Nurturing with food

Around the farmhouse this week

• New cookbook!! Woohoo!
  • The Homestead Canning Cookbook: great recipe for dill pickle relish to try
• Upcycled produce bags - hahaha
  • Just wash and presto! A bread bag! Pretty funny hanging on the clothesline to dry followed by rain
  • They are working out great -- just need some way to hold them all together in the drawer
• Birthday cake
  • Wow! Gluten free and it worked; used another new cookbook, Gluten Free Baking Classics
• Shopping local
  • Ray's Produce
    
  • Nap's Thriftway
  • Ace Hardware
    
• Vegetarian Chili for 8
• Homemade Applesauce
• Setting up process for apple cider vinegar
  • Remember to check it on May 29th!
    

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Quote for the week

"As I let my eyes look deeply into my own heart and yours, I am increasingly aware of how lost we are... Apart from the love of God in our lives, we are a people lost at sea, without anchors. We stand alone without supporting walls, without a floor to walk on, without a ceiling to protect us, without a hand to guide us, without eyes that look at us with love, without a companion to show the way."

Discernment, Nouwen      
Introduction      

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Apart from God's love in our lives, we are homeless and without family. Devastating.

I am grateful, so grateful for a week filled with family. Time with our children and grandchildren. But also filled with cooking and baking for them -- they have their own homes now, but I can still nurture with good food.

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Dear Farmhouse Diary,

What a week - we were able to visit my daughter in Bend to celebrate both Mother's Day and her birthday!  Wow, she is 25 years old. Not even sure how to wrap my head around that one. It was a great two days; we hacked our Elk Lake practice of everyone being responsible for two meals and we were able to eat our way through so much family time. Our vegetarian chili and the Boss's famous GF waffles with fresh whip cream were nice overnight bookends. Our Canby Son's chicken marsala with biryani was superb.  And we ended the weekend with some great food from Kefi's!  And so much cake and gelato.  I'm not sure how we had time to play outside, go for walks, take pictures, and play D&D with our eldest daughter the DM. 

And throughout the weekend we played with Little Guy and Donasourus -- big trucks, tickles, running circles through the house, reading stories.  My favorite moment was Little Guy wanting to drink "coffee" with Nonna!  My mug and his mug  -- filled with water -- next to each other while he sat on my lap telling me all about life. Perfect moments.

Our daughter and son are doing a great job of parenting and it is amazing how the boys have thrived during the 73 days of stay-at-home life -- I only know it's 73 days because their Mother pointed it out to us quite emphatically.  I hope they will take time in the near future to reflect on what they accomplished in the face of some pretty stiff challenges -- if you are reading this, you did a good job. I know it was beyond hard to be alone without extended family's physical support, but you did it.

And you did it well.