On Teeth Pulling and Visits from the Tooth Fairy

My baby grand pulled her first tooth last night. Normally one might say ‘lost’ her first tooth, but in our case that would be inaccurate. Miss Kyra lost her first tooth when she was barely one year old.

Our first grandchild walked early, learned to run shortly thereafter and did her best to keep her us on our toes. Keep in mind her Pawpaw and I had not chased toddlers for nearly 3 decades. We were grossly out of step, often hustling to keep pace with this spry baby child.

Kyra had always been good about staying with us as we loaded her in and out of high chairs, slings, strollers or car seats. We were grateful she was such a good listener, following our instructions…until the day she didn’t.

One morning Mr. B and I headed out with our baby grand in tow. We sat the girl child down long enough to ready her car seat and had no more turned our heads than the little thing darted off. Away she ran toward the back deck and up the stairs she bound as fast as her little legs would take her.

Pawpaw and I bolted to her rescue only to arrive a step too late. We watched in that slow motion kind of way as she laughed then smiled broadly while tumbling head first down the stairs. Because we were one step behind I caught her mid cartwheel. Unfortunately, by this time, she bumped one step too many with her first flip.

We originally thought she busted her lip because of all the blood. On closer inspection we saw a space in her lower front tooth area and believed she had knocked her tooth to one side. Once we cleaned her mouth and got a good look we realized Kyra was missing a chomper.


With a bit of looking we discovered the entire baby tooth (root and all) had popped out in one piece during the fall. There was no other injury to her, not even a busted lip, just her very long baby tooth laying on the step. I‘ve always believed it was that open smile as she fell which spared her more harm and allowed that ‘little bite’ to jump out, damaging nothing else. A very odd accident.

Having heard marvelous things pediatric dentist could do with lost teeth; we put the tooth in a glass of milk and called her dentist. Much to our disappointment the dentist told us not to bother, as it would be far too traumatic to put the tooth back in with no guarantee of it surviving.

The Pawpaw man and I were guilt stricken. How did we allow one of our baby grands to break?

Kyra has been oblivious to the loss. Her playmates assume she is ahead of them on teeth pulling and visits from the tooth fairy.

When asked she will happily tell you how she ran off as a baby and lost the tooth when she bounced down some stairs. As for Pawpaw and me? We cringe at the memory and have never been more delighted recently to see her permanent tooth finally make an appearance. Within days of her new growth an adjacent tooth started loosening and it’s removal has been a work in progress.

Last night Kyra lost her second tooth. As our little gal examined her prize and the gap left in it’s wake, she grabbed her chiclet, snuggled up close, looked me in the eye and ask,

“Will you still love me the same way now that I’m missing a tooth?”

Surprised, I assured her, “Of course I will and I will love you more. Losing teeth are signs your growing older. In your lifetime there has never been a day pass that I have not loved you more - teeth in or out that much will never change.” I was immediately given a wonderful hug and toothy-less smile. I am most blessed!

So on that looong note I continue my list of all that I am grateful for.

105. Teeth (see above)

106. Spending the day fishing with the family, returning home with nothing but wind blown hair and a sore face from an all day smile.
107. Text messages from my children - how many ways can we tell someone we love them?

108. The baby grands on conference calls, my how they are growing up! 109. The prayers of righteous women

110. Songs from my youth that bring me face to face with my Savior

Don’t stop here, run over to Ann’s and discover more writers who contribute to Multitude Monday.

Waking in the Darkness of Early Morning

Thanks to Ann of Holy Experience I'm encouraged to continue listing the many things this Georgia gal is grateful for.

101. The smell...I said smell of freshly laundered bedding, oh what I have been missing all these years!

102. A weekends cool respite in the middle of a Hot-lanta summer

103. The chorus of Cicadas echoing from the creek, their songs reminding me of Joel 2:25 . I am in awe.

104. Waking in the darkness of early morning at the gentle prompting of my Heavenly Father,

for this and so much more, I am grateful.

How about you. what are you grateful for this day?

Tah dah!!!

In response to the many recipes received here and by email we managed to create some amazingly yummy treats and only freeze 12 cups of the blueberries we received a while back.

Thanks y'all!

Once we have scrubbed the stains off our fingers and teeth we will bust out the balance of our berries. Until them have a look at some of the end results.

Email me or leave a comment if you would like me to send you a complete copy of the recipes for the following dish.

Triple-Berry Summer Pudding

2 pints of blueberries

1 cup of raspberries and 1 cup sliced strawberries

About 12 slices if firm-textured bread

Arrange lightly buttered bread in plastic lined bowl

Spoon raspberry mixture into bowl, add a second layer of bread slices finishing with blueberry mixture.

