Great day, plus an amazing recipe for EPIC CHOCOLATE ALMOND COOKIES!!!

I had an amazing day today. We have some new friends, Joshua and Sarah, that we met a couple of weeks ago at Southside (our church). Apparently they've known Wesley's uncle/our pastor for quite some time, but our paths have only just now finally crossed - and I'm so glad they did! What a BLESSING!!!



We had a great time the other night starting a game of Lord of the Rings Risk, which we finished today. And even more exciting, both Josh and Sarah are writers, so we got to spend a ton of time discussing our books, our reasons for writing, characters, plot outlining, and all that good writer stuff. :) They also really reminded me WHY we do this - we're writing not just to entertain, but to share a message. We're essentially teaching God to the world through the art of story, and as teachers of God's message we bear a tremendous responsibility to do our absolute best. It was very motivating, and I think we're going to be a great encouragement to one another, not to mention how wonderful it is to have like-minded people to bounce ideas off of... I'm so excited about this new friendship!!!

They were here all day, so we did some other stuff too - among which was BAKING! :) Sarah is very sensitive to gluten, so she eats only gluten-free foods... so we made THESE. They were SO GOOD. I should have taken pictures. Sorry about that.

Anyway, Sarah and I adapted this from a recipe I loved from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, written by Sally Fallon. (You can find the original recipe either in the book, obviously, or copied down on another blog here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2009/10/gluten-free-almond-cookies-made-with-arrowroot-flour-real-food-wednesday.html)

Here is my and Sarah's variation: Epic Chocolate Almond Cookies :)

1 1/2 cups almonds
1/2 cup softened coconut oil
1 cup arrowroot flour
1/2 cup whole sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Place almonds in a blender or food processor and process to a fine meal. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well blended. (I didn't have enough almonds, so I made up for it with extra arrowroot flour. My dough turned out pretty dry, so we added some water to moisten it.) Form dough into walnut-sized balls and place on cookie sheets. Press down on the cookies to flatten them a little.

Bake at 300* for a total of about 20 minutes. Let cool completely before moving to an airtight container. Store in refrigerator.

"She watches over the ways of her household."

I've been looking at Proverbs 31 a little lately, (about the virtuous wife) and one verse has really been sticking out to me. "She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness."

To me, at this moment in my life, it is speaking about financial stuff. Wes asked me before we were even married if I would manage our finances. That was one thing that really stressed him out, and he didn't think he could handle it. I agreed to do it, but I haven't always been very consistent.

For instance, we're pretty tight on money right now, and have been for a while, though some times are a little less tight than others. I've tried a few times to put us on a cash system - it's so much easier to know how much you have and how much you're spending when you can actually SEE it! Cards make it hard to keep track of - at least for us. We're more likely to go over on spending if we're using cards, because it's convenient and you can't tell when you're running out.

Anyway, I never was consistent enough with making withdrawals and keeping track of income and outflow to see how much we could spend and how much we could save... so we've had some trouble putting any money back for savings. This is something I would really like to get better at, and after reading that verse, I'm happy to say that I have added "check on finances" to my weekly list in my homemaking organization notebook. Every Monday, along with my other tasks, I will now be checking on our bank account and looking at our income and outflow, making sure things are on track and calculating how much money I can withdraw for us to use for groceries and spending.

To me, it's a way that I can "watch over the ways of my household." It's also a way that I can honor my husband, by doing what he requested of me to the best of my ability and by not being inconsistent with it (which would show that his requests are not a priority to me like they should be).

Another thought on "being fully there"

This is going to be short - it's just something I've realized (something new) about the struggle to be fully focused and present and just being where you are. (Not distracted.)

I may be wrong, but I feel like being thankful and striving to glorify God in whatever you're doing are good ways to keep focused - and not just focused, but focused in the right way! Which may be a part of what I'm struggling with, too. Not just being there, but being there and being united with God at the same time.

