to their earthly mother). If the blooming of the dandelions happens to coincide with Easter Sunday, they know that a flower or two will most likely adorn our Easter cake and cupcakes, along with a few violets and henbit.  When the dandelion flowers go to seed, they, like most children, make a wish and blow the seeds into the wind, then run ahead of them and try to catch them on the breeze. And who doesn’t remember making dandelion jewelry as a child, wrapping the drooping stems of each flower around another flower and turning them into friendship bracelets or a tiara fit for a princess?

But of all the many uses my children can find for a dandelion, their favorite by far is turning them into a much-loved snack that replaces potato chips and French fries for a few weeks of the year.  When those first yellow blossoms appear, shining gold across the landscape, my children and I grab a basket and head out on a dandelion harvesting adventure.  We pick as many as we can find then bring them home, give them a good rinse, dip them in a cornmeal breading seasoned with salt and pepper, and fry them up in a bit of oil.  My children love to help with this and when we serve the fried dandelions for dinner, there is always a squabble regarding who got the most. 

The old saying is that a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place.  I suppose that is what has become of the humble dandelion.  Brought over from Europe by our earliest ancestors, the dandelion was once a valuable herb for both its medicinal and nutritional properties. Considered healthier than most vegetables, it is high in many vitamins and the entire plant is edible.  It has been used for thousands of years in nearly every culture on earth and even has roots (no pun intended!) in Catholic tradition.  For example, this bitter herb was traditionally used as a symbol of the Passion and is sometimes shown with other flowers in historical paintings of the Madonna and Child, or of the Crucifixion.  

But perhaps nobody understood and appreciated the dandelion more than the great Catholic apologist, G.K. Chesterton, for whom the entire philosophy of life could best be defended by means of a dandelion. Known to defend every living thing on earth as a gift of our Creator, it was in the last pages of his Autobiography in which he wrote, “through what incarnations or prenatal purgatories I must have passed, to earn the reward of looking at a dandelion."

I do not know if Chesterton ever actually ate dandelions for dinner.  I like to think that he enjoyed them a time or two himself.  Having attempted to share my fondness for dandelions with friends, I have learned that it takes a certain amount of humility to eat a dandelion, and I think Chesterton would have appreciated that.

Nevertheless, I enjoy making dandelions for dinner for a lot of reasons. The fun of gathering and cooking them with my kids, the knowledge that I am feeding them something that is highly nutritious, and the fact that I can get as many as we need at no cost, are all what I consider benefits to eating this seasonal treat. But there is also one more reason why I love serving dandelions for dinner. I hope that by having dandelions for dinner, my children are learning what Chesterton tried to explain so eloquently.  That is, that even weeds have value, and that they too fit into God’s great design for Creation. As my children grow, I want them to try to see things more as God sees and not as man sees.  Today, it starts with how they see a plant that others consider unwanted.  A few years from now, it may be how they see a person whom others consider unwanted.  My hope is that someday they will realize that, as Chesterton wrote, “The only way to enjoy even a weed is to feel unworthy even of a weed."

Living For Easter (Lenten Update)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 

One year ago today...time, slow down!

Can you believe Lent is almost over?  So, how’s it going? 

I admit, I have fallen off the wagon some.  For example, I was going to start saying the Angelus with the kids every day at lunch, but that hasn’t happened yet. Lunch time in my house might not be the best time for this new devotion and by the afternoon, the boys are outside and going off in different directions. And then there are the times I tried to say the rosary but kept falling asleep.  Bedtime is probably not the best time for me to say a rosary. I seem to have a timing issue when it comes to these two devotions.  

Thankfully, a few things have been going well.  I have been getting up an extra 30 minutes earlier during Lent, and it has made a huge difference in how well my day goes.  Just that bit of extra time gives me a much-needed head start on the day.  It also gives me 10 to 15 minutes to read a chapter from this book.  I highly recommend it to anyone going through suffering or just wanting to walk with Jesus through his Passion.  If you have seen the movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, it is very similar to the narrative given in this book.  It is graphic but not overly so (I have been reading it aloud to my 7-year-old).  It just really makes me FEEL what Jesus went through, and my heart breaks with each chapter.

I have given up added sugar (mostly) during Lent and the first two weeks of that were rough!  Now, however, the sugar cravings are finally gone, and I feel so much better.  I never indulged in a lot of desserts but eating chocolate candies was one of my downfalls before Lent.  For reasons I hope to blog about later, most of my family has also gone gluten and dairy free (including me) and that has been a serious penance for me and them.  Transitioning to this new dietary lifestyle has been a big challenge (and huge stressor as I learn new habits and recipes) but I am optimistic that the effort will be worth it in the end.

The boys are doing great with their sacrifices this Lent. They enthusiastically mark off each day on our Lenten calendar.  We established a “bean jar” and they put a bean in it each time they do something good for someone or do something without being asked.  They know that come Easter, the beans turn into jellybeans or candy, so that is great motivation! They also have given up screen time except for one hour a day, during which they want to watch “The Pioneer Woman”.  They have fallen in love with this show (and her, I think) and they like to point out to me how much butter and sugar she uses.  LOL! Joah also has decided he wants to live on a ranch.

My husband decided during Lent to work on our marriage and we have been trying to take more time for ourselves.  A big change has been turning off our phones and screens for at least 30 minutes to an hour after the kids all go to bed and just talking to each other.  That has been much needed.  We also are scheduling “dates” with each other and putting them on our calendar just as we would a doctor’s appointment or other event.  It gives us both something to look forward to on those long days when it feels like we barely see or talk to each other.

This past week, we celebrated Joah’s baptismal anniversary.  He looks forward to this almost as much as his birthday.  For his special day, he requested pancakes for supper (his favorite meal) and a trip to the guitar store with his dad (his dad is teaching him to play guitar now). I also took the boys out to ride their bikes down some dirt trails.  I can’t believe how brave they are on the bikes!  They were ripping down the hills and loving it.  I think mountain biking may be in their future. 

For Joah’s baptismal anniversary, however, the best gift came unexpectedly.  After 7 years, we received a loving note from his birthmother.  For those of you who have adopted, you know how huge this is.  We had not heard from her since Joah’s birth and did not know if we ever would, but we never stopped praying for her.  Turns out, God was slowly working a miracle during those years and every prayer was heard.  It just had to happen in God’s time, a lesson that I seem to keep learning over and over and over.  Praise, Jesus!  I have been enjoying this new relationship with his birthmother so much, sending her photos and trying to get her caught up on the past 7 years of his life.  It is such a wonderful thing to be in an open adoption relationship, and my family (and hers) grew by leaps and bounds during this past week, all of us held together by the shared love of one very special little boy.

And that all got me to thinking (again) about how God works.  I am reminded again and again that God hears every prayer. Even the ones when I am barely awake.  Even when my timing is off. Even when my prayer never gets past my good intentions. Even then, he hears me.  He hears my prayers before I even say them.  And in witnessing this seven- year miracle, I am reminded that it is Easter and not Lent for which I live.