Rooibos: Regular Rooibos tea vs. Green Rooibos tea | Metaphoric Labs

Rooibos: Regular Rooibos tea vs. Green Rooibos tea | Metaphoric Labs

Derrick, an official aviator!

Derrick has worked really hard and has earned his Pilot's license! Seeing some of the stuff he had to learn, I know what an accomplishment that is. Soon, we will fly somewhere and go out on a date!

Without the Rain

Without the Rain

Can you just imagine
Life without the rain
Not having the beautiful scent to indulge in
A world without roses or the sugar cane
The lightning and the thunder showing the mightiness of God, so great
The wind blowing through your hair
The sweetness of a child, upon hearing the thunder, running to your bed so late
The way it makes the trees sound
Dancing in it as a child
The way it sounds through the window as the drops hit the ground
At times intense, others mild
Some say they don't like the rain
Blind to the beauty of a thunderstorm
But what if they knew it may be their last rain...
The last they ever felt a drop on their skin, so warm...
Ever heard...
Ever that they'd see?
What if they got the word
That they'd shortly step into eternity?
There are storms of a different kind, the storms of life
We don't like to welcome the pain...
The strife
He, the Almighty, brings us the rain
And sometimes it is the only way we gain
For without the rain, nothing will grow
Without the rain, there will be no rainbow
For the earth it is the grass, the flowers, the trees...
A storm raging in our hearts brings us to our knees
It is on our knees that we learn we are not our own
We are His
Nothing matters more than this
Without our rain, our pain
We would surely remain
In our sin...
Lost within
But now, because of the rain, broken... undone
With a new heart, a new life just begun
The rain clears
A soul stills
Life, a precious gem
Now poured out for Him...
For Him

For my father-in-law, with love, who is cherishing every thunderstorm

tulsaevangelism.blogspot.com

Derrick, my brother, Ryan, and some of their friends have a blog called tulsaevangelism.blogspot.com. I also put a link to it on here if you scroll down to the right. It is a great sight and I admire how their hearts overflow and pour into reaching the lost.

Banana Brownies

Pardon the random blogs I put on here. Sometimes I send stuff to my blog that I don't want to forget about or that I want to show someone else. I'm sure it's simple but I have not been able to send myself e-mails. I think I know how but for some reason my computer won't do it anyway. I must be missing something. So, I just send things to the blog because I know how to do that. The one I sent below is pretty good though if you want to check it out. I am fascinated with the Duggar family!

I made some really good brownies today! I got the recipe from a lady at church. If you lick the pot with the chocolate and coconut oil alone (which the kids and I did, it is very tasty. I'm actually going to experiment and see if I can make a healthier version of Buckeyes with it. My friend, Kelly (Teach and Tickle), submitted a recipe for those in our church cookbook and, let me tell you, we love those! They just happen to have a bunch of powdered sugar and butter in them and are good for special occasions but I made them twice in one week the other week! I'll let you know if they turn out or taste very good! ;)

Banana Brownies

2 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup of wheat flour for one of those cups.)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (I used the Special Dark dark chocolate.)
1 cup butter, divided (I used 1/2 cup of Virgin Coconut Oil to melt the chocolate with instead.)
1 cup sugar (I used brown.)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3 cups pureed very ripe bananas ( My bananas weren't overripe but they blended into a good puree.)

Mix well flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Place chocolate chips and 1/2 cup butter (or coconut oil) in pot over low heat, continually stirring until smooth.

In medium bowl cream remaining 1/2 cup butter and the sugar until light; beat in eggs, milk, and bananas. Stir in flour mixture until well blended. Stir in chocolate, leaving mixture slightly marbelized. Turn into greased 13X9-inch baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until sides just begin to pull away from pan. Cool in pan on rack. Cut into bars.

The Jim Bob & Michelle Duggar Family | Character Qualities

The Jim Bob & Michelle Duggar Family | Character Qualities

Shopping for "Daddy's Day"

Monday we had a fun day shopping for what Bailey says is "Daddy's Day". He said he doesn't like to say Father's Day so he wants to call it Daddy's Day. Okay, that's fine. ;) First we took Derrick his lunch that he forgot to take up to his work. That's always fun to go up to the base and see him and the planes. We had Molly (our Rat Terrier) with us and took her to Petsmart, which is really fun too. My brother, Ryan, says it's the "Poor man's zoo". ;) We got Mol a new collar and name tag and, of course, checked out rats, mice, hamsters, birds, fish, frogs, crabs...Then we went to LaFortune and had a picnic of sandwiches with Goober grape jelly (They always ask for it at the store and I finally bought them some and they love it! I did too when I was little but I never could figure out why I thought it tasted so much better than a regular p.b. & j sandwich)) and fed the ducks. Two of the ducks had little babies. So cute! We ran into a couple of friends of mine that I used to work with (One was Tara, Dana!) Actually, we didn't really "run" into them! Molly sort of politely? "jumped" at one of their kids. I turned to tell the strangers I was sorry that my dog was trying to attack their little 3-year old girl. I said, "Sorry!" and then I said, "Heyyyy!" Then we went and dropped Mol off at my mom's so we could go shopping for Daddy's Day at (Are you kidding me? Derrick reads this and he's already trying to tell me he knows what it is which, by the way, he doesn't...I hope. And the kids can't keep the gifts a surprise! Such as, when we got him a nice pair of sunglasses that we thought would be helpful for him since he's flying a lot and getting his pilot's license. Okay, so Bailey didn't tell him exactly what they were. He just gave him a hint and said something like, "They go on your eyes." So, as I said, we are skipping that part. Then we went by Sam's and had samples while we shopped and that's always fun too. It was a fun and productive day but I was tired. Derrick had to get some flying hours in that night so after dinner just the kids, Molly, and I went for a walk and then came home and gave Molly a bath.