Memorial Day Dessert: Red, White, and Blueberry!

Today we celebrate Memorial Day.

It's a day to remember the service and sacrifice of those who joined the military to fight for our right to the many freedoms we so often take for granted. I thank those family and friends who served, and those whose names I will never know.

Memorial Day traditionally kicks off the start of summer. There is always a place for a fast dessert that incorporates patriotic colors, but is easily made with other seasonal flavors and ingredients.

Red, White, and Blueberry Parfait

Blueberries
Strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 3.4 oz box Vanilla instant pudding mix
2 C Milk, any variety you like (I used fat-free)
1 C Frozen whipped topping (I used So Delicious dairy-free)
1 t vanilla extract

Combine pudding mix and milk in a bowl; whisk together for 2 minutes. Let set up for 5 minutes. Mix in frozen whipped topping, using whisk to break up lumps.

Spoon pudding mix into a clear container (I used a short glass). Spoon blueberries around the sides, and layer in more pudding mix. Spoon strawberries around the sides, and top with another layer of pudding. Top with three blueberries.

Enjoy!

You can see what I've been up to at LindaGordonHengerer.com.

Web Site Up!

Ladieeeeees and Gentlemen! Announcing the resurrection of my web site! Go to Monica-Ferris.com for a look. Let me know what you think. I think it’s wonderful, attractive and easy to navigate around on. (I know, never use a preposition to end a sentence with. Which reminds me: Have you noticed how people don’t seem able to get their prepositions right anymore. Different than, instead of different from, for example. And everyone’s doing it, even speechmakers and broadcast performers. Another gripe: People don’t say fewer, they say less. “Less children were in school this morning,” instead of “Fewer children were in school this morning.” Don’t they know that if you can count them it’s “fewer,” and if you measure it, use “less”? So it’s less sand but fewer automobiles. What’s your favorite gripe about the state of our language?)

I was hoping to offer an elaborate and perhaps touching description of the Memorial Day ceremony at a local cemetery. I went to pick up a friend to go see it, and instead drove her back to our place in a driving rain with thunder and lightning, punctuated by hail. Not appropriate weather to sit outdoors and listen to Robert Robinson sing “Amazing Grace” in his deep, rich, warm baritone. A couple of years ago they had a troop of Civil War re-enactors fire a volley using period-style rifles. It was interesting, they didn’t sound like today’s weapons, more like “Shap!” than the modern “Crack!” And they vanished in a cloud of black powder smoke. I’d often heard of modern gunpowder being called “smokeless powder,” but that was a vivid demonstration of the original kind. I was hoping they’d come back and do it again this year. Oh, well. I did get some writing done.

After the storm blew through, the sun came out and it turned into a hot, muggy, very windy day, with temps in the upper eighties. Hard to believe just a couple of weeks ago we had frost warnings. It’s been a wild and crazy year for weather.

A Canadian friend is designing the pattern for And Then You Dye. It’s a set of nine vertical rectangles in a step shape. The middle one is lowest, and then four step up on either side. She has all kinds of ideas for how to fill the shapes, which we’re calling Template. What we’ll do is pick one pattern to use in the book, then show the others on my web site. In the book, we’re saying my sleuth, Betsy Devonshire, is holding a contest in which customers buy the template pattern and use their imaginations to fill it in. I’ve seen some of Alix’s ideas and they’re wonderful! I’m actually hoping my readers will come up with their own ideas to fill the rectangles and will send me pictures of their efforts. Of course, I’m also dreaming up ways the contest will complicate Betsy’s life.

I hope your Memorial Day was pleasantly memorable.

Memorial Day 2011

They say that when we lose our parents, we lose our past, but when we lose a child, we lose our future.

My grandmother Marge lost both her sons too early. My Uncle Dick died of peritonitis after a fall. He was on a ladder trying to paint the side of his house. Uncle Dick trusted his doctor too long, saying to his wife, "He's from Indiana, like I am. I know he'll take good care of me." Nothing against the Hoosier state--and I grew up there so I count myself as one--but Uncle Dick was wrong. His wife Eleanor finally said, "Enough!" and had him transported to Massachusetts General.  Shortly afterwards, he died at age 44 of cardiac arrest after he became septic.

