"Giving Thanks" photo by Gisela Giardino

Thankfulness.

Gratitude.

This is the week to think about it, talk about it, and best of all, practice it.

But if we limit our gratitude to only one week or one day a year, we’ll miss out on many benefits that are associated with the regular practice of gratitude. I find that I need to not only list the things I’m grateful for but also take time to say “thank You” to our heavenly Father, Whom I believe is the source of all good and perfect gifts.

For a little inspiration, check out the quotes that Diane Eble gathered at her website: “Multiple Benefits of Gratitude.”

And then visit some of the sites that have inspired bloggers all over the ‘Net to list the things for which they are grateful.

One Thousand Gifts

Ann Voskamp launched One Thousand Gifts several years ago and now hosts a regular Gratitude Community.

In this post, Ann V. describes how the process of regularly giving thanks has changed her.

It is happening to me as John Milton wrote: “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

Everyday epiphanies everywhere, indeed: gifts….Grace.

“… the smell of the florist’s… the sound of kernels of corn streaming, tinkling…. leaves floating in puddles…” Just writing them down as they happen.

Yet my list is different than another’s for a reason: God has made me uniquely me. The Gift List is about gratitude… but it is more. It is about what defines me and my own personal identity. Reflecting on The Thousand Gifts List… “…cracking open a new book… pushing children on the swing…. old men looking at cards in the stationery aisle…” I am thankful for the things on it, yes, but I am also thankful that He has given the gift of me; that God made me who I am and I am one who sees and experiences the world in a way uniquely her own. The Thousand Gifts list is about the gifts Abba gives this child every day… and, ultimately, about the very gift of self, life as I know it.

George MacDonald wrote, “No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best…when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things.”

It is the season of lists. Care to begin a list of a Thousand Gifts? You’ll find Him in all things—the very best gift of all.

Inspired, I actually began my own list back in 2007.

• In my post “One Thousand Gifts,” I introduced my readers to Ann V.’s carnival and logged my first entry. It explains the number one thing for which I’m grateful.
• I added one more item to the list in this post, “A Gift That Keeps On Giving.”
• Well, in the following post I made some progress, making it all the way to #12 in the post “Ten Trite Things for Which I’m Thankful.”
• Two more things were buried in a story about a “Germ-Free Thanksgiving” in 2007.
• In “Friday Felicities & One Thousand Gifts Cont’d” I enumerated the members of my dear family and made it up to #19.

Then apparently I stopped (publicly). But I intend to pick it up again this week and continue the practice.

Thankful Thursday

Still dating back to 2007 posts in that era, I did manage to think of a few things to be grateful for, which I cited with “Thankful,” though I didn’t count them as part of the thousand. Instead, I tagged another carnival, Thankful Thursday. The hosts encourage participants to jump in any time and not feel obligated to post every week:

Why be thankful on Thursdays? We tend to just give thanks on Thanksgiving; why not share your blessings on a weekly basis with us? You don’t have to participate every week; do it as often as you can. The road of life is hard, let us count our blessings as we travel this road…

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name”
~ Psalm 100:4 (NIV)

Friday Felicities

Friday Felicities was a gratitude carnival launched by Nattie Rose, who passed away in 2007. Natalie Rose blogged at “Nattie Writes!” (her Daddy continues). In May 2007, she was still blogging with gratitude even after being diagnosed with the cancer that quickly took her from us in June of that year.

Natalie Rose’s persistent gratitude inspired Becky Perry of Joyful Mother of Boys to continue Friday Felicities.

“What are felicities, you ask?” Becky asks rhetorically. “Why they are things that make you happy!”

And anything that makes a person happy is something to be thankful for!

Thanksgiving Celebration

If you visit High Calling Blogs this week, you can read about L.L. Barkat’s “5 Pies and a Lulav” and then join in our week-long Thanksgiving Celebration:

Would you like to share a Thanksgiving reflection or tradition? Drop your post link here in our comment box and place our special Thanksgiving Celebration badge in your post so others can see what we’re up to. We look forward to your offerings.

Image by: Gisela Giardino. “Giving Thanks,” 23 Nov. 2006. Flickr. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/gi/304120801/> (All sizes of this photo are available for download under a Creative Commons license.)

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Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply tell us if you’re hosting Thanksgiving—link to your post quickly and then by all means, return to your shopping and cleaning!

In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.

When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.

Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).

You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.

Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

I insist that to participate in Food on Fridays, you can link to posts that aren’t obviously about food; your content can be subtle. In the introductory paragraph (see above), it says that “any post remotely related to food is welcome.”

