Chestnuts

I will be making a cornbread and cranberry dressing for Thanksgiving dinner. Its a delicious Williams-Sonoma recipe with chestnuts.

Last year I bought fresh ones and roasted them. MMMM, they totally remind me of my mom. She loved to boil them. If you've never had them, they have a consistency of a cooked potato (a little harder) and they are mild and sweet.

Anyway, my recipe calls for a jar of French chestnuts. Huh? Well, okay. So I headed to the hoity toity Harris Teeter. So I ask the lady at the customer service desk. She kindly brought be over to the canned WATER chestnuts.

Ah, nice. No, we are not making chicken chow mein, sista.

Well, turns out they didn't have the ones in a jar because they were "seasonal" and don't stock them until closer to Christmas. Huh? Isn't Thanksgiving pretty seasonal? So the guy helping me says I should just use fresh ones. Then I say, but it says "French" chestnuts. Does that make a difference? He says, no because all chestnuts are of French origin. Oh, okay. So I head over to the produce isle to get the fresh chestnuts. They have Italian chestnuts. Are you kidding?

Is That Yo-Yo Ma playing?

To God Be the Glory

There are those of you who know me recently and for you, Lauren was just part of the package. A package that was growing in intellect, creativity and spiritually.

But for those of you who have known me almost all my life, you have been witnessed to a child conceived out of wedlock and born of a mother who in her youth was foolish and selfish and could not possibly understand the redemptive love of Christ. You have seen the very hand of God, grow and bless in the life of Lauren in ways that only His loving, compassionate and goodness can.

Today as I reflect Lauren turning 18 -- legally an adult, I am humbled beyond words. Which one of us, who were there the day I found out I was pregnant and then the day she was born could have planned the steps of her life to where it is today? Her young life has seen its share of undeserved heartache at the hands of her selfish parents, but her God would not let that go to waste. He would protect her, ensuring that she would know Him personally.

I am so profoundly grateful to many of you who have faithfully prayed for me and for my daughter over the last 18 years. Many of you who loved her, cared for her, babysat her, encouraged her, taught her and helped me to raise her.

I remember after she was born and I was nursing her, I thought, "What in the world will God do with us? What could our lives possibly amount to?" She may not be the person I thought she was going to be, but she is exactly who she should be. And it is far beyond what I could have accomplished. She is a young woman who knows and loves the Lord Jesus.

Happy Birthday, Lauren.