Hands of Love...

This is the blog that never ends yes it goes on and on my friend...one day I started writing without knowing what it was and I continue writing it forever just because...okay I am finishing this this morning!   I tried last night but at 1:30 a.m. I decided to sleep instead...so here we go...hang on...one might just need a helmet for this "bike ride"...(Please note that it will refer to various mornings as though they were today...but isn't that what yesterday is...simply today but a different day).

I give thanks for this day...THANKSGIVING...I thought I would finish this up this morning but instead I played with one little Firecracker...gave her a bath because she wanted me to...usually it's Mom...so if I get the chance...then it was off to a family dinner...and wonderful times with special people and so here it is already past another Thanksgiving...but I want to finish up...1 in the morning...is still part of the day prior...right...so I try to tie this together and much like the bread that we make with these hands of love...I try to add some of these ingredients...and so I go back to a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  You see I am still up now because one little "Izzy bell" wanted to stay up with Ahma...we'll sleep when we're old...okay that's another blog...I go back and add a little of this and a little of that and hopefully the Good Lord will add...but I can think of nothing more special than playing and holding one little Firecracker in my arms until she fell asleep...

And this morning I give thanks from my kitchen table.   My kitchen is filled with the aroma of ham cooking and I have my bread mixed and am kneading it as it "knead" be!    But I have to share a special verse that while I have been reading in the "IANS"...I told myself that I wanted to go through all of those Books in the New Testament that end in IANS...well today I had made it to 1 Corinthians 10.    But given what I was doing and being it is Thanksgiving and that this writing as been in process for over a month, I share...



"The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?  For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread."  1 Corinthians 10:16 (NKJV).

I don't know about you...but to me this was just sooo cool.   That God would share this with me...as I write upon a collection of many I love who are part of this "body".   And I give thanks...The other day on one of my walks...I thought I will finish this one up for Thanksgiving...to me it is a special one and today makes it all the more special...

If you notice the hands...they are mixing bread...and I will talk more on that later...but with Thanksgiving I give thanks that I have been touched with hands of love.   That I look around and it seemed that I seen hands everywhere that I wanted to include...but let me not forget the Hands that are holding me always.


I look back on an earlier statement and I leave it in...because I do love this song and it does make you think...because when I had started this blog probably over a whole month ago I had some thoughts...but as with the bread that I mix...more and more just kept getting added and so yes it is a longer one.   On this particular day I was blessed by the song You love me ANYWAY" by Sidewalk Prophets kept playing in my mind as if in my shortcomings He loves me anyway...and for that I am thankful...

So the next bit is some that I had written different weekends but they are things I am thankful for...just part of the hands.  Sometimes our cup runneth over so much that you have "runneth over" running over with simply the simple ordinary things...I leave in my words from past weekend...This particular weekend started out with Tim picking up a few more green chili's as their days are limited...and if you haven't experienced having your own chili's for cooking...this is one to put on your list!   I admit I am not a die hard burn your mouth up HOT chili eater so we usually go with the milder chili...an Aneheim or got a few Big Jim's...but Anaheim's was what we were working with this particular day.   And so I add I am thankful for green chili's...and time spent with the shepherd...because you see...I had seen on facebook that Emily over at http://trailerhoodaristocrats.blogspot.com/ was making green chili.  Emily is the daughter of one of my good friends Brenda over at http://tonyandbrenda.blogspot.com/ .   Anyway Emily is talking about how good the house smells in making green chili...so the shepherd and I decide to make some and so while I had asked for recipes which Emily sent a link to hers...we also called Harry.   At work we have chili days when the weather gets "chilly" and so Tim had tasted some of Harry's and so he said I should get his recipe...well a quick call and we now have Harry and Emily's recipes...so we co-cooked on this project...kind of unusual for the shepherd and I as we have what you may say different "styles" THAT's IT!   Different styles!    I'll leave it at that...not sure what is wrong with mushing the tomatoes with your bare hands...this one had the shepherd laughing at me as it must have resembled my "spooning" the tomatoes...My family gives me a hard time about my cutting skills.   I don't think that each thing has to be uniformally cut.   I like my veggies UNIQUE...so in order to leave this and stay with my theme...I am thankful for friends and green chili...And you are thinking hands??? aren't you...get tot he point Penny!Anyway I thought our cooperative venture was mighty tasty...much like our combination of such different personalities but can still make a unique "dish"!   And we had decided to make up some chicken fajitas as well using some of these fresh peppers (and I think how this is out of date as the only green chili's now are those in the freezer).   Anyway--part of our motivation was...yes we had COMPANY coming!   Okay I wouldn't exactly call them company...I would say family!   MY KIDS!   First one here was my nephew Ethan...he is a freshman in college...I don't know where the time has gone because I had just got some pictures developed and here he was...Yep I am thankful for my family and love this Ethan!

Perhaps Ethan has changed a little...from this guy to now blowing bubbles
 with a Firecracker now about this age...

Later on in pulled Heather, Izzy, Lance and Tyler...and my house was full.   I am sure I have mentioned this before...I love the feeling when my house is full...it seems I can just feel it....By this time it was getting close to bed time...one might think so...of course the "boys" think it must be time to run to the Wal-mart...with Ethan taking them on an adventure in the "Honda"...perhaps it had a little gliche that required some special driving skills...that I was told more than once that I would probably be having flashbacks to Ethan's dad...my favorite brother Shaner!   He does remind me of his dad...to which I think that is a good thing...granted it might be a little too "entertaining" at times for his mom...but I know she wouldn't trade him either...I loved having him come "home" to visit me...we have shared some special times with "Eshun" as lovingly named by the Firecracker...

I snapped a pic with my camera phone where Heather was out talking to Ethan while he was "fixing" his car and I sent it and a text to my brother..."My daughter watching  your son fix his car...De-Ja-Luv-U...not sure I spelled it that way for him...I never am sure how I spell things when texting.  But I am thankful for this family tie...

But the time does not stop there...the hands theme continues...from those who worked on the barn (Lance, Tyler, Tim, Great Grandpa Pfeiff, Heather and Ethan) using their hands to work on the barn for the upcoming lambing season...to Izzy and Great Grandma Pfeiff using hands to blow bubbles and then to pop them...to just family time together...hands though dirty offering a drink...

 



Uncle Lance using his "hands" to give a
little Firecracker a drink...




Ethan, Tyler, and Lance...
want a drink Izzy?



As I began to make the bread.   Yes me there in my pajamas...and I realize in doing this I HAVE ARRIVED!   I am a Grandma...that was one of the perks I was sure was one that was one that made me want to be a Grandma...that if you  wanted to wear your jammies all day...you could.   And so with that I was mixing bread in my jammies!   But I was being watched by one little Firecracker who once she saw my hands go in the bowl...she "kneeded" to join me...and there in that bowl of bread our hands were together and I could feel the love from my mother who taught me how to make bread and her mother who I am sure taught her.   My daughter watched on and snapped some pictures...but this moment was more than making bread...it was something that went back farther and would continue on.  Of course I am more than thankful for being an Ahma AND for my daily bread! 

And so I start coming upon some conclusion and I think of Grandma's...what a gift they are...and what a gift they are to be...I think of Izzy and Great Grandma Pfeiff blowing bubbles and how I will treasure this memory...



Izzy and Great Grandma Pfeiff...hands playing...gotta love bubbles!

And so it is as though...hands...hands that have passed from generation to generation I conclude with and give thanks for...I have a special Grandmother one that I had stuck in quite some time ago for those who actually know when Kristy's birthday was...

In looking in my mirror this morning I could not get the picture of Kristy and her Grandma Stella out of my mind.   Kristy celebrated a birthday and so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS KRISTY!   For those who don't know...you may hear me talk time to time of Mary...that would be my friend...my "angel" Mary...anyway turns out she has some family I am fond of as well...one of which Miss Kristy!   I guess this picture just hit me...in thinking of hands of love because it seems to go with this theme of hands of love...these precious times that we can only take and keep in our hearts...a faded photograph...but will make us smile always.

Yes I am thankful for Grandma's that have fun and I want to be one of those Grandma's...I love how this picture seems to combine these two into one...how the hands...pass on the love...thanks for sharing with me.

There is also one special picture that just portrays a bond between a Grandma and a little one...this is my cousins in Kansas...a Great Grandmother and a little one...look at that look...

I think of the laying on of hands...how the Bible talks of this...but I do not know about being able to heal whatever but I have many times seen the laying on of hands of love...and this can work miracles...just letting someone know that you love them that they are in fact important...can heal some very deep pains...so today may you share your hands...your bread...Thankfulness...like I said this was quite the recipe...but like the bread...So I leave with this video of a special song...

So....I am not reading over this anymore...I am just sending it off out there...SO HAPPY BELATED THANKSGIVING and I am thankful for your hands...lyp