Simply Norma – Page 98 – Living Simply

Blessings

A kindness, a smile, the smell of fresh rain, the bagging of my groceries, sometimes I am too busy to notice them — the blessings that surround me.

Struggles seem to want to overwhelm me — death, separation, jealousy, anger, sadness, loneliness —

And yet, the blessings are there.

I recently heard this song called Blessings. It’s really really pretty. And the lyrics are so nice.

Blessings

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace

Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know Youâ€™re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know Youâ€™re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know Youâ€™re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world canâ€™t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

The Ten Commandments

Written-in-Stone!

This is a great study on the Ten Commandments.

Sgt Peppers Grille & Bar

Last evening we went to Sgt. Peppers Grille & Bar in Oakdale, MN.

It was around 5:15 p.m. and we were seated right away in a booth next to the front door. The woman who seated us brought over a bowl of popcorn and set it on the table. Oh! I love popcorn. This popcorn though was quite salty. Not good for someone who has high blood pressure. Perhaps they should allow people to add their own salt at their table.

The waitress came right away and offered us drinks. I asked for a root beer with just a little ice. She came with a glass of root beer filled with ice. I tried taking the ice out and putting it in another glass but the cubes were quite large and they started falling on the floor. Oh well … when the waitress came back, I asked her if she could take some of the ice out. She whisked my drink away and brought me another one.

We had three items from the menu:

Chicken Rice Soup
Chicken Pot Pie
Gyros (beef and lamb) with french fries

My husband said that the chicken rice soup was not as good as the one I make at home. Not bad but not very good.

The chicken pot pie was “weird” — my husband’s description. It had mashed potatoes in it and “I wished I would have ordered something else.” Not good. It did come with garlic bread though.

Next there was the gyros entree. It actually was pretty good although it didn’t have the usual feta cheese crumbled on it.

Lastly were the french fries. They would have been good but were doused in — salt! Again, if they would just leave the salt out then more of this visit would have gone well.

I could hardly eat them and left more than 3/4 of them.

The atmosphere was noisy but that’s to be expected because there’s a sports bar connected to the restaurant. The waitress had no animation and just seemed to go through the motions.

Ahhh well, we’ll continue looking for restaurants in the area.

Raking Leaves

Night is drawing near and I’m … raking leaves.

I enjoy raking leaves. It’s weird I know but … it’s what I enjoy.

Instead of pushing the leaves away from me with the push broom, I like to push them towards me. It doesn’t matter that it rained last night and everything is still partially wet. The clouds hovered in the sky today but not one raindrop fell.

Leaves — leaves — leaves.

The Walk

I’m not sure why I decided that today, when the temperature is a cool 54 degrees and the wind is blowing more than 20 mph, would be the day I took my first Minnesota “long” walk. As my custom was in Seattle, I picked the closest place to my house where I could get a cup of hot chocolate — Dunn Brothers. I allowed 1 hour for this walk of 2.75 miles — Mapquest said it would take me an hour and 6 minutes.

The roads are fairly flat in Minnesota, or so I thought. Driving in a car is much different than walking. I hadn’t noticed all of the small upward slopes in my neighborhood and the roads seem long with bare trees snugging up to them.

A neighbor is ready for the fall season.

The corn fields have already been harvested and everything looks quite bare.

Turning onto the next road, I wonder if I made the right decision — walking when the winds are over 20 mph. Decision time … should I walk with traffic or walk towards the ongoing traffic? I’m sure there’s a rule about this somewhere. My decision is based on the question that pops into my head “Do I want to see a car hit me or be surprised?” I decide to be surprised and walk with traffic.

No sidewalks here — only me, the road and a few cars that pass me by.

The silence is broken as I walk past an overpass — Interstate 694.

P1070422 — Interstate 694 in Oakdale, MN

And — civilization seems to be straight ahead.

There are signs of winter approaching …

And signs that summer wants to hold on …

Although I lamented that I hadn’t brought my iPod, at the end of my journey I was glad that I had time to reflect — time to be in silence. Those moments are few in this busy world.

My destination was reached in exactly 58 minutes. Not bad for my first long walk in Minnesota.

P1070432 — Dunn Brothers Coffee, Oakdale, MN

And their hot chocolate is not too bad.

First Wood Pile in Minnesota

Having 5 trees felled, we had plenty of wood on the ground that we needed to have split so we could use it in our fireplace this winter.

