Prepping for Sunday and Rustic Potato Quiche Recipe

Rustic Potato Quiche

From Cooking Light

It's prep day around here: Saturday.  Recently, I decided to revamp my family's organizational life and really listen to what was working and what wasn't. 

Sunday morning?  Not working.  So, I decided to adopt the Sabbath making gift of our Jewish sisters.  They are known for baking up a storm the day before.  Why?  God's a pretty smart guy.  He knows that moms don't really know how to Sabbath and need to be taught. Remember the Israelites' manna meals?  On Friday those who gathered the manna needed to pick up a second helping for the next day because none of the white starchy stuff would fall on the Sabbath.  The focus of the Sabbath was supposed to be relaxing, enjoying their family and the goodness of the Lord.  An entire day for celebrating.  God showed us how it was done when He rested after waving creation into existence.

Sundays just got simpler with this planning: 

Kids get baths and lay out their clothes down to the shoes the night before. 

Breakfast is planned

All diaper bags/chatechesis of the good shepherd stories, etc. are layed by the door

I lay my clothes out and wake up in time to do hair and make-up before 7

All Sunday meals are made on Saturday afternoon.

But, honestly?  The heart prep is what ends up mattering most.  Have you ever noticed this?  I've noticed that if I haven't been in the Word enough, on Sunday mornings I can really tell.  The readings feel dry and passionless and the seed doesn't find fertile soil.  It is almost as if I need to weed and plow up the ground before the Spirit can do His creative work.  If my prayer life is stunted, I can't think of a thing to pray during the congregational prayers, and there are sometimes that even the singing seems forced and unfocused.  Today I've been listening to God about this.  I've discovered the fabulous worship music of Shane and Shane and their sound perked up the Saturday afternoon food prep experience.   

I think tonight I'll add something new to the routine:  Eight hours of delicious sleep!  Being organized never sounded so delightful.

Rustic Potato Quiche

Filling:


2 bacon slices


1 cup chopped red potato


½ cup chopped onion


½ cup (2 ounces) Jarlsberg cheese


¼ cup thinly sliced green onions


1 ½ cups 1 low fat milk


¼ tsp salt


1/8 tsp ground red pepper


3 large eggs


¼ tsp paprika


1. Preheat oven to 400.


2. Prebake crust at 400 for 10 minutes. Cool before filling.


3. Reduce oven temp to 375.


4. To prepare filling, cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet; crumble. Add potato and chopped onion to bacon drippings in skillet; sauté 10 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat.


5. Arrange potato mixture, bacon, cheese, and green onions in prepared crust. Combine milk, ¼ tsp salt, pepper, and eggs; stir well with a whisk. Pour milk mixture into crust; sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted 1 inch from center comes out clean; let stand 10 minutes.

My Sabbath Yesterday

Why do I Sabbath?  Joy. This picture was taken from my phone around 12:15pm.  I just wish I could share with you the gentle sound of Lake Michigan lapping the shore, the smell of the hot seagrass and the sun warming the stress right out of me. 

A day off (mine begins at noon and goes to around 9pm on Tuesdays) gives me time to play, to think, and to process.  I discover moments of silence. Whatever the Lord is inviting me into, I spend extra time learning and focusing on that subject.  It's our date time!  In fact yesterday was a day of victory.  I can't tell you how thankful I am to the Lord that the 1 plus 1 plus 1 that He had been teaching me, finally made its way to an equals 3 in my heart, not just my head. 

Later I worked out, hunted a bargain at TJMaxx, watched Robin Hood (love Maid Marion) and then hung out at Barnes and Noble, coming home with loads of green tea induced energy.

Even without caffeine, the energy continued.  This is one of the reasons I believe in Sabbaths.  I had enough energy to deal with three children in my bed at 3 am last night gasping under blankies through hours of thunder storms.  Eventually Andrew got up to work on his 6AM Bible study, the baby went to sleep and the older two and I had lotion foot massages, trying to giggle through the fear.  The energy didn't stop.  Today I had enough energy to garden and plant the window boxes on the little yellow cottage.

I've had time periods where a weekly Sabbath didn't work, when I was home with a new baby, when I couldn't find a babysitter, and when there was an emergency in the parish.  I always have to hold it lightly. So, I pray.  If a Sabbath is what the Lord wants for me, He will make it happen.  I pray for the health of my babysitter, for the joy of my children during the day that I'm gone, and for wisdom on how God would like me to spend my time.  He knows best how to usher me into rest.

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

For some of you this Sabbath idea is just a pipe dream.  You can't imagine how it would be possible.  I invite you, my sister-friend, to just pray about it. 

