Well, its day 14 of Social Distancing and day 9 of home school. Its been OK. The kids are doing as well as they can, but they are sad and miss their friends. My days aren’t all too different, other than everyone being home, but their days have been changed drastically and they are grieving. My oldest is going into introvert project mode, a mode I know all too well. She has been cleaning and organizing her room for HOURS. My youngest, who is definitely my more extroverted one, is just sad. Every day when he wakes up, he asks if he can go back to school and then just weeps when the answer is till “no”. It absolutely breaks my heart.
As they are grieving their days, I am grieving for them too. I know this time will have a life long impact on all of us, but especially the youngest of us. Part of me wants everything to go back to “normal” as quickly as possible, but then maybe not. Maybe we can be better on the other side of this? That’s the hope I’m clinging to anyway. Maybe after being isolated, our world will see how important community is and see the humanity in those we don’t normally consider. Maybe we will see the importance in nature and take better care of the earth. Maybe as we are forced to be still, we will see and know the Lord in ways we never have before. I don’t know about the rest of it, but I know that much is true.
In the midst of all the grief and fear and uncertainty, I am praying for MERCY. Mercy for myself as I struggle at home. Mercy for those who are facing more hardship than I am as they are losing jobs or getting sick. Mercy for our world. I’m praying for a freaking miracle. When we think about mercy, we have scripture telling us that the Lord has new mercies for us every day.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3: 22-24
But that scripture is in the book of LAMENTATIONS. This overly quoted, coffee cup scripture is surrounded by verses of despair, fear, and anxiety. It has been a good reminder to be that while we are surrounded by “breaking news”, absolutely none of this is news to God. That while everything around us seems to be constantly changing and uncertain, HE is faithful and steadfast. He sees our grief, and I believe he feels it too. The same way my heart breaks for my kids, His heart is breaking for us. And I am clinging to this Psalm as I sit in all these feelings that I don’t know what to do with. The goodness of the Lord is here and now. We don’t have to wait until all of this is over to see Him. Look for those new mercies now, in our lament.
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Psalm 27: 13
I don’t have a great transition between all this and a recipe. That feels super forced to try to tie in all these hard feelings, and then just flip over into being super positive about “new content”. But sometimes, for me, turning my attention to a task like cooking, calms the storm in my mind. So maybe that will help you too. My Teriyaki Pork is the simplest of simple recipes. Throw some meat and sauce in the pressure cooker, and then serve it however you want. Plus this is such a good time to let good enough be good enough. Don’t let a list of ingredients stop you from feeding your people. You may not be able to get everything on this list right now, but you can use what you have and make it your own! Don’t have pork? Use chicken. Heck, use tofu. Don’t have a pressure cooker? Use a slow cooker. Don’t have teriyaki sauce? Use salsa. The possibilities are endless. Feel empowered to change anything that needs changing and feel confident in that whatever you put on the plate is feeding your people well.
Simple Teriyaki Pork
Ingredients:
- Pork loin – I used 1/2 of a 3-4 lb piece and froze the rest.
- Salt
- 6-8 cloves of garlic, whole
- 1/2 cup of store bought Teriyaki sauce. I like Trader Joe’s Soyaki Sauce.
- 1/4 cup broth
Steps:
- Set pressure cooker to Saute mode
- Using a paring knife, cut garlic clove sized slits into the pork, and stuff each one with a clove of garlic.
- Sprinkle pork with salt, but not TOO generously since the teriyaki sauce will have salt as well.
- Add oil to the pot, and brown the pork on all sides.
- Pour in teriyaki sauce and broth.
- Cook on high pressure for 1 hour, release the pressure and shred the pork. If the pork doesn’t fall apart easily, just put it back in the cooker for 5-10 more minutes.
- Serve over rice, cauliflower rice, in lettuce wraps, tacos. Really however you want. Enjoy!
