A Resolution to Be Content

So I finished reading the first chapter of the Resolution for Women. If you haven't read in awhile read the post before this one. This chapter is called Surprisingly Satisfied: A resolution to be content. The author talks about what it means to be truly content with our lives. In the first part of the chapter she talks about eating a piece of chocolate cake on her birthday with one of her mentors. Her mentor told her this was going to be the best year of her life. She wondered how this could be and began reflecting on her life. She realized that she couldn't remember certain aspects of her life because she had always been hurrying through life. She talked about when she was in college she wanted to be married, and once she was married she wanted children and so forth. She said that she realized she had been rushing through life and not taking time to enjoy her current season in life. I realized that I took have been guilty of this, I'm sure like many of you. The day I read this first part was mother's day. I letting my feelings get the best of me. For instance I had told someone that I"ve known for quite awhile Happy Mother's Day and she looked at me and said Happy M.....Women's Day. While I know she meant no harm in this statement. I allowed the destroyer to tell me that I was less of a woman because I was not a mother. Now this is a desire that I have for one day, but the fact is thats not my season in life right now. Many times the destroyer tries to lie to us and tell us that there is something better and that the grass is greener on the other side. I find myself looking forward to May 17, 2013...Med School Graduation...yes I looked at the new academic calendar when it was posted. But you see while looking forward to and anticipating something is okay, we begin to struggle when we put so much focus on what lies ahead we forget to enjoy the moment that we are in. The author talked about how she found herself absorb in this conversation with her mentor she realized that the chocolate cake she was eating was gone except for a few crumbs. She said that she was determined to get all the crumbs and enjoy that piece of chocolate cake to the last crumb. She said in that moment she decided to look at her life in much the same way. She would cherish every moment and not race ahead to the future.

But godliness with contentment is great gain

 1 Timothy 6:6

1.  What have you been hurrying through?

2. What have you been hurrying to get to?

3. What are some of the good parts of your experience that you've missed in an attempt to rush through the more difficult ones?

4. What can you do differently today to scrape the plate, to gather up all the good things around you and begin enjoying the journey of your life?

Contentment lies in understanding that God has richly supplied us with everything that we need. Many times He supplies us with more than we need, more than we could ever imagine. In the next part of the chapter she talked about playing the game telephone. I'm sure many of you have played this before. Someone whispers something in one person's ear and then down the line it goes. We all know that what the last person says they heard is not what the first person said most of the time far from it. This is how it is in our lives. You see as women we are very impressionable. We listen to those around us that try to tell us what it is to be content. You see the Redbook woman, or the Good Housekeeping Wife. Many times its all about moving onto the next stage. Our society tells us if you are dating someone the next step is to move in with them or to get married. If you're newly married people hound you about when you're going to start having kids. I've seen with several of my friends after they have one kid, people start asking when they will have the next one and so forth. As you age and your kids are gone its when are they going to give you grandkids. Society that is goal driven has become future focused to the point that we don't take the time to enjoy our current season of life and be content in it. We are always anticipating the next step and it clouds our present view of our lives. If we continue in this pattern we will come to the end of our lives and look back and wonder where all the time and the memories went. The deceiver seeks to push these lies into society. He seeks to distort the truth and show us that there is something better, that the grass is truly greener on the other side. But what I learned through this chapter is that contentment is not just acquired its learned. We are not born contented. In fact we are born into a world of sin and constantly battling the sinful desires of our hearts. We must seek and learn to be contented in all aspects of life. Paul stated that he learned to be contented. In Philippians 4:10-13 we read:

 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength

Philippians 4:10-13

Contentment was something that Paul practiced. And it is something that we must practice everyday. We determine that we will not listen to the lies the deceiver tells us. We must determine to help each other to encourage each other and we must teach this process of contentment to those younger than us. The fact is that God has richly blessed us. Society tells us that we are not richly blessed unless we have lots of money and possessions. But God has promised to supply us with our every need. He takes care of our daily needs and many times he provides even more than that. When we are contented with what we have and our season in life we are richer than those with all the money possessions and those that are constantly looking for the next step in their season in life. We can have the joy in knowing that God has secured our future through Jesus Christ and He knows the plans He has for us and we can enjoy the moment.

