Good Sunday Morning!

How are you today, my sweet friend?  I hope well :).

We had some storms last night, but they were not as bad here as they predicted.  Now the cold is supposed to move in.  I am familiar with the cold from our time in Alaska, but it is still quite an event here in Alabama.  We are supposed to have 60 hours of below freezing temperatures.  That might not sound like much (especially to folk from the north!) but it is a topic of conversation down here! :)

I wanted to show you a picture I took over the pond a few days ago.  The sky was such a beautiful salmon pink and the lightly rippled clouds made the colors even more stunning.

Here is another picture showing the perfect mirror of the pond reflecting the soft cotton candy nubs of the clouds.

I hope you have a blessed day, my friend.  Spend some time with the Lord today because He loves you so much!  Even if YOU feel far from Him, HE is never far from you.  It is just sometimes we have our back turned and then claim we cannot see him.  Just turn into His arms and you will find Him waiting right there.  I promise you this is true :)

Love, Steph

In-Ground Fireworks

Doesn't this look JUST like green and white fireworks? :)  A little 4th of July in the middle of winter :)  (we aren't currently having a freeze--this was earlier in the winter)

One Of Those Days

Hello my sweet friend

Well yesterday was one of THOSE days.  One of those "wow I am not at all the person I though I was, not at all as faithful as I should be to the Lord, and basically need to do a LOT of prayer and soul searching" days.

I won't bore you with details but let me just give a hint to the drama:  at one point I was cussing (I pretty much NEVER cuss unless I get badly burnt on the stove or something), at another point I was sobbing so heavily on TWS's shoulder that I was honestly trying not to gag, at another point the family gently invited me to go rest while they threw a ruined meal that I had cooked away and cleaned the kitchen (it was REALLY bad--I said it needed to be thrown away first).

Even bread that I baked (and I am a pretty good bread baker) was ruined.

Precious and I were talking later about why I was SO upset and the real truth was not the undercooked chicken or the new-recipe fried cornbread that somehow had entirely too much baking soda in it to the point that it actually tasted tainted, or even fallen bread.

 The truth is that the smoke was in the air long before the proverbial fire hit the kitchen.  I had spent several glorious days basking in the Love of our Lord and that morning I turned a bit cold.  I still don't know why.  I had NOT turned my back on Jesus at all, but was just in sort of a cold mood to Him--kinda like how we love our parents or kids or sweeties or friends but some days we just sort of act like jerks.

That, my friend, was my downfall for yesterday.  Instead of staying put in bed and focusing on getting myself geared up for spiritual battle, I just sort of ignored my mood and went on my day.  That allowed the enemy to gain a foothold in my heart, in my mind, in my spirit.  It left me unprepared, ungirded, unprotected for the day.  I was awful, I was lost, and I fell completely apart.

Now, as much as I hate this and am still begging the Lord for His mercy and forgiveness, it taught me incredible lessons.  Since I sometimes I suspect that the purpose of my life is to serve as a warning to others ;), I want to humble myself in my failure publicly with you, and to let you know how to avoid what happened to me and what I learned.

1)  He really is all merciful.  Let's start with the biggest takeaway first.  He is kind.  He is not outdone by kindness or forgiveness by anyone.  There is only one unpardonable sin, and even being a jerk to Jesus is not it (but definitely don't do it!).

2) Spiritual battle is real.  It is.  If you feel yourself feeling "meh" spiritually, Be. On. Your. Guard.

3) Emotions are not an infallible gauge of spiritual strength or weakness or anything.  Just because things FEEL bad, that does not mean they are.  Just because you FEEL invulnerable, that does not mean you are.  Your heart is NOT your spirit.  Your heart is human and twitchy and can feel different things depending on sleep levels or hormones or the events of the day.  If you feel upset, STOP, rely on your spirit, not on your heart.

4)  However, emotions can be useful guides to your spiritual state.  If I had stopped earlier yesterday and used my "meh" as a signal to stop and think and pray and draw closer to the Lord, then the emotions that were drawn out during the cooking fiasco would have been reduced or may not have been there at all.  I actually can laugh at my cooking disasters usually.   I pretty much never break down in tears over them, and definitely not sobbing so hard that I choke.

