Simply Norma – Page 136

Minnesota Weather

Too cold in Minnesota. Our squirrels are freezing to death.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/weather/frozen-squirrel-minnesota-jan-20-2011

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said “Let there be light” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the “light” day and the dark He called “night.”
And there was evening and there was morning – the first day.
Genesis 1:1-5

And that’s how it all started. In the beginning. From sundown to sundown.

Fort DeSoto, Courtesy of William Earnhardt

By the seventh day, God had finished all the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.
Genesis 2:2-3

And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1

Potatoes

I decided to make potato soup.

I had so many leftover red potatoes from a big bag that we had bought and they were starting to look — old. I had to use them for something. The skins were drying out and some of them were starting to grow roots. Ugghh!

Most of the potatoes were small and had to be peeled. And I have small hands so it made it a little hard to do.

As I was peeling the potatoes, a thought came to me.

Here I am trying to use potatoes that would probably have been thrown out by someone else. Thought of as useless, the trash would have taken them away easily.

Isn’t that how it is sometimes when people get older?

We think they don’t have anything of value left in them because they look old and wrinkly. Yet when you peel away the outer skin of their humanity, inside is a beautiful human being. All polished and ready to talk and share and do whatever they can do for you.

Yes, they are sometimes hard to work with because they are, as some say, “set in their ways.” And people will toss them away because of that, not wanting to peel away their outer being. It does take time.

But the beauty that can be found inside is worth every minute of patience and time that it takes.

I have found on so many occasions that just because the body is aging on the outside does not mean that the emotions on the inside have also aged. They are still vibrant in their thinking and would also be so in their life if given a chance.

They’re just waiting for someone to come and peel them.

Here are faces of some potatoes I know who have been peeled and found to be beautiful.

Funny, that’s how Jesus views us. Looking past the outer skin, he takes our hand and sees the beauty that lies within.

Minnesota Living

Moving to Minnesota from Seattle, Washington comes with a few challenges.

Since all of our possessions are in storage in Seattle until we buy a house, we are renting an apartment including the furniture, linens and kitchenware.

Sounds simple enough.

Everything looked so pretty when we entered the apartment the first day. Furniture in place, kitchen items in place, towels in the bathroom. Yes, pretty simple.

Coming from a large house to a 2 bedroom apartment, we received 4 of everything. Four plates, four bowls, four glasses, four spoons, four forks, etc. (We bought the 4 mugs to match.) laughs

We go through 4 things pretty quickly.

Then there’s the quality of the things that we rent. The sharpest knife doesn’t cut very well, the bowls are too small (or perhaps we eat too much?), the cheese grater doesn’t grate very well unless you count the grating it does on my nerves.

I long for my possessions in the land of Seattle much like the Israelites longed for the things they left behind in the land of Egypt when they were called by God to leave it.

I’m sometimes tempted to go out and buy a blender, a sharp knife, more dishes, etc. But then, we’d have double everything when our possessions from Seattle arrive in HOPEFULLY the next month.

No — leading a simple life is not too bad. I am really blessed just to have food on our table and clothes on our back.

So for now – I am thankful. Even if a little agitated.

Trader Joe’s Gingerbread

Ginger is one of my favorite flavors.

One day, while walking through Trader Joe’s, they had samples of this gingerbread. It can be made in a loaf pan (as I made it), in a cake pan or you can make cookies from it.