News on my Mom, Gut Health & Italian Tomato & Bread Soup
Hello friend,
I have one word to say:
Hallelujah!
Many of you joined me in prayer for my mother last week, after I shared a bit about waiting to see if she has cancer. We sat on pins and needles all week, wavering between stoicism and collapse. Stuart gently reminded me to take the situation a step at a time. We prayed, we cried, and we waited with anticipation for the results.
They arrived and there is no cancer! No. Cancer.
While we must live with the reality of fleshly bodies and the certainty that death will find us all, we are grateful that it will not find her in this way, at this time. Gah — I’m still elated at this news!
During our time of unknowing and anticipation, an old hymn kept playing on repeat in my mind — no doubt, it’s moments like these where the theology we hold begins to show its colors. It felt like a balm to my soul.
Whate'er my God ordains is right:
his holy will abideth;
I will be still, whate'er he doth,
and follow where he guideth.
He is my God; though dark my road,
he holds me that I shall not fall:
wherefore to him I leave it all.Whate'er my God ordains is right:
here shall my stand be taken;
though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
yet am I not forsaken.
My Father's care is round me there;
he holds me that I shall not fall:
and so to him I leave it all.
Something beautiful…
My daughter Georgia drew this last week:
"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting — a wayside sacrament.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Something funny…
For every gardener at the end of summer, there comes a moment when you realize… I think we’re done here. That moment came for me this week. My plants know it’s over, and I don’t even care. Each day, I’m walking by something else in my garden that has shriveled up. It’s time to switch from weeding and watering to shopping for school supplies and keeping up with thirteen loads of laundry a week. Welcome to fall.
Something I’m dipping into…
Have you ever heard of hydrotherapy? I hadn’t either. But my doctor prescribed it in an attempt to bolster my gut health back into an optimal state — it’s currently diagnosed as “poor,” if you can believe it. She says eliminating food intolerances is the number-one way to build back gut health, but the body can also be encouraged along in its efforts through treatments like this. My handful of sessions involves alternating wet-hot and wet-cold towels on my torso, while using electronic pulses to stimulate healing.
I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Now I know.
Ideally, my gut healing will go something like this:
Stop eating the food causing the damage (here’s mine)
Help the body heal through various means, including castor oil packs, a small amount of supplementation if necessary, and using hot and cold therapy to speed healing along (that’s what hydrotherapy is)
While I am normally a patient person, the opportunity to make a year’s worth of healing in five hour-long sessions was too tempting to pass up. So here goes nothing…
Something delicious…
When our family landed in Umbria, Italy last February, we arrived dead on our feet. While the kids did their best to hold it together, I could see the exhaustion and ill feelings on their faces. I, too, felt terrible. I still blame the airplane lasagne. The two-hour taxi ride from Rome through winding streets extended the pain even further, as the driver got lost and took us on a thirty-minute detour through the rural countryside.
But after arriving, dropping bags, and meeting the property manager, Flavia, we were renewed with the excitement that WE WERE IN ITALY! And we had over a month ahead of us, together as a family, to take it in.
In search of supper, Stuart quickly led us down dark alleyways and through brick passages — following a scent his nose had picked up like a bloodhound. He eventually led us to Bistrot del Duca.
What awaited us inside felt divine.
I’ll have to save the story of Cristiano and “del Duca” for another time because it is entirely special all on its own and deserves my best writing efforts. Suffice it to say, we will be taking our Che Vita Getaway guests there for an exclusive night of pure Italian pleasure.
When I was too weary to order that first night, I asked Cristiano to just choose something wonderful for me. It’s everything I hoped it would be and then some.
Pappa al Pomodoro: Tomato and Bread Soup
This soup is made with very simple ingredients: day-old crusty bread and tomatoes. Though the ingredients are basic, the result is a smooth, filling soup that requires little effort from the cook and makes use of staple ingredients, ensuring no good bread goes to waste.
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons good olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon red chili flakes
3 28-ounce cans of the best whole tomatoes you can source
6 large slices of stale (or dried) artisan bread
Sea salt, black pepper, and balsamic vinegar, to taste
Finely grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Additional olive oil, for serving
Instructions:
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot. Add in the onion and garlic and saute for 2 or 3 minutes.
Add in the basil, chili flakes, and tomatoes. Bring up to a low simmer.
For a smoother soup, remove the crusts from the bread. Cut the pieces into 1” pieces and add the bread to the soup. Cover the pot and let the soup simmer for 45 minutes over low heat, stirring every 10 minutes or so to ensure it doesn’t burn or stick to the pan.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar. Serve with finely grated Parmesan cheese and a generous drizzle of olive oil.
I cannot thank you enough for your show of support, kind messages, and the way you lifted us up this past week. Blessings to you all, my friends.
