Glory of the world makes life meaningless Glory of God fulfills it. ~CH Spurgeon
Toys, books, videos, art supplies, blankets, music, and hot chocolate are ready and waiting. It’s another snow day in our neck of the woods today. The children and I are sitting inside a giant snow globe; outside the windows of our warm house are millions and millions of tiny white snowflakes shaking down from the clouds of heaven.
“I see that if I would be happy in God, I must give Him all. And there is wicked reluctance to do that. I want Him–but I want to have my own way, too. I want to walk humbly and softly before Him and I want to go where I shall be admired. To whom shall I yield? To God? Or to myself?” Elizabeth Prentiss
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain……” Psalm 119:36
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Philippians 2:2
“The way upward in true life and honor is to go downward in self-humiliation. Renounce all, and you shall be rich; have nothing, and you shall have all things. Try to be something, and you shall be nothing; be nothing, and you shall live; that is the great lesson which Jesus would teach us, but we are slow to learn…… CH Spurgeon
“I believe that selfishness is the front-door key of despair.” Spurgeon
“As long as we have the itch of self-regard we shall want the pleasure of self-approval; but the happiest moments are those when we forget our precious selves and have neither–but have everything else (God, our fellow humans, animals, the garden and the sky) instead.” CS Lewis, letters, 1954
God
our fellow humans
animals
the garden and the sky
“…..the burdens of my heart rolled away….”
Whenever something is bothering me, and I’m in a moral quandary, I dig out the ol’ journal and pen and start searching for quotes, verses, and other writings that have to do with my current topic of interest. I talk things over with Joanna or Rich and that helps, too. I love that I can keep my Bible near and read it for comfort and correction at any time of day or night.
A balm for my soul that always heals.
I come away feeling so much lighter and free.
*****
(Dear Brother Dave, these are the sneakers Seth bought with the birthday gift card you sent him.)
Wednesday, February 6, 2018
“Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.”
“I never saw my mother sleep. In fact, she only sat down during dinner and later for about three minutes in the tub of our one bathroom. Although Mom was perennially pregnant, she was always on the move–a blurry blue Sears housedress topped by a wavy blond perm and supported by two sturdy speed-walking legs. She had bulging varicose veins that grew with each child, and I was always worried they were going to pop, but they didn’t.
“On any given day, Mom could be found in one of two places: the outside landing, where she hung the laundry, or the kitchen, where she jogged between the ironing board and the oven. It seemed my mother could do a hundred things at once, all the while keeping at least one of her blue eyes on her ten children.
“‘Watch yourself, Eddie!’ she’d shout down from the landing to my oldest brother in the side yard. ‘Remember, you’re a born leader and all the boys are watching you!’ Then she’d vroom down the fourteen wooden steps, hip the laundry basket through the banging screen door into the kitchen, and dump it onto the table.
“‘You’re the absolute best helper, Ellen,’ she’d say as my eager sister did the folding, ‘You’re going to make a wonderful mother!’
“Shortly after noon, Mom would begin preparations for dinner, served nightly at six o’clock sharp, ‘Barbara Ann!’ she’d yell down the basement stairs as she peeled potatoes. ‘Come on up here and take Florence, Tommy, and Mary Jean. They need some entertainment and if you’re going to be a star, you’ll need to practice.’
“And that was my mother’s genius. She kept her house going by putting her finger on the special gift she saw in each of her children, and making each and every one of us believe that that gift was uniquely ours. Whether it was true or not, we all believed it.”
I counted and there are 70 more photos very similar to this one left on my camera card.
Apparently this was a very exciting moment in my day yesterday.
*****
If we should be so lucky as to touch the lives of many, so be it. But if our lot is no more than the setting of a table, or the tending of a garden, or showing a child a path in a wood, our lives are not less worthy. ~Kent Nerburn
Four nights ago, thanks to a text from my neighbor, we were able to see this amazing lunar halo around the moon. It was so wide around that I almost couldn’t get it all in the picture. It’s a beautiful sight that I won’t soon forget. I learned that these halos mean that a storm is coming and indeed the children did have Friday off from school for a snow day and we have a storm coming tomorrow.
“It was a long cold winter for the birds and animals on the hill, but the little old man and the little old woman put out food for them until the warm spring came. And that was the end of the BIG SNOW.” ~ The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader
I aimed my camera through the windows of the dining room, watching the birds, thinking thoughts.
“Well lived days are completed years, and the years well lived as they come make a life beautiful and full. In such a life no special preparation of any kind is needed. He who lives thus is always ready. Each day prepares for the next, and the last day prepares for glory.” JR Miller
“And is this heaven? And am I there? How short the road! How swift the flight! I am all life, all eye, all ear: Jesus is here–my soul’s delight.”
~Isaac Watts
And today? The children are at school. Bright sun is shining but coldly and tomorrow we expect a snowstorm, another snow day?
These are the last frozen offerings of winter weather which will make the springtime thaw even more welcome.
There is a spot on the eaves which constantly drips, and it’s so cold outside that we have not a burning bush, but an ice covered one! It’s so pretty when the sun shines through it.
Happy Monday, friends.
You are loved.
“Here in the shadow of God’s love forever I’ll abide, So glad, so blest, so sure, so safe; so more than satisfied!” Elizabeth Prentiss
“Come in, — come in! and know me better, man! I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Look upon me! You have never seen the like of me before!”
I’m going to be completely honest with you, by yesterday evening I was filled with glee because I was glad Christmas was over….and by “Christmas” I mean all the buying of gifts, wrapping, baking, cleaning, and so on. I really wish Santa WAS real, it would save me a lot of work. It’s fun and all, but only to a certain extent, and then the stress kicks in and you start to wonder if the gifts are okay and if they will be received with gladness and if the children will be healthy and then it becomes your time of the month on top of it all, which explains why you were grumpy that one night when the kids had friends over and it was all you could do not to go in your room and shut the door because your head felt as if it would explode…….
But then your husband helps you find the presents in all the secret hiding spots and tells you numerous times that you did a great job and gives you little kisses and it’s Christmas Eve and the boys keep trying to get up without ever even going to sleep and you say over and over to yourself in that still small voice, “remember these moments”…….because you know even if you do at this moment wish things were a little quieter– someday you just might wish things were back to chaotic for an hour or two. Maybe.
On Christmas Eve we crave cinnamon rolls and thanks to my friend April we also made orange rolls for the first time and boy were they heavenly.
I totally fell in love with The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I’ve seen the movie through the years and have read the book a few times but this year I became a true and devoted fan of the story. It’s so rich and beautiful. It has everything; loss, darkness, greed, selfishness, ghosts, hauntings, music, bitter cold, snow, old city life, memorable characters, lessons learned, truth, love, nostalgia, joy, smiles, laughter, and a HAPPY ENDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I read the book again, which of course is the very best way to experience the story, and then watched two of the movies and I watched them with as much full attention as I could (without my phone next to me).
And lest you think my opening confession was rather Scrooge-like, let me clarify that I wholeheartedly love Christmas for what it truly is supposed to be; giving and receiving, yes, but also heart and soul, togetherness, beauty, family and friends. Those are the qualities of Christmas that I love the most, & I know you do, too.
“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”
“He was consious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares, long, long, forgotten.”
“I have always thought of Christmastime, when it has come round…as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”
(Caleb was feeling under the weather and buried himself in blankets and pillows as he watched TV) soooo cute
Ethan is home from college and my heart is content to have all the children with us again.
Abundance.
waking up the sleepy heads
We unwrapped all the presents and then got ready for Church.
Seth had a candy cane in his mouth and Ethan had crest white strips on his teeth. I didn’t know this until on the way to church when I had time to study the photos and ask questions.
I thought Sarah’s Christmas hair was adorable. I put it in two pigtails, pulled the hair through half way, and then pinned on gold bows. She of course, hated it, but I told her too bad. And with a compromise, she didn’t have to wear a fancy dress.
My camera heart gravitates toward the child who doesn’t get to attend church with us during the school year anymore….it was so nice to see him in the pew as I looked over at my sons in a row.
Rich and Grace both had small parts in the service so they sat in front. To be honest, I made Rich come back to sit with me as his part wasn’t until almost the end of the service and I didn’t want to sit there alone without my husband the whole time.
Caleb got a hug…….
Sarah found a listening ear…………
Grace read from Luke chapter 2……….
Best friends and brothers in Christ.
(Michael took a photo of the family for me but I’m not going to post it until next month (year) because I never sent out Christmas cards, therefore I am sending out New Years cards with a family photo and I don’t want to show anyone the picture yet or it will be boring to send out in the mail).
After church I made a ham dinner and then was filled with the feeling that all was accomplished and I could rest. It was a most blessed evening of being so very relaxed with all the children around us.
I’m in the midst of the the book on top, which is something I bought a few years ago but just got around to reading. It is very very good (high quality writing). Sigrid Undset also wrote Kirsten Lavransdatter which is an amazing book. The rest of the titles are from my husband based on my explicit instructions.
How thankful I am through it all, for the blessings of our life, the warmth, the joy, the endless little surprises from living with children, and for most of all, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the eternal life He has given. God is so good and we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses that prove all of what He truly means to us. I’m so glad He loves us just the way we are.
Merry Christmas!
“I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!”
“His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”
PS, Penny, I wrote this post for you. (because you encouraged me). xoxoxo loves.
“There is often more wisdom to be found at the edges of life than in its middle. Life-threatening illness may shuffle our values like a deck of cards. Sometimes a card that has been on the bottom of the deck for most of our lives turns out to be the top card, the thing that really matters. Having watched people sort their cards and play their hands in the presence of death for many years, I would say that rarely is the top card perfection, or possessions, or even pride.
When I first woke up this morning, I sat in my bed with a cup of hot coffee and listened to the wind. It was a lovely autumn wind, yellow leaves were flying past the windows. Wind chimes were loud enough to hear and their music was saying, “It’s a windy morning!”
It has died down some, and the rain of yesterday is past, leaving clean fresh air and a brilliant blue sky. It’s hardly 50 degrees and feels invigorating but chilly.
I’m eating lunch as I type; vegetable soup.
The children are home from school for Columbus Day. Sarah Joy had a dentist appointment at 9, which I was not looking forward to after her year of kidney stone adventures. She was so sweet and brave until the last when the tears came…..she was worried that the dentist would pull her loose tooth out right then and there. The dental hygienist was sweet and understanding with Sarah. As a mom, that meant the world to me.
On Saturday we spent the entire day at the football field. Rich, myself, Sarah, Seth, and Caleb.
Rich officiated Seth’s game. Seth made several good plays as a quarter back (at his level, the boys take turns trying different positions). I was able to get this series of photos showing an impressive pass to his teammate, who did a great job at catching the ball.
Seth with the ball……
…..ball in the air……
…..with a catch and first down! Not bad for 6 and 7 year olds!
We had time to leave and eat dinner before Caleb’s game, which they won brilliantly.
It was raining on and off the whole day and we were soooooo ready to be home afterwards.
I love this little girl with all my heart.
And this one, too. Rich took Grace with him to go get a new garbage disposal.
The other day I was tired and grumpy but trying very hard to not say anything. Zak was here and he played a prank on Jacob in the kitchen. Jacob had left his cup of coffee on the counter while he went to the bathroom, and while he was gone, Zak put coins and butter in his coffee. I was in the kitchen, working, saw everything, and became annoyed. Jacob came out and dumped his coffee down the drain, and into the garbage disposal went the coins. I continued to be annoyed and I said to Jacob, “YOU put your hand down there and get the money out.” I assumed he did and the next day when I used the disposal it of course made (along with me) a terrible noise of distress and woe. I instantly knew what had happened and was mad this time. I put my hand down there and retrieved two almost unrecognizable pennies. I got the broom and used the end of the handle to try to get the disposal moving again, but no. I sent Jacob a text saying *no friends this week* (it was last week now) and he was still saying things like “It wasn’t me, it was Zak”…. like I cared WHO it was, which I did not—as long as I was not the one to have to deal with the messes of teenagers. “It was only one penny” they insisted. Rich was alway on a business trip and now my garbage disposal wasn’t working at all. As a homemaker, this was very unsettling. I called the plumber and he fixed several things (like a drippy faucet in the bathroom) but said he would have to get to the disposal in a few weeks. When Rich had time to look at it on Sunday, he discovered a QUARTER stuck so tightly in the disposal that there was nothing to be done but buy a new one. Thankfully, the disposal was old anyway and honestly needed to be replaced or I would still be annoyed at this moment. (I am over it and Can Now Laugh).
Rich and Grace came home with a garbage disposal so quiet I don’t believe it’s even working because I’m used to my old one that was as loud as a chainsaw and dripped gray water into a bowl under the sink each time I used it.
While they were out shopping for the disposal, I had asked Ethan *which would he rather take back to college with him, brownies or cookies* and he picked cookies and said, “Thanks Mom” which completely melted my heart. He kept coming in the kitchen to eat the dough. My kitchen was a mess because the disposal wasn’t working. True! Really! 🙂
I made the best chocolate chip cookies ever and even snuck in some wheat flour. I pressed pumpkin seeds on top of a dozen (kids won’t eat them, of course). Ethan took about a dozen with him to school.
This is an easy snack for the kids….buy a loaf of garlic bread at the store and bake it according to the package directions. Then, open up the loaf and put some sauce, cheese, and dried basil and bake it again until it’s done. Glorified french bread pizza.
I watched David play the piano.
And noticed Gentleman Gray sleeping in an odd place with his leg sticking out. 🙂
We ended up sitting on the floor in the corner together, petting the cat.
Jacob made the trip to Vermont yesterday with his brother. They took Grace and Tessa along, and Zak, too. Although it was sad to have to say goodbye to Ethan again, I heard this morning that they had a very nice time together on their little road trip, listening to music and stopping for coffee and a buffet for dinner.
The view from the porch yesterday evening was stunning.
Love.
“Blessing the life in someone usually requires a deep respect for their uniqueness, an openness to allowing them to uncover who they are rather than shaping them into who we want or need them to be. Innately, blessing life confers a greater freedom on those we bless.” ~Rachel N. Ramen, M.D.
On Sunday I went to watch my son’s first football game of the season. I didn’t see much of it because I was distracted by this handsome football official. He’s not wearing stripes yet but he will in the next game. He’s new at officiating. It was a very fun day, but maybe last year I would have been annoyed because he wasn’t right next to me watching the game and holding my hand and stuff……….doesn’t he want to spend time with me, I whined to myself?
“It seems such a difficult task for so many to realize that happiness and love are not gotten by force of will, nor are they automatically granted simply because you show up. The greatest amount of getting is through giving. If you take care of the ones you love, even when you’re hurting or not in the mood or they’ve done something to annoy you, it not only shows love, it primes them to be more giving…..selfishness not only cuts out your partner, it cuts out God, and without God, there is only ‘me’. And ‘me’ is ultimately alone.” L. Schlessinger
Marriage is an ongoing work of learning and staying even when, once in a while, the relationship seems impossible to keep peaceable. The most recent and personal lesson I have learned lately is that my own well meaning opinions can really be “righteous indignation” in disguise. “I just know I’m right about these things so I’m going to dwell on the ways our marriage could be better if only I could get my points made.” I got myself so frustrated with this futile thinking that I finally decided to give up “caring” about things like “he’s never home at any particular time so we miss family dinners, everyone knows families that eat dinner together around the table like the Waltons are the best and highest standard we all should achieve”. At the time, I thought maybe if I gave up the fight of “wanting our marriage and family to be better” (using my personal and plenteous ideas that I worked very hard to think up, a whole long list of things which could be greatly improved) than it would allow me to move on to a greater and healthier independence as a female who didn’t need a man after all. The joke was on me because when I did that, stopped nagging, stopped expecting more in our marriage, I actually became free and happy. He was already free, but then I joined him. My expectations were out the window, therefore ANY LITTLE THING that happened between us was a real and honest blessing to me. Nothing changed, we love each other deeply, have always loved each other, he’s the man for me, nothing changed–but my attitude, which is no small wonder. It was really weird. I’m still rather perplexed by it. However, I am grateful that God has saved me once again from becoming the woman who is always studying (thinking) but never gaining knowledge. Amen! 1 Timothy 3:7
And you know what? Our family life is just fine even though we only eat around the table maybe once a week. So there, studies! (Don’t listen to the studies, just live your life! It’s a beautiful thing.)
As I mentioned in the last blog post, I had found some old scrapbooks belonging to an unknown woman named Jean at the local thrift store. They are full of scrappy treasures…here are a few samples from just one of them:
This made me cry a little.
The Music Man
Ted Williams
Royalty gets around
Abraham Lincoln
“Delightful Hysteria” July 31, 1960
There are quite a few newspaper clips on JFK, including his death in a later scrapbook.
Caroline Kennedy trying to get away….naughty, naughty! 😉
The only thing I was surprised about was the lack of recipes. Out of all eight scrapbooks there were a total of 0 recipes and nothing about food.
We are composite creatures, akin on one side to the angels, on the other to tom-cats.
It is a bad thing not to be able to take a joke. Worse, not to be able to take a divine joke; made, I grant you, at our expense, but also (who doubts it?) for our endless benefit.
Man has held three views of his body. First there is that of those ascetic Pagans who called it the prison or the “tomb” of the soul, and of the Christians like Fisher to whom it was “a sack of dung,” food for worms, filthy, shameful, a source of nothing but temptations to bad men and humiliation to good ones. Then there are the Neo-Pagans (they seldom know Greek), the nudists and the sufferers from Dark Gods, to whom the body is glorious. But thirdly we have the view which St. Francis expressed by calling his body “Brother Ass”. All three may be–I am not sure–defensible; but give me St. Francis for my money.
Ass is exquisitely right because no one is his senses can either revere or hate a donkey. It is a useful, sturdy, lazy, obstinate, patient, lovable and infuriating beast; deserving now the stick and now a carrot; both pathetically and absurdly beautiful.
So the body.
There is no living with it till we recognize that one of its functions in our lives is to play the part of the buffoon.
The fact that we have bodies is the oldest joke there is.
CS Lewis, in The Four Loves
Isn’t it a relief to have a proper view of oneself? And to laugh at oneself? It is akin to the times when the children and I are sitting around the living room, watching TV, and little Seth says, “Wait for it, wait for it….” and before I am properly aware of what’s happening so I can stop it, out comes a giant toot from Seth’s bottom and loud laughter from his siblings. I try to pretend to be affronted, but I too am laughing and have to admit that the laughter is good.
We have inner treasure (our souls) in an outer jar of clay (our body). Our outward self is dying (our bodies), but our inward self (our soul) is being renewed day by day. We are like both angels (our soul) and tom-cats (our body).
I have spent lots of time over-valuing my body; my appearance, my health. These griefs are “common to man” and will never go away completely. But reading Lewis’ thoughts released me from some of the pressure, pressure that I put on myself as an at times, vain woman.
With Lewis’s wisdom in mind, I have a choice; I can sometimes laugh.
(St. Francis himself took a much harsher view. Although he referred to his body as Brother Ass, he treated it (his body) cruelly in an attempt to punish and/or “tame the beast”, so to speak. He grieved the “ass”, and had a hard time tending his body with compassion, much less with actual laughter.)
WHO CARES about appearances and perfection? Well, we all do to a certain extent. But if we “go further up and further in”, we realize that yes indeed it is true; beauty is in the soul, and not in the body. It may be that our body is beautiful for a time, but not if you hang around it for very long. It will most certainly “toot”, produce strange smells, do strange things, & drive you crazy.
