Recipe of the Day. . .

I love a good devotion and throw in a good recipe with it and that is like having your cake and eating it too.  No pun intended.  One of the hubbs nieces gave me this book for Christmas, I know that I have posted on it before but I thought I would share one of the recipes.  This is Hotcakes and Hallelujahs by Stacey Roberts.  I was reading a devotion from it this morning about giving thanks in all situations and how true that is.  The hubbs was downsized in May and he still does not have a job but we are not destitute just yet.   Because they let him go they had to true up all of his bonus for his quota attainment which was a lot.  We were able to add to our emergency fund for the emergency his company created.  I keep telling my very sweet hubby that God wanted him out of that situation and that God has a plan for our family.  We are not privy to his plan in advance we must trust him and have faith.  We are trusting Him and I am trying to get my hubby to take advantage of  this time off and enjoy his family.
Here is my recipe for today, these are Sabbath Day Spice Muffins

1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup milk

Topping
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven 325.  In a large mixing bowl cream shortening, sugar, and egg.  In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.   Add the medium bowl to the shortening mixture slowly along with milk.
Grease muffin tin and fill with batter bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.  Let cool for a few minutes
Topping:  combine sugar and cinnamon.  Roll warm muffins in melted butter and then in the sugar mixture.  
This recipe says it makes 8-10 muffins.

I am going to try this one today.

More Hotcakes. . .

I love my new devotional book "Hotcakes and Hallelujahs"  today I was reading the part about a new beginning.  The verse that begins this sections is 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are new."  This is so appropriate at the beginning of a new year.  You take stock in your life, what things you would like to change or stop doing all together.  There may even be things that you would like to do more of, like growing your relationship with God.  Spending more time in prayerful conversation with God.
I have to share this with you about my Ethics class I am taking for school.  We were talking about what ethical system drives you.  I picked religion, because that is the basis of my life.  I had a young man question how I could blindly follow something I could not see or touch.  He was attacking my faith, but I did not get offended, he obviously did not know any better and was repeating what ever he had heard from someone else.  Again, I was not offended, I took this as an opportunity to witness to this young man that was obviously confused.  He thought it was insane for someone to "claim" to walk and talk with God.   I shared with him the fact that I carried my two boys in my body and gave birth to them was all the proof I needed to know that God was real and that he was working in my life.  I see God in my everyday life, I journal my prayers for my family and when I go back and look at them I can see exactly where God stepped in and moved us along.  We had an interesting discussion on this subject of religion.  I do not know if I made a difference or not with this fella but he has been added to my prayer list.  I know that God puts people in your life for a reason, whether to teach you a lesson or for you to teach them.  I feel like this fella is the later.
How would you feel if someone said these things to  you?  Would you be offended or would you take the opportunity to witness?  Let me know what you are thinking.

"Hotcakes and Hallelujahs"

"Hotcakes and "Hallelujahs" is a devotional book I got for Christmas.  It has 90 devotions and 30 easy and yummy recipes.   I started this on Saturday morning.  I have glanced over the recipes and I hope to try those too.  I must admit I am not a first thing in the morning cook.   I find it difficult to even eat first thing in the morning.  I generally  drink my breakfast or I wait till mid morning when I can sit down and eat.  Since I was little I have not been able to face food first thing in the morning.   Growing up I always drank a protein drink for breakfast.   My mom sold Shaklee vitamins and they had the best vanilla protein shake powder.  I have not used Shaklee for a long time.  
I did not mean go off topic so far there.  Back to the hotcakes.  The first devotion talks about being positive and how negative thoughts can effect our bodies physically. I believe that God is working in my life and that he puts things and people in my life for a reason.  This devotion also talked about depression, which many young people are dealing with.   I believe this was the reason God put this book in my hands this past week.  Children are bombarded with negative talk these days, they see it on television and hear it in school from teachers and other adults that are supposed to be there to encourage them.  I am thinking about the young man that took his life at Sprats' school.
   I will be sharing more about this book, you can bet on that. 

Sprat is getting ready for finals this week so I am trying to keep everyone grounded in their school work.  Here is to the start of another wild week at our house.                                                            

What makes a man, a Father? ? ? ?

I don't usually write gushy stuff about my husband but, sometimes he just brings that out in me.  The other night I was trying to get the kids up for devotions and Bible reading and that is a HUGE task.  Some nights they just don't want to go to bed, go figure, they're boys.  I had a pretty tiresome day and was sitting on the couch and dear hubby had his Ipad out and I asked him to pull up Keys for Kids.  That is the online site we get our devotions from.  I was feeling too lazy to get up and get the hamster running in my computer and pull it up.  I have told you about my husband praying over our garden in other posts.  You know he is a spiritual man.  I expected him to pull up the site and hand me the ipad to read it for the kids.  Instead, he read the devotion that night.  I was a little shocked, since he normally lets me do all the reading unless I have a sore throat or something.  I was so excited, some days I feel like what I do does not matter and then he does something like this and it makes me realize he does appreciate what I am trying to do and it does matter.  When both Mom and Dad work together to build that spiritual bond in their relationship it bleeds over into the family relationship too.   I feel so blessed.   It is a real man and Father that will read devotions and the Bible to his kids.  I know that God is working in our lives and I am so thankful for all of his blessings.

New Bible Study. . . .