Fold over plastic wrap edges then top with inverted plate, top with 1 lb weight

Refrigerate for 10 to 24 hours, then invert pudding onto serving plate, carefully remove plastic wrap and garnish with remaining berries and mint sprigs if you desire.

oh so yummy!

Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions

Were it not for being contacted a few weeks ago about joining this blog tour it is highly probable I may have missed reading this latest publication from Mark Driscoll,

‘Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions'

…and that my friends would have been a shame.

Inspired by 1 Corinthians, in which Paul answers a series of questions posed by the people in the Corinthian church, Pastor Mark Driscoll set out to determine the most controversial questions among visitors to the Mars Hill Church website. In the end, 893 questions were asked and 343,203 votes were cast. The top nine questions are now each addressed in a chapter of Religion Saves.

Some details:
Following an introductory chapter devoted to the misconception that religion is what saves us, Driscoll tackles nine issues: birth control, humor, predestination, grace, sexual sin, faith and works, dating, the emerging church, and the regulative principle. Because the purpose of this book is to address commonly asked questions, all readers will find relevant, engaging material, written in Driscoll's distinctively edgy, yet theologically sound style.

Folks we live in a day when so many in and out of the church find themselves adrift and searching for doctrinally solid answers to questions like Pastor Mark addresses in Religion Saves. While these may not be your concerns, many of your friends, neighbors or family members are likely seeking a response – be they Jesus Followers or not.


Personally, I have ask some of these exact questions or I have been asked them by fellow sojourners. I admit to confusion at times over Emerging and Emergent churches (they sound so similar but are so very different). Pastor Driscoll does an excellent job in clarifying and separating the two.

Upon reading Religion Saves I was strengthened in my convictions and more confident at the prospect of engaging others in these 10 topics of conversation. I found sound biblical answers for myself and those I share my faith with. I found this book to be an easy read, yet will tell you, I purposefully took one chapter at a time, chewed it over a bit before continuing. I am grateful to have a resource I that espouses and directs me to so many biblical truths wrapped up in one compact publication.





Go here for the complete list of participants in the
'Blog tour for Religion Saves by Mark Driscoll'

Mark Driscoll is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, one of the fastest-growing churches in America. He is president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network and is the author of several books, including Vintage Jesus.
Pastor Mark preaches on Sunday, trains pastors, and writes curriculum. Mark is married to his high school sweetheart, Grace, and they enjoy raising their three sons and two daughters. More about Mark here!
You may read or Listen to an excerpt here

Help!! In search of berry simple recipes

I got a call this week from a friend asking if I wanted her to pick us up some blueberries. Seems a local church had a farmer bringing a truckload of the tasty fruit in yesterday morning. They were selling these juicy gems by the gallon bag, at a dollar a pound no less. I said sure, we'll take a couple of bags.

I picked plenty of blueberries as a child and frequently buy those little tubs sold at the local market for about $4 a pack, but I can not say I have ever purchased - much less used 2 lbs of blue berries at a one time.

This is where my husband reminds me "You don't get out much, do you?"

After bringing home our eight dollars of berry's, it just seems wrong to freeze them all, so I suggested we pull several cookbooks from the shelf and find some more varied uses for our berries.

The first thing out of Kyra's mouth was "Pie, let's make blueberry pie".

First off folks...as a rule...I am not a pie baker. Me and crust just can't seem to get together. While I can be quite flaky at times, my crust...not so much.

There are many things I enjoy doing but pie baking is not at the top of that list....truth be told, not ON the list. I leave pure pie baking to those more gifted than I...folks like my niece Dorothy for one.

Take a look at what she can do with fresh apples!

This is from scratch y'all, nothing pre-made here.

Secondly, let me say as recently as a month ago Kyra turned her nose up at the offering of blueberry muffins and announced she that while she use to enjoy them...back when she was 5, since turning 6 her taste had changed and she really is not so fond of blueberries anymore.

So the 'let's make pie' comment surprised me, until I recalled our pie making experiences throughout the years. The child does not realize baking homemade pie usually doesn't involve pulling the crust from the freezer - thank you Madame Pillsbury and company.

It took the girl 3 years to eat all the parts of a pumpkin pie: whipped topping at 2, topping and filling at 3 and topping to crust by age 4. For my baby grand, pie is an acquired taste.

As usual, I digress.

So, after perusing cookbooks and the Internet at large we have become sufficiently inspired to create some new fresh and tasty treats, living beyond our usual smoothies and cereal topping.

Daring uh?

Georgia Jan make preserves look so simple and my grandmother would be sooo proud! That has become a possibility, we're thinking with Splenda??? Trying to keep Mr. B from going into insulin shock don't you know.

Anyway, wish us luck and if you have an berry simple recipes sugar free or not please drop us a line or send us a link, we would love to hear from you!