Quote and Vegetarian Chili with friends....

A quote from St. Seraphim of Sarov in "The Joy of the Holy" on watchfulness (goes along with the Elder Thaddeus quotation I posted last week):

You must always strive to avoid mental distractions, because coming from the devil, they turn your soul away from the awareness of God and away from His love. Do not forget the words of St. Macarius, 'that the devil devotes all of his energy to turning our thoughts away from God.'

Yesterday was Sunday of Orthodoxy and the Orthodox of Portland gethered at Holy Trinity to celebrate and to have our procession (on a very sunny and beautiful day- that can be a rarity in the Pacific NW).

Afterwards, we came home and I had vegetarian chili in the crockpot (put it together on Sat. evening and put it in the crockpot Sunday morning).  I doubled the recipe because we had invited friends over for dinner (this all came about because little p and his buddy v were playing last Sunday after church. little p and v decided that they were going far far away together. v left. little p cried. little p sobbed. little p wailed. so I though, we should have v and her family over for dinner and let them PLAY! little p and v play really well together (if you have 3-4 year olds you understand that some children play well together and some do not play well together). that's the story of how our dinner plans came together).

So v and family came bearing guacamole and corn chips and apple grape juice (yum).  We had our chili and I made a coconut berry crisp from the Almond Flour Cookbook.  Unfortunately, this recipe is not on the website.  and even though I changed the recipe to use all blueberries instead of strawberries and blueberries, I feel a little strange posting the recipe here.  It was delicious.  It was lenten.  It did not have sugar in it (I used Agave Nectar- although, most times I substitute honey for Agave Nectar in this cookbook).  Perfect.

I am being a little lazy this morning and will not post the link to the vegetarian chili recipe.  Look through my last few posts and you should see a link to that recipe.

It is now Monday, Big P is at school, little p doesn't go to school on Mondays so he is still asleep. And I am on the computer posting this blog to you. 

BTW- Saturday was little p's 4th birthday!  And four years ago at this time there was a freak snowstorm in March! I see lots of people outside, prepping their gardens and beginning to plant and all I can think of is that there is a possibility of a freak snowstorm in March. So I am holding back on the tempation to plant; at least for now:)