Monday, September 01, 2008

MONDAY MENU
I am not quite ready to post my menu for the week, as I want to include links to some of the recipes I will be using, so for now, I will just post today's menu.

Breakfast: I had homemade granola, frozen blueberries, and milk. The children had Cheerios (generic) with blueberries and milk.

Lunch: Leftovers. We were blessed with several meals while Matt was in the hospital, so we are finishing those off. Lasagna, grapes, salad, and chicken fingers. Popsicles for dessert.

Snack: Muscadine grapes

Dinner: We are having friends over for dinner and will be having pesto pasta with pine nuts, salad, and bread. Simple dinner. We will make the pesto out of the fresh basil in my garden. Served over a bed of wheat pasta with a sprinkling of pine nuts and slivers of parmesan. Yum.


Last night, I was surveying the pantry, and realized that I am running low on Jam. I am not a huge fan of peach jam, and the only other local fruit that I could think of is Muscadines, but I didn't know where to get any inexpensively. This afternoon, I took the boys to visit Darcie. As soon as I walked in the door, my daddy asked me if I would like muscadines (I didn't know they even grew any!). I spent an enjoyable half hour with him, filling metal tubs with all the muscadines I could carry home. Matt loves them, as do the boys. I am sure they will eat their fill, and the rest will be made into jam (muscadines make unbelievably delicious jam!). That is one thing I really appreciate about these times of living with less. I become so much more aware of the wonderful provisions God supplies us. When I am being really careful with our resources, the joy of every unexpected gift is heightened.

Living with less shows me how much I have. The more I eliminate, the richer I feel. The things that really matter are able to take center stage, after removing the clutter of the excess. The more I let go off, the freer I feel, and the more I want to let go. Then, the gift of a simple desire, answered in a most unexpected way, can really shine.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." -James 1:17

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:22 AM

    I would like to know how you make your jam out of the muscadines. We have lots of them that will go to waste. You can email me @ kim_white@mohawkind.com

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  2. pretty post! Love that your daddy and Daddy provided :)
    I wish I knew friends/had family that farmed or gardened AT ALL...it's crazy that I know NO ONE! A good friend of mine in NC has her neighbors and church friends bringing her unbelievable amounts of squash, tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, and on and on.
    I need some get-dirt-under-your-fingernails buddies!!

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  3. Anonymous9:51 AM

    I've never even seen a muscadine, let alone tasted one! :-) This is a nice post, Laurel. Your last paragraph really resonated with me as I feel the same way.

    Susan

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