My father suffered a series of heart attacks, and eventually died of congestive heart failure. His three or four packs of cigarettes a day caused massive damage to his heart. He was only 48.

Grandma Marge loved both her boys. Uncle Dick joined the army and went into Korea. My father was in the navy in Trinidad. Both men were proud to serve their country.

Grandma planted peonies in her yard, thinking that the time of their blooming would coincide with Memorial Day. Some years it did. Some years it didn't.

This weekend, the peonies bloomed in my back yard. I thought about my uncle and my father, who both died after serving their country. And my grandmother who outlived both her sons.

How to Thank a Veteran

For Memorial Day, I thought I'd continue our "how to" theme and share ideas for thanking our servicemen and women. After all, we owe them a debt we can never repay.

1. Write to them. Send an email to a serviceperson. Go to http://www.anysoldier.com/WhereToSend/

2. Get involved and send a serviceperson a care package. Go to http://www.soldiersangels.org/ For a list of organizations with projects to support servicemen and servicewomen and their families.

3. Fly the flag on Memorial Day. You never know when a veteran will pass by and notice!

4. Say a prayer on Memorial Day. Remember the fallen, pray for those who serve and for their families. Pray for our leaders that they make good decisions.

5. Scrapbook a page honoring a serviceperson. Journal about how proud you are. Here's a terrific free journaling box http://freescrapbookingsupplies.blogspot.com/

6. Contact your local USO. I'm wondering if they'd like some of the books I'm weeding out from my bookshelves? I'll find out! http://uso.org/contacttheuso/

7. Wear an American flag on your clothing. It's a small way to say, "I am proud of my country."

8. Vote. Don't let them sacrifice for naught. Be a good citizen and do your part to protect the freedoms our servicepeople have fought and died for.

9. Visit a veteran's grave. Even if you simply stand there for a moment of quiet reflection, you're honoring their service--and you're rededicating yourself to the freedoms we enjoy as a citizen of this country.

I Thank God My Life Was Spared

One of the many reasons I love scrapbooking is the insight it gives me into other people's lives. Especially lives of family members.

I called him "Grandpa" Lindell, because Lindell Alvin Parrott was my grandmother's second husband the whole time I knew him.

What else did I know about him? He loved having my sister Jane comb his hair as he read the newspaper. He was a gardener, and he made birdhouses to put around his yard. He enjoyed square-dancing with Grandma. He had been a professional painter, house painter that is. A meticulous person about his things, in their basement he kept small baby food jars with nails and screws all sorted by size and type. He used leftover paint to paint each of the concrete blocks a different color.

I also knew that he loved us.

After my grandmother died, my sisters and I cleaned out her house in preparation for selling it. That's when I learned about Lindell's past as a war hero. In his own words, he wrote,

For the last year of my Navy life until the end of the war, the USS Franklin, a new aircraft carrier, was my shop and my home. (On March 19, 1945, a Japanese plane...dropped a bomb on our quarter deck.) There were nearly 1000 killed or burned or drowned in our compartments. Many of them I knew personally, and everywhere you went there were bodies. It was hard to tell for several hours if (the Franklin) was going to sink....All the suffering and death I'll never forget as I realize how easily it could have been myself.

I thank God that my life was spared.

Until I found what Grandpa had written, I knew nothing of his life in the service. So many who have served don't speak of their time in uniform. Grandpa didn't. It was only after his death that I learned the ship was saved because another ship rammed into the side of the sinking Franklin. I guess the nose of the ships are the most strongly constructed. The second ship literally held the Franklin up until help could arrive.

Today, we should all thank God for those who have served our nation. And I will add a plea to my prayers, "Dear God, please help our nation to find its way out of this situation in Iraq. Bless those who serve in every capacity. Give them judgement, clarity of thought, courage and most of all compassion. Because only with compassion can we begin to heal."

(As I was writing this, a ruby-throated hummingbird came to my office window and hovered. I'd like to think Grandpa sent it!)