You're Only As Strong As Your Snacks

I just finished my morning bike ride and head straight back to the garden for a quick snack.  Plucking a ripe cherry tomato off the vine, I next visit my basil.  I tear off a few tender leaves and wrap one singular leaf around each cherry red orb.  

Then I bite.  And, oh, that full summer flavor explodes in my mouth.

Last week our church family had the honor of framing out two houses to be given to two separate Virginia-based families in need of homes.  The temps soared to the high 90's as the sun beat down upon us.  I took a few extra trail mix packets and bottles of water from the snack bin our dear senior saints were passing out and walked around encouraging others to eat and drink some as well.

"You're only as strong as your snacks".  I repeated again and again.

Sure, it sounds a bit funny.  But true, right?  {Physically speaking, of course.  We could get into a whole spiritual analogy here; but that's another blog post for another day.}  We lead busy lives.  We have full schedules.  We can only expect to be able to move forward in full energy if we are fueling our bodies with good stuff ~ the nutrients that it requires to complete the tasks you are asking it to do. 

You wouldn't pour sand in your gas tank and then expect your car to run at premium efficiency, would you?  Our bodies are designed to work optimally when they are filled with the fuel they were created to process ~ food, real food.  

So go ahead and get yourself a snack.  Something real.  Something your body can run on.

Enjoy today,

P.S. You are welcome here! Thank you for stopping by for a visit. Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment and sharing your thoughts.

At Last

It hasn't rained here in days.  Whenever that happens mid-summer, it feels as if the earth reaches a point of just dry, hard-packed ground.  Okay, I know I'm being a little melodramatic here, but in the heat of summer when the temperatures soar high in the morning and don't come back down...it just starts to feel like the desert. 

I think I heard my garden audibly sigh as the sky cracked open and the first gush fell.  Forty-five minutes later, it's still coming down.  That sweet soaking summer rain. 

The chickens all ran for cover under the nesting box, waiting the storm out.

The rain will pass and the earth will dry out again.  But for now, the soil is back to that beautiful rich brown humus ~ and the dusty garden beds are a thing of the past.

Embrace the moment.

Enjoy today,

P.S. You are welcome here! Thank you for stopping by for a visit. Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment and sharing your thoughts.

CORD for dinner!

We like to keep it simple 'round here on Sunday evenings.  After a good-sized lunchtime meal of pot roast or something similar in the slow cooker, what do we enjoy for Sunday dinner?  CORD! 

Or to put it more simply ~ Clean Out the Refrigerator Dinner.  I am not the originator of this brilliant acronym; but my children are so much more excited about CORD than they are when "leftovers" are announced.  Don't ask me why, but there is something about the silliness of spelling it out that makes them giggle and gets them excited to see what will end up on their plates.

Tonight's featured plate of CORD?  Peanuts, apple slices, cherry tomatoes, ants on a log (peanut butter in a celery stick with raisins on top) and tortilla pinwheels (cream cheese spread on a whole wheat tortilla, topped with spinach, roast turkey and pepper jack cheese). 

This gives me the opportunity to get the leftovers out and tidy the fridge for the upcoming week, and the kids a chance to be surprised on their plates.  A perfect match in my book.

Enjoy today,

P.S. You are welcome here! Thank you for stopping by for a visit. Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment and sharing your thoughts.

Celebrating Summer!

Summer is in full swing around the U.S. ~ and we love it!  Our black-eyed-susans are on the cusp of bursting forth in their golden goodness, the kids are all sucking down homemade apple-kiwi-strawberry Popsicles in the backyard humidity and dragonflies and bees swirl through our garden in their flight.  Beauty. 

Soak it in!  God's beauty and gifts are all around you.

Don't yearn for the next season or look wistfully on the past one that is gone. 

Open your eyes and look around you.  What sorts of beauty do you see?  It's there.  It's always there, waiting to be spied.  Once you see it?  Thank God.  

Open your heart and hands to receive and give His blessings and goodness today.

"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

Enjoy today,

P.S. You are welcome here! Thank you for stopping by for a visit. Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment and sharing your thoughts.