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Letting Go and Letting God

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Category Archives: Cooking

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The Everyday Ordinary, Grace, and Green Beans

Blue Cotton Memory

“I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees” ~ 2 Corinthians 12: 9 The Message After walking through A Great Challenge, in the middle of an everyday ordinary moment, when rinsing … Continue reading →

Cultural Evolution of Recipe Sharing and Chili Recipe

Blue Cotton Memory

Let me set the table here – the historic table – about recipes and reputation. Growing up in my grandmother’s house, I had the luxury of learning all sorts of recipes – daily recipes, bridge day recipes, celebration recipes and feast recipes. It was long after I married that I came to recognize that a recipe wasn’t just a recipe … Continue reading →

Which Sheep are Mine to Feed?

Blue Cotton Memory

Chocolate Chip cookies, Muddy Cakes, Hamburgers and Hotdogs, chili, chicken soup and beef stews, bacon twists and grilled cheese – and tomatoes and lettuces: Kale, Spinach and Chard, even chocolate mint leaves! Turkey, stuffing, oyster dressing, mashed potatoes with sour cream, cream cheese, parmesan cheese, butter and garlic, homemade salad dressings – Feast Day and Everyday kind of food – … Continue reading →

When Kitchen Living Becomes God-Radical

Blue Cotton Memory

Last week, I pulled out an old recipe. It my great-grandmother Muddy’s recipe – her corn fritters. I don’t know why I hadn’t made them in such a long time. For a season, Muddy’s Corn Fritters were a dinner-time staple. . . until they weren’t. The old recipes, like Muddy’s corn fritters, handed down for generations mother to daughter, from … Continue reading →

Life-Gets-Sweeter-Daily Gazpacho

Blue Cotton Memory

Saturday, I jumped in my canoe and paddled to my garden for dill. The day before, during a lull in the rain, I’d spotted my youngest one, sitting on the raised garden edges, slipping his hand into the tomatoes, chard and peppers to pinch off a few leaves of chocolate-mint and stuff it between his cheek and gum. On Saturday’s … Continue reading →

Holiday Living with Mason Jar Summertime Pies

Blue Cotton Memory

“Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle” (Psalm 103:5). “Don’t worry about cooking. Just rest and enjoy,” my husband encouraged, as I stuffed mason jars and lemon curd into a cooler on wheels, to be packed in the back of my van. All that was missing was my kitchen sink! He … Continue reading →

Blue Cotton Granola Bars

Blue Cotton Memory

Recipe Updated with journaling of their story in the family: March 4, 2019: One of the first things I’d cooked in over a week, my blue cotton granola bars, – and the littlest who’s not little any more said, “It’s the best ever.” Maybe it was the sprinkling of pecan dust. Maybe it was just because mama cooked – and … Continue reading →

Loaded Potato Soup

Blue Cotton Memory

  The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach – right?  So what did I learn to do when I, um, married a man and had a bunch of sons – learned how to cook some mighty fine fixin’s, that’s what!  Let me tell you, it has not been a cake walk! My husband could care less about food … Continue reading →

Grandmother’s Christmas Coffee Cake

Blue Cotton Memory

It’s beginning to look like Christmas – the mantle is decorated, the snowman wreath is on the front door, and the stockings are up. That means it is time for my Grandmother’s Christmas Coffee Cake which can be found coming out of my oven through Valentine’s Day. A teacher’s gift, a Christmas morning staple, and some warm tangible love for … Continue reading →

The Secret to Thanksgiving Dinner: The Oysters!

Blue Cotton Memory

Yeah, ladies!  Oysters are the key to a true feast – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and January Fun-feast meal!  The pre-requisite feasting delight is not the must-have turkey and my especially yum dressing or whatever feasty dessert conjured up.I refuse to be shewish and withold the key to Feasting Success from you – though my grandmother would be so tempted to do so! You … Continue reading →

