Top Ten Fall Recipes

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I love fall!  I love winter.  I enjoy the snugginess (new word) of the season.  I drink more tea or hot water with honey.  I especially like the foods of Fall/Winter–root vegetables, soups, stews, with homemade bread and biscuits.

I recently moved and found tons of recipes–this particular batch are from my side of the family.  These are the foods that we had growing up and a few are newer–like the corn pudding my sister in law makes–so good.  One day I’ll write my cook book and include all of these recipes–I especially like the recipes in my Mom’s handwriting–scribbled on whatever paper was available.  In that cookbook . . . I will have as many of the original recipes–following a recipe that is handwritten . . . makes me feel like I have a special connection . . . just like when I use my husband’s grandmothers measuring spoons–I wonder if she ever thought that someone like me would be using them nearly everyday. . . I wonder if my kids will use those same measuring spoons or will they get something new and fancy?

Grandma’s Spoons

Aunt Laura’s Corn Pudding

Jim’s Soup–my stepfather loved to cook and “play with his food”

my Mom just put it in the oven with whatever else was cooking.

my mom’s handwriting in red pen, on the paper from Michigan Bell, looking very loved

we ate a lot of zucchini

This is from my husband’s family–now a tradition of ours.

a chocolate version

Mary Ellis was my Mom’s best friend–her husband Don was a hoot! and they both loved to cook.

I have been inspired over the years to have wonderfully talented and creative people guiding my own innate foodiness (new word).  This is my Sweet potato muffin recipe.  I play with the ingredients with whatever I have on hand.

Be Blessed and my your hands joyfully prepare meals.  Sometimes when I think cooking is not that exciting any more–I think what if this were my first meal I ever cooked–or the last?  What enthusiasm would I have for the task?

I’m linking up with these wonderful blogs Ultimate Recipe Swap, Many Little Blessings

What is home?

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I like to explore.  I like adventure.  My dream is to live in a caravan and travel between my kids homes.  When I’m too old to drive–they will need to drive me to the next kid’s driveway and park me.  I don’t want a fancy caravan–just enough.  I think about those days when I lived out of my Ford Ranger–with my cat, Alex.  Even though my life was in turmoil, I felt a sense of safety in the solitude and the ability to “run” when things got tough.

To say that I moved a lot would be a misnomer.  I would say that I drifted.

My husband I have spent the bulk of our lives living in Ann Arbor, Michigan (after moving 5 times to 4 states and ending up back where we met).  It is a few miles from the tiny town that I grew up in.

Ann Arbor is still home to me.  One day I’ll do a top ten post (knowing that I can’t keep it down to ten).  We moved over a year ago now and I love, love, love my new house, I’ve met some women that I can consider part of my “sisterhood”–thanks to a special group of women who taught me what a true sisterhood looked like.  I’m active in my church and the schools that my kids go to and dream of starting my own coop.  I am embracing the opportunities here that I never had “at home”.

Yet, it still doesn’t feel like home.  But when I go back “home” that doesn’t feel like home either.  When I go to the cabin–that still feels like home to me.  It always has.

Often times I still feel like I’m drifting.  I am lost.  Still searching . . . chasing after my soul’s delight.

Do you feel this way?  How do you make it feel like home?

Be Blessed.  I’m praying for all of those in our community and communities everywhere that have people like you and I who are homeless.

Thought Provoking Thursday, imperfect prose, thoughtful thursday, thankful thursday, life in bloom, thrive at home on Thursday

Unlikely Friends=Sisterhood

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This past summer I had an opportunity to spend time with some wonderful women.  Ok, it was more than that–I was invited to be part of a sisterhood.  I wasn’t exactly sure how I would fit in.

true sisterhood

I do not have the best track records with establishing friendships.  I lack confidence.  After several failed attempts–I expect nothing and my expectations are met!  I was really nervous, scared, and really didn’t know what to expect.

What I learned from being part of this wonderful group of women is that we are so similar even though they appear so different.  If I had seen these women in the grocery store or passing by them in the library I would not have EVER put this group of women in the same room.  These women were compassionate, encouraging, inspiring and thier honesty and transparency lifted me to a new place.  They lifted each other up.  I went from feeling scared and inadequate to feeling welcomed and honored.

I want to be like those women–my aspiration is to be as encouraging and inspiring as they were (in my everyday life and this blog)–they exuded peace and joy in a way that I have never experienced.  They embraced each other even though they seemed so different.  I could feel their love.  I felt their wisdom.

When will I be like these women?  So I asked.  The answer that I was given is that I am evolving and I need to be patient and continue to learn and grow.  I need to listen to my soul, I need to dance with my soul, I need to hear my soul sing and hum along.  What awesome advice.

I do believe that I am a kindred spirit with those women.  (I hope they feel the same way).  I think about them often and pray for them–that they may continue to be themselves and encourage others just by being.

So now when I’m in the grocery store or the library I look at women and wonder . . . could they be part of my sisterhood?  I am blessed with an awesome everyday friend–the beginnings of my own sisterhood.  I’m looking forward to this new chapter of my life.  To find peace and joy in just being me–how cool would that be?

What does a sisterhood mean to you?  Is it important to you?  Do you have your own sisterhood?  Has your past friendships helped or hindered your want/need/desire/longing to be part of a sisterhood?

Be Blessed.

Walk With Him Wednesday, Deep Roots At Home

Whatever Wednesday,God Bumps and God-Incidences,Unwrapping His Promises Living Well Wednesday,Women in the Word Wednesday,Works for Me Wednesday,wip-wednesday, Company Girl Coffee, Friday Favorite Things, Faith Filled Friday, Just for fun Fridays, Consider the Lilies, in courage