The Burnt Offering

One of our more dramatic family stories was the sudden demise of our dream car - the beautiful blue Audi. We had shopped long for that special car ( a sort of compromise between a Porsche and a big family car ). However it was not long before it started having some mechanical problems, not to mention that I had to get used to a stick shift again. It still seemed like a good car, though, until that fateful Sunday afternoon as we were rounding the curve on the north side of Magnolia, Arkansas, headed home, and smoke started blowing out of the air conditioner vents. Gerry pulled onto the shoulder, and we got David and Jonathan out as the smoke intensified. He quickly got a fire extinguisher out of the trunk and opened the firey hood to find out that the extinguisher did not work. Upon opening the car door to grab some things (like his billfold), he discovered flames spreading so quickly that he shut that door. He motioned for us to walk down the highway some and then quickly threw some things out of the trunk (all my baby clothes were in there as we were getting them back as Daniel was on the way). I'll never forget how sad it was to see that car sink to the ground as the tires blew, flash its lights and then wave its windshield wipers as a parting gesture. The flames were leaping pretty high as a fire engine showed up.  After putting out the fire, they gave us a ride to the fire station, where we called Mamaw and Papaw for rescue. They came with Uncle David. We drove back to the scene and Papaw picked up a bible that was mostly burned on the side of the road. It was open to Leviticus to a portion describing how to do the burnt sacrifices. I remember noticing the part about burning the fat.

It did amaze us how God blessed the recovery from the fire. The only real upsetting thing was the loss of David's blanket, Gerry's glasses (he had on prescription sunglasses) and some time involved. Half of Gerry's billfold survived, so the bank in ElDorado replaced the money. My dear brother took us home and the insurance replaced almost everything in the car in new condition (the library said not to worry about the books). Then we did end up getting our first van. It was that cute short blue one with the curtains on the windows. I like to think that was the car we really needed.

Chicken and Dumplings

I suppose the most requested dish that we had for birthdays was chicken and dumplings. It was a recipe that sort of evolved through the years. It may have been popular due to the fact that I never cooked two chickens, no matter how many people we had. If it was a bigger crowd I would just multiply the biscuit recipe that we used for dumplings. It took a while to put in and cook many dumplings, so the smell tantalized for a good while. I think the scramble to get "enough" and some chicken on top of that made it seem as good as the "Turkish Delight" seemed to Edmond.

Since we followed no recipe for the whole process, I never knew if it was going to turn out like soup (requiring a bowl) or if plates would do. It was probably my most prayed over dish. I am much more comfortable using recipes. Also I never "salted to taste". They always added more at the table so I gave up. This all probably sounds involved and hard to make, but it is really straightforward. So here goes a try at a recipe:

Cook one chicken (skin removed) with two or more cups water, depending on the size of your pot.
     I like to use a pressure cooker as it takes only 20 minutes under pressure.

Mix 4 cups whole wheat flour, 2 tablespoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Cut in 2/3 cup butter until it is like coarse cornmeal. Add 1 1/3 cup milk, stirring quickly to form a soft dough.

Lift cooked chicken from pot and get the broth boiling. You will probably need to add water to have a total of about three quarts. Drop balls of dough into boiling broth. I tried to get the new ones to sink under the others. Cook on medium low heat with lid propped on for 30 minutes or so. You can tell when the dumplings look sort of fluffy and done and the broth has thickened.   Take the chicken of the bone and cut it in pieces and gently push into the dumplings (without breaking them all up). Enjoy. It is a great dish for cold weather.

Tips: Mine always stuck on the bottom of the pan.
        You could half the biscuit recipe and use less broth and get lots of chicken pieces in your bowl!

Christmas memories

Some of us were talking Christmas about our memories of Christmas past. Of course, it usually included a trip to Arkansas often with bad weather. Do you remember the trip where the highway was a solid sheet of ice until Texarkana? I believe that stretch took 6 hours and we stopped several times for the guys to help push cars back onto the road. I was such a proud Mama of our strong and helpful guys.

Another challenge was what to get this crew for a Christmas present. Do remember the time you all got a dishwasher for Christmas? Just wait till you tell your children that that was something you were really excited about!

