The shore of His love . . .

There was once a little boy who was sailing his toy boat on a pond in a park. He was having a lovely time watching it float along. He had a long stick that he was using to guide it along . . . after a time however, the boat drifted further away and he was unable to catch it with his stick. He began to cry.

Before too long a man came along and saw his predicament and he picked up some stones, which he began to throw in the water on the far side of the boat.



"What are you doing?" cried out the little boy, but as he did so, something amazing began to happen.

As the stones hit the water at the far side of the boat, they created ripples which began to push the boat back towards the little boy. Even though the stones had disturbed the smooth surface of the water, they had achieved the desired result.



I think that is how it is with God sometimes . . . although we can't always see it happening at the time. When we begin to drift away from Him, as we all can from time to time . . . He throws some disturbing stones out into our water, just beyond us . . . in order to push us back to the shore of His love. And so it goes . . .



I thought I hadn't shown you a picture of little Mitzie lately, so here she is in all her glory, snuggled up to one of her favourite people! Todd got a bit annoyed with her the other day. He had just put some new plants in his pond and she fished them all out and chewed them all up when he wasn't looking. They were special floating plants that were supposed to help aerate the water. I expect she had a good time when she was doing it, but then . . . she is only a puppy and they do get up to mischief! Lesson learnt and the pond now has netting around it so that she can't get near! I have to show you this picture of her as well.



This is how she sometimes sits, upright, like a human. I think it's so funny, but I worry that she will hurt her back, so I make her lay down. Yesterday I took a quick picture first though. She was being quite co-operative yesterday when I took her pictures and was almost posing for them. She just may be ready for a family portrait, do you think?

I am off to my one-step program this morning. I don't feel as if I have lost any weight this week, and am worried I may even have gained some, so I am not looking forward to it. My knees have been very poorly and I haven't been able to do a lot of exercise, not that that is any excuse!

I have to do some baking this afternoon for a church do tomorrow as well. I promised brownies and cupcakes for 50! I think I have my work cut out for me, don't you?

Here's a tasty burger recipe I found on the Kraft site. I think kids would love these. I know mine would have. They loved taco anything, and were quite disappointed when our local Taco Bell shut down back home!!



*Taco Burgers*
Serves 4
Printable recipe

I wish I'd had this recipe when my kids were growing up. They would have loved them. All their favourite flavours in a burger!

1 lb of ground steak
1 package of Taco Seasoning Mix
1/4 cup of Thick 'N Chunky Salsa
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
4 hamburger buns, split and toasted
1/2 cup grated strong Cheddar Cheese
4 lettuce leaves
4 tomato slices

Heat your gas grill to medium heat.

Mix your ground meat and the seasoning mix together in a bowl, making sure they are well combined. Shape into 4 flat patties, with a little dip in the middle. (The dip in the middle helps them to stay flat and not buldge up in the middle.) Grill for 8 to 10 minutes, until no longer pink in the middle, turning after 4 minutes.

Stir together the salsa and light mayonnaise. Top the bottom halves of each toasted bun with a grilled burger and a portion of the salsa mayonnaise. Sprinkle with the cheese and top with a lettuce leaf and slice of tomato. Place the top bun on half and serve immediately!

Alternatively, you can cook the meat patties in a grill pan or ordinary skillet.



Cooking over in The English Kitchen today, a delicious Honeyed Tomato Soup with Cheddar and Onion Marmalade Panini!