Busy Is The New Cool

If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy.  If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem.  But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.  -E.B. White

I work, you work, we all work.  My house needs cleaning, your house needs cleaning, all of our houses need cleaning.  I need groceries, etc. etc. etc.  Sabbath can be a moment or a breath, but I implore you to try to set a day aside.  DECLARE it yours.  I promise your house will NOT be dirtier than before.  You will find time to shop for groceries, and as far as work goes...don't be surprised if you get just as much, or even more, done because you have honored your body, mind and spirit with rest!

Slow Cooker Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Soup
Recipe adapted from A Year in Slow Cooking
Serves 4
Time: 6-8 hours

Ingredients
2 cups pumpkin puree (canned or fresh)
6 cups vegetable stock
2 carrots
1/2 white onion (about 1 cup chopped)
2 stalks celery (about 1 cup chopped)
2 tbsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
1 tbsp brown sugar (white sugar, agave, maple or honey would work too)
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pepper (to taste)

Garnish
Soup Cream (leave out to make it vegan)
Fresh basil leaves

Directions
Dump the pumpkin puree, vegetable stock, sugar, garlic and spices into your crockpot and stir. Add the chopped vegetables.
*In all honesty, you can just dump everything in the crockpot at once give it a quick stir, and let it cook. It’s soup, not rocket science.

Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
*My crockpot cooks at a fairly high temperature, even on low, so it only took 6 hours. Yours might take closer to 8 hours. Cooking times vary per crockpot.

Blend the cooked soup in batches. This requires that you have an extra bowl handy to dump the blended soup into while you scoop the chunky soup out of the crockpot.
Add the blended soup back tot he crockpot and keep warm until ready to serve.
*If you want a creamy pumpkin soup, add 1/4 cup heavy cream while blending the soup and serve immediately.

The Gift of Rest

God graces us with rest; and as we respond with our gratitude, receiving the gift we begin to enter into tht balanced life which is our destiny as people of a loving creator. Elizabeth J. Canham. from "Catch Your Breath"

"Enough is as good as a feast"...Mary Poppins

- October 15, 2013 -    Enough for This Day When we breathe, we do not stop inhaling because we have taken in all the oxygen we will ever need, but because we have all the oxygen we need for this breath. Then we exhale, release carbon dioxide, and make room for more oxygen. Sabbath, like the breath, allows us to imagine we have done enough work for this day. Do not be anxious about tomorrow, Jesus said again and again. Let the work of this day be sufficient. Wayne Muller Source: Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest

Just 10 minutes

Sometimes I wonder if we don't think of sabbath as a luxury rather than a necessity? Something that has to have the right setting or circumstances to fully enjoy the moment. But really, sabbath moments are pretty easy if you practice taking them. In the book Catch your Breath Thich Nhat Hahn, a well known Buddhist monk takes a sabbath breath whenever he hears a bell toll... He pauses and breathes for the length of the sound. As I was writing this the train went by, breathe....children laughing, breathe. The luxury of sabbath breathe is all around, reach out and take a breath.

Sabbath Is SO Not A Wednesday!

As you know I continue to search for the perfect Sabbath time, and day, and setting, that's really going to work for multiple schedules.  So I may still not know when Sabbath is, but I do know for sure it's not a Wednesday.  In an effort to avoid being too graphic, let me just say that my day started with both dogs, YES BOTH, showing very colorful, and repeated,  signs of having round worm.  Sigh.  Good morning Wednesday.  Sick son, but luckily not so sick he couldn't come to work with me and read.  I lost the cover sheet of my morning presentation, so had to fake it with the scribbled version on my crumpled pink note paper.  Then my actual presentation had mysteriously reverted back to size 11 font.  It's not that I'm old or anything, but I'm just saying...size 11 font is no longer my best friend, when I'm trying to glance up and down for a presentation.

Because I go to Sem on Tuesdays and Thursdays Wednesdays is my long day (12 hours) so I am working on crazy projects and papers and people, oh my!  (Okay not ALL of the people are crazy but just enough of them to remind me this is NOT the day of rest, or sanity :)

But even in the midst of this wacky Wednesday I know I have Wednesday Night Worship at the close of the day.  45 minutes of Sabbath to call my own.  Every week I am torn between reveling in the amazing worship experience and feeling heartbroken for those who couldn't attend.

Anyway the moral of this Sabbath tale is this:  Try to find even a moment of Sabbath in each and every day.  Eek it out wherever you can.

Be Blessed, with Rest!

Catch Your Breath; God's Invitation to Sabbath Rest

Join Pastor Breckenridge as she leads us through this study!!

HEY! A NEW RECIPE!

Breakfast casserole in the crock pot! 
Cooks while you sleep! 

Ingredients:
1 bag 26 oz. frozen hash browns
12 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon ground mustard
1 16 oz. roll sausage
maple, sage or regular sausage.
Salt and pepper
16 oz. bag shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. Spray crock pot and evenly spread hash browns at the bottom.
2. Crack 12 eggs in a large bowl.
3. Mix well (and slowly) using a whisk.
4. Add the milk.
5. Go ahead and sprinkle in the ground mustard. This might sound like a weird ingredient, but I've come to love (and use) this in most of my recipes.
6. Add plenty of salt....
...and lots of fresh pepper. Mix well and set aside.
7. Cook the sausage on high heat, drain and set aside.

8. Add sausage on top of hash browns.
9. Is this enough cheese? Maybe? Probably. Throw the whole big bag in there.
10. Mix it up well. Or good, depending on where you're from.
11. Pour the egg mixture over everything in the crock pot. Using a wood spoon, even everything out so it's spread evenly.
12. Turn the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours.