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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Simmering in the Kitchen: A Giveaway

October 30, 2016 by HappyGoStuckey 5 Comments

giveaway2

“In my sun-splashed kitchen, I chop onions and carrots and everything comes back into alignment. Knife to wooden cutting board— bare feet to bare floor, slowly I forget to strive. I scoop a double handful of vegetables and toss them into my dutch oven and I remember my place and it is worth more than one deep breath.

My place is here, in this blue house with these people and these countertops that warp in the heat. My place is using my hands to do what they can— and holding joy in my small circle of influence. My place is using that silver laptop and the words I have to offer hope in whatever cracks I can. My place is here. My place is not willful blindness to the hurt of the world; my place is to start where I stand and go forward from there.

And the soup helps because making soup is the opposite of striving. Any decent soup recipe is a handful of ingredients and time. Soup-making is contrary to hustle. Too much hustle often makes bad soup and a weary heart. I have little use for either.”  —  from Simmer: Six Seasonal Soups & the Stories that Inspired Them. Get your copy here.

Well. Friends? You have completely blown me away with your big-hearted support for this little ebook. So many of you have sent me comments, emails, text messages– all saying the most lovely things about Simmer and what you have enjoyed about it. There is nothing so sweet as seeing photos of your soup creations and feeling as though we are on this journey together.

And so, because I am a girl who loves a good product, and I am a girl who loves to celebrate– I’ve been curating a basket of kitchen pretties for one of you. Don’t you want to know what is in it? I knew you would.

basket-2

Basket Contents:

  • Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving Turkey Herbs
  • Gourmet Pumpkin Pie Spice, Savory Spice Shop in Franklin, TN
  • Harney & Sons Cinnamon Tea (this is my all time favorite fall tea.)
  • Golden Garden Recipe cards, Rifle Paper Co.
  • Blue Buffalo Check Kitchen Towel, Williams-Sonoma (their towels are a must-have in our house, so absorbent and they hold up so well.)
  • Polished Wooden Salt Bowl (perfect for a pinch of salt near the stove.)
  • Green Spatula Spoon, Williams-Sonoma
  • Beechwood Spoon, White’s Mercantile in Franklin, TN
  • Walnut Wooden Spoon, Williams-Sonoma
  • Blue & White Gather Banner (I have one of these and I think I may just leave it up year round!)

(basket not included.)

You may enter below by helping me spread the word about Simmer– this giveaway will run for one week and then I will choose one lucky reader and mail them all this goodness!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(Neither this giveaway nor this post are sponsored, I just thought it would be fun!)

A secret I have been keeping: introducing Simmer!
Friday Round Up: Only the Good Stuff!

Comments

  1. Erin F says

    October 31, 2016 at 9:17 am

    Crossing my fingers, arms, and legs that I’m the lucky winner!!! This is AWESOME!! And so are you ?!

    Reply
  2. Keisha H says

    October 31, 2016 at 10:14 am

    This is fabulous! What a cozy giveaway and a beautifully written book. I can’t wait to dive into all of the recipes. (I’m sure they will taste even better stirring them with those gorgeous wooden spoons!)

    Reply
  3. Annie says

    October 31, 2016 at 11:53 am

    Fun! Thanks for the chance to win some great things.

    Reply
  4. Cindy A. says

    November 5, 2016 at 9:44 pm

    Harney & Sons Cinnamon Tea is my absolute favorite! I always keep a tin in my cupboard. Thank you so much for offering such a lovely and generous giveaway.

    Reply
  5. Kim Humphrey says

    November 7, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    Loving these goodies, hope I win!

    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

I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the h I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the headline, “Ditch Gratitude!” 

This is my “No thanks,” face.
My grateful face.
My you-can’t-make-me-face.
Because no matter how long the list of things we still don’t know, I know I need gratitude like water.

Questions remain. Uncertainties abound. Reasons for concern greet us with each January dawn.

Hope remains and so do questions. The two have never been enemies, but cozy next door neighbors.
I’ll keep my gratitude, thank you.
Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will co Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will continue to sigh into in ‘21.
Baking sourdough, watching it bubble and rise and fill our BlueHouse with the scent of a good, long, posture of patience— I absolutely need a second serving of this.
While we wait, and whatever it is that we wait for— may the space between be made sweeter by the knowledge that we never wait alone.
You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapp You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapped this photo was somewhat of a regular day.

