Days 116 - 117 - Memories

Don't we all have trouble with memory from time to time?  I spent too much time today looking for something, and right after someone emailed a copy, I found the original.  I have food memories too - my favorite was the tiny wild strawberries that grew in the ditches along the roadside where I grew up in the U.P.  No berries I've tasted since have the wild sweetness I remember from those red pointy gems.

Sometimes those food memories - like our dinner at Spiros the other day - or the perfect prime rib I had at a Mariott in Minneapolis, or a meal at Virginia Yarck's... makes me long to taste that bit of perfection again, but not so desperately as before I took the Lord's Table class.  I used to eat if I wasn't hungry, eat until I got sick trying this or that to fill that memory.  I've finally realized that taste is only one of the very wonderful parts of life and that even though I actually can find a 'perfect meal' now and then no food will fill my inner hunger.  Only the one who never forgets me will do that.

El Zokher is God Who Remembers.  I've  treasured the words of Isaiah 49:14-16 since first reading it as a young mother.  "Can a woman forget her child at the breast, and not show pity on the child from her womb? Even if these were to forget, I would not forget you.  I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."

That was so personal for me as I found it impossible to imagine forgetting my new baby and not to care for her cries.  God says even if that were possible for me, it is not possible for Him.  Amazing, encouraging thought and a powerful hope to realize that God is incapable of forgetting.

- - - - - - - -

I've combined two days notes as I've been doing 12-14 hour stints with paperwork and phone appointments...  snacking in between.

Besides Total Health chocolate protein powder and Greek Yogurt - a great smoothie frozen and tossed with half a sliced bananna - here's a healthy version of peanut butter:

Valencia Peanut Butter with Roasted Golden Flaxseeds
from Trader Joe's
served on top of 100% Rye Cracker  - Yum

And - here's what you do when you cook a Corned Beef Brisket for the hubby, have sauerkraut and part of a pizza in the fridge - Rueben Pizza!

I actually liked it better than traditional frozen pizza.  Which reminds me - we've decided that we are no longer going to keep pizza in the freezer.  Now and then when we want one, we will order out - enjoy it and then move on.  It is too easy to be lazy (and unhealthy) with prepared food in the freezer.  So I've made a new pact - to try for 30 days to buy only that which is fresh and unprocessed.  I think we can do it all, but I might need to qualify that with 'as much as possible', but stay tuned.  For me this will be a good experiment.