Recipes for Living Bob and Cathy Cutshall

The number of unlikely meetings in the background of Bob and Cathy challenges one to consider the possibility of destiny. Cathy’s grandparents met in California where they were working in power plants. They married, and her grandfather's work took them all over the world, especially to countries in the middle east. They eventually settled in the Thayer, Iowa area.

Cathy’s mother had grown up in Tennessee, her father in California. He enlisted in the Navy and the two met when he was sent to Tennessee for part of his training. They were married four months after they met.

Bob's roots are so deeply set in Iowa that his family can trace their heritage back to the days before Iowa became a state. The farm near Van Meter where Bob grew up has been owned by the family for over 150 years.

Cathy grew up in a West Grove, Pennsylvania, a "one-horse town with one stop light," just outside of Philadelphia. One Easter she came to Iowa to visit her grandmother. Cathy has an aunt Tammy who is just older than Cathy’s older brother. While Cathy was visiting, she and Tammy went to a rural "dance place," which they don't have in Philadelphia. Bob "happened" to be there. Tammy knew him because he is a cousin of Tammy's best friend’s husband, and she introduced Bob and Cathy. Like her parents, it didn’t take long for the couple to be sure of their choices. Cathy returned home from her trip to Iowa, and Bob flew to Philadelphia every other weekend to visit her. They were married the following June, and moved to Van Meter where
they lived a few years before coming to Osceola in 1997.

When Bob and Cathy began coming to the Osceola United Methodist Church, it was soon evident that they intended to be more than "pew-sitters." They became involved in Sunday School. Cathy related to "Roots and Wings" and initiated the cookbook idea. At the point at which this story is being written, she has collected over 300 recipes and they have been sent to the publisher. It is anticipated that the books will be ready for sale by the time of the Harvest Festival.

Cathy was one of the prominent helpers with the 2001Vacation Bible School, and she will be taking the "Disciple" Bible study this fall. This is referred to in Rev. Ivan Bys' story as he tells of having taught it since its first publication in 1987, and he can attest along with all those across the country who have enrolled in the course; it is a life-changing experience. Another opportunity, which Bob and Cathy plan to take advantage of, is the Walk to Emmaus which will be offered in October 2001at Camp Aldersgate.

What is the motivation for all this involvement? Perhaps in Cathy’s case, it is largely her upbringing in the Southern Baptist tradition, which emphasizes salvation. Infants are not baptized. Giving of one's life to Christ is not a "decision" but a response when God calls each individual to be saved. Every worship service concludes with an invitation to go forward to the altar to accept Jesus Christ as Savior. Cathy felt God’s urging a time or two before she had the courage to take that step, but she clearly remembers what an emotional time it was when she did. "My younger brother and I were baptized at same time. Mom was crying and I was crying. I'm not sure that I knew why Mom was so deeply touched until Bob and I had our kids baptized and I realized how much it means to parents.

"The focus of the Southern Baptist denomination is that there is something beyond this life and it is up to us to decide where we want to spend eternity. The Bible says plainly, and this was put before us in sermon after sermon, that there are two possibilities -heaven or hell. Which do you want? Do you choose to accept Christ or not? If you accept Christ, you know where you are going."

I come as often, as often as I may,
To be in your house, Lord, but not long today.
Time is so precious, soon passes away, I'll see if I can squeeze you in, maybe later today.

Sorry, 0 Lord, my schedule's so tight, I'll try to come, but it won’t be tonight.
Later today, 0 Lord, I'll promise to pray,
But I can’t right now, too busy to stay. Time is so precious, soon passes away, Must keep up appearances, what will my
neighbors say?

This job I’m in, can't let out of sight, Without me, 0 Lord, they can't get it right.
Big game coming, important to see, But I’ll be there Sunday, well, perhaps
maybe!

Must go to school, must get ahead,
I would trust in You 0 Lord, but me instead. Was going to go tell my neighbor about you, But my conversation never got through.
Time is so precious, soon passes away,
Before I knew it, I was old and gray...

(The Lord speaks :)
"Time I gave you, precious each day, All too soon it passed away.
Now time is ended, there is no more, Now comes the time to even the score...

"Remember the time you trusted me not, II sent you the Comforter, but you saw him not.
Remember the neighbor I sent to you, But you were too busy, a witness not true.

"All the time needed to do the good deed, But nowhere could I find you, spreading the seed,
Your works have I seen as stubble and hay, Burned up in the fire come what may."

Eternity passes no schedules to meet,
No crowns for the Master to cast at his feet. I ponder the fate of my neighbor's sin,
And I know in my heart what should have been.