Doesn’t it feel good to laugh about it?
From now on I want to teasingly say to myself when I get caught in a depressing reminder that thing are going downhill bodily speaking despite my best feeding and nurturing, “Oh brother Ass, you donkey, you” and put it on a lower level of seriousness and higher level of comedic relief.
If I hear a loud sound coming from one of my children, I would like to say, “Brother Ass is in the room, I see.” But alas, I am not comfortable saying “ass” as it is mainly used as a curse word these days. I tried it with my oldest son Jacob the other day and he turned around and said in confusion, “What?” Frankly, I don’t need little Seth running around saying “brother ass” at school …… so I guess I will use the other word, which is Donkey.
Take good care of your Donkey self today, with a healthy dose of laughter, and remember your soul, which is everlasting and renewed day by day by the grace of Jesus.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 2 Corinthians 4:16
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4:7
“Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” 1 Timothy 1:2
“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5
My soul, admire the boundless love of God to thee and others of the human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! ~Charles Spurgeon
“I will not glory, even in my orthodoxy, for even that can be a snare if I make a god of it… Let us rejoice in Him in all His fulness and in Him alone.” Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones
“It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the Grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace. By the grace of God I am what I am. Yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me.”
– Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Good day to you, friends! It has been a lovely week at our place, although there is a sickness going around. I’ve been sick since Tuesday but am feeling better although tired out. Grace was home with me yesterday, and it was cozy indeed.
There is no school today for the children. Ethan drove to the mall with Dave, Grace, and Emily (his girlfriend’s sister). Rich and Jacob are at work. Caleb, Seth, and Sarah are home with me and playing together.
Jacob’s girlfriend Emily was taking care of a duck yesterday. While she was at school, she had Jacob bring it over to our house so he could watch it. Of course we all fell in love with the duck.
And Grace wanted to keep it. She began researching but what I told her was true; you really shouldn’t keep one duck. It would be a very lonely duck.
So after a visit and much quacking, it went to be adopted by a family of ducks.
Easter Baked Beans
(way back in October I wrote about my intention to try all sorts of baked bean recipes. Well, I finally got to recipe #2 and it was delicious)
First I’ll give you the recipe and then I’ll tell you everything I did differently. 🙂
Navy Bean and Apple Casserole
1 lb. dried navy beans, 2 cups
6 cups cold water
1 tsp salt
3 large tart apples pared and sliced
1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 lb. salt pork, sliced
Wash beans and turn into a 3 quart saucepan. Add the water and salt, heat to boiling, and simmer gently, covered, about 2 hours. Drain, saving cooking liquid. Arrange beans and apple slices in alternate layers in a greased casserole, sprinkling sugar over each layer. Pour in 2 cups of the cooking liquid and top with slices of salt pork. Bake, covered, in a very slow oven (250 degrees) for about 2 and a half hours, or until beans are light brown and thoroughly cooked. If they become dry in cooking, add more cooking liquid or hot water. There should be enough liquid on the beans to make a gravy-like sauce over them. 5-7 servings.
*****
I saved out 2 cups of the cooked beans to use in a chili recipe. I peeled and diced the apples and only used 2 apples because of my reduction of the amount of beans. I sprinkled onion powder and cinnamon on the beans (about 1/8 of a tsp each). I used bacon instead of salt pork (what is salt pork???) and I diced it instead of keeping it in slices. It took longer for mine to bake, in fact, I let them go on for about 6 hours (I don’t know why it took so long, maybe my oven temps are off?). I used a can of chicken broth that I had leftover in the fridge for cooking liquid. I took the foil off for the last hour so they would thicken up and brown. Adding cinnamon made them perfect–the bacon and apple basically melted into the beans making a wonderful flavor. We all liked them, and Sarah had three bowls full. They would go well with a ham dinner, which is why I have renamed this recipe “Easter Baked Beans”.
Good to be Home 