My daughter reviews many books for my grandchildren's home school curriculum. Recently she received a book and an  instructor's manual " The Art of Poetry" by Christine Perrin, MFA . As you see in my blog, I write a lot of poetry from inspiration rather than knowledge of the process or the art. My daughter invited me to participate in their first two lessons about images and metaphors. I am thrilled to be completing the study as instructor for my grandchildren using the instructor's manual.  We hope soon to be able to apply critical thinking to various poems and create poems of our own. 

Early Morning Awakening
Birds Chirping their Song.
Sunshine rising- Light
Joy come to me
God's Word fulfills.
Written by Morninglory 3/23/2013

Belief and Endurance Throughout Life

Weeks before this photo was taken, my 91 year old dad asked me to order him many trees of assorted varieties. He said that if people did not start planting trees, there would be none for the next generation. He was especially interested in fruit bearing trees and flowering plants. When they arrived, they were only slightly larger than feathers but looked healthy. My husband offered to help daddy plant , but daddy said he couldn't just sit in his chair and had to get outside. The next day when I drove by to check on daddy, there he was digging the holes and planting. When I asked if he felt stable enough to be planting, he said when he got tired he just leaned on his golf cart or sat down in it. . The post hole digger was standing in the ground beside him and he said the dirt had to be broken with the digger before the shovel would dig out the soil. As usual, I was afraid for his safety, but he was content and felt productive. Having farmed all his life, he has taken pleasure in still being productive at age 91. As you can see by the tall pine trees behind him, he lives by what he believes. The next generation will need us to plan for them, even the oxygen they breathe.
Isaiah 46:4 NASB

4 Even to your old age aI 1will be the same,

And even to your 2bgraying years I will bear you!

I have 3done it, and I will carry you;

And I will bear you and I will deliver you.

Abundant Love

"To my Loving Wife"

This is a little note to tell you how much I love you.I know God blessed me with you from the beginning. My love has grown for you each year.I pray God will send you a special Joy to help you get through this Christmas without your mother. God is in control of all things in our lives.God has placed me to help you and love you.I could not have asked for a better gift from God. You are my sunshine and my love.I wish you a special Christmas. God made a wonderful person when He made you. He has given you a special way to help other people by teaching and showing them how to be better exposed to helping others through Christ. We often meet them when we go out. God will bless you for your caring and love to each one. Christ, you and our children make my Christmas. With Love Always.

The Lord has blessed my husband and I with 33 years of abiding love. This is what he wrote and placed in my stocking for Christmas morning.This tender message filled my heart during this first Christmas after losing my mother. It was also the passage in my life from 42 years of full-time nursing, most recently as an educator into the time of retirement. It takes a true man of God to have written these beautiful words to me.

Ephesians 5:33 "Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband." King James Version: The Open Bible.

Scenes - Memories- Different Views

How different the same scene can look when viewed on different days in different seasons. This tree is across from the end of the country lane from our house. The old fence posts fallen down remind me of a different time when the land was occupied by neighbors and the fence row stood even and tall. Down the hill behind the old oak tree was a real horse drawn syrup mill. As a child I ventured with my daddy to see the horse walk in a circle pulling on a large wooden stirrer in the syrup as it cooked. The syrup began as juice from sugar cane and ended as Ribbon Cane Syrup, often sold in a quart can.

Memories floating gently like leaves falling from a tree,
Sometimes remembered through the misty fog of time;
Golden like the straw in an old pasture,
New memories branching out green in the hope of Spring.
Written by Morninglory 12/7/2012

"It may be hard going forward, but it is worse going back." 
Charles H. Spurgeon

Ma'Maw's Coconut Pie

When a cool snap comes south during late fall, I begin reminiscing about the food my mother and mother in law used to cook for family gatherings.My husband's all time favorite is Ma'Maw's Coconut Pie". I tried for years to make a pie just like his mother. Somehow mine always came out more like a chess pie rather than a custard. I even tried to slow cook the custard that I had prepared for my daughter when she was a baby and then add fresh grated coconut. Several years ago, my best friend brought us a splendid pie that was just like the pie my husband dreamed about. She wrote the recipe down and I had a winner. Oh my, did I make a mistake when I lost that recipe. I called my daughter to see if she had borrowed it and she said no, but she knew where I could find Ma'Maw's recipe. When my daughter had lived in Gulfport, Mississippi, she had participated in compilation of a church cookbook. She said that while in college when she spent a lot of time with her Ma'Maw, that she had written down her coconut pie recipe and it was now in the church cookbook. I made the pie and my husband smiled and smacked his lips in joy. Here is the recipe for you to enjoy.

Ma'Maw's Coconut Pie

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 T cornstarch

3 egg yolks (Save whites)

2 cups milk

1 dash salt

1 can coconut or 1 cup fresh shredded coconut

1 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar, flour, and cornstarch together. Stir in about one cup of milk into this mixture. Mix the other cup of milk into the egg yolks and stir into the mixture. Add dash of salt. Cook slowly over medium heat, stirring constantly until it becomes a smooth custard consistency. Add coconut and vanilla and blend until very smooth. Pour into a baked until brown pie crust.  Cover with meringue.

Ma'Maw's Meringue

Cream of tarter-One dash

3 egg whites

1/4 cup of sugar.

Whip egg whites and cream of tarter on high speed until peaks are formed. Slowly add a small amount of sugar at a time while still whipping on high. The meringue is ready when it is no longer gritty when a little is rubbed between finger and thumb. Seal the meringue to the entire crust edges so no filling leaks out. Cover the entire pie surface. 

Bake the pie at 350 degrees until the meringue is golden brown. Cool and serve unless someone you love digs into the pie before there is time for cooling. Enjoy!

"This is the day the Lord has made,

Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Psalm 118:24

Cast Iron Cooking

Sometime I just have to revert to my country heritage. My 91 year old daddy planted enough mustard greens to feed an army and they just keep producing.. He has been worried that they might go to waste even though he gives mustard greens to every person who comes to visit.Growing up in the depression era, he is not one to waste food of any kind.  He has given to all the neighbors and still the greens grow. I decided I would pick a 33 gallon bag full and cook them in my black cast iron dutch oven outside on the butane cooker. My husband and I picked mustard greens, pulled the stems out and torn the leaves into small pieces. About that time an elderly couple came to visit daddy. Of course they said yes when I offered them mustard greens. God blessed us with all those greens and sharing made us all happy.
"Everyone helped his neighbor,
And said to his brother,
Be of good courage."
Isaiah 41:6

We had not used the butane burner since last year and it did not work. My husband banged on it and determined that the line was filled with a dirt dauber clay plug. By the time he had the fire burning and the black pot on the blaze, I had bacon ready to sizzle until tender before adding a chopped onion. Once the onion sauteed, we added the fresh washed greens and covered with the lid for about 20 minutes on low heat. When we uncovered the greens they had begun to turn darker. I added a smoked ham hock and about a two quarts of water. We covered the greens and let them cook slowly for over an hour.

My uncle used to call all greens rabbit food and a friend of mine said I was eating grass. I know that southern cornbread served with fresh mustard greens smothered down in an iron dutch oven really make this country woman smile. Try it and you might like it.

Holy God-Eternally Invincible

Walls surround you,
Tall, Solid and Strong.
Angel guards watch and wait,
To protect you from all enemies.

Prayer opens the door;
Opens communication with God.
Seeking from the Lord of Lords,
Comfort, security and protection.

He is our rock and fortress.
Invisible yet invincible. 
Your hand in His nail-scarred hand,
Joined in fellowship of holiness for eternity.
Written by Morninglory 11/7/2012