God Of The Impossible     12/27-31/22

Carson Village, Birmingham, Alabama

He (Antiochus III The Great – North) will determine to come with the might of his entire kingdom and will make an alliance with the king of the South.  And he (Antiochus The Great) will give him (Ptolemy V Epiphanes – South) a daughter in marriage in order to overthrow the kingdom, but his plans will not succeed or help him. ~ Daniel 11:17

1. Antiochus gave his daughter Cleopatra I (not THE Cleopatra) to Ptolemy Epiphanes in marriage in 194BC, with the intent to appear to offer peace, but the real plot was to overthrow Egypt
2. They were both 10 years old when they were ‘married’ (They had their first child – Ptolemy VI in 186BC at the age of 18)
3. Cleopatra I essentially defected and sided with her new family

Moving day was cloudy, but warmer.  There was nothing memorable from the drive of 260 miles and 5 hours. But Blaine did have to clean quite a bit of ice off our slides before we left.

Grayton Beach State Park, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

We’ve done some significant lazing around, as I continue to recover, but we did walk the beach and took the sidewalk to head home on Wednesday.  It’s a very busy place in the town of Seaside during holiday week! 

And now, I’m wondering if I’ve contracted Covid, because I’ve lost my sense of taste.  I attributed the fact that I couldn’t smell Vicks Vap-o-rub to either a diluted new formula or the fact that my head was plugged up, but now?  I could barely taste the buffalo chicken sandwich I made Wednesday night for dinner.  And Thursday morning, it was official – I couldn’t taste breakfast at all.  It’s a really strange sensation.  At lunchtime, I ate an apple and some peanut butter.  I could feel the juicy apple, but it had no taste.  I could feel the smoothness of the peanut butter, but it had no taste at all.

So now, I’ve been under the weather for an entire week.  I’ve used so much sanitizer, hot water and soap, I think maybe my fingerprints are burned off.  I’m just grateful no one else seems to be infected, including remarkably, Blaine.

With this new weird thing going on, I’ve determined that the reason we love to eat so much is because of the way food tastes, because there’s no excitement or anticipation for eating right now.  Well, duh!!!  😊

We walked the beach again Thursday afternoon. 

Whenever the sun would shine, it got warm enough to remove my jacket and tied it around my waist. When the sun ducked behind the clouds, it was cool enough to put it back on.  Now wait.  This is important.

We were headed back, and nearly back when I discovered my cell phone was missing!  I felt pretty sure I’d most likely dropped it when I was putting on my jacket the last time.  So how do you find a dropped cell phone on the beach?!?  Blaine wasn’t pleased, to say the least. 

I took off in search of. . . .  Stopping to ask people periodically, scanning the sand, praying, stopping, talking, scanning, praying . . .

I’d reached the end of where I determined to stop searching because during our walk, we’d been all over and walked a couple of miles.  Up ahead, was a semi-circle of empty chairs, except for one young girl about 8 years old.  She was intently studying something on a phone (which I could tell wasn’t mine).  I wasn’t going to speak to her, but the Holy Spirit insisted. So I did.  And she pointed to one of the empty chairs, and there it was!  Even sand-free!  Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow!!  Who has a God Who cares about things like this?!?  We do!!

There’s a nature trail where we enter to walk the beach, so one day, we did that. It’s only a mile, but it was quite interesting and fun!

We’re waiting for the crowds to die down after the 1^st to take a long bike ride, but until then, we walked the beaches.  Except during the 24 hours that it rained – hard – from Friday afternoon until Saturday late morning.  Then we headed back out to enjoy the sun and surf.  Which has been very high since we arrived.  So awesome a display of God’s power! 

One particularly windy day, we watched a wind surfer tame the wind and water.  He was obviously well-experienced, flying out into the ocean, leaping and spinning in the air at least 25’, then turning and storming the beach only to turn at the last possibly second before the sand.

Poor little Cooper had to have his tonsils out this week.

