This poem was written by a lovely lady who is part of my church family. Her name is June Wilson. I hope you are as blessed as I was when I read it.

I know it looks awful but man it tastes good. I came up with this last summer when I kept losing parts of my BLT sandwich onto my iPad or computer as I ate lunch. I decided to share my first of this summer with you.

I make oatmeal bread. It's soft and when it's fresh out of the breadmaker it doesn't hold the slices of tomato without falling apart. After wiping tomato and mayo off my iPad screen or laptop keys several times as the sandwich fell apart I decided something had to give. Either I had to give up my BLTs or figure out a new way to eat them. Not wanting to go without I came up with this.

Instead of making a sandwich I tore up the bread into small bites, cut the tomato the same way and took my kitchen scissors to the bacon. I didn't have any lettuce so that's why it's -L. Shredded lettuce works in this well.

Mix them all together with mayo or Miracle Whip. Salt and pepper to taste and voila. A BLT-L bowl. I eat mine with a spoon. It's easier since I'm usually reading while I eat lunch. I know, bad for the waistline but I'm not giving it up.

It's a yummy way to eat a BLT without getting your hands messy.

I mentioned the oatmeal bread and thought I'd give you the recipe. It's easy and oh so good. I use a bread machine but you could easily make this the old fashioned way.  It makes one loaf.

1 cup + a little more water (depends on how fluffy you want your bread and how often you make bread)
1t salt
3T oil
3 cups bread flour
3/4 - 1 cup oatmeal (I use old fashioned not instant)(Actually I grab a handful rather than measuring it)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 package dry yeast

Put it in the bread maker pan in the order listed.
Set machine to a sweet bread. I use a light crust setting but that's up to you.
Wait for the wonderful aroma wafting throughout your kitchen several hours later. However long it takes your machine. Mine is 2:50.

If you make bread without the machine I'm figuring you know how to mix this up, knead it, let it rise and bake it without my writing it out.

It's wonderful bread.

We're in Sringfield, IL today. Hubby and I have gotten away for a couple of days. Hence, no images since I'm writing this on my iPad.

Ivan, my hubby, is a Civil War buff. I'm a history buff but not as much as he is. A few years ago the Abraham Lincoln museum opened. We had never been so we came to see it. I'm very glad we did.

The museum takes the legend and expands him to become a man. History classes teach the legend and skim over much of what Lincoln went through and the controversy surrounding his election, the people's reactions to him and the war as well as that concerning the Emansipation Proclimation.

By no means was the north totally for freeing the slaves. The exhibits are balanced and very well presented. It's a beautiful building, well laid out and spacious. I recommend a visit if ever you get to the area. Yes, I know it's in the middle of fly over country, but it's a day well spent.

I think you can tell we enjoyed it. Tomorrow we head home. My cat will appreciate me only being gone two days.

The novel, Kyria and Mark, working title only, is about half done. I've stalled a bit several times. A total change of plot happened twice and then boom, everything stopped. They are at a happy place in their relationship. Where to go from there. I didn't think the story was over. The conflict wasn't deep enough. The struggles they went through seemed more just those of getting to know one another.

I had to put the story on the back burner. Maybe God didn't want this story to be finished. Maybe it was simply a learning experience for me. I didn't know. I let God know it was fine with me if it never got finished. I like both main characters as well as the supporting cast but maybe I was the only one who was supposed to meet them. All I knew for certain is that I wasn't going on with the novel unless God gave me the direction where He wanted me to go.

During worship service one Sunday while singing the last set of songs God let me know what were going to be the issues for the rest of the book. I won't spill the beans about that but here comes a problem. As Sophie Dawson I write historical fiction. I have five books in two series out and am in the middle of two more with another in my brain waiting to develop further. I've built an readership of those who like historical novels. Now I'm writing a contemporary. Do I spread Sophie into modern times or create a pen name for this new author in me?

Many authors have different pen names for the different genres they write. Most readers have a favorite genre and learn what authors they like and want to read. They stick to it and having the author of a favorite genre change can upset a reader. Also breaking into a different genre with the same pen name can keep possible readers shy away. That lady writes in that genre not this one.

So, I'm deciding whether to choose a new pen name for contemporary. This might be a one novel wonder. I don't know. God does but He's not giving me more stories, well maybe Kyria's brother Turner will become one. He's got some attitudes he needs to work on. So, maybe I should figure out a pen name. I'll think on it and pray a little more about it. God will let me know.

My fear is that I'm into Sci-Fi reading right now with several possible stories rolling around in the vast caverns in my head. That's just what happened before Kyria's & Mark's story appeared.

I don’t know about you but I sometimes struggle with feeling that I’m not doing enough for God. I know I don’t read enough, pray enough, witness enough, just all around do enough. I’m in rural Illinois not Africa helping the starving and AIDS afflicted. I’m just living my life trying to be as good a follower of Christ as I can.

What is enough? What is that important thing I’m supposed to do for God? How will I know?

Every verse in the Bible is there for a purpose. Often we read over them without seeing the intent of God when it was included.

Gen. 37:16-17   “I’m looking for my brothers,” Joseph said. “Can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”  “They’ve moved on from here,” the man said. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

We know the story. Israel had told his son Joseph to go to find his brothers. So Joseph goes and they aren’t where he expects them to be. A man asks him where he’s going and when Joseph explains the man basically says, “They went that a way.”

Why was this exchange included in the Bible? The event doesn’t really have to be told. The three verse which encompass it have no real impact on the story and could have been left out. So why is it  there?

I think it’s there to show us that no matter how small and simple we think what we are doing is it’s worthy in God’s sight if we are faithfully following his way.

Maybe the one thing God wants you to do in your entire life is to smile at the checker at Walmart on a day he/she is feeling down. Maybe it’s to take your mother-in-law to the doctor when you really needed to be someplace else. Maybe, just like the man in the story, it’s to give directions when someone asks.

God doesn’t ask for each of us to do big, flashy things for him. He wants us to do what we can when asked with a joyful attitude.

“They went that a way.” And an anonymous man is remembered for all time in the Word of God.