Little Blessings Of Life

When I was growing up on the farm there were a couple of special treats in the summertime that I truly enjoyed. Daddy milked cows at one time and we had a milk house where the milk was kept in big metal cans (the kind you see decorating front porches now). The cooler was a big rectangular chest filled with enough water to cover the sides of the milk cans as they chilled until the milk truck arrived. In the summer, Daddy would bring home a huge seeded watermelon (that's all there were back then) and put it in the cooler to chill. I remember the icy watermelon as the best tasting ever because it was so cold!

Also, when there were milk cows around, there was also cream. Real cow cream, thick and beautiful. That meant an excuse to make homemade ice cream in a crank ice cream maker. Daddy would break up ice on the sidewalk and drop it around the center metal container. He would sprinkle salt all around the outside of the canister and crank steadily for what seemed like forever... until the frostline approached the top of the aqua freezer bucket. Then we had to let it sit with a towel over the top, still packed with ice. I always wanted to be there with a spoon when the paddle was pulled out of the ice cream. It was indescribable deliciousness.

"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him," (Psalm 34:8 NIV).

Back in the "olden" days of my youth there was another little treat that helped to cool us off in the summertime. Our refrigerator back then had the freezer on top. It was not a frost-free refrigerator. You actually had to defrost the freezer occasionally or you would run out of room for food up there. Our special treat was to take a drinking cup and scrape it across the top of the freezer compartment, filling the cup with the frosty ice. We would take a spoon and eat the ice and be refreshed. I always hated when Mama would defrost the freezer because there wouldn't be any ice crystals to scrape for several weeks. The hotter the weather, the faster the frost would build up in the freezer! That is probably why I still love to chew ice now.

It was a much simpler time back when I was growing up. Our special treats didn't cost anything, yet we were happy and blessed. What little blessings of life do you remember? The Lord is good and we are blessed by His love and protection every single day. Enjoy and thank God for His goodness today.