life, laughter and little things

Keeping it Simple Soup

I grew up in a home that used a lot of herbs. We had an overflowing spice cabinet that was used regularly. Sometimes I forget that keeping it simple doesn’t mean it won’t be flavorful. My man reminds me of this, unintentionally, all the time.

I married the easiest man to please when it comes to kitchen creations. Of all the recipes I try, and the yummy ideas I experiment with he is rarely happier than when I fix a big pot of veggie soup and serve it with salad and bread.

Not only that, but when I asked what he wanted for lunches, he suggested that I should fix a big pot of the simplest soup I’ve ever made.

Chopped Vegetables.

Potato
carrot
onion
corn
green beans
I had asparagus this time so that went in too.

Salt.

Drizzle of Olive Oil when it is cooked.

And that’s all.

I’m the one who has to have variety. I’m the one who thinks elaborate meals=a point on the check list of being a good wife.

And yet…if it was up to him, as long as there is plenty of bread and tomatoes, he’d probably live on two or three things indefinitely. How’d I get so lucky? I’m not big on using processed foods very often, and I don’t think cooking can get any more unprocessed than chopping a handful of garden veggies and adding the tiniest touch of salt and oil.

Plus, it is delicious. I can’t wait for supper!

Today, I think of you…

Precious Child,

Today is Mother’s day. It is the day that I take a moment to sit back and celebrate the amazing miracle of new life, and the way that it can change a woman into a mother over night. It is the day that I rejoice with my mommy friends, the day that I thank God for my own mother’s love and devotion.

But today, I think of you.

There’s so many things I don’t know right now. Like the color of your skin, or the way you’ll smile. I wonder if you’ll have blue eyes, or if they could be brown, like mine. I wonder if your hair will have curls in it, or if it will be smooth and silky and soft. I wonder what your name will be, and if you’ll be a boy or a girl.

Will you like to be rocked and will you feel loved when I sing to you? Would you grow up to be a bookworm and writer? Would you be fascinated with electronics and tools? Maybe you’ll like engine grease and be driven to figure out what makes things tick. Perhaps you’ll like baking. I hope you’d like to feel the grass on your bare feet and to watch birds build their nests and how ants live in the world beneath our feet. Most of all I hope you’d learn to love the One who made all things, who made you to be the perfect little person I know you would be one day.

Often, I wonder if I’ll ever get a chance to feel you flutter beneath my heart. If I’ll get to watch you grow, if our voices will be the first you ever hear. More often, I wonder if a stranger will put you in our arms, and when we’ll finally get to meet you.

But in the end, those things aren’t important. It doesn’t matter how God chooses to put you into our lives. If one day it is God’s will for us to meet, I hope you will know that you are already loved. You are already wanted. So very much.

I don’t know when or how or if, but today, I think of you and think of how much I look forward to being your mommy…perhaps someday.

Reading Challenge 2012: April Checkpoint

I have a confession: coming out of March’s reading high with the March of Books excitement, I took a bit of a reading break in April. Instead of finishing books, I went on a starting books spurt. I think I’ve started at least half a dozen! After starting them, I’ve read a few sentences here and there, but have barely made it out of the first chapters. My little reading challenge widget is probably thanking me that last month, I managed to pull ahead by four books.

In March I read more story books than I’ve read for years. This month I’m going heavy on motivational and educational. I amuse myself by the way I have been tending to group my books in to trends and topics this year. It is unintentional and sometimes makes for a little bit of a mental overload. That’s why I tossed in a bit of humor in the form of The hair-raising joys of Raising boys”. I don’t know if it is all good, but the parts I’ve read have been hilarious and provided a much needed break from the heavy stuff.

My goals for May are to finish my stack and to not start any new ones until I do! Plus, I have three book reviews in the works. I’ve read a lot of good stuff this year, and am looking forward to sharing some more of that with you guys in the days ahead.

Now it is your turn! How did April work out for you all reading wise?

What is your favorite just-read book? (Even if I’m not starting new ones this month, it doesn’t mean I can’t plan ahead for next month, right? ;))

Write up your comment or post and link up and share!

If you aren’t currently a part of Reading Challenge 2012, take a peek at the official guidelines and see if you want to jump on in and join us. We’re always happy to have new friends!

Tomorrow

This past week, I think I’ve been a little bit like Toad of the Frog and Toad books.

And this house is a mess.

I haven’t felt very well. Like Toad, all I wanted to do was crawl back in bed for a nap and “do it all tomorrow.” I didn’t even write a to-do list!

The problem with tomorrow is that in terms of house work, it will never get any easier.

Tomorrow there will be more dishes than there are today.

Tomorrow the laundry won’t have gone anywhere and will still need to be folded. It will still take the same amount of time.

Tomorrow the weeds in the garden will only be bigger weeds. And knowing weeds, there’ll probably be twice as many.

Tomorrow the menu won’t write its self any faster than it will today.

Tomorrow dusting and vacuuming will take just as much time and energy.

Tomorrow I’ll still have to scrub the shower and wash that shower curtain.

Tomorrow, I’m still going to have to do it all, and putting it off doesn’t change that.

Today, I woke up to discover my headache has finally vanished. I don’t feel quite so much like taking a nap as I did yesterday, but I don’t feel like cleaning the house either.

Looking about at the left-over piles of laundry (that I didn’t finish the other night), and the dishes from yesterday and this morning, and the books that didn’t get picked up from the last time Shayla and I had an extended story time, I thought of what Toad would have said if this was his house: if I do it all today, I won’t have to do it tomorrow, will I?

Well, probably. That’s the nature of actually, you know, living in a house.

But tonight, I aim to have my to-do list checked off. That’ll mean a clean house (thank goodness for small houses!) a clean fridge, a menu plan for the weekend and lots of computer work checked off the list.
It’s going to feel good.

And tomorrow? Maybe I’ll take a nap. I guess we’ll see.

enjoy the little things

My life is filled with myriads of little things. They make up my days. They fill up my heart with precious glimpses of beauty and goodness given from my Father’s hand. They make me realize just how much of the good things in this life aren’t dependent on how much money is in the bank or the place that I life. The real happiness comes from making the most of what I have right now, in this moment and cherishing it as a gift. Because that is what they were meant to be, after all. And in this, I realize I am incredibly rich.

+ snuggling up on the couch with my niece to read stories.

+ watching the morning glow on the lake.

+ the way the spider never gives up weaving her webs

+ mist rising from the hills on a perfect morning

+ the scent of honeysuckle filling the air…and my house through the open windows

+ how the garden seems to grow right before my very eyes

+ fresh produce for next to nothing. (we’ve had so many yummy meals as a result!)

+ beautiful, intricately patterned moths and butterflies

+ hearing the birds begin to sing every single morning. It never gets old.

+ learning about the incredible people and wildlife in all corners of this globe. It amazes me.

+ teaching little people patience by learning it myself first

+ feeling the dew on my feet as I run to the garden in the early morning

+ watching a tiny rabbit nibble at grass

+ fresh asparagus

+ inspiring, encouraging friends who make me dare to believe that I can

+ more new books (and how the one I didn’t really want ended up being one of the best)

+ cool, refreshing water.

+ a pretty “new” (to me) shirt. Just what I needed!

+ lots of time to play in a tub of water with Shayla

+ coupons

+ rain so I don’t have to water my garden as often

+ time together after a long week

Don’t Count Your Potatoes…

I’m sure there’s got to be a saying out there about not counting your potatoes and green beans before they grow, but I’m having an awfully hard time with that this week.

It seems like every time I look outside, those spuds have put on another inch. The beans look taller and bigger. The squash has more leaves. The tomatoes are shooting up like weeds.

It is probably getting old to everyone who has lived in this land of plenty for a long time, but I am amazed. Every little thing fascinates me, and I run to the window every morning like a little girl, just to look at it again.

It doesn’t matter how many times I plant, my gardens will always speak hope to me. They will always remind me that I serve a God of miracles. A God who makes things new again.

I have no idea if I’ll get a single thing out of the garden. It’s too early to tell what bugs, heat and deer are in store in the days ahead.

But for now, I’m dreaming of fresh garden produce, and delighting in every moment I get to spend watching this garden grow.

[five minute friday] community

April 27, 2011

Today it has been a year since my town began picking up the tornado shattered pieces of their lives and trying to put them back together again. A lot has changed since then, but the land and lives of families from here to Ringgold and beyond will always carry the scars of that night.

Sometimes I’m still in awe of it all. That first day, looking at all the damage, and trying to find a through street that would let us make sure our family was okay, all we could manage was a choked up “Wow.” or two as we saw so much devastation. All we could do was thank God for His protection as realization gripped us as we looked at flattened homes and remnants of someone’s life spread across the fields that this could have been our home, this could have been us. We spent the evening of the storm in the living room, oblivious to what was going on outside until the wind slammed into the house, and everything went dark before the sirens started. God truly had His hand over us.

But more than all the shattered homes, and all the broken trees, the thing that I’ll remember the most about the tornado of 2011 is the community. It was when I saw a tornado stricken home put a tent in their yard, and a sign offering food, water and a place to sit, and saw one tornado victim helping another one to salvage what they could of their possessions and homes that I realized that this tragedy had awakened the bonds of the heart and rallied people together in a way that the beautiful, lazy spring evenings of the past never could.

The tornado may have destroyed homes and taken lives. But it could not destroy the spirit of community. It could not crush out the strength of heart to rise up, and to build again with what was left…together.

It brought tears to my eyes as I saw older couples holding hands and smiling over the ruins of the home of their old age, saying “It’s okay. We’re just thankful we’re here today…together.”

And in the middle of disaster, that is what always matters. Being thankful, not for what you lost, or what was destroyed, but for being together. It is about getting up again, together. It is about rebuilding hopes and dreams and homes, together.

So today, on the one year anniversary of that F4+ tornado, I’m celebrating the progress that’s been made, and the community that’s been built. And I’m thankful, more than ever, that we’re all here together.

written for five minute friday. Photographs are from news articles and do not belong to me.

