Un-Crazy Your Summer (Plus a Great Easy Recipe)
- Teaching and Living Out the Fruit of the Spirit at Home - February 15, 2019
- Enough: Seeing Past the Guilt - November 28, 2018
- Souls Informed by Truth - November 14, 2018
It’s time to un-crazy your summer.
A mentor I deeply respect once told me, “Busyness is not a spiritual gift.”
This sage piece of wisdom has resurfaced in my mind more frequently as my family grows. To some degree, life is just busy! It is busy in all sorts of ways, and honestly, we are busy in some way or another in every season of our lives.
How many times have you answered, “Oh, we’ve just been busy!” when someone has asked how you’ve been doing lately? Is that what we should accept as the norm for our families?
As we face a spring and summer full of extra busyness with graduations, trips, weddings, family events, block parties, and holidays, I want to encourage you to consider a couple tips.
Tips to Un-crazy a Busy Summer
1. Don’t let a busy summer and routine change keep you from reading your Bible and spending time with God. As we see with Martha in Luke 10, Martha was anxious and troubled with all her preparations but Jesus wanted her to sit and listen to the “good portion” like her sister Mary. Guys, if I’m like anyone in the Bible, it’s Martha. Don’t be like Martha and me, spend extra time with the Lord.
2. If you have kids, try not to over-extend your kiddos for the sake of attending something. Sometimes, certain family gatherings scheduled smack in the middle of nap time just aren’t going to work. That’s OK.
3. Be intentional about days of rest. My family recently went through a four-day event binge which ended on a Sunday evening. My husband and I realized we never got a day of rest together as a family. There’s a reason God built that in…and even Jesus encouraged his disciples to rest in Mark 6:31. Anyway, that’s not a schedule we plan to replicate any time in the near future.
4. If you’ve committed to “bringing something” find three easy crowd-pleaser recipes for rotation. Easy and delicious is the key. One of my favorites is below. It’s fresh, healthy, and so easy.
In the end, there are some things we need to do and some things we don’t. Setting boundaries for yourself and your family through your decisions on calendar commitments can make all the difference.
Texas Tabbouleh
This is my version, which I adapted from this original recipe.
- 2 cups of cooked quinoa (cooked according to package directions, cooled to room temp). I also like couscous if I don’t have good quinoa on hand.
- 2 medium fresh tomatoes, diced small
- 1/2 cup very finely chopped red onion
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 can (15 ounces) of sweet yellow corn, rinsed and drained
- 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (2 if you like heat)
- 3/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
- 1/4 cup lime juice, plus a few dashes more to taste before serving
- 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
- 1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled queso fresco or feta cheese
Directions:
Mix everything together in a big bowl. Refrigerate for at least an hour, but overnight is better. Before serving, taste and add a little bit more oil and lime juice if it’s dry.