I have joined a new Bible study based on a book, "What Happens When Women Say Yes to God."  We read and do work in the book and post online our thoughts and such.  As you know we do nightly devotions as a family.  We read a devotion "Keys for Kids" it is an online site that does great devotions for kids and we read the Bible.  We have read all of Proverbs and are almost through with Psalms.  I was not in a good mood last night and feeling kinda blah and I was only going to read out of the Bible and not do the online devotion.  Big T came up first and sat beside me on the couch and while we were waiting for hubby and Sprat, Big T said can we please do the online devotion.  I reluctantly agreed, I was just really tired.  I pulled my computer out, got my hamsters running and finally got to the website.  The devotion was about how Satan can goad you into doing things that go against God's commandments.  The little boy was getting bullied on the bus from school.  His mom told him he needed to try and find a way to deal with his frustration with this bully without fighting.  The next day he came home and was very happy.  He had sat at the front of the bus and avoided the bully all together.  His mom got to thinking about how her son had changed his circumstances and avoided the bully by moving closer to someone in authority.  His mom said maybe she should move closer to Jesus and try to have a closer relationship with him to keep Satan away from her.
I felt like this mom in the devotion.  Big T made me read this devotion and it just reinforces my need to be in my new Bible study.  I always laugh when God just comes right out and says this is where you are supposed to be.  Last night I thanked my sweet Big T for getting me to read the devotion, it was Gods' plan all along.  I said yes, and got  a lesson for myself.   So thankful!!!!!

Talking to kids about marriage. . .

I always say God puts things in our path sometimes to test us and sometimes to help us.  Last night our devotion with the boys was about marriage and finding your special person that God has for you.  I hesitated before I read it but, I knew God had put that devotion there for a reason.  It was about two sisters one was getting married and the other was only thirteen.  The oldest was talking about how God had lead her to her perfect mate and how that someday her sister would find her perfect mate too.  It also talked about how your mate should be a friend and respect you and your feelings.  This opened up a great conversation with the boys.  

It is just as important to talk to boys about relationships and marriage as it is to talk with girls.  You can never talk about it to early either.  Little boys need to know how to treat little girls.  It is also never to early to pray for your child's future mate.  I have talked about Stormie O'Martin many times on my blog and I am going to mention her here too.  She wrote "The Power of a Praying Parent" it gives you great examples of prayers to pray for your kids, boys or girls about different things in their lives.  One of these is about finding that perfect godly mate.  We all hope that our children find that special person that will make them happy and take care of them.  Why not put that in Gods' hands?  Pray for them to find that special person, pray that God leads them to that special person.  It is never too early to think about.   Our devotions come from "Keys for Kids"  a good friend of mine shared this magazine with me after my youngest had been at their Bible School one Summer.  I found them online too, so I go online to their website to do devotions with the boys.  www.cbhministries.org/forkids/keysforkids  check them out.  

Daily Devotions. . .

I was reading the daily devotions with the boys one night before bed and this particular one talked about improper touching.   As I was reading this I was thinking to myself, do I really want to broach this subject with my boys now.  We have talked about the fact that nobody should touch their body.   What we had not talked about was that they should not touch anyone else either.  I always thought I was glad I did not have girls because this was one issue I did not want to have to deal with.  You always think of girls being victims but boys can be victims too.  As a mother I want to protect my children from everything; from bicycle injuries, bullies, drugs, and all things evil.  I have said numerous times that God has a plan and he puts things in our path sometimes to help us and sometimes to slow us down.  I feel like this particular devotion was in his plan.  I believe this because I had gotten off schedule with their devotions and I was catching up.  This devotion made me have that talk I had been avoiding.  We had a good conversation about how to behave and that they can tell their Dad and I anything.  I know that God is watching over our family and I am so thankful for that.   I know that he sends things to me when I need them and that is comforting.  I know that he is leading me so that I may lead my children.

Nightly devotions. . .

Mark and I have always gone up together to say prayers with the boys and say good night before they go to bed.  We have also been doing nightly devotions with them for many years.   The first devotion book I bought was "365 days of Devotions for Boys."  It was great and the devotions were geared toward things boys face growing up.  I have repeated many of those devotions as things came up with the boys.  My friend Cheryll gave me a little monthly magazine that her Church gives their kids that has devotions.   These are great too and are so relevant to what is going on with my kids lately.  They have talked about bullying and being mean to others and we are dealing with that right now in our neighborhood.  My kids don't get bullied at school they get bullied in our own yard.  It just amazes me that parents do not pay attention to what their kids are doing at home.   Well, that is a whole other list of blogs for later.
The devotion I read last night to the boys was about Church.  The little boy was telling his Mom riddles and so she gave him one.  "What is CH_ _ ch?"  The little boy studied it and finally came up with Church.  But what the Mom was trying to get across to him was that Church is only Church if U R in it.  I know it's corny.  I loved it though.  These devotions have allowed me to touch on some very serious subjects with my kids that I may not have otherwise been able to discuss with them.
Mark and I cherish these little nightly talks that we get to have with the kids.  We have discussed things like salvation, Heaven, Hell, bullies, missionaries, ect. . .  I know that soon they will be too old or at least think they are too old for us to tuck them in and say prayers with them but as long as they will let me I will.    They are growing up so fast and I am so proud of the young men they are becoming.