Now THAT is true life - life at its fullest! And that's what I'm hoping to achieve, if God will be gracious enough to allow me to learn it! (Please, Lord, help me with this! It's soooo hard for me.)

Choose

This is probably gonna be a fairly short entry - both the girls are napping but I have no idea how long that will last. :)

Okay. So last night at Lifegroup we talked about resolutions, and the things we'd like to change about ourselves in 2012. I was glad I had already done some thinking on that, but a little embarrassed that I could only remember 3 of the 4 areas I had chosen to focus on. (I forgot "Focus," haha.)

So I was in bed last night, just kind of thinking about those 4 things a little, and I felt God reveal something to me about the subject of focusing, and simplifying my life. It was one word. "Choose."

In order to be more focused on the things that you do, you sometimes have to simplify - to do fewer things so that you can be more fully involved in the things you're doing and not just rushing on to the next item on your list. But in order to do that, duh, we have to make choices. We have to say no to some things.

Before I went to bed last night I played a few rounds of Halo with Wes (my husband). In between rounds, I was carrying on two different Chat conversations on Facebook. And you know what? It was okay, but looking back I wish that I had just chosen one of those three things - Halo, or one of the two conversations - and really focused on it so that I could be "all there."

So today I am trying to be more aware of the choices I make. I've made a list (which is also helping me with one of the other things I'm working on - organization) of things I want to do today, and have tried to keep it simple and include only the things that are truly important to me.

Another thing I struggle with a lot of the time is choosing the right things at the wrong time. When Kaira and Rachel are both awake, that is almost always the WRONG time to write a new blog entry or work on my novel. I end up doing my writing in a semi-distracted state as I try to keep an eye on both my young daughters at the same time, and then I walk away from it feeling guilty for choosing writing over my kids, rather than feeling good about getting something important accomplished.

Don't get me wrong. Blogging and finishing my book are both very important to me. But not so important that they justify ignoring my girls when I could be spending quality time with them.

Now, blogging and writing can both wait. I can always skip either one - or both - for the day and pick up again tomorrow. There are other things, like preparing meals, that obviously cannot wait. Those more urgent things are the only things I want to be caught choosing over quality time with my kids or my husband. For everything else, I prefer to leave them for the spare bits of time (like right now) when I don't have to sacrifice something more important in order to work on them.

I do struggle with that a little. Ever get that feeling of "I just have to get that done"? Like, if one of the girls woke up right now, I'd probably try to finish this entry really fast instead of going straight upstairs and leaving the blog entry for later. I don't know why, I'm just kind of like that. I like things on my "list" to get finished. But slowly I think I'm learning to prioritize a little better, and I'm thankful that God has been working on my heart in this area, because to be honest, I have a lot more respect for myself when I put my children first and don't "sweat the small stuff," as they say.

Okay, wow. They're both still sleeping. Maybe I'll try and get a little work done on The Legend of Talis. Awesome.

But I have every intention of stopping as soon as my kids need me again. There. I said it. Now I'm accountable. :) This blogging thing is awesome.

Do small things with great love

"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." - Mother Teresa

Well. I think if I had to choose a "quote of the week," that would be it. I was so emotional yesterday and just kept feeling so disappointed that Wes and I weren't doing something more important as a family. You know, like besides loving each other and loving our girls, and going to church on Sundays, and making enough money to "get by." I mean, I want so much more in life than to just "get by." I want to live! I want to live for God! Knowing what we know and believing what we believe, I would think our lives would be... I don't know, a little more radical or something. A little more purpose-minded. Or mission-minded, or whatever you want to call it. I'm not sure the best way to describe what I was feeling, but I think you probably get the general idea. I wanted my life to mean something, to someone besides just my family and close friends. I wanted to reach out and serve people, and honor the God who gave me life and salvation and EVERYTHING GOOD THAT I HAVE. Just sometimes seems like I should be doing more. Like we should be doing more as a couple.