Real {Fast} Food + a giveaway!

What’s cooking? is a question I’ve heard a lot of over the years.

I’ve always cooked quite a bit, but the day I got married, was the day that I not only took a new last name, and a new role as wife and helpmeet, it was also the day that I became the full time chef in our newly established home.

That first year, I spent time learning what kinds of food my husband and our housemates liked best. I tried out new things and made menu plans and shopping lists like a pro. After all, I’d grown up cooking from scratch and feeding four was suppose to be easier than feeding six or eight! In all actuality, it took a whole year to figure out how to cook small enough portions that we could eat in a reasonable time frame, but I enjoyed it all.

Lately, though, I’ve gotten out of my cooking groove. Somewhere along the way, I stopped planning menus and writing shopping lists and just sort of started cooking on the spur of the moment. I was deep into Chef’s burnout when I finally opened Trina Holden’s eBook, Real {Fast} Food, and began to read.

Trina’s book was fabulous. It started out right with what I needed to hear the most: what makes real food, “fast” food isn’t necessarily the ingredients, but the planning ahead. It reminded me of all the reasons why menu planning is the “stitch in time that saves nine” in the kitchen, and why it will make my life and yours so much easier if we will just take the time to do it.

Trina, in her book, not just told me why menu planning would save me time in the long run, but she made menu planning for an entire month sound so easy, with step-by-step instructions on how to make it work. There’s even printable in the back to write on!

She talked about master shopping lists & buying in bulk. She shared tips for cooking extra for later, and saving time with organizing your day so that you spend less time in the kitchen with greater results. She shares simple recipes and tucked in things that gave me some good food for thought about sprouting and soaking grains more regularly.

Trina used Real {Fast} Food as a way to inspire busy housewives like myself with tips for successfully feeding our families well, and having a life outside of our kitchens and away from washing dishes. And that’s exactly how I felt when I got done reading it— truly inspired.

Scott and I are vegetarians, mostly vegan, in fact, and thus while not every little detail of Real {Fast} Food applies to the way we eat personally, the principles of eating healthfully, and as close to the way God created food as possible, and the methods for planning that Trina shared are all things that I could relate to, and use in my own kitchen. There is no pressure whatsoever that one way of eating is the only way to eat. As a vegan-Vegetarian, whose dietary choices are often misunderstood, it was refreshing to read another perspective without feeling like the main point of the book was to tell me that I was wrong. Instead, Real {Fast} Food is all about sharing, and encouraging all of us to make better choices for the food we put on our tables whenever possible.

(Watch for a post in the near future on how I use the cooking in bulk and other principles that Trina shares to make my Vegetarian and Vegan cooking faster and more simple on a daily basis.)

Planning ahead is a must for every kitchen, no matter what the particulars of your diet and lifestyle are.

If you are looking for inspiration and how-tos for cooking more healthfully, and for feeding your family more real food, you need to read this book.

Available in PDF, Nook & Kindle Formats, you can read it on the go or print it off to pour over in your kitchen. If you have an iPad or smartphone, consider getting the kindle app. It makes it super easy to refer to no matter where you are!

Best of all, you’ll have a chance to get a copy for free!

Trina is giving away a PDF copy of Real {Fast} Food to a reader of life, laughter & little things.

Just leave a comment telling me about one of your favorite “real” foods to enter.
Giveaway ends May 1st at 11:59p.m EST
Enter some of the other giveaways on the Real {Fast} Food Blog Tour for more chances to win this book!

from Gretchen at Little Pink House (ends April 30th!)

from Jessica at Something Simple (ends May 2nd!)

from Laurie at Homemaker’s Challenge (ends April 26th!)

Read more reviews of Real {Fast} Food:

@ the Young Ladies Christian Fellowship

@ Homemaker’s Challenge

@ Dandelion Haven

@ Life in the White House

@ To Live for Him

Be sure to “like” the Real {Fast} Food Facebook Page for all sorts of real food tips and photos.
Buy a copy for yourself or a friend! At only $6, it makes a great, affordable gift!

on Trina’s website (PDF format, and links to nook and kindle versions)

on amazon.com (iPad and smart phone users, don’t forget you can use the kindle app to get this!)

on nook.com

with my affiliate link

[five minute friday] together

I met him just before we walked down the aisle together. Afterward, he remembered feeling my hand shake and my heart pound as we walked down the aisle, and I remembered that he wasn’t ashamed to cry at his brother’s wedding.

I little dreamed that life would turn our two paths into one, or that we’d walk down Lover’s Lane, hand in hand. But we did, and when he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him, I said yes.

That first day we met, I never dreamed we’d be walking down another aisle, pledging to stick out this unpredictable adventure called life and set out together on our own happily ever after.

That was three years ago now. I still feel butterflies when he says my name, when he takes my hand. I miss him when he’s at work; everything is so much better when we’re together. He is my best friend. More now than ever before.

Oh, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Every life is going to have bumps along the way. But I’m thankful that it is him and me. I’m glad that when God wrote our stories, He decided that we were better together than apart.

I’m just glad that he + I= together.

written for five minute friday