Long Live The Mess!

 Beauty is a messy business, isn't it?!

Fresh bouquets from gardens and fields

 spill petals and bugs.

Food prep spills, splashes and drops

before the delight of dining!

(hopefully LOTS of food prep happening today 

for thanksgiving dinner tomorrow...

In Canda we celebrate thanks-living in October)

And wow! the mess that we can make while enjoying dinner!

(esp. when children are present. ahem.

We love blaming messes on children, don't we? 😅💖)

And in the daily course of chores and joys,

From indoor to outdoor we go,

and even though we kick off shoes 

on the mat inside the door

we still somehow trail lots of outdoor in.

In the summer road dust,

 (Because our windows are big

and we live in farming country with lots of tractor traffic!)
in the winter, furnace dust

and wood stove ashes, but we are cozy!

Isn't it great?!!

The whole mess of a full life aka happiness!

coffee spills and all!

Before we can enjoy this...

This....

Before we can enjoy this... (recipe below)

This...

Midst lots of eager, curious, happy helpers/tasters!

And one MIGHTY mess!!

Oh! isn’t beauty worth its mess

Or joy its price of grief

Is not the bloom of happiness

So worth the tattered leaf?

The petal that falls from the stem

The crumbs from bit o’ cake

Are they not worth the diadem

Of stars strewn in their wake

Like teardrop, bittersweet, unfurled

Upon the cheek, soft kissed

Before the door shuts on a world

Of mayhem turned to mist

© Janet Martin

Veg Soup recipe...

I tweaked this recipe to my liking

omitting corn and adding black beans.

Also besides precooking the black beans

I mixed everything raw and water bath canned it,

steaming each canner full for 3 hours

(in case you would like to try it!)

From the old Mennonite Community Cookbook