So this is a chance for me to demonstrate how to jump in with barely applicable content.

The kids and I went to the orchard recently to pick apples.

We hunted for a “Potimarron” in a bin of squash, but only saw these:

There were pumpkins, of course—lots of them.

When the kids spotted them, one of them exclaimed, “The frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!”

You see, many mornings, I read a poem aloud to the kids.

A week or so ago, the poem I selected was “When the Frost is on the Punkin” by Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley.

As you know, I’m trying to respect copyrights. To do so, I have to be cautious about posting poems and songs. Therefore, instead of typing out the poem in this post, I encourage you to click the title above or here to read the poem. It’s charming.

And if you have a few minutes, I found a YouTube video of a cigar-smoking country gentleman named Ken Rislev reciting the poem by heart.

Before Mr. Rislev begins, he explains that he memorized the poem to please his father. If you have 4 minutes 45 seconds, you can listen to the whole thing, including his personal story that provides context for the recitation.

But if you only have time to hear the poem, move the counter forward to 1:45 and enjoy Mr. Rislev’s presentation of “The Frost is on the Punkin,” in a voice perfectly suited to deliver Riley’s humble, rustic dialect.

Bonus: Recipes from Ann that use Punkin

• Creamy Harvest Soup
• Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Soup
  
• Pumpkin Pie
• Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Bread
  

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Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

Well, it’s starting:

The season of getting—I mean, giving.

I think it’s hard to help our kids focus on giving when they’re bombarded by commercials, window displays, newspaper inserts, catalogs and radio spots whose sole purpose is to awaken a desire to get.

It’s hard for us as adults to focus on giving, too, because we’re bombarded with all those same enticing messages to acquire.

But one way I believe we all can attempt to counteract these messages is to practice, inspire, and provide opportunities for giving.

Whether the giving is giving thanks, giving resources, or giving intangible gifts that have a deep and lasting impact on the recipients, we can steer our kids away from the acquisition mindset and toward a sacrificial, others-centered attitude that lines up with our faith.

I wrote about this at High Calling Blogs (HCB) today. Before you pop over there, you should know that every other Wednesday, when it’s my turn to post, I try to link out as much as possible to High Calling Blogs members, to build a sense of community and highlight posts that may be of interest to HCB readers.

This particular post is packed with links. If you have time, click around and meet some new bloggers!

Read more at the High Calling Blogs website.

“Nestled Apple” photo by Ann Kroeker (2009).

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Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

The One-Year Bible reading for November 14 included the passage from Hebrews telling us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2)

What an image! Jesus as an author, composing, editing—perfecting—our faith!

I already had that passage floating around in my head when I sat down to watch the Steven Spielberg film “Amistad.”

In one scene, John Quincy Adams (played by Anthony Hopkins) talks with a fictional character named Mr. Jodson (played by Morgan Freeman) about who the Africans on the “Amistad” really are.

Someone published the dialogue from that scene in an essay both here and here, so I pulled from that source to post it. The interaction originated from the film:

Adams: In the courtroom, whoever tells the best story, wins. What is their story, by the way?

Jodson: Sir?

Adams: What is their story?

Jodson:  They’re from West Africa.

Adams: No, what is their story?

(Jodson remains silent, looking puzzled.)

Adams: Mr. Jodson, where are you from originally?

Jodson: Georgia.

Adams: Is that who you are, a Georgian? Is that your story? No, you’re an ex-slave who’s devoted his life to the abolition of slavery and overcome great obstacles and hardships along the way, I should imagine. That’s your story, isn’t it?

(Jodson nods, slowly, with a slight smile.)

Adams: You have proven you know what they are. They’re Africans. Congratulations. What you don’t know—and as far as I can tell haven’t bothered in the least to discover—is who they are. (Cunningham 1151)

I can fairly easily answer the question What am I?

I’m a wife, mom, Hoosier, writer.

But the more compelling question is Who am I … What’s my story?

As that scene in the film unfolded, I asked myself that compelling question, combining it with that passage from Hebrews:

With Jesus as Author, what’s my story?

It’s a good question to ask while reflecting in journal-mode. It’s important to ask when pondering what’s next in life.

What’s the next line of my story? The next page?  The next chapter? The next blog entry?

And how does it all fit?

As we try to discover the story that’s been written thus far, we have an opportunity to find themes in the unfolding of the years and purpose in the unfolding of our days.

