Today had temptations that were difficult for us to handle

I really need a thanksgiving list today. Today, while it began great with being at church, was an increasingly stressful and difficult day. So a bit of trying to salvage something.

1. Tomorrow is a new day.

2. With God there is always hope.

3. There are beautiful and comforting books that I have not yet read.

4. God's mercy.

5. That there is hope for better.

A Tuesday in which I am thankful {+ Shepherd's Pie!}

Thank you list!

1. A warm home on a day that had a night of 'November sad rain' to quote Madeleine L'Engle from her book The Young Unicorns

2. I made shepherd's pie with ground lamb! My beloved Husband liked it and there is enough for at least one more meal of it on Thursday! Recipe from my first Joy of Cooking cookbook that my parents gave me on my 29th (golden) birthday, nearly 12 years ago! 

3. Vespers at our local church - it was cold and wet and inside was so warm and comforting in it's warmth!

4. Tomorrow is a fish day and I am hoping to make a nice dinner.... and liturgy tomorrow morning, locally speaking.

5. that God's mercy is everlasting and new every morning

****

ps: wonderful prayer here and wonderful article about

Christians and how the Church will not lessen because of persecution

or sudden violence 

Monday: a quiet retreat

Whew.

I woke up tired like many in the Nations where

we just had our twice yearly dose of time change confusion/exhaustion. 

Here's what I am thankful for today:

 1. I took a rest day today. I know, I am blessed. I have taken to saying that everything is given something different in life. So what I was given today was a real blessing. I finished the Second Emily book by LM Montgomery. 

2. I think because I rested, this whole week of confusion that the time change brings to so many of us, me included, will be more bearable. 

3. I used to feel guilty for those rare times when I could have a rest day like this. Now I realize that if one person is a bit more rested and peaceful, it can help others in many ways.

4. I know tomorrow will be a different day but God will be there and so I am thankful for that too. 

5. My Husband brought home food from the farmers market, including dinner. 

6. I am so grateful for quiet and for older forms of music that do not conflict with quiet. 

7. While I don't think I can go to a monastery anytime soon, just knowing that they are there and that the silence that everyone is looking for, but may not know about, that comes from God, (a deep abiding peace is another way to refer to it) ... that this silence IS, is enough for me.

Sunday: blessings abundant

It was wonderful to be with our far-away church family today.

The little boy was playing "deacon" and imitating how they hold up the Gospel book.

So darling and shows how normal it is for kids to be in Church!

It was really nice to be back.

Tonight we watched the Walton's and had the very last

of the veggie pot pie. 

The last picture is my new Turkey Platter! 

I am so glad that I have one! 

My foot is hurting a bit so I am glad that we are DV

getting thanksgiving dinner ordered in this year.

***

There is much troubling our world these days...

We must keep remembering that no matter what,

God is not going to be over come and that 

Christ IS the light that overtakes night.

Saturday: a rest day

Ended up needing a lot of rest today.

We enjoyed left overs!

I was reminded of the importance of silence and of allowing

time for quiet, including being 'off-line' as it were.

To be with God each day.

It was a good reminder.

Vegan Vegetable Pot Pie: Take One

My first vegan pot pie, via a friend's recipe + Joy of Cooking + my own winging it... I sauteed/browned some celery, red onion, 1 sweet potato, a third of a good sized butternut squash, in coconut oil. 

I added to this 1 can drained and rinsed red kidney beans for protein. 

Mixed flour with thick cream coconut milk (trader joes), with some nutritional yeast. Added marjoram and salt and pepper. All mixed together. 

I used 2 vegan frozen pie crusts for top and bottom. Baked at 400F for about 25 or so minutes.  

***

It was pretty good; needed more spices and salt and pepper.

I think we would like it better with potatoes.

Social media friends told me I can freeze it (the left overs)

but don't do so with regular potatoes. 

***

We went grocery shopping today and my Husband spied a big bottle of 

Kombucha! Cheaper and my favourite flavour! 

  ***

I am a bit tired, it was a busy week.

But at least I am a little more peaceful.

It takes effort to try to stay in the present

but it's worth it.

***

I hope and pray that this day had some 

shards of light for you and God's protection!

Thursday: a blessing of beauty, tea and hot chocolate...

Today began better.

I slept better for one thing.