When we learn to be content with our lives we are better able to serve others. Many times we get burned out tired of selflessly giving to those around us. We first have to realize when we are truly content we have an energy a supply grace from God that allows us to serve those around us. Part  of this though is learning to say no. I understand "NO" is a hard word to say. But when we live uncontneted lives its even harder to say because we find ourselves always trying to please always trying to be better. But when we are contented with where we are we understand that at times we have to say no and give energy to other tasks around us that demand our attention. When we say no we are able to get the rest that God so graciously wants to grant us. With this rest we can better serve those around us. 

The chapter ends by talking about how this all is a balancing act. We be contented and still look forward to  and even plan for the future. In fact I feel that is what God calls us to. He calls us to be  his workmanship approved and ready for all the work He has set before us. But we must balance. We must not become so focused on the next step or what we don't have that we forget to enjoy the moment and the blessing that God is giving us right now. When we learn to be content with our lives we are better able to enjoy the current season and learn from it so we are prepared for what lies ahead because we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has secured the future. He holds it in his hands. He has not lead us where we can flourish we just must surrender our will and our desires to Him and allow Him to work in us and through us. 

"And being confident in this that He who began a GOOD work in YOU will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus"

Philippians 1:6

That's it ladies I am confident that God has began a good a very good work in you. He's not just going to leave you here or require that you jump ahead to the future. Because He has began a good work in you He wants you to find your contentment in Him. Because He has promised He will finish what He has started.

If you are ready to begin living a contented life I encourage you to take this first resolution with me...

I Sarah Kauble do solemnly resolve to EMBRACE my current season of life and will MAXIMIZE my time in it. I will resist the urge to hurry through or circumvent any portion of my journey but will live a spirit of contentment.

Resolution

 I have decided to start reading The Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shirer. This book was written in response to the movie Courageous. This movie details the lives of  five men who decided each other to live the lives that God called them to...to be Courageous men with honor, who lead their families. This book is specifically written towards women. They have written a resolution for women similar to the one that the men took in the movie. The book consists of 13 chapters that detail each resolution. AS I read this book I have decided to blog what I am reading about. I encourage you to grab a copy of this book at your local book store or download it on your ipad, kindle, nook...etc and read with me. 

In the opening chapter Pricilla discusses that it won’t be easy looking at these resolutions. It will take some soul searching and learning to be honest with yourself. So I recognize that this challenge is not easy. First it will require those of us that do it to be honest with ourselves and with God. It will require us to remove the masks that I’ve talked about before. Like I’ve said before the refining process that I believe will happen through this book may not be easy but the end product I’m sure will be a beautiful masterpiece even more beautiful than you already are. So if you’re in...join me. If not continue to read maybe it will inspire you to join me. I’m in the middle of the first chapter right now so I will write a big post on the chapter as a whole. But first let me share with you the Resolution for Women...

1. I do solemnly resolve to embrace my current season of life and will maximize my time in it. I will resist the urge to hurry through or circumvent any portion of my journey but will live a spirit of contentment
2. I will champion God’s model for womanhood in the face of a postfeminist culture. I will teach it to my daughters and encourage its support by my son.
3. I will accept and celebrate my uniqueness and will esteem and encourage the distinctions I admire in others.
4. I will live as a woman answerable to GOd and faithfully committed to His word.
5. I will seek to devote the best of myself, my time, and my talents to the primary roles the Lord has entrusted to me in this phase of my life. 
6. I will be a woman who is quick to listen and slow to speak. I will care about the concerns of others and esteem them more highly than myself.
7. I will forgive those who have wronged me and reconcile with those I have wronged.
8. I will not tolerate evil influences even in the most justifiable form, in myself or in my home, but will embrace and encourage a life of purity.
9. I will pursue justice, love, and mercy and extend compassion toward others.
10. I will be faithful to my husband and honor him in my conduct and conversation in order to bring glory to the name of the Lord. I will aspire to be a suitable partner for him and to help him reach his God-given potential.
11. I will demonstrate to my children how to love God with all their hearts, minds, and strength and will train them to respect authority and live responsibility. 
12. I will cultivate a peaceful home where everyone can sense God’s presence not only through acts of love and service but also through the pleasant and grateful attitude with which I preform them. 
13. I fully resolve to make today’s decisions with tomorrow’s impact in mind. I will consider my current choices in light of those who will come after me. 

So are you with me? Will you join me on this journey of discovering how God can change our lives through this simple resolution? Look for my first post sometime next week. 

