~Doris~

I love my dear little grandma of a visiting teacher. Doris is about ten times as wonderful as her name,  bony hands, and heavenly cinnamon rolls would imply. She's the face of all things wonderful and triumphant--every wrinkle is a testament to a life well-lived, a family well-raised, and a testimony well-defended. She radiates the kind of light and goodness that you just love to be enveloped and swallowed in. She's such a beautiful woman; I wish more of the world would embrace aging and all of its splendid glories like Doris does.

Well, this month the visiting teaching message wasn't really a message. Rather, it was a directive to go and serve your teachees. So Doris made an appointment just as she always does, and came over with a plate of home-made cinnamon rolls and chatted with me for a while. Did I mention that I love old people?

In our chat she mentioned that she had brainstormed ways of how she could serve me, but didn't "come up with much." (As if warm, perfectly baked and frosted cinnamon rolls are under par...) She asked if there was anything she could help with. And by George, there was something this wonderfully domestic, seasoned housewife and mother could do for me...

"Doris, I have two nights a week where my last class gets out at 6:30 in the evening. I want to be able to have dinner ready for Blake when he gets home from work, but that really puts me in a time crunch when I get home from school. I've been wanting to get on to using a Crock Pot on a regular basis, but don't have many recipes that I know are tried and true. Do you think you could help me with that?"

"Do you like soups?"  ... Boy oh boy. Do I like SOUPS?? I've been dying for more soup weather since the cold, rainy snap we had a week or so ago. She agreed to help me on my road to domestic goddesshood, gave me a lovely grandma hug and went on her merry way.

So I expected to get a few recipes when she came again for next month's visit... I should have known better. About thirty-six hours after our appointment, the doorbell rings. I answer it to find Doris holding a stack of family recipes on adorable recipe cards tucked into the binding of 101 Things to do with a Slow Cooker. She would.

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have this kind of woman for a friend. What a wonderful lady!