There are about 85 women who read this blog on a weekly basis coming from all walks of life from all over the world and all of us need refreshment.  Some of you just had babies in the last few months.  Wow.  I love you.  You are in the middle of the beautiful and the messy and the exhausted.  And some of you take care of family members and can't imagine how you would get a few minutes to go to the grocery store by yourself let alone find hours to replenish.  He knows, my dear friend.  He knows your need for deep breaths and quiet, for time of laughter with friends and to have your heart cared for by your Abba.

I invite you to pray and to dream.  What would a day of refreshment look like?  What energizes you?  Cooking, gardening, reading, putting your feet up in a coffee shop with a great novel?  

Do your best to try this just once a month.  Even if you don't have a spouse who understands, find ways to accomplish your time out without help. Exchange babysitting with another mom so that you can have a Sabbath every other week.   And then, next month, comment to tell the other 85 about how it went. 

Need a scriptural basis for what we are doing? Read Lynne Baab's book, "Sabbath Keeping." 

Need inspiration? Read "The Too-Busy Book" by Linda Andersen. (Amazon) You will love my friend's lovely book of encouragement teaching women how to take retreats of all lengths. 


   

Maddie's Day With Mommy

Madeline stayed home from preschool last Wednesday.  She had been acting super whiny and angry, teasing her brothers incessantly and spending lots of time on the time-out chair.  Her blanket was never far away...and neither was her thumb.  Hmmm. 

She had stayed at Andrew's parents and then mine for a few days the week before while mommy and daddy went south to a diocesan convention.  Obviously she was very loved and taken care of, but she needed to be grounded again.  She needed to be reminded that she was loved.  She needed her identity grounded. 

It was simple, really.  We played a few small board games, talked about being princesses: "I'm a princess, mommy."  "Ya Maddie?"  "Ya," she pointed to her dress-up dress, "because princesses wear puffed sleeves."  Smile.  I love the logic of a three year old.

We read a book on the couch and then had lotion massages of our feet. Then, we spent the last half hour cleaning together.  "Mom, I want to go wherever you go."  That's what she always says when she feels especially loved.  (Check out The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Smalley.)  By noon she was Maddie again and I had my daughter back. 

Fast forward a few days to Sunday afternoon.  I'm exhausted.  Tearful.  And looking for myself in other people's eyes.  Hmmm.  I needed my identity grounded again.  And I needed powerful medicine.  A friend who takes care of the kids was able to love on them that afternoon until Andrew came home.  Thank goodness.  I knew I wouldn't be a good mother until I got life straightened back out.  I needed a real sabbath.

My sister understood and talked straight to me when I called her on the phone.  Bad day, I said.  Sugar's off (both of us have an insulin imbalance that effects us emotionally.)  "Summer," she said, "this is normal.  Get into scripture.  Read one truth after another until the truth starts sticking again." 

She was right.  I sat down with a large Thai chicken soup at a Noodles and slowly read truth. 

First, interestingly enough, the Lord had to speak truth to how I got there.  "Stop chasing after fruit, Summer."  Oh.  Ya.  Fruit should happen naturally and I was spinning busily in a lot of different directions.  Summer, Abide.  Be Still.  Sit.  Stay.  Nest here in Me. 

Your primary purpose is not to be fruitful, but to delight in Me...to be my own.

Your primary purpose is not fruit

not production, i.e. writing, housework

not intercession

not wisdom

not teaching

not even mothering.

Your primary purpose is here, with Me.  "I will plant her FOR MYSELF in the land."  Hosea 2:23 

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 

Yup.  I am a fruit-chaser.  Guilty.  Exhausted and guilty.  

Then, and this truly was the surprising part.  Here's the next verse that was staring at me to attend to it. 

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God" from 1 John 3:1 

I needed my true identity rubbed into me like a lotion, lavishly.  I needed to be reminded of who He was and again, who I am.  I am a child of God with a Father who is lavish with his love. 

His truth is always powerful medicine.  Like Madeline, soon I was righted again, standing up straight, not bent toward others' view of me, not spinning in haphazard busyness, but confidently abiding in His Presence.

My dear Luminous Women, our call to sabbath, (one of those 10 commandments, remember) is not a selfish day away from our dear little ones (or big ones :), but necessary time spent listening to that Voice healing and transforming us. It is a long drink from the living water, not just the usual short swigs that leave us thirsty and still dehydrated. Sabbath is how we get reestablished in our identity and hear that call to "Come away, my Beloved."  Be here.  Stay here.  Abide.