Resolution: The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination;  A course of action determined or decided upon

Fearless Living

After a hiatus that has been way too long, I've decided to update. Hopefully, I'll be able to start making regular posts. Tomorrow I start an elective rotation in psychiatry at the VA here in Tulsa. I'm excited. This will be my first elective and its going to be in something that I want to do. Anyways enough about school and on to the blog.

A couple of weekends ago I had the opportunity to help out with the student girls retreat at church. It was lead by ID ministries and their theme was fearless. They talked with the  girls about fearless living. We discussed many of the fears that we may have. It was such a blessing to minister to the girls and discuss fears they have. I told these girls that we all have fears. As women we all struggle with the same fears. We struggle to please other people. We fear the fact that we struggle to please others. We fear that those around us will see who we really are, or that the things others say about us are true. We fear that we will fail. We fear to struggle and to let others see our struggle and join. We are afraid to take off our masks and be real. This fear becomes such an integral part of our life that we even approach God with our masks, even though He can see who we really are. At the retreat it was discussed that fear was present from the first sin that man kind committed. When Adam and Eve sinned they hide from God because they were afraid. Satan had deceived them, he had tried to tell them that there was something better that God was keeping from them. The same is true in our lives. The great deceiver tries to tell us that what God has given us isn't good enough, that we are not good enough, that we are failures, that we are not pretty, that we can't struggle, that we have to be perfect, and that we have to wear masks. But truth lies in our ability to recognize these fears as lies from the deceiver. When we recognize that we can turn our fears over to God. You see fears are common, we all have them. The problem lies when we hold to our fears and we let them rule our lives. God, our father want to take our fears and lead us into truth. The truth that He loves us just the way we are and we don't have to put a mask on before Him.

It isn't always easy to take our masks off before God and turn over our fears to God. It takes work and sometimes it can be painful because it requires us being vulnerable before God. But the handwork and pain leads to beautiful creations. God already sees us as masterpieces, He just desires for us to see ourselves as one. God wants you to be vulnerable before Him so He can finish the master piece he started. Recently my boyfriend Jarrod and I re-did my flower beds. If you have ever seen my flower beds you know what a task this was. You see my flower beds were full of monkey grass when I moved in. I had already cleaned out the "small" one out but it had a bunch of dead stuff in it. The big one was full of monkey grass. Jarrod used his rotatiller to help pull up the monkey grass and their roots. We had to rake up the grass to get it all gone. This was hard work. We planted beautiful flowers in the flower bed and covered it with lots of mulch to try and keep the monkey grass from coming back. You see my flower bed is a lot like our lives and our fears. We have lives that our full of annoying monkey grass. Monkey grass grows like crazy, its a weed and to get it to go away, you have to get at the roots. You have to pull up all the roots so it won't come back. Sometimes in our lives we just pick at the surface of our fears. Letting a few of them be known before God or in a  particular group of friends, but we leave out what is at the root of our being. When we do that the fears come back and over take our lives like the monkey grass does when we don't pull its roots. I have to tend my flower bed to watch for any monkey grass that may come out and remove it from the bed. You see its hard work keeping my flower bed free of weeds. Its hard work keeping our lives free of fears. We can't do it on our own. We have to let God help us. We have to turn our fears over to Him and seek the truth that is in His promises for our lives. When need to enlist those around us to help us and keep us accountable. Because we all fear and we all struggle with it. But just like I needed help with my flower bed, we need to recognize that we can all help each other.

Cleaning the grass out

Final Product

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well"

Psalm 139:14

Shalom

Tomorrow will be my last day of what is known as Core around OSU-CHS. Basically what that means is 4 months in the hospital...one month of OB/Gyn, one month of surgery and 2 months of internal medicine. My internal medicine months consisted of teaching service on a general medical floor and a month of ICU. As you can probably see this is why I haven't had the time to update my blog very often. Over the past four months I've learned a lot. I've gotten to help delivery some babies, assist in several surgeries, and see a lot of different pathology. I've learned a lot of the past few months that will help pass my boards. I've seen a lot of pathology and have been able to see the practical aspects of the things I had read in books over the last two years. But probably the most important things I have learned aren't not things that books teach or things that I need to pass boards, or even what medications and treatments to used to treat certain pathologies. These lessons can only be taught by getting to know my patients and walking with them through their disease process.

