graciousness

Have you ever had a day when you realize that the Lord not only answers prayer, He also knows the desire of our hearts -- even if it's something small and mundane that we haven't even bothered to pray about?

Today was one of those days for me.

In my last post I was indulging in a wee mope about the difficulties of getting used to some things related to the food that is available over here.  I have been craving tuna for weeks.  I'm used to having canned tuna around the house and using it for sandwiches, etc., but canned tuna is too expensive here for our budget! 

Well, the Lord provided for this desire of my heart unexpectedly.  Firstly, David and I found canned wild salmon on sale in the supermarket earlier this week -- at a stunningly low price.  Normally a product like that would be wayyyy out of sight for us.  So we bought some and I was gleeful!  Tuna is great, but salmon is a rare treat! 

But then, out of the blue, my friend Shael who has already been such a blessing to my heart in so many ways, phoned me and said that their minister had been donated a random collection of canned foods and wanted to give them to us if we were interested.  She brought over three grocery bags chock-full of all sorts of canned items plus other kitchen cupboard staples and a few treats as well!  And guess what was in the bottom of the last bag. . .  SEVEN large cans of tuna!!  Not only was the general collection of food a real blessing to us, but the appearance of the tuna just made my day.  :-)  Isn't is amazing how the Lord provides in the little ways and the massive ways?

We had a fun Thanksgiving dinner with a few friends.  We had turkey legs, cranberry sauce, broccoli casserole, lots of mashed potatoes and gravy, and carrots. . . and strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert.  It was a hit.  :-)  Next year I am hoping to plan ahead and find a pumpkin!!

food woes

Apparently there is no such thing as canned pumpkin to be found in all the United Kingdom!!  Well, rumours exist that fresh pumpkins are to be found, if you have specially trained hounds to sniff it down in some remote supermarket or teeny produce shop. . . but I am sure it would be very elusive AND very expensive.  So, we are not having pumpkin pie tomorrow at our Thanksgiving dinner.  :-(  We are having strawberry and rhubarb pie instead (David is happy with that substitution!). 

There are also no pre-made pie crusts to be found.

Pickles do not taste like American pickles!!! 

I am used to having canned tuna available cheaply, and having it as a sandwich staple.  . . . But canned tuna is really expensive over here.

Turkeys don't go on sale over here until Christmas, and even when they are on sale they are quite expensive (compared to the U.S., where you can get a turkey for about 40 cents a pound!).  So instead of buying a whole turkey, we bought turkey legs which were cheaper.

It gets a bit tiring trying to find particular foods that are familiar.  Sometimes I spend a long time walking in circles around the supermarket (like today when I was looking everywhere for cranberry sauce to go with our turkey!).  Sometimes I get really frustrated at the inconvenience of not having available things that I am used to having.  "Comfort food" has become any food that is familiar or that I can make successfully using unfamiliar ingredients. . .

Okay, I feel better for having moped and whined a little bit. . . :-p

birthdayness

Since I last posted, David and I traveled back up to Inverness last Monday for his classes.  On Tuesday he had a systematic theology exam in the morning and a dreadfully long committee meeting for the remainder of the day, and then we came home on Wednesday evening.  Thursday we were so exhausted and David was still struggling health-wise. . . so we were very lazy! 

On Sunday David preached at a local Glasgow congregation in the morning and we were both thankful that his voice held out long enough for him to get through the sermon.  David is just now beginning to feel like he might be "kicking" this nasty cold and lingering chest cough that has gripped him for more than two weeks now.

My birthday was yesterday.  I was awakened by several felicitous birthday texts on my mobile phone!  :-)  Around noon I left for Shettleston as usual to help with the children's Bible club.  When I arrived at church, I found that our minister and his wife had left a beautiful bouquet for me.  :-)  After the Bible club finished I got the bus home.  David had done the dishes for me while I was out, and bought pizza for dinner so that I didn't have to cook!  And he bought a delicious Bavarian chocolate torte for dessert - yum, yum!  I am spoiled to have such a wonderful husband!  Sometime in the next week or so when the weather is clear we are planning to enjoy a day trip to Edinburgh, too.

I am planning our Thanksgiving dinner. . . I think I am going to fix turkey legs (not a whole turkey - partly because of my small oven, and partly because in the UK turkeys are not so affordable at this time of year!) and mashed potatoes, and broccoli casserole, and pumpkin pie (of course!).  We are just having a few friends over, wanting to keep it a small and simple gathering.

Thankfully we will not be traveling anywhere for a couple weeks at least.  It's a welcome chance to rest, and David needs time to thoroughly focus on his studies and the dissertations he has to write this term.  Our schedule has been so unpredictable since we moved here due to preaching obligations and frequent travels.

chicken noodle soup and feasts

David was away from Monday until this afternoon at the Evangelism Module in the Inverness area for the seminary students.  While he was gone, I stayed in Glasgow but I was able to spend the week with my friend Marjory Jean so that I wouldn't be alone in the house.  MJ lives just over two miles from my house - it takes a little more than 30 minutes to walk.  I did a LOT of walking this week!  There wasn't a day that I walked less than 2.5 miles, and there were a couple of days where I walked more than 5 miles total!  That coupled with late nights visiting with friends has left me rather exhausted by week's end, but I am sooooo thankful to have David back!  I did all the shopping and housecleaning yesterday so that everything would be in order when he got home.

David's been struggling with a nasty cold all week, and he is still growling like a lion because of all of the congestion in his throat, and today was really rainy when he was coming home. . . so I decided to make chicken noodle soup, his favorite.  It turned out really well and David was so happy - he immediately proclaimed that I was his "favoritest" wife.  That's reassuring. . .  ;-)  I made a huge pot of chicken noodle soup so that David can keep enjoying it for the next couple of days.  It's so warm and filling!

This weekend is the communion season for our congregation here in Shettleston, which meant that they have extra services last night and tonight as well as the usual services on the Lord's Day with the additional celebration of the Lord's Supper.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the idea of communion seasons, it's still the way things are done over here in the Free Church, harking back to the days when ministers rode circuits and so the Lord's Supper was celebrated about twice a year in each congregation - to give time for the ministers to travel to all the different congregations.  Nowadays communion seasons may occur anywhere from two to four times a year in each congregation.  A communion season will often involve extra services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday nights - and a lot of visitors from sister congregations will travel from all across Scotland to fellowship.  There is true spiritual and physical feasting during these special times.

. . . eh.

So David and I have been in "collapse and recovery" mode since returning from our 600+ mile trip.  David is fighting not to drown in a bottomless sea of seminary studies, upcoming papers, sermon preparations, church responsibilities, and other activities.  My life is quite a bit simpler than his but still exhausting. 

I'm always wracking my brain to think of something exciting I can make for supper that is very cheap and filling and yet very nutritious.  It's so hard to get all three of those at once.  I'm learning that dried beans and legumes are excellent inexpensive ways to make filling, warm food in the winter.  And it's protein!  Yay.  Tonight I made a yummy thick soup with sausage, lots of vegetables (red bell pepper, zucchini, spinach, carrots, onion, mushrooms), and cannelli beans, seasoned with red wine vinegar, thyme, basil, and so on.

We had dinner guests on Saturday - a homeschool family with six children (ages nine to 7 months).  That was a lot of fun!  The children played very nicely in our back garden (we have lots of grass and bushes) while we adults visited in the living room. 

Here's an amusing story: I knew that there would be ten of us for dinner, so I had prepared a large casserole.  It wasn't in a normal 9"x13" pan, but something slightly larger, maybe 10"x14".  Anyway, I got the casserole all put together and ready to put into the oven - and it WOULDN'T FIT!  It was just barely too big to fit into the oven, no matter which way I turned the pan.  I started to panic and called David.  You should know that in our house, David is the trouble-shooter and problem solver.  He sized up the situation and managed to move the oven rack in such a way that there was just enough room to squeeze the casserole in so that it could bake!  Unfortunately, it wasn't quite level, so during the baking process the casserole dripped all over the oven and turned the kitchen into a smokehouse!  Then, when it was finished baking, it took such an effort on David's part to pull the casserole dish out because it was WEDGED into the oven!  So now  I know, for next time, that if we are feeding a crowd, I have to fix a meal in three small casserole dishes instead of one big one!  :-D

Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night, and there are lots of fireworks going off even though it's quite wet outside.