I remembered my morning Holy Water and Prosphora (blessed bread).

Had a nice breakfast of Pascha treats from our freezer!

Hot chocolate in a new to me mug from my Mom,

who finds such incredible thrift store finds!

We had a lunch that I described to a friend this way:

"Believe it or not, we found a pasta and chicken summer salad in the freezer from 2015. Defrosted it and (well the grapes were not the same but not bad or mushy, amazingly, I know since my Husband does not like fruit with meat so I was given all of them!) we had it for lunch, really was not bad and the pasta was not funny, which after 2 years in the freezer I thought was pretty good!"

Dinner was delicious chicken soup with hot buttered baguette, 

the soup was from a dear local friend!

My Husband and I ordered this pretty Delft charger plate form etsy

and it came last night... it's really lovely and my Husband did a GREAT job

hanging it up tonight!

He also helped me clean the bedroom and we washed the bedding today.

So that was a blessing!

I was reminded of some simple but powerful truths today...

about our personal unbloggable HARD:

basically we are in a waiting stage right now, there is some 

uncertainty but I was reminded that I need to keep redirecting my thoughts

when I get stuck in anxiety and also that rehashing things can make me

anxious and not give me new information or wisdom about the thing at hand.

It reminded me of a story my sister-friend told me years ago,

about how she and her roommate realized that it takes

faith to rest.  We were all students at the time, with

lots of deadlines and assignments.... which when

you are in undergrad in early years, can seem really daunting. 

And then my sister-friend took a nap and was so refreshed.

She learned that sometimes trusting God means

just resting and taking a nap.

Somehow the encouragement I got today reminded me of this.

We don't always know the outcome of things, just like

in undergraduate years when you have lots to do and are unsure 

of what grades you will get; and you just have to do one's best

and at the same time, when given a time that is for rest,

just do that: rest and try not to think ahead of what one can know, 

in terms of outcomes and just rest.

So I am thinking about this and am encouraged to do so...

***

Thought I would share this day's 'thankful list'... doing the 

30 days of thanksgiving for November... which is really for me, just

getting back to my normal writing what I am thankful for lists:

Thankful list: 1. Folks, I have been given and seen a picture of my future white (gorgeous!) Turkey patter. !!! I am thrilled. Husband's reactions to this have kept me cracking up all day. Hello Thanksgiving Turkey! My first time :) ... 2. My Husband said that it's fine for me to get my thanksgiving meal kind of 'on wheels' this year. While I am doing much better, we have decided that we will get our Thanksgiving meal from our local small grocer (i.e. we only have to re-heat the Turkey and food). This seems like the best way for us this year and I am VERY thankful!!! 3. Husband hung up a beautiful new to us Deft Charger on our wall (basically a 15" round delft plate with winter scene) and it looks so nice! We picked this out together on Etsy. :)  4. Cleo is so funny. 5. A hot bath with salts and bubbles, candles lit while listening to Classic FM from the UK on my mobile. it was 1 AM there and the music they played was so nice... 6. Emily of New Moon. I am finally reading it and am just enjoying it so much! 7. Soon: Christmas movies, Christmas music, Christmas tree. :)  I think the day or so after Thanksgiving should commence the beginning of our Christmas decorations :)  8. Seeing pictures of my family in MI from my brother-in-law. I really miss everyone in MI ... we had thought we would visit this summer but my broken foot pretty much changed all our plans.... so the pictures were extra special to see!

***

I don't remember if I mentioned that I wanted to have a Turkey platter

but my Husband was not for the idea ... basically worried about me and dishes

and space.... I do love dishes and we do only have so much space... 

anyway, dear friends of ours are giving us one and I am

so happy about it.  Wait to you all DV see pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner! 

I am really looking forward to this!

This is what the meal we are ordering will include... I hope it tastes as well as it sounds!

I really wrestled with what to do for this Thanksgiving.

I dream of one day being able to make the whole meal from scratch

and I have 2 lovely cookbooks *devoted* to Thanksgiving.

But this year has been a challenging one, the hard stuff is still on-going and 

after talking to the small Grocer a bit about this, I realized that this was really

the way to go for us this year.  My Husband actually encouraged me to do it this way!

I will have to re-heat food but not have to make it all. 