5)  We can't let recent success lull us into thinking we can't be beat.  Just like how the top seeded team in football will lose to an underdog because they get cocky, so too can we get spiritually uppity and neglect to remember our own frailty.

6)  Everything good comes from the Lord.  I realized that my good, the good I do, the good I am, is 100% from the Lord.  I am not naturally good.  He is naturally good.  I have one foot in heaven and one foot in humanity, and I can lean one way or the other.  If I do not lean to Him, rely on Him for my footing, then my "heaven foot" slips and I plant both feet into the quicksand of the enemy.


Today is a new day.  It is overcast like yesterday.  I am still emotionally "hung over" from yesterday and am taking this time to be submissive to Him, to try to correct my errors in thinking, to re-establish my footing.  I am afraid, my dear friend, because I was so awful.  But then this is faith, yes?  Knowing what you deserve and trusting that the Lord loves you enough to understand and help you do better.

Pray for me and I will pray for you :)  I love you :)

Cake Plate Treat: Citrus White Chocolate Cookies

Good morning my most wonderful friend!  I hope your New Year's Eve was a fabulous one.  Ours was fairly sedate.  We went to bed before 8pm!  TWS and I are early (!) risers.

AND apparently I should have been making Cake Plate Treats, not blogging about them yesterday :).  Last night TWS harrumphed about absent treats ;).  Precious, throwing me under the bus, stated firmly that the Cake Plate *IS* clean.  (xsighx  Thanks.  You're grounded. ;) )

I mentioned left over Christmas Candy--no go.  Then I mentioned the tin of Danish Butter Cookies which bought me a little time to fill the void in our kitchen :D

I ahem "adapted" the recipe from here: Orange Creamsicle Cookies.  I did not have oranges, I had lemons.  I did not have LOTS of lemons for zest, I had one.  I cut the butter in half, added back in about a quarter cup of unrefined coconut oil, and added a LOT more lemon extract.  And squirted some lemon juice into the dough because it looked a bit dry (and I had rindless lemon halves and nothing to do with them).

Truly I almost never follow the recipe.  I do, though, make sure NOT to write the blogger back and complain about how it did not turn out if I changed even one iota of the recipe :)  Usually my changes are fine, sometimes not so much.

Today the changes were really awesome :)  The lemon was suitable as a substitute, and the coconut oil added a hint of tropical flair.  The key to it, though, was the white chocolate chips.  They added a creamy, smooth depth that elevated the cookie from "eh, beats celery" to "Oh make it again!  Wait, you didn't write down what you did, did you babe...xsighx" (he knows me so well :) )

 Isn't that photo lovely?  Doesn't the deep rose of the tea look happy and beautiful in the cup?  Don't you just love food photography?

Hmmm....I love teacups but they are so small!  I finished the tea in the cup in....maybe three swallows.  Then I went back to the kitchen to make myself a REAL cup of tea.

 

THIS is what I drink my coffee in every day:  a French Onion Soup Bowl.  See the difference?  I don't know if you can tell, but the teacup holds only 4 ounces.  The onion soup bowl holds SIXTEEN!  Sixteen ounces of happiness and sunshine :) I DO have a pretty mug that I will drink tea in, but that still holds 8-10 ounces--enough to sip for a few minutes anyway :)

What about you?  Do you have a favorite mug, tea cup, bowl?   Do you use different vessels for different beverages?

Christmas Cake Plate Treat

Hello my fair friend!

I wanted to share a cake plate treat that I whipped (seriously, SO quickly!) together right before Christmas.  I got the idea off of Pinterest (of course :) ).

I took two sizes of Reese's cups, chocolate kisses, spray can frosting, and sprinkles.  I also used white chocolate chips.

Essentially you use a dab of frosting to "glue" a small cup, then a large upside down cup, then a small upside down cup, then a hershey kiss.  Glue the white chip on top.  Squirt frosting around each ledge (you will see them when you put these together) and then put sprinkles on :)  Super quick.  I did cut the very tip off of the chocolate kisses so that the white chips would stay on better.

 I put powdered sugar all over the cake plate.  Not necessary for eating, but it REALLY made a difference in presentation.

All done!  I knew it was a hit when the kids AND TWS got that sort of "I am too old to squeal like a 5 year old.....but I REALLY want to squeal like a five year old" look of delight :)