Anxious

Do you ever have random moments of feeling anxious?
I'm feeling that way right now. Not sure what brought it on.
Trying to think on what is true and real now. Lord, help me to keep my focus on You!

Kolaches with Grandma

One of the things I love about my grandma is that she loves to cook. After staying with her for a week and a half I really came to appreciate her love of being in the kitchen. I've been really into learning about my family history so I spent my time in Wisconsin asking about my grandparents' childhood. One thing I asked my grandma was if her mom loved cooking too. I figured she did because my grandma liked it so much. I was wrong. My grandma was number 7 out of 9 kids. When she was old enough she took over the cooking for her mom. They lived on a farm so there was a lot to do and my great-grandma had other things to get done throughout the day. My great-grandma also didn't speak or read much English. That made it difficult to follow recipes. One of the main reasons though for my grandma's early use of the kitchen was because she had to have glasses. What? Glasses? What does that have to do with her cooking at a young age? Because glasses were so expensive back then her family didn't let her go into the barn to do chores. My great-grandparents didn't want her glasses to break. 

As time moved forward cooking and baking became her thing. She doesn't feel like she is great at cooking (something I disagree with), but she finds it relaxing. If her blood-pressure is high she bakes something and it helps bring it down. Every day I was there I offered to wash dishes, but she refused because she likes doing them. 

On this visit I had the joy of helping her bake a few things. It was so fun. We spent a lot of time laughing. Especially when I unknowingly gave her a hard boiled egg when we were making cookies. It took us a few seconds to figure out why it wasn't cracking right. A few days before I left we made kolaches. They are similar to a danish. This is a treat I always remember her making when we came to visit. I loved waking up to the smell of them in the morning. They were so good. 

I'm so thankful for the sweet time with my grandma last week. What a wonderful blessing. 

Uncle Don

My grandparents, mom, and uncle Don

Two weeks ago my family had quite a shock. Very suddenly my uncle went to be with the Lord. It was a bitter-sweet week as we did a lot of traveling, remembering, laughing, and crying together. I'm so thankful that I was able to fly out right away to stay with my grandparents. My family and I were very concerned with them being alone during such an emotional time. After 2 days of being there with them we drove from Wisconsin to Illinois in order to join the rest of the family for a visitation and memorial service. It was a very nice time.
I was so blessed to hear all of the wonderful things said about my uncle at the services. What a wonderful man of God. He had a servants heart. He loved the Lord more than anything and loved his family. I'm so thankful for the time I had with him. He was always so fun to be around. I will miss him. But I know that he is in heaven right now worshiping our Savior and loving it.