Time is so precious soon passes away,
0 Lord how I misused it, for one more chance I pray. -Nick Harmon

The family's pastor, Rev. Parsons, was prominent in Cathy’s life. He was a close family friend as well as their minister. He had a wonderful personality and was lots of fun. "We didn't have to be afraid of him. Some ministers have a tendency to yell. I don't like to be yelled at." Rev. Parsons did all the important things in Cathy’s life. He announced her birth, baptized her, and married her and Bob.

Bob and Cathy feel deeply about their faith. Cathy says that she got away from church when was she was a teenager but when she and Bob were married, they started looking for a church. They tried one or two but didn't feel that they fit in. "The Osceola United Methodist Church welcomed us and made a place for us."

When the Cutshalls moved to the Osceola area they bought the house where Jim and Vesta Emary formerly lived. There are 90 acres of land and they have cattle, pasture and a hayfield. No crops. Bob had started farming years before, but was caught in the crisis of the '80's and began supplementing his income by working at Principal in Des Moines.

Cathy is a stay-at-home mom for their two children, Sarah and John. Sarah is very intelligent and good at memorization. It was difficult when she was learning to read to tell whether she was reading or reciting a book from memory. It gave her away when she read "Put Me in the Zoo." The only way the listener knew she wasn’t reading was that when she came to "violet" she said "purple." Sarah was reading before she went to kindergarten, and could write her name, address, and phone number. She was the only one in the class who knew her zip code.

Sarah is quite creative. She is always experimenting in the kitchen, trying to make something. She has a kids' cookbook and has made snacks from those recipes. She can prepare lunch, breakfast, and make sandwiches and toast. She likes to work with crafts.

John will be in three-day pre-school this fall. He was an October baby so he will have to wait another year to enter kindergarten. John loves tractors! He won the tractor pull for four year olds at the Clarke County Fair, so now "he's the man" showing off his trophy. His bedroom gives evidence of his preference for John Deere, although he is okay with Case or those of any color. He likes to drive. One day when the mower ran out of gas, Bob pushed it to the shop with him driving. Now he thinks he should be able to drive everything. He is with Bob a lot and thinks he can do everything Bob can do.

The fact is John seems able to do practically anything with the computer-which is not always an advantage. Cathy's dad sent a stress release program where the operator can machinegun the screen or use a fire shooter. John is the only one that can get into the program and then he deletes stuff. Solutions has seen the machine several times, at "$100 bucks a pop" to remedy his deletions. Presently John is using the card-making software to make and send Christmas cards to his friends.

Cathy is perplexed as to why the children don't like to play outside. She remembers her own childhood when she and her brothers, Charles and Bill, were outdoors a lot. There was a shallow creek behind their house and they were constantly finding little creatures to interest them.

Cathy was born in New Jersey. Her dad, who had been a mechanic working on helicopters when he was in the Navy, as a civilian worked in auto industry related fields. The family moved to West Grove, Pennsylvania when Cathy was four years old. It was an interesting place to live-an hour from Philadelphia, an hour from Baltimore, 20-30 minutes from Maryland and Delaware. Her mom worked at a knitting mill in the same town until it closed, and then worked in West Chester for Trends instruments, where Cathy's dad also got a job. Then a German company named WIKA took over, and Cathy's parents transferred to Georgia where they still live. Brothers Charles and Bill both live in Newark, Delaware, across the street from each other. Cathy's grandmother lives in a nursing home in Afton and her grandfather in senior housing there.

Cathy was in Avon Grove school from kindergarten through twelfth grades. The division was pre-school through fourth grade; middle school was fifth through eighth, and high school was ninth through twelfth. Cathy particularly remembers her fifth grade teacher, who was tall and skinny and bald and scary. Her sixth grade teacher, Mr. Ghione, was funny. He identified the kids by nicknames. Cathy's was "Bowling Woman," even though she had never bowled. He assigned a 50-page report and she does not recall why she picked Haiti or Dominican Republic, but had nothing on which to base a 50-page report. She collected lots of pictures of animals. The trouble was that none of them belonged in those countries. Mr. Ghione's punishment for kids who misbehaved was that they were to open the dictionary, turn to a page and copy it.

Cathy went to community college for a few classes. She liked business classes but not social studies, science etc. "I don't care for cutting up animals." After she graduated from high school in 1984, she managed a bakery, "burned out working many long hours," then worked in a bank as head teller.

Bob grew up in the Van Meter area. He has a younger sister, Victoria. Bob really enjoyed growing up on a farm. He was very involved in 4-H and showed cattle, hogs, and horses. He also did woodworking and made puzzles for his nephews, which Sarah and John have now. He loved all the work involved in running a farm from working with the cattle to spraying weeds. He loves the outdoors, particularly fishing with his friends.

Bob went school at Van Meter, and then transferred to Winterset for high school because of their sports program. Bob enjoyed school, especially math. He went to Iowa State and finished at Upper Iowa University. He is presently a computer programmer at Principal working four tenhour days each week