A moment to breathe

This week was looking very busy, so I decided on Tuesday that I would make a picnic supper for Mr. T and myself.  Years ago, we used to picnic by a nearby river almost weekly in summer and fall and, although we can no longer access that picnic spot, we have found a new favorite.  We just don't get there very often.  But I remembered how refreshing those riverbank picnics used to be, and wanted to recapture that.  So I took a few minutes to think about what I had on hand that might work for a portable meal. 

I kept it simple, simple, simple -- I just used pantry ingredients to make a Summertime Tuna Rice Salad (one of our summer favorites), and packed it in a recycled potato salad tub.  I also cut up a peach and mixed it with some of our freshly frozen strawberries (thawed) with about a teaspoon of sugar in a recycled whipped topping bowl.  I had a package of sesame corn thins on hand -- have you ever tried these?  I was introduced to them by our daughter while we were out in Nevada.  Corn thins are about half the thickness of rice cakes, and quite a bit tastier.  They come with or without sesame.  They made a nice little "bread" to munch alongside our salad and fruit.

It was a simple matter to put the perishables in a small cooler and tuck in plates, napkins, serving spoons, and silverware, plus a bottle of water for each of us.  I also tucked in a section of newspaper to serve as large place mats on a possibly dirty picnic table.  When Mr. T got home, we drove about five minutes to a local park where there's a picnic table overlooking a small but tranquil pond.

The week got even busier than expected, so we've been thankful for that half hour of peace and tranquility in God's beautiful creation.  There's just something so restful and restorative about water and greenery -- and, I just happened to think, those are some of our Good Shepherd's marvelous provisions for us: green pastures and still waters.