Another memory I have is all the Christmas plays we did or were in. I remember Nathan as baby Jesus (he did not cry once) and Sarah as Mary (she was a really good one). But mostly I remember our homemade plays (where a bigger guy was the donkey or even Dolly acted well once). I can imagine some pretty irate innkeepers. It is sure wonderful to have such good memories. May there be many more.

A Zip Line in the Hall?

Can you believe this picture? The caption under it is, "A zip line in the hall?" I ran upon it as I was looking for a picture for the last post. I mean I don't remember any thing like this at all. Can you figure what the zip line is hooked to? No wonder those lights in the hall always seemed to be crooked. And who fixed that all up for Josh?
Probably none of you remember it. Well, at least there was some fun to be had around the place, and the house pretty well survived. In fact there were probably more opportunities for the continual apprenticeship repairs and remodeling that were needed. So it all works for good.

A Tasty Topping

As the family experienced life and learning together, we had some lessons that seemed to work as intended and some that didn't (the infamous Candy Day). One of the hands-on lessons that seemed to get the point across was the introduction of a very tasty topping for our dessert one evening. You have to understand that we rarely had dessert and very very rarely had ice cream. So the group was delighted when we out of the blue (it was not a birthday) announced ice cream for dessert with a special topping. However they were very dismayed when we started handing out bowls of ice cream with a rich black topping of dirt. They did not even like the bowls that had only a little bit of topping on them (although one son said he just scraped his off ). Of course we talked about how the dirt was like sin and messed up your life even if there was only a little bit. Lest you think that we traumatized the children with lessons, we did then give them bowls of clean ice cream. The part that made this lesson memorable was that we did really have their attention (which was not always the case). So now you know how difficult learning was in the Boyd family.

It Is Time To Pray

One family custom that we started so many years ago that it is foggy in my brain is holding hands when we pray at meals. We probably did it to help corral little hands and bodies that were learning to pay attention. Maybe there was hope of encouraging family unity also. It was probably slightly awkward for some of our dinner guests, especially the non-Christians. Oh well, Gerry would just mention we hold hands when we pray and off we would go.

I do remember a little more clearly when we started doing that when we ate out. It seemed like since we are free to pray in public we ought to thank God when we can. But I remember wondering what other people around would think. Soon I learned a valuable tip. If you don't look around to see other reactions, you don't know what they are. It works for me!

The Sweet Sound of Sunday

I've been thinking about what our Sundays used to be like. They reminded me of stories of the really "old days" when you would go in the wagon some distance to church and then have lunch on the ground, fellowship and return at night. In our case, after the guys got into scouts we would drive an hour and a half  after church in Trenton to the Prayer Meeting. Our lunch would not be on the ground ( except for the Russian Pancake crumbs that did not make it into mouths and ended up on the van floor to be swept out ). Despite the complaints you might hear about Russian Pancakes, it was an easy to make, filling, nutritious entree that was often topped by applesauce. That is a combination that this Mom found hard to pass up.

When we got to Mount St. Michael's, the guys would go to scouts, and some part of the group would supervise the play of younger ones. I would work on taking a nap, usually in the van. Then we would enjoy visiting with community members, catch up with news of different families and have a great time. We would have a rousing prayer meeting, possibly a youth ministry meeting and then head home. Sometimes ( in good weather) this trip was broken up by a stop at a park for sandwiches. The fixens' had been cooling in the handy ice chest. However much of the time the handy ice chest was the table for putting together the turkey, bread, mayonnaise, lettuce etc. as we rolled down the road. You might wonder how all this food was wonderfully available on Sunday. It all depended on Saturday night going well (we called it Saturday Night Live). Maybe I will write about that sometime.

The trip home was notable in that a new element of noise was added. Since the baby was the only one strapped down, unless I was feeding him, family members were free to move around and generally provoke something to make the trip more interesting. The decibel level increase always seemed dependent on whether supper had been served and the blood sugar had started rising. However, in the midst of admonitions to stop this or that, a sweet sound would often be heard - singing. If my memory serves me right, the girls would often start singing a series of children's songs and most of us would join in on the rousing choruses. They knew a lot of songs from Sunday School, vacation bible schools, camp, prayer meeting, children's ministries, etc, etc. I mean this could go on for some time! I didn't know it then, but it sure made for some good memories!

"Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing."  Psalm 100: 1-2