New Year’s Eve day, we spent walking and eating.  I made four appetizers that we munched on all afternoon and into the evening – Crab Rangoon Dip, Veggie Pizza, Ham-stuffed Mushrooms and Wings.  Yummy!!!  You’ll find recipes for the dip and mushrooms below.

There was more to our December 31^st than eating though.  We began the day discovering that Blaine’s dad’s dementia has taken a sudden turn for the worse and St. Edwards (where they live) doesn’t have a Memory Care room available.  So after some discussion, it was decided that I’ll be flying home on Wednesday, January 4^th and living with them until we can decide what to do.  Unfortunately, Blaine will have to remain with the coach in Florida for reasons I’m not taking the time to get into.

At 9:00pm, we took a break from the OSU/Georgia game and ventured out to our picnic table where we stood to watch the fireworks at Seaside.  Unfortunately, there were a few trees in the way because the show was relatively low to the ground, but we could still see quite a bit.

Back inside, I returned to the back to watch my stuff, while listening to Blaine watch the OSU game.  Trust me, I could tell exactly what was going on.  😊  Close and exciting game.  Too bad OSU couldn’t quite pull it off.  Final score, in case you’re wondering?  41-42 Georgia.  ☹

A new year approaches!  Opportunities to serve our Father God abound!  We can’t wait to see what God has in store for us, because good or bad, He will be with us, loving, teaching, forgiving, guiding and growing us to be more and more like Jesus.

Crab Rangoon Dip (8 x 8 pan)

Dip

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 12 ounces canned crab meat, drained
• ¼ cup Helmann’s
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• ¼ cup fresh parmesan cheese
• 1 cup shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese, set aside an additional ½ cup for topping (optional)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• ¼ cup sweet chili sauce

• Preheat your oven to 350°F.
• In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, green onions, drained crab, mayo, and sour cream well.
• Add the Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, Colby-Monterey jack cheese, salt, and pepper. Combine ingredients thoroughly with a hand mixer to make sure that your dip is extra smooth and fluffy.
• Spread your creamy mix in an 8×8 pan and sprinkle with the extra cheese you set aside if you’re a cheese lover. Bake in oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbling.
• Once it’s out of the oven, pour on some of the sweet chili sauce over. Garnish with some chopped green onions or parsley if you like.

Crispy Wontons

• 1 package wontons wrappers
• olive oil, or cooking spray
• salt, to taste

• Open up a package of wonton wrappers and cut each wrapper in half to make two triangles.
• Lay each wonton triangle on a baking sheet and lightly spritz each triangle with cooking spray or olive oil and sprinkle with some salt.
• Bake them for 4 to 5 minutes. The wontons should have crispy browned edges and a white center. Be careful not to overcook them. They can burn easily because they’re so thin.

NOTES:

• You can also make this recipe in a crockpot or a slow cooker. Simply mix all the ingredients and cook for 2 hours on low while stirring at least once.
• Make sure to drain the crabmeat can before adding it to the dip mixture, as you would do with a can of tuna.
• Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature so that you don’t end up with lumps in your cream cheese mixture.
• Our wontons took about 9 minutes. At the 5-minute mark, they were still pretty raw, but they do brown quickly, so you need to keep an eye. A lot will depend on your oven as to how fast they will bake.

HAM-STUFFED MUSHROOMS

24 whole fresh mushrooms

2 T. onion, finely diced

2 T. butter – DIVIDED

¼ C. ham, finely diced

¼ C. parmesan cheese

1 T. flour

1/8 t. salt

½ C. milk

¼ C. bread crumbs

Remove stems from mushrooms.  Finely chop stems.  Cook stems and onion in 1 T. butter until tender.  Remove from heat.   Stir in ham and parmesan cheese.  Set aside.  In a small saucepan, melt 1 T. butter.  Stir in flour and salt and mix well.  Add milk all at once.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubble.  Remove from heat.  Stir in ham mixture.  Fill mushroom caps with the mixture.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs.  Place on a greased shallow baking dish.

Bake at 425 degrees for 8-12 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.