Recipe for Ham and Potato Soup

 

If you are like me, you are tired of all the big meals - potatoes, ham, turkey, chicken, beef - that we all love to eat at Christmas time.  Changing up the menu for some hearty, home-made soup is a lovely way to use up left overs and still have a nourishing meal.  This soup is one of my go-to’s because we love ham at our house.  The soup is filled with goodness the next day!  Enjoy the recipe and drop a comment to tell me how it turned out for you and your family.  

Delicious Ham and Potato Soup 

Prep Time: 20 Min Cook Time: 25 Min Ready In: 5 Min 8 Servings

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes 

1/3 cup diced celery 

1/3 cup finely chopped onion 

3/4 cup diced cooked ham 

3 1/4 cups water 

2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules 

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste 

1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper, or to taste 

5 tablespoons butter 

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

2 cups milk 

Directions 

Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.  

Many blessings,

Judy

Does Karma Take Too Long?

 

I saw this poster, and thought,

“That is the problem we have today, everyone would rather fight than try to work things out.  I think that it is a product of impatience, and ego, and training.  We have learned through history that the one with the bigger stick seems to win.  So, that is what we focus on – winning.  Winning is really a form of losing when the solution only solves the problem for one person or group.  If you win, you have failed, as a leader, because not everyone is happy.  While I agree that there are some folks that you will probably never satisfy, the majority are happy and look for solutions to what keeps them from doing their job, or from living their life in peace and with ease.”

Perhaps I am wrong in my thoughts. Perhaps this poster has it right.  Perhaps we should defend ourselves, and do what is in our power to prevail over others with our own thoughts and values.  

What are your thoughts?

Blessings

Judy

Angels Say That There Is Beauty In Every Day!

 

It is not very often that a day is really awful.  

Here is a start to your list.

1. Smile. 
2. Connect with nature. 
3. Surround yourself with positive people in person or online. 
4. Do something you’ve always enjoyed. 
5. Do something you’ve never done before but have always wanted to try. 
6. Learn something new. 
7. Smell something that makes you happy: a mandarin, your lover’s perfume, chocolate, you decide. 
8. Reward yourself for your good habits. 
9. Eat something that makes you happy, but not too much if it’s fattening. 
10. Spend time with a good friend. 
11. Touch something that makes you happy: a cat, velvet, the bark of a tree? Take time to notice. 
12. Don’t worry now, worry later. 
13. Say, or sing, something that makes you happy. 
14. Challenge yourself, I dare you. 
15. Look at something that makes you happy. 
16. Stop procrastinating, do something. 
17. Take a small step towards your goal. 
18. Congratulate yourself. 
19. Tell someone you love them. 
20. Do a good deed.

Now – you can finish it.  If you need help, check out the rest of the list at http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/101-ways-to-feel-happy-on-a-daily-basis.html.

Many Blessings This Day,

Judy

The Space Between Christmas and New Year’s Day

                                  Picture from Mamamia.com.au

The big day, Christmas Day, is over.  The guests have gone.  Leftover food is bagged and frozen.  The beds are stripped and in the laundry. Tired and energy flagging, everyone wonders what day it is and whether there is something they should be doing but forgot.  Some folks are taking advantage of Boxing Day sales and going out to Nature to rebalance and reenergize.  

How do you manage your time between the two days?  The toll that Christmas takes from all of us means that we need to have lots of water and lots of green food - veggies and salads to bring our body back to balance. 

Many Blessings,

Judy

Trouble Sleeping? Use These Chants

 

                                    Picture is from an email so the original source is unknown.

Clients and friends tell me that they find it difficult to sleep at night between Christmas and New Year and even into January.  Part of the reason may be that the Sun is still low in the sky and the days are shorter than we would like.  Part of the reason may be too that as we move into the next year, we are unsettled.  Meditation and chanting can help improve sleep.

Most people think that chanting is part of meditating and that it needs to be done in an upright, lotus position as shown in the picture above.  That is simply not true.  

Yes, chants are used in meditation.  Fact, chants are meditation and can be done anywhere.  That is why, when I am having trouble sleeping, and say one, two or all of the chants below until I fall deeply into sleep.

My favorite chant is "The Loving Kindness" chant.  The version that I learned goes like this...

May I be filled with loving kindness.  May I be well.

May I be peaceful and at ease.  May I be happy.

May you  be filled with loving kindness.  May you be well.

May you be peaceful and at ease.  May you be happy.

May we  be filled with loving kindness.  May we be well.

May we be peaceful and at ease.  May we be happy.

 The chant that I learned back in the nineties is the OM chant.  "Om Mani Padme Hum".  I can say this chant for about twenty minutes before I am asleep.  You can look up the meaning of this chant.  However, the Dalai Lama says that this chant will...

“transform your impure body, speech and mind into the pure body, speech and mind of a Buddha.”

The third chant or mantra that I use is the...Ra Ma Da Sa, Sa Say So Hung chant.  Again, you can look up the meaning.  This is a very sacred healing chant that I learned in 2003 and that I use to help heal aches and pains that keep me from sleeping.

Please try these mantras when you can not sleep and please post what happened when you used them.

Many blessings,

Lightstationwisdom@gmail.com

Merry Christmas 2022

 

 

Love starts from your house, to your neighborhood, to your community, to your nation and to the whole world. Spread love to all those you meet. Let everyone feel the Universal love that raises us all. Merry Christmas to you!

To all of you that have been reading my blog and to those of you that send me emails and post comments, “Thank you!”  Thank you for taking time to acknowledge that the writing resonates with you.   

Love, light, and laughter,

Judy

Christmas Eve with Spirit Animal - Cardinal

                              

“This year, work to be like Cardinal. Here is Cardinal's message.

• Eat only those foods that agree with you, and that provide you with the nourishment that you need to keep your body healthy.
• Feed someone else.  Cardinal’s feed one another when they are tired, sick, or mating.  In the presenting of food, we show our worth.
• Go to places that you have never been before.  Be adventuresome.  This is the true calling of all beings, to go and see new things.  Staying in one place, with the familiar, is a form of fear.
• Take up a physical activity – mountain climbing or rock climbing, walking, running, swimming, hiking (in the mountains), biking, kayaking, or playing some sport.  Cardinal stays fit by flying and hopping through the trees. Physical health gives you freedom.
• Find a class that interests you, and take it, even if it is outside your normal range of what people think you are about.  Cardinal has always watched other birds and learned from them, and than passed this on to their flock.
• Go outside and listen – not with a music thing in your ears.  Listen to the sounds of all of us birds, and of all of Nature.  This will help you grow and to feel the beat of life that is growing louder in Mother Earth.  It will help you find balance.

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Blessings,

Judy