The Little Things Newsletter #466 – Life, laughter, and lots of great food!

Welcome to the weekend, my friends! I came home to a glorious sunset the other day and couldn’t resist pausing in the driveway to take a photo. What an amazing world we live in, friends. Even when life throws us curveballs, the sun still rises and sets in moments of beauty.

As I write this, the birds are singing at full volume outside my window and the sun hasn’t even risen. I love it. We’ve had a fun week over here. My mom is visiting and my youngest son is in his first school play. Who knew high school theater could be this much fun??

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Filled with creamy oats, sweet bananas, berries, a hint of brown sugar, and spices, this Crockpot Oatmeal is a breakfast that my whole family enjoys. Best of all, this crave-worthy oatmeal can be made in just one hour without any stirring at all!

Spicy, sweet, and slightly tangy Glazed Salmon with Broccoli is one of my favorite ways to cook and serve fish. One delightfully simple sauce does double duty as marinade for the fish and flavor booster for the fresh broccoli.

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms filled with soft cream cheese, fresh green onions, and sweet crab meat keep you coming back for more. These two-bite appetizers are hard to stop eating.

If you’re lucky enough to have some extra mushrooms left in the fridge, garlicky Marinated Mushrooms are great to have on hand to add some pizzazz to salads, sandwiches, pizzas, snacks, and more! This simple recipe makes it easy to keep a jar of them in the refrigerator at all times.

Slightly sweet and tangy, Apple Grape Salad is a fast and fresh-as-can-be fruit salad with a creamy dressing that you’ll want all summer long. You can’t go wrong pairing this with any and all grilled and roasted meats or with a sandwich for a quick meal that satisfies.

Italian Chocolate Salami is made of crumbled cookies, chopped, and toasted nuts, suspended in creamy chocolate that resembles salami. This delightfully different dessert is served in many parts of the world.

Creamy, real banana ice cream studded with pieces of vanilla cookie and pockets of sweet whipped cream combine to make Banana Pudding Ice Cream. If you like banana pudding, you’ll go wild for this!

What I’m CRAVING: All the salads! From the Italian grinder salad to cheeseburger salad, California spaghetti salad to cauliflower, bacon, and broccoli salad, I’m ready to make and eat all of them!

My FAVORITE THINGS this week are this hand cream and this cuticle oil. My hands have been almost unbelievably dry this winter and I finally started using both of these products regularly again. My hands feel and look dramatically better after just a few days of regular use.

What I’m LISTENING to: To The End by Ghost Ship. I have been enjoying this group for months, and this entire album has been a win for me. I can’t even pick a favorite song!

What I’m READING: Once again, I’m reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I don’t know if there is a book I’ve ever recommended to friends more often. I would probably gift it to everyone I know, given the opportunity. You know what, I’ll send a copy of this book to the first 20 people who email me to say that they’d like to read it. 

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist, as well as a Holocaust survivor. He believed that we cannot avoid suffering but can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor Frankl

“Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.” – Viktor Frankl

 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 NIV

Wishing you a beautiful week full of little things that make you smile!

Mary