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muddy_bucher

muddy_bucher
“Yes. Go, go, I would not have you back again” “Yes. Go, go, I would not have you back again”
(Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice, 1995 film)
These were my favorite photos - the photo of Rossy These were my favorite photos - the photo of Rossy is probably one of the most beautiful I’ve taken - she’s the best mom and the kindest friend. And then the photos of these young men - the groomsmen and then all the friends. These young men are answered prayers - you know - those prayers where you ask God to give your kids friends who lift them up, encourage them, iron-sharpening-iron, accountability friends, laugh together, allowing each other to be who they are, lifting each other up when they’re down- they’re young men like that! I couldn’t let the year end without posting these!
The grooms sister made the most amazing chocolate The grooms sister made the most amazing chocolate cake!  That icing!!!!! Magnificent!
A few weeks ago, one of Cam’s best friends got m A few weeks ago, one of Cam’s best friends got married. Simple, beautiful, elegant, friends like family - exactly what a wedding should be!
End of the year sweetness I want to remember! End of the year sweetness I want to remember!
It’s The Best of Times when Otter, Jeremy Fisher It’s The Best of Times when Otter, Jeremy Fisher, Mrs. Tiggywinkle, and Jemima Puddleduck build blanket burrows, come to market in my kitchen with baskets and pennies, collect laundry for washing and ironing,and come to tea! Conversations all in character. We decided I was Mrs. Josephine Rabbit!
Many have felt isolated, alone, shaken, unanchored Many have felt isolated, alone, shaken, unanchored, fearful, anxious. . . alone. Yet, we aren’t alone. Our Savior is always with us, ready to listen, ready to comfort. He has not abandoned or forsaken His children. He pulls beauty out of the ashes!

“These are the things I do,
and I do not forsake them.” 
~ Isaiah 42:6, ESV

2021 – January is looking better than the last two. No heart valves needing to be replaced. No lung cancer. No spinal surgery. But I’ve learned not to look at any day, week or month with my expectations. I look trusting that He is there. That He has a plan. All I have to do is trust – trust and remember what He has done for me! Maybe the anthem for 2021 should be “Remember and Give Thanks – No Matter What the World Throws at You, God is There for You!”

Let’s Shout our Praises into 2021 that God would send the enemy that comes to steal, kill and destroy packing!

“The moment they began their shouts and praises, 
the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon, Moab, 
and Mount Seir who had come against Judah, and they were defeated.”
~ 2 chronicles 20:22

#bluecottonmemory #cardinals #muddyphotographytn #godsgot2021
There are days when all I want is to be wrapped in There are days when all I want is to be wrapped in a cozy blanket, curled up in chair with a good book and just rest. I cannot remember a day not wanting that, not being tired the moment I wake up until I go to bed. So many parts of me want a rest from the chaos, the busy, the failures (because, you know, on a cushion failure isn’t an option because nothing is attempted), the frustrations. . . the expectations of the Big and Little things not turning out as anticipated.

My expectations are woefully inadequate in comparison to what He can do. In comparison to the one who designed and created me, who planned my life before I was born, who filled it with all the seemingly jumbled up parts of myself that aren’t jumbled to Him – my imagination, my dreams, the space between my imagination and dreams fulfilled – I am too short-sighted. I do not possess the creative genius of my Father. I am just a soul blind daughter of the King dreaming myopic dreams when I rely on my vision.

My expectations of life in the chaos are faint shadows when compared to God’s plans. I’m a slow learner, but I am learning to let go of my expectations of how my life should be, how challenges should be resolved (and when), how heart’s desires are to be filled, how heart-breaks are to be healed. Instead, I am learning to wait in expectation of God’s answer, God’s saving, God’s fulfilling, God’s healing – and Him doing it His way with His plan. 

“And I will lead the blind
in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
I will guide them.” 
~ Isaiah 42:6, ESV

#bluecottonmemory #nuthatch #muddyphotographytn #godsgot2021
Who wants 2021 to be a sit-on-a-cushion year? I a Who wants 2021 to be a sit-on-a-cushion year?

I am on a journey - and it's a journey with little rest. . . until the journey is over.

Sometimes on this journey, I am tempted to stop, pull out a cushion of their tasks completed, sit on it and sigh, "I have arrived. I have earned my rest free of the chaos, of doing-doING-DOING. It is time for me now!"

. . . and that, perhaps is one of the greatest deceptions of them all. . .

The only time we "arrive" to lay our burdens down, to rest deeply, is only when we are called home - and arrive at the door of our Father's house. In our time here, there is no cushion. No escape from the chaos, though sometimes there is rest from it. There is no "Me" time. - it's His time. 

Like all things He gives us - our giftings, our hearts-desires, our families, friends and children, our possessions. . . our time, our health (whether ill or robust) - they are indeed precious, but how much more precious, how much more valuable, how much MORE their worth, when we give them back to Him, a sacrifice offered of our adoration, our hope, our trust! He is a better keeper of our heart-valuables than I can ever be.
. . To read more, head over to the blog in the link: https://bluecottonmemory.com/a-soul-blind-daughter-of-the-king-expectations-for-2021/. 

#bluecottonmemory  #muddyphotography #housefinch #2021
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