Thanksgiving is two weeks away!  I’m so excited that we are getting to host my parents, daughter and son-in-law, both of my sisters and brothers-in-law, and one nephew and his girlfriend.  There will be twelve of us gathered (Lord willing and the snow doesn’t fly!) to give thanks to the Lord for His blessings.  It will be so special to have everyone here and to spend a couple of days together as a family.  We will eat, talk, share our blessings from the Lord in the past year, which will make us cry (we call this our “Puff Moment!”), play games, talk about Christmas sales, and I”m sure watching football is bound to be in there as well!

No one wants to be so stressed so as not to be able to enjoy all that fun, so I’m trying to plan and do as much ahead as possible.  This week I’ve made my pie crusts and frozen them.  I also made up cookie dough that I’m going to bake up as “place cards” for the tables.

I’ve made out a list of all the things I can think of to do beforehand, to help me be organized and not neglect anything.  You see my list below, and you can also go here if you’d like to print one off for yourself.

If you’re hosting Thanksgiving this year, perhaps this will help calm you, too!  Listed below are some sites that offer a timeline to keep you on track while planning and preparing for Thanksgiving, if you don’t want to make your own.  Here are some I found:

Real Simple

Martha Stewart

BHG – Timeline

Food Network

Williams Sonoma

Home Made Simple

All Recipes – If you only have Wednesday to prepare, this is for a Last Minute Thanksgiving.

Blissfully Domestic – Plans, dishes used, minute by minute schedule for Turkey day
I’m especially fond of this list found on Epicurious.  Though their list began with plans from five weeks away, it will help you be really prepared ahead of time!

Are you hosting Thanksgiving?  What do you do to stay ahead of the game?

Happy planning!

I then placed a couple of cute throw pillows as a back and voila! A bench seat is created. I’m hoping it will add to our seating when I host Thanksgiving for my family in a few weeks.

I think I’m going to hang a shelf high up over the pillows. Yep, it’s still a work in progress!

What projects are you working on?

With love from my country porch,

You know an “aha” moment as soon as it happens. It occurred last Sunday when my husband announced the title of his message; it was, “Prayer, The Hope for America.” The Lord brought to my mind a prayer I had prayed just a few days ago; “Lord, help me to know how to pray.” I thought of that prayer in that moment and the Lord spoke to me saying, “Listen. This is your answer.”

My pen was readied and my heart attentive for whatever the Lord was going to teach me. You see, I had asked the Lord to teach me to pray because I was feeling frustrated in my prayer life; I had been struggling as I prayed. I can’t always seem to say quite what’s on my heart. There are times when heaven seems so far and the Lord’s presence distant as well. Was I missing something?

In case someone else struggles with this, let me share with you the two simple truths (my “Aha’s”) that spoke to my heart:

Mmmmmm!

Taco Casserole is an inexpensive and simple dish to prepare.  I made it lots when my girls were home.  I like to serve a Spanish Rice with it – I use the Zatarain’s Brand.  You only add tomatoes and water to the rice mix and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  It’s super good!

Here’s the recipe for the casserole:

Taco casserole 
Jiffy Cornbread mix
1# Ground beef
Taco Seasoning
Canned Tomatoes or Tomato Sauce
Cheese

Mix up the Cornbread as directed.  Place in greased square dish.  Set aside.
Brown ground beef in skillet; drain fat.  Add taco seasoning and a can of tomatoes with the juice.  Pour over cornbread mix.  Top with Cheese.

Taco Casserole, ready for the oven!

Bake about 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Serve with sour cream.

Taco Casserole and Spanish Rice

Dessert was a new recipe I found in a Gooseberry Patch Cookbook I checked out from the local library over the weekend.  Cookbooks are one of my favorite kind of books to scour through!  You never know what kind of treasures you’ll come upon.  This dessert is made in the crock pot!  I’m thinking this would be a great dessert to come home to on Sunday night.  It begs for a scoop of ice cream to balance off the nice dark chocolate.  Please oblige.  =)

I know what you’re thinking!  “If this is spoon cake, why is there a fork on the plate?”  Because I wasn’t thinking when I took the picture! It was indeed eaten with a spoon!

Hot Fudge Spoon Cake
Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed and divided
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons baking cocoa, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups hot water
Optional: vanilla ice cream
Preparation

Combine flour, one cup brown sugar, 3 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in milk, butter and vanilla. Spread evenly in a slow cooker. Mix together remaining 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle evenly over top of batter. Pour in hot water; do not stir. Cover and cook on high setting for 2 hours or until a toothpick inserted one inch deep comes out clean. Spoon warm cake into bowls; top with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Any new…or perhaps old favorite recipes cooking up in your kitchen this weekend?

With love from my country kitchen,

I’m not really an adventuresome driver.  I prefer quiet two lane roads in small towns to the multi-lane interstates in the large cities.  I’d rather putter along at 40 miles an hour with the window down than imitate a 747 at take off.  Yeah, you probably don’t want to drive behind me if you’re in a hurry.

Yesterday afternoon on my way home from “town” (that’s where I go now that I live in the country!) I couldn’t believe how busy the interstate was at 4:00!  My girls will  laugh, but it was bumper to bumper traffic, though it was moving.  I continued my journey home, getting off at the first exit.  The cars were still pretty busy; some getting into turn lanes, others entering the road from the interstate coming the opposite direction.  I went through a couple more traffic lights where the road narrowed to just two lanes.  The traffic thinned out.  When it came time to turn towards the country, I found only one car way up ahead.  Then as I neared my house, what I saw was the picture above.  Just me and the road.  I sighed…this is the way I like it.  It made me want to roll my window down!

At that moment, the Lord brought to my mind the thought I’d heard some time before – The closer you get to the cross, the thinner the crowd gets. There was no crowd beating down Jesus’ door so that they might travel with Him as He went to the cross.  Even His own disciples left Him.  It was a very lonely road.

Any time you or I make the choice to follow the Lord in abandon, it will not be an interstate full of cars that surrounds us.  It will be like a lonely highway or a country road.  When Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus’ feet, she was condemned by one of Jesus’ disciples; the one who also betrayed Christ.  Who was at the tomb after His death?  Just a few women.  The disciples were even in hiding.  There would have been no trouble merging into the traffic to the Garden.

What I found yesterday when I ventured out into the country was bliss.  On a much higher plane, you and I will find unprecedented joy when we follow the lonely path of sacrifice, love and surrender to our Lord.  The crowd is thinner, but the company with whom we travel are those who also love our Savior and favor the lonely road of love spilled out.

It’s worth the time to follow the Road Less Traveled.  Why?  Our Savior is there, and He waits for us.

Keep on the road, my friend.

With love,