When we get an idea of our story, we can understand better who we are—and who we want to be—and hopefully we’ll see what the Author has in mind.

Because for those of us who have given our lives to Jesus, our story … is His story.

Works Cited

Amistad. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, David Paymer, Pete Postlethwaite, and Stellan Skarsgard. DreamWorks, 1997. DVD.

Cunningham, Clark D.  “But What Is Their Story?” Emory Law Journal. Vol . 52 Special Edition (2003): 1151. Web. 15 Nov. 2009. <http://law.gsu.edu/Communication/Emory.pdf>.

Image by: Ivan Prole. “Notebook with spiral and red cover.” 2009. stock.xchng. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

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Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

"Copyright Infringement" by Terry Hart

I was asked to talk with the literature students about plagiarism.

After introducing the topic and explaining a little about it, I summarized with the following statements:

1. Don’t present someone else’s ideas as your own—if you do, you’re stealing his or her intellectual property.

2. You are welcome to share other people’s insights, ideas and wording, if you give credit where credit is due.

(These ideas are presented in similar form at this Indiana University site.)

After class, I felt that they needed more information. So when I got home, I found some plagiarism tutorials. Going through the tutorials served as a good refresher for me not only as an instructor/facilitator of this literature class but also as a blogger.

We all hate it when we see one our own blog posts picked up and presented on another site as if it is original material.

But we need to be careful, too, when we are inspired by someone else, to give credit where credit is due.

Because I read so many tips, ideas, solutions and stories on blogs, websites and tweets, sometimes I’m not sure how something comes together in my brain. Nevertheless, I’m convinced that I need to be as careful and honoring as possible to those who have created original content that worked its way into my world. I have always tried to link you to the original article(s) from which I found inspiration and provide appropriate references.

After researching this topic, I resolve not only to continue my efforts but also to improve my practices.

As bloggers, we need to be careful to give credit where credit is due.

If you want to learn more about plagiarism and how to avoid it in your writing, here is a cute tutorial found at the Vaughan Memorial Library (Acadia University) website. It gives a good overview. I suggested that the students pick “Dylan” when they get to that step in the tutorial, as he fits our class. I think he would be the best “blogger” student, as well, so I suggest you pick him to walk you through.

If you want a more thorough tutorial, try this one from Indiana University (see the following links). The sample readings are a bit dry, but this tutorial illustrates very well how to spot plagiarism in your work (and how to fix it):

1. How to Recognize Plagiarism
2. Five Examples of Word for Word Plagiarism (go through these to prepare for the practice quiz)
3. Five Examples of Paraphrasing Plagiarism (go through these, too, to prepare for the practice quiz)
4. Practice: How to Recognize Plagiarism (this is the quiz—read each example and select the entry [click choice A or B] that you think has not been plagiarized to test your understanding. Immediate feedback provided.)

With ideas zipping and zapping across the World Wide Web in the form of tweets, posts and articles, it’s hard to remember precisely what impacted or inspired us to write something. And it’s a huge challenge to track every slightly interesting stop as we surf and explore content.

Yet, this is one of the recommendations provided in the tutorials—students doing research are urged to record every resource from which they might cite something either paraphrased or as a direct quote.

How do you track potential resources for your blog posts?

What are your plagiarism-avoidance techniques?

“Copyright Infringement” comic by “hartboy/Terry Hart” available at Flickr for download under a Creative Commons license for non-commercial use.

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Stack of books photo by Ann Kroeker. Page from The Scarlet Letter by Ted Cabanes accessed from stock.xchng.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email or RSS feed.
Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

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Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply tell us if you’re a late-night snacker (please include a list of your favorite indulgences).

In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.

When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.

Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).

You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.

Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann Yvonne

My sister-in-law Yvonne lives in France. Her daughter is finishing up university studies in the States and as she prepares to head out on her own, she has asked Yvonne to provide copies of her favorite family recipes.

So that her daughter can access the recipes at any time, Yvonne set up a food blog and is posting recipes, one-by-one, in French. It’s called “Comme a la Maison.” She describes the purpose of the blog as follows:

Ce blog est pour ma fille, qui étudie au loin et qui veut retrouver ses recettes préférées. Ceci lui permettra de manger “comme à la maison”. Les recettes reflètent notre famille américano-belgo-française avec une petite pointe holandaise. La plupart sont très simples et les proportions sont souvent très approximatives… Soyez donc indulgents! N’hésitez pas à suggérer des améliorations dans les commentaires.

Visit “Comme a la Maison” HERE.

