$650 4-H Grand Champion Cookie Recipe
remember how our gargantuan border collie dog who---while we were sleeping---ate the Grand Champion $860 prize-winning 4-H cookies that Britt won 4-H with in 2005????
well, it's another 4-H story...
Britt enters 2007 4-H non-livestock in culinary and in horticulture...
In culinary, Britt makes cookie recipe where you mix 7 ingredients (he's not a chef but he did win Grand Champion once before and we don't know how)...so Britt retrieves recipe when timer goes off...uh oh!...
liquid cookies...since there are no soup categories, I say to the cookie chef: "I am so sorry, but you are going to have to throw those cookies away and there goes your entry. The judges can't drink the cookies." We laughed and went to bed to awaken to congealed cookies in the a.m. and the dog didn't eat them this time. "Just turn it in, Britt. They don't quite look like cookies but you were faithful to enter a look-alike."
I drove him down to the cultural district's barnyards. We watched the peacock proud competitors gingerly handling their concoctions with care and hopes of winning! No culinary hope here. Now, horticulture---he might take that category. Britt carried his horticulture creations and instructed me to carry the culinary look-alike spongey cookies. He would feel no shame walking side by side next to some striking cakes. Uh oh! I couldn't find the cookies on the back seat of our van...they were GONE. Sprawled on the 4-H floor of my van but still completely covered in 4-H Saran wrap. I turned them in surreptitiously among the sheep and goats and plants. "What's that? refering to the culinary unrecognizable entry." I changed the subject...and someone else asked: "Why are you carrying in your horticulture today Britt---the contest was yesterday." Uh oh! I forgot to give him the non-livestock rules the school handed me last week that were buried in my stack of URGENT! important papers to read. Britt was sick the last 4-H meeting so I was responsible to get him the word. So Britt performs this 4-H horticulture project from August to March and I forget to give him the horticulture deadline and rules. All he has to turn in and compete is liquid cookies.
Okay, I am beating up on myself at this immediate point. Britt laughs it off. But mom is left with no laughter. So, I went for a walk with Jesus. Angry with myself. I turned a corner and there were 43 white bud trees lined up in a perfect row of whispering clouds calling to me. I ran the straight line under all 43 tree creations flanked by a sea of infant blue skies and held my hand high barely touching each tree, brushing up against what took my breath away, all the while beating myself up for forgetting. The feint flowers fell on my head, my arms, the calfs of my legs. A mist of white fish flakes falling floating freely. Caught up in a moment of reality. Why am I so concerned about accomplishment? What's my ruling passion here? A piece of God is falling on me and I'm praying but lost in achievement not in peace. A silent shift begins to occur. How does that happen?? You know something one second you didn't know the second before... I sat and sat and sobbed and sobbed over my pull to perform. Why don't I get it? I wrestled with where I was. Surrender, Bev...I feel so adolescent at times. (Wait...I'm beating myself up again right now.) I entered in with God what was really happening in my heart that moment. A piece of peace entered my soul. I tearlessly jogged back to the barnyards, a little more free than my opening run. I ran smack dab into the Junior Livestock Show Director who pulled me aside...your son was DQ'd from Horticulture but Brit won Grand Champion of the Cookie Division. You are kidding, right? The liquid cookies? The look-alikes? I replied to her that they couldn't have judged on "looks" this year. She commented back that they tasted the best, and didn't you think they tasted succulent, just scrumptious? "No, we never even tasted them, they looked so bad...Britt almost threw them away," I replied. And Mrs. Lee says to me---by the way---you have a tiny flower in your hair and she moves to remove it. "NO! Leave it there...it's my reminder that my God showed up for me and shifted me to a better place when I was beating myself up over the horticulture debaucle." I quickly looked for Britt to tell him the good news and watch his unbelieving face respond cause he knew the auction would yield him monetary results---he would auction the dropped liquid look-alikes off the next morning for $650.00. "Mom, you don't mean it...the liquid cookies won everything??? And, Mom, did you know that you have a flower in your hair...let me get it out for you." "No! Leave it there for awhile..it is my reminder that I walked away from beating myself up this morning before I learned of your unexpected achievement. But, it was not because of how strong I am"...not by our will but by His mercy, His kindness whether we win or not. Romans 2:4 - His Kindness leads us to repentance from the passions that rule my heart---something in me wants so badly to be recognized. And it always raises its Head. It's a deep accusation from the Accuser---a lie that I don't matter and need to fill my life with things that matter. Demands fill my space with right living/performance and God is setting me free from that. I found a petite piece of Peace at 4-H on this day. Hey Britt, you are going to have to make those $650 congealed champion cookies again so we can all taste them this time.
well, it's another 4-H story...
Britt enters 2007 4-H non-livestock in culinary and in horticulture...