In the past I have shared the following quote that was in an article I had to read my freshman year at OBU. It sums what means to be a doctor to me.

" To promote life, not death; health, not sickness; to suffer and counsel with those who suffer; to care compassionately when one cannot cure; and to be a part of God's presence in the valley of the Shadow of Death, in short to search for Shalom"

I decided when I was a sophomore in high school to become a doctor. I wanted to become a doctor because I wanted to help people. I loved science and working as a student trainer gave me a passion for medicine. It was exciting as a high school student to work with an athlete who had injured themselves and help them rehab and then see them back playing in the game they loved. As a medical student I have had the opportunity to examine a patient and come up with a diagnosis and a plan of treatment. Today one of my patients that I have taken care of over the last month passed away. Over the past month I have watched as this sweet lady has had ups and downs. Her case bought up many questions that reminded me of the quote above. Sometimes do physicians promote life so much that they promote suffering? Are we adequate advocates for our patients? Do we care compassionately enough? After our patient coded (her heart stopped) today our attending physician (the boss) talked with her husband and it was decided that we would not code her again if her heart stopped again. One of my friends that I've been working with this month called me a little while ago to let me know that my patient had passed away. I had gotten to go early so I wasn't there, but she told me that after they removed the life support per the family's request the family left because they did not want to see her die. My friend and another student stayed in the room with the patient and held her hand as she died. This afternoon after we finished the code I held her hand and said it was going to be okay. Today I really learned what it means to be God's presence in the valley of the shadow of death. I feel that we did everything we could for our patient that we did our best to sustain her life and bring her back to good health. We counseled with her family and held this sweet lady's hand every time we saw her. I believe that we searched for peace for her. You see for those of us that our Christians, death is not the end it is only the beginning. I believe that my patient went from her hospital bed to the arms of Jesus. 

I hope that in my future as a physician I can live out this quote. I pray that I will be a physician that seeks to promote life. I pray that I not only just promote life, but  I seek quality life for my patients and I pray more importantly that I can point them to a fulfilled life in Christ. I pray that I promote health, not only physical and mental health, but spiritual health as well. I pray that I will counsel with my patients and come along side of them and comfort them while they suffer. I pray that I will always care compassionately for my patients, including those that are hard to be compassionate with.  I pray that like today I can be God's presence in my patients lives through death and life. I pray that I will seek peace not only in my patients lives but in my life. Philippians 4:6-7 is one of my favorite verses it says:

"Be anxious in nothing, but in everything, with prayer and thanksgiving present your requests to God and the PEACE of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:6-7

It is so reassuring to me to know that by turning everything over to our Father he grants us peace. The peace he give us is greater than all our understanding. When we are lost for words or reasons things happen we are guarded with the peace of Christ. 

"Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to him for the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations"

Psalm 100:3-5

Heir to the Kingdom

So its been quite a while since I last posted. Core rotation is getting the best of me, I hope after this month I'll be able to post more regularly. Last month I was on teaching service for Internal medicine. This month I'm on ICU and its proving to be quite the experience. Todays post is short but comes from the heart. Today was my first "code" to participate in. I have never done CPR on a real person before today. It is a very interesting experience that is hard to explain to those who haven't experienced it. I can tell you that my arms hurt from giving compressions and my back hurts from bending over the bed to hold the doopler in place while we checked for a pulse.  This morning we saved our patients life but her medical condition is so fragile she won't be on this earth much longer. It reminds of just how quickly our lives can change and the importance of knowing where we will be when we breath our last breath in this life.

As Christians we have hope in death because for us death is not the end but its the beginning. When we give our lives to Christ He welcomes us into his kingdom when we die. This evening I was reading Psalms 8. It talks about God creation and our place in that creation.

"What is man that you are mindful for him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor."

Psalm 8:4

In Genesis 1-2 we read that God created man (male and female) not only in his image, but he put man over the rest of his creation. It is more than I can fathom at times when I take the time to think of it that God loves us, humankind so much that He would give us power over his creation. It amazes me even more that the same God who is the creator of all loves us enough to also offer us a spot in His kingdom. You see when we become Christians, we become heirs to the kingdom of God. As heirs that means have a part in the reign of Christ and we are entitled to the inheritance of eternal life that cannot be taken away from us.  We have the opportunity to see Christ's kingdom come to fruition.

