Sabbath

I must thank Mary today. She suggested a recipe for sweet potato biscuits earlier this week. I knew I'd be making sweet potatoes (in the crock pot! so easy!) this weekend, so I planned ahead to have leftovers just to try out these biscuits and, wow. We all loved them, but Chris sang the praises of Mary all morning long. He lifted his eyes and declared his thanks for Mary to the heavens.
I briefly considered reminding him who, exactly, had cut the butter into the flour and mashed up them taters, but I thought better of it. I was rather thankful to Mary for the recipe too. Plus? We ate them with honey from our neighbor's bees. Oh my. Sunday morning breakfast indeed.
Emma came into the kitchen, still sleepy, and happily joined in the breakfast preparation. I love that she is big enough now to actually be a help to me when we're cooking. I asked her to get out my biscuit cutter and started explaining to her what it looked like. She stopped me and told me she knew already. My biscuit cutter is pretty special. I mean, it isn't beautiful or anything like that. It's yellow and plastic, but it's the same one my mom used when I was a little girl. She had two, I guess, and she gave one to me.

I was so excited about my plans to show you a picture of me using that same biscuit cutter with my mom. I had the picture in my mind...I knew just where to find it. Only, it turns out we weren't actually using the biscuit cutter in this picture. I didn't have a Plan B, though, so this picture is all you get. It's still me and my little brother cooking with my Mama.

Chris and I took the kids on a walk this morning, too. We headed through our neighborhood toward the lake where all the ducks and swans congregate. Emma decided to carry a parasol. Chris was, maybe, a little hesitant about allowing this, but I assured him it would be fine. She sure got smiles from all the ladies driving by in their minivans. I tend to think they were all wishing they could carry parasols too.



We walked through my favorite neighborhood - it's the nice historic district. Our neighborhood is historic, too, but it's not...ahem...as posh. I just love the big, old houses, though, and I love to dream about having coffee on their porches, waving at my neighbors (who all adore their historic homes as much as I do, obviously). Lots of them are for sale right now.
Sigh.
I'd walk out on that second-story balcony in my red polka-dotted satin robe to greet the mornings, if I ever finished sewing my red polka-dotted satin robe, that is. Well, I'm sure I would finish sewing it if I lived in that house. Don't you think so too? A house like that just begs for satin-robed mornings.

Ah, well. I do love my own little cottage to bits.

So we strolled down the cracked sidewalks and just noticed things.




And we talked to the ducks and the swans once we got to the lake. This swan was such a rock star. She looks like a professional model in almost all of the pictures. I think she's seen a camera before.



We have worked very hard to schedule a Sabbath into our weeks. It will require tons of discipline to keep Sunday a day of rest, to be sure. But if the reward is the kind of renewal we found today, I'm sure that will help us keep our word.