The past weeks I’ve been working on a project that I stuck on the back burner far too long.

My mom has a fairly extensive recipe book and somehow it was just way easier to text her whenever I needed a recipe rather than copying it down myself 🥴 but I’m attempting to remedy that.

What I wasn’t expecting with this project is the amount of traveling I’m doing here:

Suddenly I’m back at our Christian Day School: middleschool age. My mom and her friend Michelle concocted these treats for a hot lunch they brought to school over Easter. Mother’s hot lunches were always amazing.

Next stop I’m on Chincoteague Island with a group of girls, experiencing this incredibleness for the first time. Thankfully they shared the recipe and it’s been something we’ve pulled out for special occasions. Once being my first family vacation with the Rohrers. I still get nervous remembering 🙈 but it turned out ok- they decided to keep me 🥰

Speaking of the Rohrer’s keeping me- we served Glazed Carrots at our wedding. We got the recipe when Mother traveled along with me to an Amish wedding and somehow she got drafted onto carrot cooking detail for supper. [*note- we knew the brides family, don’t think that random people get pulled to cook at weddings lol] Mother and an Amish lady that she’d never met before were given orders to cook the carrots until done. Mother loves tendercrisp vegetables and apparently Amish Lady did not, because they made a round or two around the Carrot cooker: Mother thinking the carrots were plenty done and turning them off; Amish Lady thinking they weren’t mushy enough and turning the stove back on 😅 In the end, our team won though. Mother brought the recipe home and we’ve feasted on tender crisp carrots ever since. (Drop them in boiling water and cook them 7 minutes max)

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So many memories are hidden in these pages: recipes I drug home from the field because the food the farmers wife sent was exceptional; recipes collected from Home Ec class; from all of my aunts including dear Aunt Thelma who’s now enjoying the bounty of Heaven…. Recipes from my sister’s in-laws; food from friends around the globe- this book contains a vast and varied collection. Just like the collection of experiences of my life.

As I peruse Mother’s recipes- I’m struck by several different emotions:

1. Gratitude: the bounty of the earth is ours to enjoy because of God’s graciousness towards us. I’m so thankful. Christian Aid Ministries newsletter touched on world hunger this week ( here) The delicious food we experience daily is not something to take forgranted.

2. Nostalgia: so so many incredible meals and along with that memories. My mom has spent her life faithfully pouring her love into those around her by serving delicious meal after meal. My grandmothers did the same.

If you’re in the trenches of motherhood- here’s a little encouragement to keep doing what you’re doing. Your faithfulness does not go unnoticed even if your daughter takes years until she fully appreciates it. 🙈

So thankful for my mother’s selfless giving and the influence of so many ladies like her,

Kendra