A Peewee In The Hallowed Culinary Halls

I finally crossed another milestone yesterday when I made an attempt at baking Janie's cookies. It was something I needed to do. Now, for some reading this, there is apathy: so what? Chris made cookies. Big deal. But from others, from those in the know, who have entered into the world of heaven-on-earth rapture that delights the sweet tooth like nothing else on the planet, there is an audible gasp. Chris attempted Janie's chocolate chip cookie recipe? It's too soon...he's just a novice...he's not ready! He's not worthy!

Well, that may be true, but nevertheless, I went in full bore. Let's do this! And I thought to myself, "I know myriads have tried and failed to make them like she did, but it will be different for me." Not only do I have the recipe card - not a copy, mind you, but the original stained and cracked recipe card with her own handwriting on it - but I also

Grammie's 100th

My Grammie, if she were alive today, would have been 100 years old today. She was born on August 14th, 1910. She lived through the roaring twenties, the Great Depression, the 2nd World War, the Lunar Landings, and of course all the of the mundane day to day stuff that we call, "life." 

What's cool about her '100th' to me is that she and I shared the same birthday, August 14th. Yep, it's my birthday and I must say it has been different to celebrate it without her all these years since 1999. We all loved her so much and I don't know if I can express how great it was that she lived with our family during my entire childhood. 

I had the great privilege of speaking at her Memorial Service. Here's what I said.........

Ping Pong

I was playing ping-pong with Carly the other day. Just hacking around - the kind of pinging and ponging where each of us took turns smashing the ball if the opportunity presented itself, which was fairly often since we were just hacking around.

There was this one shot that I lobbed which Carly took full advantage of. I saw her begin to wind up and then suddenly the whole world began to move in slow motion: her paddle rose at half speed till it reached shoulder height, she stretched her arm out to a full back swing; gathering and storing energy till her arm muscles were fully tensioned like a spring, and then the release! Slam! I think I saw sparks as the orange rubbery-bumpled paddle made contact with the little white ball. And Time slowed even more: I could read the print on the ball as it came at me:

Poor Janie?

So the kids and I spent the day at Soulfest (a 4-day Christian rock music festival) on Wednesday....saw Switchfoot again (3rd time since November - I know, it's a sickness I guess...). We had a great time...even got to hear Jon Foreman do a nice acoustic set on top of Gunstock mountain. There we were on the top of a mountain with the sun shining (blasting really), and the sky was blue and the clouds were white and the dragonflies were darting and we were hearing an acoustic set by our favorite artist. Sweet. And as I soaked in the moment, I thought to myself, "there's really no where else I'd rather be right now..."

And I also thought, "oh what a shame that Janie can't be here to see this - she'd love it." And I caught myself. What! Poor Janie? No, I don't think so. True enough that she'd like it; but with all due respect to the super-spiffy abilities of Jon Foreman, I'm afraid they are nothing compared to the soul-fulfilling happiness that Janie was experiencing in the Presence of Jesus Christ even while we sat on that mountain. And she experiences such joy still, even now as I type this post, and even now as you read it!

"...in Thy presence is fullness of joy!" Psalm 16:11.