If your French is rusty, you can utilize this handy translation tool (not always 100 percent accurate, however): Yahoo’s Babel Fish. You can translate to and from many languages using that website. Let’s say you aren’t sure what vegetable is pictured. Take, for example, this squash-like thing:

Yvonne says it’s a potimarron. You can pop the word into the Babel Fish text box and ask it to translate from French to English.

It says, by the way, that a potimarron is a “potimarron.” So handy. (Not!)

I poked around for an explanation online. The “poti” part of the word seems to come from the word potiron (pumpkin) and marron is the word for chestnut. I did a little research, and one website said that it does have a slight chestnut flavor. I’ve never seen a potimarron here in the United States; then again, I’ve never looked.

Yvonne posted a soup recipe using potimarron (or substituting pumpkin). It sure sounds delicious, but I’m partial to orange soups.

An easier and possibly more rewarding place to start?

How about with some Mousse au chocolat?

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Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.

 

Fathers form us.

Our fathers may have launched us into adulthood healthy, strong and confident having poured into us words of truth, love and life and surrounded us with the safety of strength and sensitivity.

Or perhaps our fathers left us emotionally shredded, grasping for something to staunch the wounds as we limped into the world to find our way.

Even if a father leaves the family, his children are formed by the hole that remains and by the future father figures who may seek to fill that hole.

Randy Carlson, in his 1992 book Father Memories, wrote, “Picture fathers all around the world carving their initials into their family trees. Like a carving in the trunk of an oak, as time passes the impressions fathers make on their children grow deeper and wider.”

That’s how I began a post over at HighCallingBlogs (HCB) today.

Highlighting two writers in the HCB network, I was able to share stories of fathers and the impact they’ve made.

If you have time, I invite you to pop over and leave a thought or two on fathers, the impact your father has had on your life, or even a small father-memory of your own.

READ MORE…

Speaking of parents, there’s a new post up at NotSoFastBook.com about the pressure of “Push Parenting.”

Vintage photo by Lynn Hopper.

Don’t miss a word:
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Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can simply tell us your favorite post-flu nourishment. You could share with readers the comfort food you crave when you’ve been under-the-weather or out-and-out ill.

In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.

When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.

Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).

You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.

Please note: I return when possible during the day and update this post by hand to include a list of the links provided via Mr. Linky. If I can’t get to the computer to do so, you may access them all by clicking on the Mister Linky logo.

Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with Ann

I’ve had the flu. At first, I didn’t want much to eat at all. Then I had a piece of toast. Then I wanted grapefruit. Then I wanted soup. Chicken noodle soup. So I made some when I was able to get out of bed.

Today I’ve been getting better, but still want something warm to eat. I decided some kind of potato soup or chowder would be the ticket.

So with no solid plan or recipe, I started pulling out stuff that sounded like it would taste good together. All I knew for sure was that potatoes would be involved.

I’m calling this:

Crazy-Flu-Lady Potato Soup

I peeled and cubed some potatoes, then decided to add some sweet potatoes, too, for extra flavor and color.

Tossed in a chicken bouillon cube.

Fried some bacon in a skillet. I took a photo, but it’s out of focus and bacon is really kind of gross to look at up close, so I leave that to your imagination.

Realized that some onion would probably be good, but I can’t eat very much onion or my stomach gets upset. So I minced a teeny, tiny bit of onion, fried it in the hot bacon grease, fished it out and tossed it into the soup pan.

When the potatoes were soft, I pulled some out and mashed them in another bowl with a potato masher gadget.

Then I put the mashed potatoes back in to thicken the soup. No need for cornstarch or flour to thicken when I do it this way.

Added some fat-free half-and-half I had in the fridge, randomly pouring some in until it looked good.

Tossed in some frozen corn I found in the freezer.

Added the crumbled bacon.

Salt. Pepper. More salt. More pepper.

That’ll do.

When I’ve been sick—especially if my throat has been sore—I crave warm soup. And I’ll get some idea to toss a bunch of stuff together without a real plan and eat two bowls of whatever comes out at the end of 20 minutes or so.

That’s what crazy-flu-lady is doing, now that she’s out of bed.

But this isn’t just crazy-flu food. You could easily serve this and a couple more soups along with some good bread and a salad for a dinner with friends.

Invite some people over for the evening, as I recommend over at NotSoFastBook.com, and enjoy some conversation along with your soup.

And maybe even some community.

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Visit NotSoFastBook.com to learn more about Ann’s new book.