Faith-filled Friday: Joy and appetizers

Good morning, Crushers!

As you can imagine, these past few weeks haven't been the most joyous in the normal sense. However, one of my blogger crushes over at Thistlewood Farms, KariAnne, shared her joy in the most random things on her blog today. What great timing for this reminder that there is joy all around us. KariAnne, you're a rockstar.

This made me think of one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 98 (bolded for emphasis):
Psalm 98
A psalm.¹ Sing to the Lord a new song,    for he has done marvelous things;his right hand and his holy arm    have worked salvation for him.² The Lord has made his salvation known    and revealed his righteousness to the nations.³ He has remembered his love    and his faithfulness to Israel;all the ends of the earth have seen    the salvation of our God.⁴ Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,    burst into jubilant song with music;⁵ make music to the Lord with the harp,    with the harp and the sound of singing,⁶ with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—    shout for joy before the Lord, the King.⁷ Let the sea resound, and everything in it,    the world, and all who live in it.⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands,    let the mountains sing together for joy;⁹ let them sing before the Lord,    for he comes to judge the earth.He will judge the world in righteousness    and the peoples with equity.

In keeping with KariAnne's mission to spread some joy today, I'm going to follow suit and list some too.

1. Having my nephew cuddle up with me and lay his head on my shoulder. 
2. Pouring over family photos and remembering what fun times we all had.
3. The look on my husband's face when he saw a photo of me in 5th or 6th grade complete with big bangs, glasses and braces - total disbelief. (No more bangs, glasses or braces now!)
4. One of my friends just rescued 3 baby ducks yesterday - Yay Kristi!
5. Managing a huge contract at work all. by. myself.
6. Planning a getaway weekend to Las Vegas to see our friends get married.
7. Finding this t-shirt online.
8. I haven't chipped or broken a nail all week (this might be a record).
9. Going to lunch today with a co-worker from the past.
10. Finger food. 
11. Despite having our original plans for celebrating our first anniversary totally fall through, we had an offer from friends to spend the day with them on their boat! Hannah, way to be a rockstar!
12. I can see my triceps muscles (and feel them - ouch!).
13. Having friends e-mail you recipes, like this one. 
14. I live near a lot of huge lakes and rivers. Nothing is more peaceful than watching the waves!
15. Having more to be joyful about than I originally thought I'd come up with (this list could go on and on and on, but you have to cut off somewhere!).

I hope you are able to find lots of things to be joyful about today and every day. Have a great weekend everyone!

One more joy for today: sharing ah-ha moments! Here is this ridiculously easy appetizer that I whipped up last night. We don't usually have "courses" for our meals at home, but while waiting for some soup to bubble and making grilled cheese sandwiches, Steve pointed out that we had some cucumbers in our fridge that needed to be eaten pronto! Hmm... what else is in the fridge? Mozzarella, tomatoes and there's basil in the garden? How about a sort-of caprese salad?

Ta-da!

OK, so it's a little heavy on the cheese, but so what? Chop up some tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and cheese and drizzle (or not) some olive oil on it. Delicious and simple. Enjoy!