Miracle (Peanut Butter) Cookies!

This is a recipe my family has been making rather frequently lately, and I suspect we’ll continue to make them often. This particular recipe has several things going for it: 1) They are extremely easy to make; 2) They require only four simple ingredients; 3) They are gluten and dairy free; and 4) They are scrumptious! Due to all of these wonderful aspects, I thought I’d share the recipe here.

 

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 well-beaten egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the sugar and peanut butter. Beat the eggs and vanilla for 3 minutes and add to the peanut butter mixture. Roll into marble sized balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each with a fork dipped in cornstarch or GF flour mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Do not remove from cookie sheet until they are cold or they will crumble! Yield: 48 cookies. ( Found in a community cookbook from O’Donnell, TX)

 

Pictures from Mother’s Day + a Few Random Things

Well we had a great mother’s day this year. Or I guess I should say Mom and Grandma did.

Dad bought Mom a rocking chair and had my sisters decorate it. Check out their handiwork:

Church was great too. As always happens,Mom won the award for having the most children present. Also all the females in the family received roses to take home. 🙂

To top that off we had shish kabobs and homemade potato salad for lunch. Yum! And that was our Mother’s Day…told in 4 pictures and 77 words.

Moving on to other things:
I was browsing through my old blog today and came across a few amusing parts that I’d forgotten about. I think they’re worth reposting so I’m including them:

Written after returning from a trip to Wyoming to help take care of my sick grandmother:
“Best quote of the trip:
Mom *trying to get grandma to understand that she was confused and was being delusional again*: ‘Do you remember the other day when we were bringing you home and we stopped at the emergency room and you were saying you were on the hospital board…?’
Grandma: ‘Yes! And I was! “But I resigned and now I’m suing!!'”

“Last night I dreamed that my parents were considering putting me into a home for socially inept people. …kind of like a mental institution but housing the anti-social instead of those with not a single marble among them…”

And two ridiculous poems I wrote. One was a result of staying up too late and the other a result of some friends telling me to randomize. 🙂

A Sight Behelded

As I was walking down the street,
I met a man with six pairs of feet.
The first pair wore big red shoes.
The second pair sang the blues.
The third pair was really cheesy,
With bright green swirls that made me queasy.
The fourth pair had little bow ties;
The fifth, socks too big in size.
But the sixth pair was the best, you see,
Because with those he walked away from me.

~

There once was a world next door to ours
Where everyone rode in little green cars.
This neighboring place had big blue trees
And giant, purple bumblebees.
The people there were just as odd,
For they bathed in prune juice and feasted on sod.
It’s too bad this land is no longer there.
It and the earth would make quite a pair!

Lol. Good times. I miss that blog… But you know what they say (whoever ‘they’ are), “All good things must come to an end.” I’m not sure this post could be categorized as ‘good’, but it must end too. So…

‘May your dreams be filled with paper cups and lima beans’. Thank you, and goodnight!

 

The Far-Off Land

I re-read one of my favorite books the other day: The Far-off Land by Rebecca Caudill. The following is my favorite passage in the entire book. I believe that the wisdom it shares is timeless and significant.

“How will I know if I’m doing right?” asked Ketty.
“I’ll give you two rules to follow,” Sister Oesterlein told her. “They’re the rules you followed every day in school. First, be present.”
“Be present, Sister Oesterlein?” Ketty’s eyelids narrowed.
“Every morning when I called the roll, you answered, ‘Present.’ Remember? As you go into the far-off land, Ketty, every person crossing your path will call to you. He may not call so you can hear. But he will call just the same because he needs somebody to listen to him-to understand him, to speak to him in a friendly voice, to care about him, maybe to laugh with him. So, when people cross your path, and when voices speak, whether or not you hear the voices, be present.”
“How can I be present if I don’t know what a body needs?” asked Ketty.
“By loving people, Ketty, you will come to understand their needs. By loving and caring about people-all people. See people as we Moravians see them-not as friends or enemies, but as people, red people and black people as well as white, Tories as well as patriots, the gentleman’s slave as well as the gentleman. If love goes with you through the wilderness, Ketty, you needn’t be afraid. There isn’t any evil in the world that won’t give ground before a loving woman.”
“Be present,” murmured Ketty, trying to plumb the depths of the words,
“And do you remember how we began every day with reverence?” asked Sister Oesterlein. “The second rule is, be reverent. Reverence God and all that He has created. Especially reverence life, Ketty-all life. Reverence and enjoy the lovely things of earth-wind in the wheat fields, cucumber vines in bloom, the smell of scythed hay in windrows, the noise of thunder, and the stillness of the snow. Whatever falls to your lot, lean times or times of plenty, if you care about people and walk reverently, Ketty, you will be doing right. And you can make any far-off land a good land.” Chapter 2

 

Thoughts of God: Who He is and What that Means for His Children!

