Popcorn on a Stick

Boredom is contagious; however, so is enthusiasm. A lot of the activities I do with my kids are simple ones, but a lot of their enthusiasm for an activity has to do with my attitude about it. For instance, visiting the dentist.

At this point in my young life, my mouth is more bionic than original. But I want my children to go to the dentist and have the opportunity to manage their oral care better than I have. So my attitude in having them go to the dentist is critical. If I flinch, they’re going to flinch. So I don’t flinch.Much.

Of course, for some activities, my lack of enthusiasm doesn’t seem to dampen theirs. Like getting caught in the rain. The whole “colds/pneumonia/influenza can’t happen to me” mentality is still very much intact for them. We were at the Dairy Freeze one Tuesday, eating our $1 junior ice cream cones, when a sudden downpour began.

The fact Emily was wearing fabric shoes didn’t stop her from jumping into the little puddles that cropped up near our table. Megan, the three-year-old, just took her shoes off. She didn’t want to get her rubbery Croc sandals wet as she stuck most of her body into the steady stream of rainwater coming off the tin roof.
In a break in the storm, we dashed to the truck. We didn’t dash enough.

In our somewhat bedraggled state, we made our way to the grocery store to pick up some necessities, like frozen pizza. As we were turning into the Five Lakes Centre parking lot, I noticed some rather soggy farmers selling their wares at the market. And there was my catch of the day.

At Ken Simmering’s table was something I hadn’t seen before. Popping corn. Seriously, I hadn’t seen it this way before. It was still on the cob. Logically, yes, popcorn has to come from somewhere, but I don’t believe I’ve spent much time pondering its origins. Ken gave me information on how to prepare the corn—put the whole cob in a brown bag, put it in the microwave and hit the “popcorn” button. For us, one ear of corn took about 2:10 to cook in a 1000 watt microwave. It was so cool!

We made it that night as our family watched “America’s Got Talent,” a fairly family-friendly show. A little butter, a little salt. Voila! Happiness in a bowl.

I think Ken has something here. I think he should put his dried corn on a stick and sell it at the Great Minnesota Get-together…popcorn on a stick. If he has any left when we go back to the farmer’s market, I’m getting more. I think this is a great novelty and several siblings and cousins are getting this for Christmas!

Simple? Yes. Exciting? Definitely! Man, I’m so easy to please.

Megan eating the rest of the popcorn on the cob

Some other fun family activities this summer...Kids Bowl Free afternoons

You gotta just love these thigh-highs Em chose to wear on a hot summer day...

The county fair--complete with bounce castle and slide

Leave it up to the 3-year-old to decide to go down head first...

The family photo with "Bumblebee" from Transformers. Pretty much any yellow vehicle is Bumblebee, really, to my kids. We've even seen a Bumblebee motorcycle and firetruck. However, yellow buses are not bumblebee. Notice Emily's pose (you can click the picture to enlarge it)

Can you tell pork is really big down here in Southern Minnesota? Shameless promotion right here.

Waiting on the Lord

Today I read about one woman's struggle that resonated with me.

When we had the cafe, the finances were always in the red. Because Dan and I felt that God had called us to open the cafe, I naively believed that financial worries would be nil. I'm still not sure what lessons I was supposed to learn. I can only hope I learned what God wanted to teach me so I don't have to go through the same lessons again!

Laura MacCorkle in the story on crosswalk.com said:
I’ve been struggling with an ongoing life situation that has got me journaling and praying and reading and discussing up a storm. I don’t understand what God is doing, and I want answers and a flowchart of how this will all be worked out. Right now.

I want to plan my course and make something happen—move the situation along, if I can, and get the results that I think should be had and on my time schedule.

I can relate to that. How many times did I pray during the most stressful times that God would help me learn my lesson faster so the stress would be over?! And yet, I think the one lesson I most needed to learn was to trust in Him.

Amazingly, when the cafe got an eviction notice, someone came through with the money to pay the back rent--in five figures. Several times we got shut-off notices from the utility company. I even got to know the guy by first name--and he would call us first that morning to let us know he was on his way. He did that so we could get to the bank, make a payment and then show him the receipt when he got there, and he could leave our electricity on.


Over the course of the cafe's six years, I always had cafe stresses, but I ended up stressing less over them. My trust in God's sovereignty grew. I still have bills. I still wish they would be paid now (that instant gratification thing), but I'm s l o w l y learning to take more joy in the journey. Sometimes I have to be reminded, and that's what this devotional and the Bible passage from Psalms did for me. So this is my version of "one generation will commend your works to another." And my way of reminding myself of God's greatness and how worthy He is to be praised.


Psalm 145:3-7
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
His greatness no one can fathom.
One generation will commend your works to another;
They will tell of your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.