In culinary, Britt makes cookie recipe where you mix 7 ingredients (he's not a chef but he did win Grand Champion once before and we don't know how)...so Britt retrieves recipe when timer goes off...uh oh!...
liquid cookies...since there are no soup categories, I say to the cookie chef: "I am so sorry, but you are going to have to throw those cookies away and there goes your entry. The judges can't drink the cookies." We laughed and went to bed to awaken to congealed cookies in the a.m. and the dog didn't eat them this time. "Just turn it in, Britt. They don't quite look like cookies but you were faithful to enter a look-alike."
I drove him down to the cultural district's barnyards. We watched the peacock proud competitors gingerly handling their concoctions with care and hopes of winning! No culinary hope here. Now, horticulture---he might take that category. Britt carried his horticulture creations and instructed me to carry the culinary look-alike spongey cookies. He would feel no shame walking side by side next to some striking cakes. Uh oh! I couldn't find the cookies on the back seat of our van...they were GONE. Sprawled on the 4-H floor of my van but still completely covered in 4-H Saran wrap. I turned them in surreptitiously among the sheep and goats and plants. "What's that? refering to the culinary unrecognizable entry." I changed the subject...and someone else asked: "Why are you carrying in your horticulture today Britt---the contest was yesterday." Uh oh! I forgot to give him the non-livestock rules the school handed me last week that were buried in my stack of URGENT! important papers to read. Britt was sick the last 4-H meeting so I was responsible to get him the word. So Britt performs this 4-H horticulture project from August to March and I forget to give him the horticulture deadline and rules. All he has to turn in and compete is liquid cookies.
Okay, I am beating up on myself at this immediate point. Britt laughs it off. But mom is left with no laughter. So, I went for a walk with Jesus. Angry with myself. I turned a corner and there were 43 white bud trees lined up in a perfect row of whispering clouds calling to me. I ran the straight line under all 43 tree creations flanked by a sea of infant blue skies and held my hand high barely touching each tree, brushing up against what took my breath away, all the while beating myself up for forgetting. The feint flowers fell on my head, my arms, the calfs of my legs. A mist of white fish flakes falling floating freely. Caught up in a moment of reality. Why am I so concerned about accomplishment? What's my ruling passion here? A piece of God is falling on me and I'm praying but lost in achievement not in peace. A silent shift begins to occur. How does that happen?? You know something one second you didn't know the second before... I sat and sat and sobbed and sobbed over my pull to perform. Why don't I get it? I wrestled with where I was. Surrender, Bev...I feel so adolescent at times. (Wait...I'm beating myself up again right now.) I entered in with God what was really happening in my heart that moment. A piece of peace entered my soul. I tearlessly jogged back to the barnyards, a little more free than my opening run. I ran smack dab into the Junior Livestock Show Director who pulled me aside...your son was DQ'd from Horticulture but Brit won Grand Champion of the Cookie Division. You are kidding, right? The liquid cookies? The look-alikes? I replied to her that they couldn't have judged on "looks" this year. She commented back that they tasted the best, and didn't you think they tasted succulent, just scrumptious? "No, we never even tasted them, they looked so bad...Britt almost threw them away," I replied. And Mrs. Lee says to me---by the way---you have a tiny flower in your hair and she moves to remove it. "NO! Leave it there...it's my reminder that my God showed up for me and shifted me to a better place when I was beating myself up over the horticulture debaucle." I quickly looked for Britt to tell him the good news and watch his unbelieving face respond cause he knew the auction would yield him monetary results---he would auction the dropped liquid look-alikes off the next morning for $650.00. "Mom, you don't mean it...the liquid cookies won everything??? And, Mom, did you know that you have a flower in your hair...let me get it out for you." "No! Leave it there for awhile..it is my reminder that I walked away from beating myself up this morning before I learned of your unexpected achievement. But, it was not because of how strong I am"...not by our will but by His mercy, His kindness whether we win or not. Romans 2:4 - His Kindness leads us to repentance from the passions that rule my heart---something in me wants so badly to be recognized. And it always raises its Head. It's a deep accusation from the Accuser---a lie that I don't matter and need to fill my life with things that matter. Demands fill my space with right living/performance and God is setting me free from that. I found a petite piece of Peace at 4-H on this day. Hey Britt, you are going to have to make those $650 congealed champion cookies again so we can all taste them this time.
3 comments:
"A piece of God is falling". Did you learn this phrase from the TV series John Doe?: in the music by Danny Lux at the end of episode 9, entitled Manifest Destiny ... Peace be upon you, Brother.
"A piece of God is falling" - I meant that when those buds fell on me, it was a created piece of God falling on me but it touched me in deeper ways---a peace of God fell on me. No, I made that up and have never heard of the tv series John Doe nor Danny Lux. Are they Christ followers? We don't have a tv.
Yes, I understood your intended meaning and found it very moving ... I would say the Holy Spirit descended upon you through a breathtaking act of Mother Nature. I would further say you were touched by the Maternal Face of God. ... You don't need a TV to see episode 9 of John Doe. It can be viewed at hulu.com
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