I lost a lot of strength that I am still re-gaining and with our own 

personal 'hard' + a newly defrosted freezer (i.e. we have a lot of food that we 

can easily access so no buying of breads, meats etc needed = lower weekly grocery bill) 

+ the cost of having this is really quite reasonable for 8 people and having the

meal made for us and a few friends is going to be a much better way to go. 

So I am really happy about this.  I have had pre-made stuffing and mashed potatoes

from our grocery delivery place (not the local grocery whose picture I have above) and

really liked it, so I know it can work out well. 

I kept thinking: 

I would love to have a Turkey. But what do I serve it on, I don't have a platter big enough.

I know you could carve it before putting it on the table but I just wanted to have

the Turkey there looking nice. So I am so excited that we are being given a pretty

white platter that I can use for Thanksgiving and all year round! 

I am planning on adding apple sauce and a bit of cooked corn, 

both of which we have on hand.  I grew up LOVING my Grandma's cooked

corn with lots of salt and butter!  

And I will get to use all my pretty dishes, DV!!!

so that's FUN! And gives me something happy to plan and look forward to,

as you can tell by my writing here. 

Well, it's late

and I better get working on that good night's sleep...

***

ps: a bit about the new tea we had today, a gift from a dear friend, as I wrote on

social media earlier: 

This tea was really pleasant. A sweet warm tea with a depth that is hard to describe. ... a warm kindness would be one way to describe it. I felt like it had a hint of honey in it..... or that it had inside it a taste of summer's sunshine that I remember from when I was a kid and would be swinging on the swing, singing yet another song that I sang to God (I remember something about owls, I told God what ever I was thinking about) .... those swings I remember using after dinner in our back yard, and I knew my Mom could see me as she was washing dishes.... ♡♡♡♡ Such a wonderful happy memory!

Wednesday: Feast Day Fish Day, Freezer Day and Cleo

I recorded parts of today on Social media and will copy 

these here....

1. Well. Since we were not able to do the trek out to liturgy today, I went and decided to have hot oatmeal. We don't have our heat on yet and it was 67F so a few degrees chillier than it has been. Nice actually. Anyway, yeah SO here's one of those 'don't do this as I did it' stories. Oatmeal, water in microwave 2.30 minutes. I covered the tall bowl with the splatter plastic thing and was talking to my Husband as I went to grab it. I had noticed that some spilled out (so much for the splatter guard) but had not realized that the 'oatmeal microwave mushroom' was still inflated/sticking to the plastic splatter guard. Next thing I know, I have lava-steaming oatmeal sliding down my right hand HOT and I scream, said something I should not have and dropped the plastic splatter guard, managing to spill oatmeal on both the stove top and floor. YOUCH!!! Cold water treatments ensued, and later clean up and eating what was still in the bowl (with raisins and maple syrup, the syrup glass jar being used to put the top of my hand on for further cooling). My hand is fine now and only a little sensitive. I have made oatmeal various times in the microwave, next time I will pay more attention!!! Hopefully the rest of today is without incident... (defrosting the freezer today!)

2. Today my Husband did a valiant job defrosting the garage freezer! (I did the food taking out and putting back, he dealt with the actual freezer). We now have a list of what foods are there and where + a more organized frost free freezer! Preparing meals will be easier also with a good sense of what foods we have on hand. :) (Also, it's on cinder blocks as a flooding precaution, which is needed where we live!)

3.  Look where I found Cleo! Guess we will have to keep the laundry door closed from now on... she has been hanging out in the laundry room all week it seems (it's a glorified closet with shelves basically, I am thankful for it!)... Cleo likes to change where she hides so I am sure she will find a new spot soon! (She also loves empty boxes, under chairs at the dining room table, etc)... Husband says he would call Cleo dumb as a rock but he has seen some quartz that is brighter ;) )

So there's some bits of today. 

My hand is fine btw, it was not a serious burn just a 

temporarily hurtful one.  I am so glad it was not worse! 

Husband took me out to our favourite diner, his fish salad is shown above :)

It was a bit of a rough morning,

the day got better as it went along. 

It's like it got off on the wrong foot and took a while to 

straighten. 

***

Well, I am praying for dear ones who are really sick or have sick kids,

for those in really trying circumstances.

My day was a normal mixed up day, not a crushing hard day.

I am so grateful for that!