June 30, 2009

• THE PUNISHMENT OF POTATO SOUP ...

   

  It had always been a challenge to raise our six children on a minister's salary but we were on an especially tight budget. We were only a few weeks away from our planned departure to the mission field of Russia. We were living in a teen-insy two bedroom house with the few belongings that we still owned and we were watching our pennies very tightly. Feeding our brood meant doing a lot of stretching of ingredients ... and eating meat only a few days a week. This night was a non-meat night ... potato soup night.

  To say that Dustin wasn't especially fond of potato soup would be an understatement. The rest of us enjoyed it though, so it was what was to be served for supper. We had a rule in the Kendall household ... at least three bites of anything set before you. Being finicky just wasn't an option  ... we ate what was placed before us ... with gratitude and without complaining.

  I had left the potato soup slowly simmering on the stove while I worked on things around the house. I still remember that smell ... that obnoxious, nose-scrunching, burning smell. I will spare you the details of what happened when I discovered my soup burning on the stove but suffice it to say, the culprit responsible was a 9-year-old little boy who didn't like potato soup. It turns out that he had walked non-chalantly by the stove, turned the fire all the way up and waited.

  It was Dustin's intention to deter us from eating potato soup that night. However, his mom (me), who had already discovered by this time in his short life that he was a certified PILL, had other ideas of how this should affect all of us (and him). Dad immediately called for pizza to feed the rest of our klan ... and mom set out Dustin's fare before him. Bless his heart, he ate burned potato soup every meal until that big 8-member family pot was gone.

  I know some of you are already considering turning me in to CPS for what I did to right Dustin's wrongs but I promise he really did survive. And ... I guarantee you that he never tried that tactic again when he didn't want to eat something. As a matter of fact, before he drew his last breath, he had willingly partaken of many bowls of potato soup as an adult.

  We all still laugh when we think of that day.

  Today would have been his 25th birthday so we are celebrating with his favorites ~  grilled steak, watermelon, hot bread ... and potato soup (un-burned). Not your normal way of serving potatoes with steak but it made us smile to do it that way today.

  Thank you all for your many notes and calls to remind us of how well we are loved and how Dustin is remembered. It means so much.  

   

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