Poems found in "The Disciplines of Life" by V. Raymond Edman

When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man,
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses who He chooses,
And with every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out
God knows what He's about. (author unknown)

From the chapter The Discipline of Defamation
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Say not my soul, "from whence
Can God relieve my care?"
Remember that Omnipotence
Hath servants everywhere

His help is always sure,
His methods seldom guessed;
Delay will make our pleasure pure;
Surprise will give it zest.

His wisdom is sublime,
His heart profoundly kind;
God never is before His time,
And never is behind.

Hast thou assumed a load
Which none will bear with thee?
And art thou bearing it for God,
And shall He fail to see? J. J. Lynch

From the chapter "The Discipline of Delay"

Happy Anniversary to Us

Actually the anniversary is Monday, August 17. Rick and I will be married 36 years.

Keeper at Home with tomatoes

I have enjoyed being a "keeper at home" this evening. I would like to be there permanently, but since God has placed me in different circumstances I will try to be content. After working with numbers all day it is nice to be picking, eating and canning tomatoes from the garden. Rick and I did our first batch of canned tomatoes. Half were Roma tomatoes and half Better Boy. I was hoping to be in bed by now but the pressure cooker is trying to work its way up to 6 lbs. Then it will be another 40 minutes cooking. It has been a few years since I have canned anything. Those tomatoes will be yummy this winter. We are certainly blessed with lots of them this year.

We also tried another healthy recipe: Stuffed Tomatoes.


The corn is Ruby Red. Julie had given us some seed but we were not successful at getting very many ears. But 3 were ready tonight. It was really good raw. That's how we ate it.

The tomato was a raw recipe also. We had never tried this recipe before and it is shared below. It was different and good. A small slice of cheese was included.


From Hallelujah Acres, From God's Garden by Rhonda Malkmus

"Stuffed Tomatoes"

4 large ripe tomatoes
3 cups sunflower seeds, soaked overnight and drained
1/4 cup chopped cucumber
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 chopped red, yellow or orange bell pepper (we had green)
1/2 cup fresh basil, minced (We had that from the garden, smells great)
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 tsp paprika

Slice tops off tomatoes, scoop out pulp and seeds leaving 1/4 inch around the outside edge and bottom. Blend sunflower seeds with 1/2 of the tomato pulp and paprika until smooth. Mix remaining pulp and and all other ingredients into the blended mixture. Stuff tomatoes.
Options: May add fresh corn kernels, shredded carrots, chopped celery or chopped nuts if not using sunflower seeds.

Not something I would crave once a week but tasty.

Twenty more minutes on the pressure cooker and my head will hit the pillow.

Fresh Basil

Growing fresh herbs has always been so inticing to me. My thumbs are not green so it takes some extra effort. But I am so excited. It doesn't take much does it? To excite me I mean.

This year we planted basil, I should say Rick did, between some of our tomato plants because it is supposed to be good for keeping bugs away. And more important than that it is my favorite herb to use in cooking. Well here are the results of my first batch.

Here is some hanging in the kitchen that I picked this evening. My first batch that I previously picked was good and dry. And I was wondering what kitchen tool I already had on hand that would chop it fine enough. I chose my Pampered Chef chopper. It did a great job for the basil.

Here it is placed on some waxed paper ready to drop into my basil spice container. It smells wonderful. Sorry I can't pass on the fragrance.

Here is the rest of one plant that I cut from this evening.
Now to find something to cook this week to try it out. Maybe I will experiment with something I fix for Kathleen and Elwood for supper on Saturday.