Successful Cobbling

My children's dad called it Neighborhood Pie.

Actually, the proper name - and a huge family and friends favorite: 

Company Apple Dessert

My mother discovered the recipe when I was in the fifth grade. It became a staple.

I was looking for ideas for decorating my home (especially my kitchen) with apples. September seems too early for the pumpkin patch.

In my search, I came across apple cobbler recipes.  Truth be told, my mother's Company, Apple Dessert, was just an apple cobbler - with a "fancier" name.

As often happens with me, the word cobbler began to ruminate a bit.

I have a mental picture of a man working on a shoe - replacing a heel; that's a cobbler.

I remember walking through the streets of Philadelphia on our honeymoon after I married Rich Suhey. I had a print that we purchased then, but it's long gone. I do remember the small street with stones placed closely together—cobbled.

When I thought of the word "cobble," I thought of stones, shoes, and maybe apples.

Until 

I lost my job as the Special Events Coordinator at Pine Castle in March 2008, and my friend, the Reverend Mark Atkinson, suggested that I cobble together an income.  I was a year short of early  Social Security. 

My parents had moved in with me in 2005 and they contributed to my monthly expenses. Besides that, daddy's health was declining just as the medical experts had predicted, and I was needed more and more to be a help to them.

I got unemployment for the first few months, but that didn't go well with who I am.

Hum.

My aunt Ann had worked as a poll worker in an election, so I asked her for input, and she suggested I look into it.

In 2008, I joined the Duval County Supervisor of Elections team. I trek to the Elections Training Center on Imeson Road every couple of years for training. My daddy would say, "I am driving a fur piece" to reach my destination.  I think it's interesting that when I am traveling on Imeson Road just to my right, behind rows of bushes, I can see the runways to the airport I remember from my childhood.

That particular means of helping me satisfy my financial obligations has been successful, but it was just the beginning. I could include a list of my experiences, but this is not a job interview. Let me say—the good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly—but my bills "got paid."

Of course, the best job ever fell into my lap when I learned that the Mandarin Museum & Historical Society needed a Volunteer Coordinator. This past July, I celebrated my 9th anniversary.

The Museum has changed—for the better!!! But one thing has not changed—the volunteers continue to be faithful, eager to help, and excited about our mission. I have made several very dear friends and picked up a "best friend" along the way. I believe that my time in this capacity has broadened my horizons.

So - today's word is COBBLE.  I still do it.  And it's been a good word for me! 

May you have enough sunshine in your life to make you appreciate the shadows

Love Note

I got a note from my mother. . . 

Not really.

So let me tell you about yesterday.

The week has been hectic. Finally, there would be time for my best friend and me to enjoy a nice quiet dinner.

A casserole was ready to go into the oven when I learned - my friend had been called to attend an impromptu family celebration.

Those kinds of things are very important to me, so I had no trouble "going with the flow"

In fact, my neighbor has recently had hip surgery, and I had been thinking I needed to take some food to them. The casserole and some of the jello salad would be perfect. Within a few minutes, a friend called, "Did I want to go get some ice cream?"  Well, yeah.

The note from my mother???

My devotion this morning featured Romans 8:28.

If there's any Bible verse we heard more than that one, I don't think my siblings or our children would know what it is.

Yesterday's changes were nothing - no issues in the least.

There have been times, however, in my life (and in yours) that we have been thrown a curve ball and struck out.  

I read the devotional, knowing that, remembering all the times my mother has helped me with an issue but reminding me of the scripture.

The devotional I read always has a photo to help a person remember.  Today's said, "Where the Lord guides, He provides".

More than 70 years ago, our mother wanted to go to Bible college.  Cindy and I were little girls  I hadn't started school.  Mother wrote to Tennessee Temple College in Chattanooga and received a letter back with those words.  As it happened, daddy did not have the same desire to go to Bible College.  He told mother he would take care of us but she decided that going to Bible college was not what was best for our family.

She never forgot those words, however.

And so it was that as I read the devotional I felt like my mother had sent me that message.

She would have been grateful that I thought of sharing the casserole and happy that I had a visit with my friend.  She would also like it that I am still writing about her!!!

May you have enough sunshine in your life to make you appreciate the shadows

Have I got a story for you. . .

What did I want to do when I was growing up? That's one of the questions in a project I'm participating in—a gift for my children and grandchildren.

 

I wanted to be a journalist.  I valued a couple of Florida-Times Union columnists, Cynthia Parks and Elizabeth Cornelius. I also loved the writings of Elizabeth Elliott and Catherine Marshall, who were both "preacher's wives," so I believe my vocational wishes and what I considered my "life's call" as a Christian worked together well.

You might say that my love for storytelling has always been a part of me, a passion that I'm eager to share.

 

My creative bent emerged a few weeks after my sister, Cindy, was born.  I don't remember, but my mother told me the back of the living room couch was my canvas.  Words soon replaced crayons, however.  There's a story about me standing on a chair in my grandparents’ kitchen - preaching, and then there's the one about the "story" I made up as a first grader.  I told the teacher my daddy got his hand cut off in a machine at work.  I made that up as an excuse for not coloring inside the lines.  It was because my crayons were all broken, and my daddy said there would be no new crayons until Christmas. (I know, it was a lie).

 

In the early years of my marriage, I wrote a column for our church newsletters. I called it I've been thinking... If there's one thing I consistently do, it is THINK.  That later became a nonpaid column in the early days of Jacksonville.com.

And then I started to write Sunshine and Shadows, this blog that I hope is an encouragement.

 

In 2010, I interviewed and wrote about physicians, medical practices, and hospitals when the Duval County Medical Society published a book about their history.

 

Recently, I helped with the editing of John Beehner's latest book, Live in Freedom, Don't Believe Everything You Think. which, as it happens, contains many stories of people who have experienced a change in their lives because of their faith walk.

 

I've been a contributor and an editor, but still, there's this nagging desire.  

 

So , , , 

 

I'm going to put together a book of stories.  Somehow, that seems less self-promoting than saying that I am going to write a book.  It will be an E-book through Amazon. The title is From Paula's Pen...Have I got a story for you!  Some of my stories will be included, but my main purpose is to share your stories.   

 

I believe this sort of undertaking needs a timeline, so I'll start on August 5^th (the day my parents married in 1942). I first thought that it would be a six-week project, but I am going to refrain from a publication date. I believe that I will know when it’s time to set a completion date.

I welcome your stories, and I will edit as little as possible. Knowing that I am not a good proofreader (especially for my work), my friend Deborah Hansen will be my editor. She has been one of my major encouragers in putting my words into print.

 

When I hit the publish button on this blog, post it on my Facebook page, and send emails to people encouraging them to send me a story, I'm going to be thinking, "Oh, help," as Maria expressed when she was on her way to the Von Trapp family home in The Sound of Music.

 

And like Maria, I have confidence in Sunshine and Rain, in you, who will share your stories, in Deb, who will edit my work, and most of all, in God, in Whom I Trust!

And this will be my number one goal: