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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Meals and Memories…

May 20, 2011 by HappyGoStuckey 1 Comment

       Anyone who knows me relatively well would say that cooking for people could very well be my “love language.” I LOVE that aspect of hospitality and I always have. I know there are many ways you can serve and bless someone but for me, preparing a meal for loved ones is at the top of my list. (In fact my husband will be the first to tell you that he weighed a bit less when we first met than he does now–what can I say? He was a bachelor eating bowls of cold cereal and calling it a proper meal! Ha!)

     Tonight I have the rare opportunity to prepare a meal for some long-time close friends of ours who enjoy cooking (and eating!) as much as we do and I am a mix of ecstatic with a little bit of nostalgia mixed in. You see, this girl and I? We’ve shared many meals over many years. Many. And as I sit here, I cannot help but remember so many of them.

Some of my very best memories in college are of sitting with this girl… eating and chatting. It’s a wonder we didn’t gain more weight!

We discussed the drama of life with bagels and coffee and leather couches.

We braved the cold of the snow like true Florida girls with bowls of chili and playing cards and lots of laughing.

 We shared tea and scones at the super girly place down the street. In fact, we shared a luncheon there just hours before she wed her great husband.

We shared early Thanksgiving dinners for several  years in a row with this couple and those meals remain some of my favorites.

She brought me her famous chicken and rice when my daughter was born and I instantly felt more like myself again.

And just 6 short months ago, we shared several of our “last meals” (for awhile) together when we prepared to move here.

Days later, they helped us move here and we drank one last cup of coffee together while organizing our new kitchen.

And now, they are embarking on their own BIG journey. A new exciting adventure awaits them as they have faithfully waited for the Lord’s timing and direction. He is taking them somewhere they have never been before for at least a season of life.

And our home happens to be a small stop off the interstate. And I couldn’t be happier to be able to fix them a home cooked meal. I may have had the meal planned out for over a week–but to tell the truth, we would enjoy PB&J sandwiches just as much– as long as we could share them together.

Mother’s Day: Then and Now
Spaghetti Bake

Comments

  1. a girl and her love says

    May 21, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    You are the greatest. And your dinner last night was wonderful… even at 10p! It was another wonderful meal, true to Cindy-fashion. Thanks for opening up your home. I can't say enough how lovely your home is.We felt SO at home. Love you so much, Cin.

    Reply

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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happygostuckey

Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all the answers, yet.

While you sit in a season of waiting,
the calendar can often be a cruel companion, reminding you that days go by, weeks, months— with what feels like very little change in the right direction.

Perhaps you can easily assent to: 
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but you strain to see just how it will be when: “...a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Wherever you and I are today— whether we wander, wait, stand firmly planted, or some pressed together combination of all three — we can take heart.

We are not alone.
And this will not be wasted.
What seems to be an unending blank space, an indefinite pause, is a space for new things.

Long before all is made right, and whether or not it all is tied up neatly with a perfectly crafted bow— we can know this:

We do not have to know the outcome to be faithful today.

✨Joy is not disregard for reality as much as it is obstinacy against despair.✨
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. T Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. There. I said it. These days I’m gravitating to the true & the beautiful as rest for my weary self... and I wonder if you are too.

So much so, that I’m starting a new little offering, it’s called “The Feast: Wonder for the Weary” and the first issue goes out this weekend. It’s a bit more personal (okay this first one is WAY more personal. 🤭) It will be a little bit of everything, all with the goal of offering REST to both the feasters & foragers alike. If you’re already a subscriber— no need to do anything, if not— click through my bio to “keep in touch” and join the feast.✨
We are a people of both lament and praise. We hol We are a people of both lament and praise.

We hold questions without answers— yet we hold them in hands already full of good things.

We hold our daily bread, our daily gifts, and we hold the daily closeness of the God Who Sees.

The God who is no stranger to our lament, and Who Is the reason for our every hope.
He does not grow weary of our asking. Of our need to be told again, He will. 

You friend, are not invisible.
You are seen and cared for by the God who does all things well. (Even when they feel anything but.)
Married love ambition: making the kids roll their Married love ambition: making the kids roll their eyes at our “gushy-ness” as often as possible. 

President & CEO of the Lance Stuckey Fan Club— in every season, but especially on days like today.
Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty k Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty kitchen.😍🌧📚

On this chilly Saturday, we spent entirely too long browsing for books at our library and then all came home to a fire, mochas, and cocoa, respectively. Of all the things we do not know at this very moment, we know the gifts abound, and are worth counting.

PS, if you haven’t spread whipped cream on a foil-lined baking sheet to freeze, and then cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters to top your coffee or hot cocoa, may I suggest you get thee on that at once.
“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provide “If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.” — Corrie Ten Boom

✨File under, things to save in a fire.✨

The prayer journal pictured here contains six months of the hard & the sweet.
Six months of prayers asked & answered for ourselves and for others.
Six months of seeing through prayer, not how it changed our circumstances necessarily but how it changed us.

I always appreciate a record like this— being able to clearly see the paths we are led down, rocky though they may be? Priceless.

The ways God has come near us & drawn us to Himself again and again are written on these pages and I’ll treasure it forever.

Also pictured: Psalms Illuminated Scripture Journal. Highly recommend. Thank you always, @allifarnell
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it th “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

While scrolling through my photos today, my heart was heavy to realize how far back “before” was.

Before masks and distancing, before loss, before other, more personal bits of hard. Multitudinous change, neither all bad nor all good.

With our free time, we’ve introduced our girls to Tolkien, Bilbo, Frodo, and especially Samwise the Brave. They are officially hooked and we are delighted to watch them discover another world where evil doesn’t win, and the courage of the small matters much. {they close their eyes at the Orcs and we haven’t had a nightmare yet!}🤞🏻😂😬
I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog th I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog these days.

It started with the Sourdough and a dozen different kinds of jam last year.
I suddenly find great calm in activities that stand in direction opposition to hurry, the textbook definition of ✨work in progress.✨ And really, if you could see the other side of this piece, you would believe me. 🙃

Thank you to @thebarmyfox for making embroidery so accessible!
@thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfec @thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful,” and I believe that the weeknight meal equivalent is, “Just because it’s easy— doesn’t make it a second-tier supper!”

Thank you, Spaghetti with Meat sauce for being both a ministry to mom AND a crowd pleaser. Especially on a dreary January-ish day. It is ✨quite alright✨ to make something we’ve made a million times just because we know it makes the people happy.🍝
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