Cultivating a Life of Thanks

It's been quiet over here on the blog. I'm not entirely sure why, but I've been in a bit of a quiet and contemplative mood the past couple of weeks. Thanksgiving has become my absolute favorite holiday. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and some others, but there's just something about a time where you gather with family and friends to collectively reflect on your blessings. Other than the Black Friday mess (that's a WHOLE other story), Thanksgiving is largely untouched by the consumerism and frantic pace that can mar the holidays.


I try to spend the month of November slowing down to really taking note of all of the people and things in my life that I'm grateful for. And while material things sometimes enter the picture, the overwhelming theme to what I'm most grateful for centers around love. This year as I reflect, the verse that the Lord has brought to my heart repeatedly is Psalm 95:2.

How many times do I come to the Lord in prayer and open my mouth to recite a long list of things that I think I need or that I'm worried about before I even consider and thank Him for all that He has done for me? Even if He hadn't blessed me with my husband and children, wonderful family and friends, a comfortable home and a beautiful life, He has still been so good to me. His love has completely transformed me from an insecure, self-loathing girl looking for love, acceptance, and peace in all the wrong places to a completely different woman - a daughter of the King, confident of who He has made me to be and excited to be walking in the destiny He has for my life.

This year, I feel an urgency in my spirit to really strive to create a culture of thanks in our home that extends far beyond Thanksgiving into every aspect of our lives throughout the year. Pure thanks cannot be dependent on our circumstances, because circumstances change. When finding himself in a painful and seemingly impossible circumstance, Paul says:

I don't know about you, but often I can get caught up and focused on the "next thing". Whether it's the next season of life or the next purchase I want to make, my attention can be so consumed in the future. And often, once I get it, I'm not satisfied or at peace.....I'm looking ahead to the next thing! I want it to stop. I want to live each day (not just at Thanksgiving) in the peace and grace that stems from a heart that is truly thankful. I want to be present and engage in where I am right here, right now. I want to put down my phone more and appreciate who and what is right in front of me. I want to show my girls how to be content and thankful instead of telling them they should be. I want to be intentional in how I spend my thoughts, time, money and emotions. I want to give more and desire less. I want to be grateful for each and every gift in front of me because I truly am so very blessed.

Stuffed Green Peppers

We had our first freeze over the weekend and before it arrived, we tore out all of our pepper plants and tried to salvage anything that was left. We had a bunch of green peppers that hadn't had time to turn. I'm not a huge fan of green peppers and wasn't sure what to do with all of them. I decided to give stuffed peppers a try and I'm so glad I did....they were amazing!




Ingredients
- 6 large green peppers (or equivalent)
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 (14.5) oz can peeled and chopped tomatoes
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup uncooked rice (or quinoa)
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzerella
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
- 20 oz. Pacifico creamy tomato soup
- salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut off the tops of the peppers and remove the seeds. Boil a large pot of salted water and drop the peppers in to cook for 5 minutes. Drain and set the peppers in a baking dish.

2. Saute ground turkey and onions until meat is browned and onions are soft. Season with salt and pepper then stir in the tomatoes, rice, Worcestershire sauce and water. Simmer until rice is tender and water is gone. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.

3. Fill the peppers with the meat mixture and pour the tomato soup on top. Enjoy!

DIY Thanksgiving Banner

Saturday was our first winter-like day of the season. It was bitter and raining outside, and my winter instincts kicked in. All I wanted to do was bake, eat, watch movies and do crafts. Now that we are officially in November, I decided to try a little bit of fall decorating as we will be hosting my family for Thanksgiving this year. Our great room has a large fireplace and mantle where I have placed an antique stained glass window. I figured a Thanksgiving banner would be a great addition for the month. 

Supplies

- scrap fabric, up to 1/2 yard depending on how many letters you want to do

- stencils

- paint

- garden string

- hot glue gun

- scissors or rotary cutter

- small piece of cardstock

1. Decide what message you want to display and cut out a 3" x 5" piece of fabric for each letter. I didn't have anything in my fabric scraps that had the exact texture I was looking for, so I used a lining fabric and a lace fabric and sewed them together with a quick stitch at the top.

 2. I arranged the stencils over the fabric pieces and painted them with some leftover paint from a furniture project.

 

 

3. Once the paint dried, I took a small piece of card stock and made a triangular stencil so that I could mark off and cut a triangle in the bottom of the fabric. 

4. I then took a generous length of garden twine, centered the letters on it with 1" space in between and hot glued the fabric to the string.  

5. Then I attached to the back of the stained glass window and on the mantle. (Sorry for the terrible photo quality! It's so hard to get a clear photo with the windows on either side.)

It was a cheap and easy way to dress up the mantle, and I will probably make another one when the Christmas season arrives. For now, I love the daily reminder of where our blessings come from and to bring my thanks each day to the Lord.