Category: Winter

Perseverance

Thank you all for your patience during this time. For many months my site was down and after many attempts of trying figure out the problem and of course, googling it, I gave up. I wondered if I should just quit but I didn’t get a clear answer that I was supposed to stop. Thanks to a wonderful techy friend, Noemi, who gave of her time one afternoon. She patiently worked with me, from long distance, and was able to get it out of the doldrums!

My next hurdle was to figure out how I was going to back up the site! It sat on a back burner in my mind and I even thought I didn’t have anything more to write! On Tuesday evening we had enough snow to create work for the snow removal team here at Landis Property Services! You might wonder how that plays into this? Well my dear husband went out to work at 7PM and didn’t come home until after 11. It’s something about a snowy night and time alone. I decided to tackle this problem. After the backing up there were still issues of updating, etc. As I texted a friend….it is like a puzzle with each step coming together. This sunny Friday afternoon the puzzle ( I hope!) is completed and I can once again express my thoughts and inspirations with you.

If I have anything to share from this experience, it might be the idea of perseverance. Perseverance is not a gift that we receive but as the dictionary says, it is the continued pursuit and persistence in any business or enterprise. As a side note, this can be good or evil.

Roman 5:3 says that tribulation brings about perseverance. There seems to be different kinds of things we need to persevere through. Being a follower of Jesus can result in suffering and hardship. It can also be the daily pressures, distresses, and troubles we experience. But the product of perseverance brings us patient endurance. The next time we struggle with pressing through a situation we remember that we got through the last difficulty with the Lord’s help. It might be a marriage issue, job frustration, children or a medical issue; even a project, a dream, or a blog site! How important is the word patient in connection with endurance? Without patience we might be enduring with anger, frustration, or hopelessness. Patience is a fruit of the spirit that we need to desire to grow within us. We are building a foundation of patient endurance which is demonstrated to ourselves and others with proven character (spiritual maturity). I believe trust is being built. Others can depend on our stability as they observe us persevere.

The fruit of proven character is hope! Hope in God’s promises never disappoints us, because God’s love has been abundantly poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us! Hope is based on the love of our Heavenly Father. The love that never changes. His love was demonstrated by giving us His only son Jesus. Our hearts receive it by the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Oh what joy! Read Romans 5: 1-5 for the fullness of it all.

I leave you with this. Consider whether the things you are persevering for will be of lasting value. Make sure you are persevering for the things with an eternal perspective.

Soup for a Winter Day

One of my favorite dishes to prepare is a pot of soup especially when the winter day is gray and gloomy.  There is no snow on the ground today and it is actually warm for the middle of winter.  But as I thought about what to prepare for lunch today, the thought of a savory soup came to mind.

The first thing I did was check out the soup section of my personal notebook of recipes to get some ideas.  Yes!! Cabbage Fat-Burning Soup sounded great!  I checked out my storehouse of food to see what ingredients I had available.

The freezer had frozen bags of shredded zucchini and cabbage from my summer garden.  Also a bag of cooked black beans.

Frozen shredded zucchini, black beans, and shredded cabbage were ready to be added to the soup.

Umm…I love making a cabbage soup with lots of other ingredients.  It seemed like a opportune time to empty the remainder of the bag of Swiss Chard into the soup.

 

 

The cellar yielded chopped tomatoes and tomato juice in glass jars.  I choose chicken broth in a cardboard box as the liquid base of the soup.

The jars of canned tomatoes remind me of the hot days September when I was picking and canning these red fruits.

The vegetable keeper in the fridge had the last bag of carrots from the garden.  Amazingly, they were still usable.  There was some chopped onion, extra stalks of celery leftover from a veggie platter, and cooked chicken breast with some broth.  To finish the soup, the kitchen cupboard had pearled barley and Italian seasoning.

I immediately started the process by sauteing onion and celery in coconut oil.  I added about 2 cups of the chicken broth, a pint of the tomatoes in their liquid, and 2 cups of the tomato juice.

Next, 1/3 cup of barley, about 1 cup of chopped carrots, the bag of black beans, the cabbage and zucchini were added.  I thawed them enough so they would break apart and not be one solid chunk.

While those ingredients simmered, I chopped and added the cooked chicken breast and Italian seasonings.  More broth was needed so it would not be too thick.  The soup simmered for about 40 minutes so the barley would be soft and all the flavors combined.

This would be considered a thick, chunky soup but not a chowder since it is not thickened with flour.  The barley seemed to add a bit of thickness so it not completely a clear broth base.

This soup is great for an easy lunch and full of nutrition.  You can do your own version with what you have on hand when you start thinking it is a soup day!

I would love to hear what soups you enjoy.

“My husband said that his favorite soup is my homemade tomato soup!”