S’more Fun!

This year, my 1st-grade son became a Cub Scout!  He’s working hard to finish his Tiger requirements and having fun along the way.  He has competed in a few different challenges and even won 1st place in his den’s Pine Wood Derby!  He is so proud of his accomplishments!  

Last week, his pack had a S’more Bake Off.  The Scoutmaster challenged him to bake S’more cookies and gave him this recipe from Bakerita.  He knocked it out of the park, and won 2nd place!  I helped a little, but not much.  These cookies are now some of my favorites to bake!  I’ve included 3 tips below, but please, head on over to Bakerita & bake her S’mores Cookies!

1. Refrigerate the dough a couple hours until it is firm and chilled through.
2. Roll the chilled dough into balls and then roll the entire ball in the graham cracker crumbs (like you do a snickerdoodle) before topping with extra mallow bits & chocolate.
3. The Jet Puffed Mallow Bits were hard for me to find.  They were next to the hot chocolate in my grocery store, so if you can’t find them with the other marshmallows, check the hot chocolate aisle!

Thoughts

I see it around my house, I (used to) see it on TV, I see it with my friends, and I even see it on the scale (and on my plate). What is it that I see?

EXCESS

Everywhere I look I see excess. We live in a very excessive culture. Did you know most of the world lives on LESS THAN $2 a day? It’s even hard to order a sweet tea at a restaurant for less than $2 these days, so imagine trying to live on that. It changes your perspective a little doesn’t it?

Almost 2 years ago, I read a book that really really really made me think. ALOT. The book is called 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. In a couple of weeks, I, along with a few friends are going to embark on our own mutiny against excess. It’s exciting to think about getting rid of many of the things that clutter up my life and I’m excited to go on this journey with some friends as well.

That said, I read an outstanding article today from RELEVANT Magazine titled The Socially Acceptable Sin by Jason Todd. It speaks about how our love of excess and more is simple gluttony. This really hit home with me:

Is the desire for excess sinful? It depends on whether the soul is addicted to a finite excess or an infinite excess. Do we ever think of gorging on God? Do we relish the chance to spend a few more minutes in prayer, hidden away from the world for just one more taste of the divine? When was the last time we lingered long over the pages of an open Bible because we just couldn’t stop admiring the honeyed flavor of an ancient truth? If the Bible is the story of the only infinite good, why do we spend so much of our lives at lesser tables?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

5 Reasons TV is Dead

I think this is a great article, and since I haven’t wrote much lately, I thought I would share it with you!

Resurrected Living

In 1979 The Buggles lamented the death of one era and celebrated the beginning of another with their hit single “Video Killed the Radio Star.” The song contained the lyric “We can’t rewind we’ve gone too far.” Much has changed since the television boom following WWII. We now have computers, tablets, and smartphones. These devices do what television does and more. They entertain and inform. They also do it better and with less commercials. One could argue that television will always be around just like film, but television and film are two different things. Television is a medium by which we receive entertainment and information. Film is an art form. Television has more in common with a smartphone, whereas film has more in common with a painting or a symphony. The mediums which we use to entertain ourselves or receive information come and go, but art is here to stay.

View original post 1,144 more words

Jelly Jammin!

I realize I’ve been posting a lot of “thankfulness” posts, but I haven’t posted any of the cool things I’ve been doing over the past 5 or 6 months! I have to correct that! So, I’m going to start with this:

JELLY!!!!!

This summer, as I was out preparing for my first 5k, I noticed all of the wild grapes on the vines by the church parking lot. This reminded me of all the blackberry, dewberry, and sand plum jelly my mom and Dottie used to make when I was a kid. I also remembered all of the possum grapes we used to pick on the side of Waco & Fishmarket road before someone cleared the fence line to put in a new fence. These vivid memories of my childhood made me want to do 2 things: get to picking grapes and make some jelly!

I quickly consulted my friend Erin, who knows everything there is to know about native plants. She informed me the grapes were in fact grapes and not poisonous, but very sour. She said they make the best grape jelly. When I told her what I wanted to do, she jumped onboard and picked grapes in other locations so we would have plenty!

As we “researched” recipes and methods of making and canning our own grape concoction, we came to the realization that we needed help. Desperately. What came to my mind was the passage in Titus about the older women teaching the younger women. It may be a stretch to think the apostle Paul was talking about how to make grape jelly, but isn’t grape jelly a necessity in a well-run modern household? 😊 Needless to say, we brought in our dear friend Margie and she was the keys to our success!

Erin and I had a blast, Margie was an AWESOME teacher, and the outcome was incredible!!! We definitely could not have done this, with as much success, if Margie had not been there, showing us the ropes, and letting us use her jelly making supplies!

Here are some pictures of our fun evening! I wasn’t able to take pictures the entire process, but I got most of it!

Filling the jars….

And half of the finished product!

Or should I say this is the finished product?

Being Thankful (Days 17-22)

Wow! I’m really behind in posting from my little book!! Lets see how many I can post from my list right now!

Day 17
50. Fun work environment
51. “The calm after the storm.”

Day 18 10-23-2012
52. Scott! Today is our 8th anniversary! It doesn’t seem that long ago, but it also seems a lifetime away. I feel really blessed for these years and hope to have many many more.
53. One of the reasons why I feel so blessed is how generous Scott is!
54. Date nights! It just good to go out and have fun without having a little one to take care of!

Day 19 10-24-12
55. Extra work! This means a bigger paycheck and more fun at the preschool!
56. Wednesday Bible class.