The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice.
Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes on every side.
His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
Psalm 97:1-6

What an awesome and humbling picture of God! I love this passage because it gives such a clear glimpse to our finite minds of just who God is! It speaks of His sovereignty and power in such a way that cannot be questioned or ignored. What I love most about it is that, while to the world this description of God would bring fear, as a Christian, I find this passage incredibly comforting! To be able to say that He has so extended His grace to me that I can claim the covering of His awesomeness, His power, His fierceness brings such a feeling of peace and safety! For His children, this passage is one of joy! The last few verses of the chapter make fact this clear:

Let those who love the LORD hate evil,
for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Light is shed upon the righteous
and joy on the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous,
and praise his holy name.
Psalm 97: 10-12

Thank You, Lord, for covering us with Your power and love! And thank You for this humbling yet comforting reminder that You are indeed God, and that You carry us in Your hand. What a reminder that You are in control! Thank You for Your great and precious promises, and the joy they bring!

 

Agenda for tomorrow: I slap floor.

Sound like fun? It should! I have been planning for it. *grin*

I got my first fedora in the mail today! It’s chocolate brown with pinstripes. I’ve wanted to get a fedora for a long time, so when my brother needed one for a part in a play, I finally had a good excuse to buy one! Now my siblings are jealous. 🙂

…I am already out of things to say. And to think that I actually used to be really good at this! Oh well, when all else fails post a quote! Since I forgot to include one with my last post, I get to post two!

“We are each of an unsocial taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the éclat of a proverb.” ~ Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

“I know what you’re thinking about, but it isn’t so, nohow. Contrarywise, if it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be. But, as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.” ~ Lewis Carroll

 

*Insert clever title here*

Today has been good.  The women’s Sunday school class started a new study today, and I’m a bit excited about it!  It’s a study on the Sermon on the Mount written by Angela Thomas. The book is called Living Your Life as a Beautiful Offering.

My gardening has gotten off to a good (albeit slow) start.  We’ve had some unusually chilly weather for Texas which has delayed things some. Oh well, it gives me a chance to really plan things out how I want them.

Piano lessons are also going well.  I’m really enjoying them!  It feels good doing something I’ve been planning for years to do.

…in other, not so interesting, news…  I’m currently reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.  I love English literature, and I’ve started working through some of the classics.  I’m really enjoying this book.  It has plenty of mysteriousness and suspense along with that good old English style I love so much!

…and um…I’m going to end here.  I know this was boring, but it’s necessary to get into the habit of blogging again.  I need to go to bed, but I hope to write more tomorrow. And hopefully I’ll have more interesting things to say!

 

Uh…Speaking of Blogging…

Ok, so I’m a bit slow getting back into this. Life has been a bit busy lately, and it’s hard to remember to log in and write when I’ve gotten so out of habit. I think I’m going to need to start out small and work back into writing. One has so many more things to say when they’re used to writing on a regular basis.

The past two days have been fun. Yesterday I finished reading The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. It’s a fascinating story about Polish Christians, who ran a zoo in Warsaw around the time of the Nazi regime, and how they saved over 300 Jews by hiding them in their zoo. It is a fascinating book, and I highly recommend it.

Reading that book caused a spark (actually more like a blaze) of interest to find other books recounting other stories from that time. So, for that past two days, I’ve been sitting for hours researching and making lists of all the other books I want to read. My list is currently 7 pages (double spaced) and…I’m not done. When it comes to books, I can be rather fanatical. However, in the long run, I think it’s good to have these lists for reference in the future. I may find myself using them for college work or even for my own kids someday.

And I shall cease typing for now. I must get to bed, for I have church in the morning.

A parting quote:
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” ~ Mark Twain

 

It’s Official

I’m blogging again! …or at least I’m going to try.  I’ve missed those days of textual thought.  I look forward to beginning again.  I’m even starting over with a completely new blog!

To get my new blogging adventure, I’m going to start off right and keep with my style.  I present the very first quote to be posted on this blog:

“”The time has come,” the walrus said, “to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships – and sealing wax – of cabbages and kings” ~  Lewis Carroll