Well, I don't know if maybe hormones had something to do with it... I was pretty emotional in general yesterday. You should have seen how upset I was that I had to pick up Wesley's clothes, lol. (My husband has never been particularly determined to pick up after himself, but usually I don't complain - I mean, he works 40 hours a week to provide for us, and I'm grateful enough for it that I don't usually mind tossing a shirt or some socks into the laundry basket for him, or picking up dinner dishes. Usually.) Anyway, I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself for having to pick up after my husband, and ignoring all the wonderful blessings he brings me in favor of dwelling on the one thing that I don't like. Good way to become very bitter and ungrateful, by the way. And then I felt so guilty for being upset about it and not being more thankful. I was so disappointed in myself that I started to cry. I'm such a mess sometimes.

Uh... lost my train of thought. Where was I going with this? Oh yes. So I was already clearly very emotional yesterday, and when I'm emotional I usually dwell on things that bother me, and become less and less content until something happens. (Example, I get to attempt to talk it out with someone, preferably Wesley but sometimes a close girlfriend instead. Other example, I emotionally explode, pretty much.) So there I was, an emotional wreck, thinking about how I'm pretty much wasting my life, at least in some areas, and dwelling on all the things that I don't do that I could be doing that would honor the Lord... Big things mostly. Missions trips and stuff. Giving our spare time and occasional spare money in ministry to others instead of using it on ourselves to make our lives more comfortable or whatever. And... well, yeah, it was pretty depressing.

Wow, I'm getting kind of long-winded here. Okay. So where I was going with this - today I remembered this quote and started thinking that maybe it's not so much about doing what I would consider to be "big things." Maybe it's more about honoring God in the little things first. I mean, I've learned this lesson a few times in my life already, but I seem to keep forgetting. Thankfully, God is patient and continues to remind me and put me back on track. But I thought this time I would share it here on this blog, in case it might help some of you out there who are going through the same sort of thing.

So, here are some ways I thought I might put this idea into practice. I can raise my children with great love. I can be more patient with them, be there for them when they need me, etc. I can think of clever and unexpected ways to bless my husband. I can spend more of my energy in loving him and less of it in complaining or dwelling on what he does or doesn't do that bothers me. I can be more positive - more thankful. I can prepare meals ahead of time and be more orderly about all of that, and do it with an attitude of love rather than an attitude of "if I don't fix the oatmeal and beans today and get them soaking we won't have breakfast and dinner prepared for tomorrow and we'll have to come up with some last-minute solution, but I really don't feel like preparing the oatmeal and beans right now because I feel like I've been in the kitchen all freaking day!" Lol.

Yeah. So that took a while but I think I got my point across okay. So I guess I'll leave it at that for now and go tend to Rachel, who just woke up from her nap. Later!

Ministry opportunities for the full-time Mom (esp. the full-time Mom with small children)

I was reading another blog today and came across a list of ministry ideas - ways to give and help and share God's love with others. With two little ones here with me, there are only certain things I can do ministry-wise without compromising the very important ministry of mothering my kids and being a helpmeet to my husband. But I did come across several things that I would like to incorporate into my life. I figured if I wrote them out here I'd be more likely to follow through with them, as I'd feel a bit more accountable. :)

Ministry outside the home:

1) Donate your hair to Locks of Love
2) Have a Bake Sale and donate the money to a cause or charity
3) Ask for donations instead of presents for your birthday
4) Bring meals or baked goods to families in need, new neighbors, families with a new baby, etc.
5) Leave money with the cashier for the person behind you
6) Get to know your neighbors
7) Plant a garden and share the produce (or flowers)

Ministry within the home:

1) Randomly cook a special meal for your husband
2) Spend time together with the TV (and computer) off
3) Include your children in your tasks and chores (even if it means taking ten times longer to do them)
4) Complain less - or better yet, not at all

If you have any ideas along these lines, feel free to share by posting a comment!