I checked on Craigslist and found a young man who advertised splitting wood for $25 an hour. I thought that was more than fair so I contacted him and he came out and split the wood. A small bit of a problem occurred though when he came to get paid. He had brought a friend with him who helped him with the work. When he came to collect, he gave me the amount he wanted.

I was rather shocked as it was double what he had stated in the ad. I told him that was not the price in the ad. His response was “It’s $25 per man.” I explained that the ad didn’t say that. He then started talking about how he worked in construction for awhile and this was the going rate, blah, blah, blah. I told him “Well, I don’t work in construction so I wouldn’t know that. I’m going by your ad which says $25 an hour. It says nothing about “per person.”

Unfortunately, I paid him the amount. First, I felt it was fair. At $25 an hour for only him, it would have taken him double the time. The price included the wood splitter that he brought with him.

It was bittersweet. I was previously told that a cord of wood could be split in 20 minutes. They did 3 cords and it took them 3 1/2 hours. But they weren’t lounging around. The hauling of the wood to the wood splitter (especially because the pieces were large) took a lot of work.

We bought a kit that we put together for him to load the wood onto. It worked very well.

It worked very well and sits about 7 feet from the side door to our garage.

So, we went from this —

To this …

I also made my own wood pile rack. I’ll post that at a future date.

[amazon_link id=”B0000TPRD6″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ] Landmann 82433 8-Foot Firewood Log Rack Only [/amazon_link]

Sweet Potato Hash

A quick and easy dinner with loads of good stuff!

Ingredients

2 teaspoons oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled & cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup frozen corn or 1 can of corn
15 ounce can of black beans, rinsed
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat
Add the onion and saute until browned in spots
Add the sweet potato and stir until it starts browning in spots (approximately 5-7 minutes)
Stir in the garlic, cumin and salt then saute until fragrant (about 30 seconds)
Add water and cook the mixture (scraping up any browned bits) until liquid is absorbed
Stir in the corn and beans then cook until heated through and the sweet potato is soft (prick a fork through a piece to test it)
Season with salt and pepper

Dice the sweet potato and rinse the beans

Mix everything together and heat through

Very easy and you can have most of the ingredients in your cupboard most of the time.

Enjoy!

Minnesota Sunrise

Beautiful sunrises greet me as I drive my husband to work.

Another day alive. I continue to learn to make the best of my moments. Life is not a guarantee.

Back at the house, the smell in the air reminds me of the times I spent at camp when I was growing up. The almost naked trees allow the sun to filter through the branches.

When the leaves turn colors in autumn, I am always drawn to their beauty. Â As the season continues, the leaves turn brown, shrivel up and die. I rake them up and shovel them back onto the property.

Life resembles the season of the leaves. In the autumn of our lives, we become more beautiful as we look back and realize how much wisdom we truly have. We allow ourselves to be who we are and not who others want us to be. But then our bodies, like the leaves, start to wither. And slowly, ever so slowly, we fall to the ground and die.

Our words and actions are composted back through those who love us.

We need to stop and see the beauty in the people around us while they/we are alive.

Minnesota Autumn

We’ve had 8 straight days of 80 degree weather in October — unusual for Minnesota. The normal temperatures are in the 60’s.

I’ve been basking in it and working furiously on our yard. So many things to do to prepare for winter. Unlike Seattle, we have lots of leaves to rake, wood that needs to be stacked, deck furniture that needs to be put away, etc. etc.

The leaves on the trees have been beautiful.

It’s a beautiful season — autumn in Minnesota.

Nacho Mamas

Heading back through Stillwater across the bridge from Wisconsin after an errand, we stopped at a small restaurant called Nacho Mama’s.

One would think, by the name, that they served mainly nachos and that the prices would be inexpensive. Not so.

The sign as you enter warns of large portion sizes — “Where the small is big and the large is huge.”

The menu is quite varied and a tad bit expensive during the lunch hour.

My husband had the Chipotle Steak Sandwich which he said was rather good.

I had tacos. Three tacos. The first bite caused me to reach for my water glass. Not a fan of spicy foods, I was rather shocked that they did not list the fact that this was a spicy dish.

When I mentioned the spiciness to the waitress, her response was “All of our foods are spicy. I can’t tell every customer that.”

That was disturbing to me and I should have sent the tacos back but instead I muddled through and ate the rice and beans which were pretty good.

Nacho Mamas — you really should make a note on your menu that all of your entrees are spicy. You may lose some customers but at least you won’t have any unhappy ones.