David's words in this Psalm express my feelings towards Christ's love for us. Many times I wonder who am I that You love me enough not only to all me reign in Your creation but You offer me adoption as a daughter and to reign with You in Your heavenly kingdom, and that You offer me eternal life through your soon Jesus. The bible tells us that we are all sinners that we all have fallen short of the glory of God. But in His great Mercy and Love has offered us a free gift, grace, He has offered to pay for our sin, the sin that He himself cannot stand. So I challenge all that read this blog if you have not given your life to Christ to do so. God loves you just the way you are and he has given you a place in His kingdom you just have to ask for it. What will happen to you when you breath your last breath in this life? Will you enter into hell to suffer forever for not accepting the free gift of Jesus Christ, or will you breathe your first breath in eternity with Christ?

You may be asking what is so special about being with Christ? Christ's love for me has given me a renewed spirit and strength to face the day. Psalm 8 and 104 go on to talk about God's creation more and how he cares for the birds of the field and the grass. He makes sure the lions have their food to eat. In Matthew we are told not to worry because God will take care of us.

 ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?

   ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

You see so many times in our lives we worry we fret about things that we can't control. Because of my relationship with Christ I am able to turn these things over to Him and live free of them. Granted its a daily battle for me. I have to continually give my worries and anxiety and my life to Christ. But when i do I'm reminded that the peace of God will be with me. It allows me to do my part in fulfilling what God has called me it. Turing my worry over to Christ allows me to do my job and live a life of peace. You see that is what being a Christian is about to me you can live in peace, in love and with the promise of new life at the end of this one. This world with its hardships and trails is temporary its not my home and its not the end all be all. I have a home in the kingdom of God, He has reserved me a place and I am an heir to the inheritance. 

A Promise Fulfilled

Merry Christmas!!! I hope that you are having a wonderful Christmas and that you are worshiping the Christ Child who stepped down from his throne and into a manger to bring salvation to us. So it has been quite awhile since I last updated my blog. During the month of December I have been on a Surgery rotation which has consisted of long hours and lots of studying. I have enjoyed this month, but I am glad it is coming to an end.

In honor of Christmas I have decided to write about Anna, the phophetess that was present the day Jesus was presented at the temple. I know when it comes to Christmas and thinking about women, we tend to think about Mary or Elizabeth, but this morning as I was reading in Luke 2 I was reminded of this very special woman that played a role in the story too.

Luke 2 tells us that Anna was  a phophetess who was married for 7 years then widowed at the time of Jesus' birth she was 84 years old. She spent her life in the temple praising God "day and night." This woman no doubt had known suffering after losing her husband at such a young age and never being blessed with children, but she did not allow that to keep her from praising God. On the eight day after Jesus birth as was the custom of the day Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to present Him to the Lord. Simon was an old prophet who had been promised by God that he would not die until he saw the coming of the promised Messiah. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple Simon began praising God saying:

²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, 

   you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 

³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation,  ³¹ which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 

³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles, 

   and the glory of your people Israel.”

Luke 2:29-32

At this same time Anna came up to Mary and Joseph recognizing that Jesus was the promised Messiah she too began praising God. She began prophesying about how Jesus was the Christ the Messiah and that He would be the one to bring redemption to the nation of Israel. She spoke of the promise of a Savior that had been given long ago. You see Anna had spent her life studying the scripture. She knew that a savior would be born of a Virgin in the city of David. She knew that the Messiah would not come into a palace or to bring an earthly kingdom. She knew that Christ must come as a man. She was expectant and looking for fulfillment of the promise. Many in Bethlehem that night and in the temple that day missed the savior coming to earth. They were busy with their lives. Some probably lost sight of the promise that had been given hundreds of years before. Some expected a earthly king to be born in a palace and free them from the earthly rule of Cesar. But Simon and Anna got it. The knew what the scripture said and because of that they were blessed beyond measure to welcome the savior of the world into His earthly life. 

I pray that we do not miss the meaning of Christmas. The heavenly king stepping down from His throne into manager. He left His kingdom to become a man knowing that He would one day die a painful death for our sins, a death that He did not deserve. It is my prayer that I can live a life like Anna, a life full of praise day and night. I pray that those around me see the Messiah in me. I pray that I can rejoice as Anna did at the coming of the Christ-child. May this Christmas season and this new year we not get so busy and hurried that we don't see Christ around us as they did so long ago in Bethlehem. 

Southern Thanksgiving: Butter, Onion, Garlic and Sugar

Today my cousin Beth and I cooked thanksgiving dinner for the first time by ourselves. Beth and I have always helped with cooking Christmas dinner, but have never been responsible for getting the entire meal finished. Something we've learned over the years from my mom and grandmother are the staples of southern cooking...Butter, Garlic, Onions, and Sugar. Almost everything we made today had at least two of these ingredients. Last week my mom had knee replacement surgery so she spent most of the day in the recliner. She came into the kitchen briefly to give instructions and then our adventure began. We hoped that our grandmother who cooked several Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners would inspire us and that she would be proud of us. Well it turned out to be an adventure for sure, with somethings that grandma would do and somethings she wouldn't. 

Last night Beth and I began our cooking adventure, with the desserts. We made a chocolate cake, 3 pumpkin pies, and 2 pecan pies. We also made a lime congealed jello salad. This proved to be an interesting experience. At one point Beth commented, "Sarah, I don't think its (pumpkin pie) suppose to look like this." You see the pumpkin pie recipe called ground cloves, but we had none, so we put the whole cloves in the magic bullet to make our own ground cloves. Needless to say the magic bullet doesn't make very good ground cloves. They are kind of chunky. Well chunky continued to be at the theme of the evening. My mom makes this lime jello salad. So I made it last night. As I was mixing it up Beth informed me that the I should have mixed up the cream cheese before adding the jello, so we had some chunks of cream cheese in the jello mold. Darci (beth's daughter) helped me make "Grandma's famous chocolate pound cake". My grandmother would always make this cake for me when I came to visit so it is very special to make it. Midway through the night we realized that we had a huge mess to deal with. Every mixing bowl in the kitchen had been used. While making chocolate icing Darci managed to spread cocoa all over the stove. We went to bed about midnight and planned to get up at 630 am. 

This morning my mom gave us a few instructions on how to cook a turkey. We put our turkey in the oven a proceeded to make the dressing. Now in our family, making dressing is a task. We don't just cook stuffing. You have to make cornbread and toast bread. Then you mix it up with celery and onion. My grandmother put onion in everything, it is definitely a southern staple. I made broccoli salad, one of my favorite dishes. One of the highlights of the morning was finding two tubes of cream corn in the deep freeze from Georgia. Now its not good as fresh cream corn from the cob which is by far the best, but we made do. We also made green bean casserole, deviled eggs, and yeast rolls. Well not homemade yeast rolls, they were frozen. Grandma would have made homemade yeast rolls. We made sweet potato casserole complete with marshmallows. Beth used the potato strainer like grandma would have, but we didn't have the pestle so she had to use a spatula. We also microwaved the sweet potatoes, again something grandma wouldn't do. She would have peeled, cubed, and boiled them. 

Dinner turned out well. We cooked for about 4 hours last night and 6 this morning and it was all over in 20 minutes of eating. Today the children and Dave and my brother Stephen cleaned up after lunch while Beth and I directed from the dining room table, again something my grandmother would have never done. Today Beth and I gained a greater appreciation of how hard grandma worked to cook Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I remember my grandmother staying up late on Christmas eve to make preparations for the big lunch the next day. By the time I got there she had already been baking for days. She would make preparations for the dressing on Christmas eve. Then she would wake up early and start cooking the turkey and finish everything needed for lunch. She would make breakfast for us as well. We would usually have a ham in addition to the turkey. Today my mom asked us if we just made all of our favorite dishes. I guess in a way you could say we did. We made everything that we could think of that grandma would have had. After lunch we decided there was one dish we left out...homemade mac and cheese, so we will have to make that later this weekend. 

Today I am thankful for my grandmother. She was a selfless woman who gave of herself. Today after dinner was over and we were so tired we decided that grandma was truly a Stout Woman. She taught us how to serve other people. She taught us how to love others selflessly. She also taught us how to cook. While we were nervous about being in charge of this dinner Grandma taught us how to cook and so did my mom. Today I missed my grandma, but knew that she was looking down on us from heaven. I wished I had asked my grandma more of her secrets to cooking and what recipes she used. Many times she didn't use a recipe or modified it. I wish we had those modifications. My mom told us that she was proud of us and that we had out done ourselves. I also believe that my grandma would have been proud of us as well. I know it would have been hard for her to stay out of the kitchen, like it was for my mom, but she would have been very proud of her two granddaughters.