What looks like a winter beach vacation was actually the tail-end of a masked lunch stop in the middle of a pandemic road trip.

This sparkling moment of sun-splashed fun was sandwiched between brutal conversations about regular life, especially the hard parts.

And this is how it is. 
These bits of life that we never see coming, they are enveloped between all that makes us tired, weary, sighing pilgrims in a world that was never really meant to be hospitable in the first place.

This photo reminds me to look again at our year, our season, our circumstances.

To look a second and third time.
To keep looking as long as it takes to see that the joy of our right now isn’t gone, it just might be hiding in the shadow of all that’s hard.

Brokenness is never vague. And we don’t have to search very long to see it both within ourselves and around us.
Sometimes the weight of that fact is crushing.
And then, sometimes it reminds us even more clearly of the light shining in darkness.

Joy is an act of defiance against despair and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling rather defiant at the moment.✨✨✨✨

@hopewriters #hopewriterlife 
#feastingandforaging #hopelenses #getaftergrateful
Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially if what we’re called to be about is the same as yesterday and last month. 
It’s difficult to meet each day with the same fervor and joy for what we are called to do, especially when at present, the progress seems small and immeasurable. 
But even then, perhaps especially so — our faithfulness matters.

When we cannot yet see the other side, the light at the end of this particularly long tunnel, we begin again.

Not because we will always wake with fresh energies and bright, sparkling hope for what comes next, friend. But because the God of Endurance (Romans 15:5) dwells within us.

“It is the grace of endurance granted to you by the God of endurance that provides you with everything you need to continue to be what he calls you to be and do what he calls you to do between this moment and the moment when you cross over to the other side. When difficulty exposes the weakness of your resolve and the limits of your strength, you do not have to panic, because He will endure even in this moments when you don’t feel able to do so yourself.” — Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

#hopewriterlife
Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for paper towels... especially if the store is in convenient proximity to a quick date for croissants and dirty chai for two. Love my forever coffee companion even more at the start of this new year. Wherever he’s going, I’m riding shotgun.
We have learned... The inestimable value of a goo We have learned...

The inestimable value of a good camp chair, for they have been used for everything from soccer benches and coffee dates to theatre seats and church pews.

What our neighborhood streets can offer in the way of an outing—from the colors of spring to the sparkle of Christmas.

To hold plans with the loosest hands possible.

To rejoice in things found. Time. Margin. ...and enough toilet paper to share with a neighbor.

To give grace and accept it for ourselves.

The hilarious joy of a group text complete with “have you seen this meme yet?” 

To pivot. And then pivot again.

To find more joy in candlelight closer to home, instead of the bright lights of traveled cities.

To perfect our pizza dough recipe and truly learn to prefer it over dinner out.

To work with yeast and flour again and again— until the message of waiting for something really good dusted our apron fronts and kitchen floors.

And in our house, we learned how to be unexpectedly unemployed. We learned how to honor that new found space with needed grief and desired hope. How to be grateful for true friends who prayed with us, held questions with us, and hoped with us. We were reminded of our true identity and that it will never rest in a job. 

In a year in which we’ve all lost quite a lot, you and I have been given so much as well. Some of what we’ve lost we have learned to be without. Some, we won’t go looking for again.

In 525,600 minutes and in all the things, found and lost and found again— there is far and away more to be grateful for.

And we choose joy.

✨Happy New Year, dear friends!✨
Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Though the one in our rear view window is one we wouldn’t choose to repeat, still it was one full of God’s nearness.

One day I’ll write it all down.
But for now I’ll just say,
we were not alone. 🕯
“Once in our world, a Stable had something in it “Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”
C.S.Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

Joy to the World, friends.
Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 desser Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 dessert ever. Made from a wonky gingerbread cake that did not cooperate.
We shall not go quietly into 2021.
We will fight back with beauty and joy and candles... and fresh whipped cream made by an eleven year old with sparkly green eyes. 🎄❤️✨
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