The wife's love language to our family: Homecooked made from scratch meals.

Hello and welcome. Today, on this Monday, October 6, 2025, we are getting ready to get ready to have ourselves what we loosely call an 'eatin meetin' to celebrate the 60th birthday of our first born, Chris. This is what our boys have always enjoyed, being able to sit down and eat their mom's cooking, one more time. It is our tradition. This evening's meal will include her one-of-a-kind fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, field peas and fried okra, fresh tomatoes, made from scratch cornbread, pepper sauce and some rolls for those who prefer them, a cake and ice cream for any who want a dessert. Our Chris is not big on desserts but we typically provide them to help celebrate the occasion. The true star is the fried chicken. It was my job to try and find some smallish fryers. The butcher shop quit having them some time back but we occasionally can find them at certain HEB stores. I finally settled for the smallest ones I could find, they were called Heirloom because they are grown slowly without all the injections. They were about $15 each, so, I hope they will be good. The wife skins her chicken when she cuts them up, seasons them, and then soaks them in milk. She uses peanut oil to fry them and does an egg batter and dredges them with all purpose flour. Here's the deal: You get a melt in your mouth delicious chicken that makes you realize the value of home cooking. For our family, it's a throwback, a memory of times gone by, and a tradition that provides another special occasion to treasure. Yep. It is somewhat over the top but in our family we always have enjoyed home cooked from scratch meals. Maybe a wee bit more than we should but it does harken back to our parents, and their parents because it includes our heritage and what better way to celebrate this milestone than to do so with some birds wearing the Heirloom label. That's tongue in cheek, if you didn't recognize it. We do look forward to our time together this evening. Happy Birthday again, son. And, may God continue to bless. Amen. 

 

 

There did come the time when our parents could no longer do what they had done in the past especially as it related to being able to lay out a homemade feast. Just like their parents before them and we know that day is coming for us, but until then, we have today, the one God has blessed us with. I thank Him that we, mostly her, are still being able to do what we can do. Are we slipping? More than we would like to admit, but, being able to sit down and enjoy a special meal together still lights up the heart and life of the wife. She proudly represents her take on the Proverbs 31* model wife and mom and we are so thankful for her, period, end of that story. She can still lay out a feast that ends up making us all full as ticks. (Sorry about the crude expression, but the idiom "full as a tick" originates from a visual comparison of a tick that has taken in so much that it becomes swollen and unable to move after feeding to capacity.) That, unfortunately, is typically an apt description of how we look after enjoying her cooking. Okay. Enough about that, but, we always look forward to her hard labor over a hot stove, literally. I do hope you have some of those kinds of memories tucked away because they do give a special warm feeling. Have a great rest of the day and may God, our great God, add His blessings. Amen.

* Reference: Proverbs 31: 28-29  ^~ Her children arise and call her blessed;  her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." (New International Version, NIV)