Welcome!

My Grandma Clara was a remarkable woman. She is soaking up time sitting at the feet of Jesus now, but I miss her so much!

Grandma Clara was a farmer’s wife who raised 10 children in (very) rural northeastern South Dakota. One of the things I remember best about her is how she prepared meals for her family. I don’t have very many recipes from her; I don’t think she used them often. But I do have a cookbook of hers that has some handwritten recipes in the back. If you saw them, you would know why she needed to
write them down.

My favorite recipe is for a simple ham and scalloped potatoes, but it’s measured out to feed….wait for it….150 people! Grandma was always cooking for church functions and large gatherings, so this must have been one she used often. I used this recipe just this evening to prepare a meal for our widows’ lunch. I needed to do a little math to make the recipe fit one casserole dish for less than 10 people, but it works great.

I love using this recipe. First, it is in her handwriting. I just love seeing the small, familiar letters forming the measurements and ingredients. Then, as I am stirring and slicing, I can almost feel her beside me telling some funny story about something that happened. She was so spunky and animated. She could hold a crowd with her stories!

I know it is just a simple recipe you could probably find anywhere on the internet. It doesn’t use any special ingredients; you probably have them all in your kitchen right now, just like I did. But when I pull down that old cookbook and flip to the back to read from her
recipe that she took the time to write down, I am reminded of her, my sweet Grandma Clara, the one that invited me over one Saturday with the sole intention of teaching me how to put a meal together. “You need a meat, a starch and a vegetable,” she would say. “And if you’re feeding men, you always put bread on the table, even if it’s straight out of the bread bag. You always need bread.” This is advice I still follow today.

Grandma wasn’t a world-renowned doctor or out discovering unknown places. She didn’t invent anything to change the world or win a famous court case. She raised a family to know the Lord, to work hard and love their own families. And she did a good job. I can
see it in the face of my dad and his nine siblings when they speak of her. I can feel her love when I cook for my family or others using recipes or advice that she has given me. And that matters. She shared the love of Jesus with all of us by using her gifts of service
and love.

If you’re in a season of wondering if what you are doing matters, believe me, it does. Remember that we are not living our lives for the here and now, but for eternity with Christ. If the day-to-day seems to bog you down, know that one day, when you are safe in
the arms of Jesus, someone is going to remember things you said or did that mattered to them. Someone will remember how you shared Jesus in the way you served and loved.

And that matters for eternity.

– Crystal