Day 20
57. Honesty
58. Fun family nights out. It’s also fun to take Jackson out to just have a fun evening!

Day 21
59. Jana Alayra DVDs! The kids LOVE her music! I think it’s pretty fun too. She has some great songs for kids with some really good messages.
60. Great co-workers. Not everyone can say this, but I work with a GREAT group of ladies!
61. Warm clothes. It’s fall and the temps are occasionally cooler. On those days I am so thankful I have been blessed with warm clothing.

Day 22 10-27-12
62. Contemplative time alone. Sometimes a person just needs that time alone to think.
63. Time to bake! I lOVE this time!!
64. Parties!!! Who doesn’t love a fun party with fire?!?!

The Bird

Jackson is almost 3 1/2 years old. He is a curious little guy, and this morning on the playground he caught a bird. This was a young bird. It was still fuzzy. I’m not sure if it had fallen out of the nest trying to fly, or if  it just fell out of the nest. Whatever the reason, my son and one of his friends decided to help it. 

I’m not sure exactly what went on with the bird, but I did see it hop away out of the playground. Knowing they had touched the bird, I took Jackson and his friend inside to wash their hands. On the way in, I asked, “How did the little bird feel?”. The response I recieved was, “It felt nice.” My next question was, “Were you nice to the bird?” to which was immediately answered, “I was!! But HE (Jackson) wasn’t.” 

As cute as this whole situation was, it made me think a little bit. 

When I see someone in need and I try to help, am I really helping, or am I just patting them on the back? 

When I see someone with a need, and I try to help, am I being nice, or am I patting them too hard? 

If I see someone with a need, and I desire to help them, do they actually want my help, or am I forcing my help on them?

Is Anyone Out There?

I know it has been almost 2 years since I have posted ANYTHING on here, but I’m working on getting some more stuff going.  In addition to some of my random thoughts, I plan on posting about my new hobbies, like my cake decorating.  Since I last posted, I have taught myself how to decorate cakes.  I would like to share a few of them with you.  Anyway, if you’re still out there, I hope you enjoy looking at my updated blog!   

525,600 Minutes

Recently, 40 billionaires pledged to give at least half of their wealth to charity.  That is a LOT of money going to good causes.  I know these billionaires have more money than they can spend, but it’s still an incredible thing they are doing.  I know we don’t all have money like that, as a matter of fact, most of us will never come close to having that kind of money.  However, there is something we can give back, something worth far more than millions of dollars.  Warren Buffett, who pledged to give away 99% of his wealth, stated the following about his pledge:

Moreover, this pledge does not leave me contributing the most precious asset, which is time. Many people, including — I’m proud to say — my three children, give extensively of their own time and talents to help others. Gifts of this kind often prove far more valuable than money. A struggling child, befriended and nurtured by a caring mentor, receives a gift whose value far exceeds what can be bestowed by a check. 

 I think he hit the nail on the head.  Our time is valuably important.  We never seem to have enough time, so how are we supposed to give more of it?  Let’s think of it this way:

There are 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week (168 hours).  Since there are 52 weeks in a year, there are 8736 hours each year.  

Lets go back and think about each day and week.  The column on the left will show the activity the middle column will show the approximate time spent on the activity each day, and the last column will show the approximate time spent on that activity each week.  

Activity                     Hrs per wk day                    Hrs per week
Sleep                                8                                           56
Eating                              2                                           14
Dressing/Shower            2                                           14

Work                                8                                           40
Driving                             1                                            7             
                                                        Total                    131


That leaves  37 additional hours that we usually have something going, lets figure out how we fill this.  Most of us say we pray and study our Bible every day, lets be generous, and say we do this an hour each day.  That brings our total hours to 138 per week.  We still have 1 1/2 days to fill.  Let’s say we go to worship each Sunday morning & evening and go to Bible class on Sunday morning and Wednesday evening these activities are only 4 hours a week.  I know there is also house cleaning, kids activities, etc.  But We’ve only filled 142 of 168 hours!  That means we still have more than an entire day each week, or 14.25% of the week that we can devote to other worthwhile things!   Just imagine how that adds up over a year!


Tips on spending time wisely:
1.  Make a list of your time priorities.  Worship and Bible class, family, work, sleep, etc…
2.  Make a time budget.  Write down how you spend each hour of the day for a week.  Look to see where you spend most of your time.  Make a list of things you want to start doing, or continue to do, and things you do not want to keep doing, or habits that need change.  Now make a schedule for the week of how you want to spend each hour of every day.  Make sure to include the changes.  Sometimes this takes sacrifice, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.  This is a good activity for kids too.  They also need to learn the value of their time and how to spend it wisely.
3.  Always make sure there is time for God.  We often fill our lives so full that we don’t have time for what is most important.  It’s one thing to say God’s a priority, it’s another thing to make God a priority by giving your time to Him.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes,

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Moments so dear.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

–Jonathan Larson, Seasons of Love

Hi!!

Hi Everyone!


I’m obviously new to the blogging sphere.  I decided to start this blog on a whim.  I think this may be a good way for me to decompress all of my thoughts.  If you know me at all, you know I’m full of random, off-the-wall things.  I think it may be a good idea for me to let them out instead of keeping them all inside.  Plus, it may be entertaining for you!


I plan on posting some of my random thoughts on life, spirituality, motherhood, food, and really whatever comes to mind.  So, here it goes.  I hope you find this interesting…  🙂


Laura