Be Encouraged

 

A Day in the Park

 I should warn you that this post is going to be mostly pictures from our day at our favorite state park...Cathedral State Park.  It's about an hour away from our home.  It is the home of one of the largest stands of virgin Hemlocks in West Virginia.  I love going to this park and just hiking one of the trails.  Walking into this forest truly melts away any stress.

Gone-All-Day-Stew

 When our children were younger there was a recipe that I made quite often.  I'd forgotten about it until just recently when I was going through my recipe box.  The original recipe came from Taste of Home magazine, I believe.  I made this on Saturday of last week for us to enjoy over the weekend.  It was just as good as ever, so thought I would share the recipe with you.

Gone-All-Day-Stew

1 can tomato soup, undiluted

1 cup water or red wine

1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur's 1 for 1 gluten free flour and it worked fine)

2 pounds beef chuck, fat trimmed, cut in 1-inch to 2-inch cubes

3 medium carrots, cut in 1-inch diagonal slices

6 white boiling onions or yellow onions quartered

4 medium potatoes, cut in 1-1/2-inch chunks

1/2 cup 1-inch celery chunks

12 whole large fresh mushrooms

2 beef bouillon cubes

1 Tablespoon Italian her seasoning or 1 teaspoon each oregano, thyme, and rosemary

1 bay leaf

3 grinds fresh pepper

Mix together soup, water/wine, and flour until smooth; combine with remaining ingredients in covered roasting pan.  Bake at 275 degrees F for 4-5 hours.  

I would recommend that sometime around three hours you check to make sure that there is enough liquid still in the roaster to keep everything from sticking.  

Kindness ...

 is showing up everywhere...

in books..."I don't know what other people think-but I know what I think," my mother replied.  "I think everyone needs to be kind-especially doctors.  You can be a very great doctor and still be kind. That's partly why I like Dr. O'Reilly so much more than the first oncologist I saw-not because she's a woman but because she's kind."

"But you always taught us that sometimes people aren't nice because they aren't happy."

"Yes, but maybe those people shouldn't be looking after other people.  And I'm also talking about kindness, not just being nice.  You can be gruff or abrupt and still be kind.  Kindness has much more to do with what you do than how you do it.  And that's why I didn't have much sympathy for Hanna's mother in People of the Book.  She was a doctor and a mother, and she wasn't kind."  This was part of a conversation between a mother (who is undergoing chemo for her cancer treatment) and her adult son in the book The End of Your Life Book Club...page 110.  I enjoyed this so much because of this post that I did last week...it fit right in.  

And kindness is also showing up in other places...

I found this journal a few months ago when we were out shopping one day. 

It's one of those things that you know was placed there just for you.

It's now my place for keeping special quotes.

From My Journal

 TODAY IS: September 9, 2024

AROUND ME: The high for today is expected to be 76 degrees with hazy sunshine.  We've been enjoying those beautiful early foggy mornings.  I just love those kinds of beginnings to a day!

I AM PONDERING: "When your dreams are vague, it's easy to rationalize exceptions all day long and never get around to the specific things you need to do to succeed." James Clear

AMONG MY FAVORITE THINGS:  

BOOKS I AM CURRENTLY ENJOYING:  

  Refreshment for the Soul is a collection of Richard Sibbes thoughts on different topics and is compiled as a devotional.  So, it will be an ongoing reading throughout this year.

The Soul's Conflict by Richard Sibbes

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

I AM THANKFUL FOR: Our grandchildren who call us and stay in touch even though they are all grown up.  Our "baby" of the lot started college last month!  But she still calls "just to check to see how you and Pop Pop are doing, Grandma".  Our grandson called yesterday afternoon on his way home after church and doing some shopping.  

I'm also thankful for our church and our pastor who preaches the truth of the Gospel.  Also thankful for our church family.

FROM THE KITCHEN:  I don't have a picture, but we finished up the grape juice production this past week with four more quarts of juice, for a total of 20 quarts for the winter when the snow starts to fly!

SOMETHING I REALLY ENJOY: 

We took the day off on Friday and went to visit one of our favorite state parks.  This is from the trail that we hiked.  After our hike, we sat at one of the picnic tables and ate our picnic lunch. Such a lovely day.

TO DO LIST FOR TODAY:  Making red raspberry juice with the fruit steamer so I can have it for jelly making a bit later this autumn.

"So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom."

Psalm 91:12