What Is Missing?

One sweet friend mentioned that she noticed I do not usually include recipes with my posts of the food I serve.

That is true.

It is usually a purposeful decision on my part.

I have a reason for that but like usual, I was tongue tied with my in-person response to my dear friend.

It got me thinking as to what I wanted to say if I was not so bumbly with my in-person communication skills.

So I thought I would post about it!

Here goes!

We all feed our families.

I happen to make for seventeen people.

Some for a family of two or three or eight.

I have found there is beauty in seeing beyond what is on the plate.

For instance, this first picture is of what I call Sir Joel's Macadamia Nut Cookies with chocolate and white chocolate chip cookies.

No real reason for the name other than it was cute.

Just your run of the mill chocolate chip cookie recipe but I decreased the brown sugar and increased the white sugar each by 1/4th of a cup and I use half shortening and half butter.

What makes this plate of cookies special?

I had this extra dough leftover from my Farmer's Market last week. Nolan was looking kind of sad one evening so I made this plate of cookies just for him. When I was not looking Lily stole two of the cookies off the plate, turned her back to me and ate them. I did not discipline her even though I should have. We just laughed and Nolan appreciated having his own plate of cookies.

See this is a beautiful and special plate of cookies.



The next picture is, as you see, very yummy looking (sarcasm? maybe).

It was our dinner Saturday evening.

Pizza bread with beans and fruit.

Special thing about this meal?

A friend came over this past Friday night with what seemed like hundreds of cans of fruit, veggies, soups, etc... Our job was to go through the cans and toss away anything expired and keep the good stuff. It took a lot of the night which in turn caused me to not have time to bake for the farmer's market. I, at the time, was less that cheerful about the task.

BUT

Looking at this plate now I do not just see some pizza sauce and cheese on a slab of bread with boring canned beans and fruit.

No,no.

I see a blessing.

It was a blessing hidden in a package I could not see at the time I was sorting the cans. It was God's kindness showered down on me and he graciously opened my eyes to understand what he had done for me.

For my family.

I see that and it is so very beautiful.

Another beautiful thing about this meal was that Jeff thanked me beyond what he would usually do for making the meal. This was a very late ten pm meal 'cause Jeff took most of the kids to watch the Waseca Braves baseball game across the street. He did not think he would be hungry but once he was home he realized he was very hungry. I do not even think he realized he was eating the canned food from the night before. He was just hungry.

Beautiful plate.



SO

In a nut shell, my blog is really not always about the food I might be fixing that day,the recipes I might use, or the nitty gritty 'how to' on a school project or sewing project or whatever I post about on a particular day.

There are some awesome blogs out there with great recipes, parenting advice, schooling tips, adoption issues advice, large family logistics...

I am not a gourmet cook, a great writer, wise in the Titus 2 ways, or even what I would call a great wife or mom

BUT

there is beauty in my life.

There is beauty in all of our lives.

Beauty does not have to be fancy.

It can be simple.

Beauty is in a burned cookie, a late supper, a before bed prayer, a flower in the garden, a freezie-pop, a sewing project, even a can of fruit.

Read that again this way:

The beauty is not always the burned cookie, the late supper, the before bed prayer, the flower in the garden, the freezie-pop, the sewing project, even the can of fruit.

The beauty is in those things.

I would want you to look at your own life, your own home, your own children, your own husband, your own way of doing things, and see all the beauty God has placed there for you to see.


That is more of what my blog is about.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom