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

Celebrating Today

If circumstances had been different, we would have been celebrating the 18th birthday of a sweet guy named Caleb Dewey Boyd today. You may remember that Caleb was the only one of the children that Gerry got to "catch" as the midwife arrived a little late. It was plenty exciting. After 17 years of no celebrations, you would think that today would not matter. But the truth is that it does. I guess I have been thinking more about Caleb's life (the slow growth, surgeries, recovery), his home-going, and the services surrounding that lately because of reading "Choosing to See" by Mary Beth Chapman. Their youngest was accidentally hit and killed by a car their son was driving. I found it difficult to read but helpful in faith. The last paragraph states: "I can choose to see His story or I can miss it."  I believe I can see a speck of His story surrounding Caleb's brief visit to our family. But oh, I want to see more. I believe we were changed in ways that we'll only fully see in eternity. I do thank God for that patient, precious little guy. In tears, I ask Him to give Caleb a big hug on his birthday.

What Is With the Purple Cow?

Many of you may not know that Purple Cow is a refreshing sweet float made of grape juice and ice cream. As you might guess in our family we had many celebrations. Purple Cow was sort of a compromise ( 1/2 good for you and 1/2 not so good for you). So it was a favorite birthday "lunch dessert", but also often was the easy to fix celebration dish after the birth of a new baby.  Therefore Purple Cow is associated with good memories and fun family times. I suppose the name originated from the poem by Gelett Burgess:

I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one,
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.

Sometimes I have felt like I stood out like a purple cow with the blond stairsteps of children all around us. But normally people's real or feigned shock at "those all are yours!" was good for a chuckle. There certainly were and still are lots of chuckles, tears - life. I would not want it any other way.

"I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly".  (John 10:10)