A blessing, not a burden

Philippians 4:6-9 (New International Version)

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
 ⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Today I wanted to share a friend's post.  Prayer for Purity  and my response which follows

Amen. I think and pray about this all the time. I love and enjoy my son. Being a parent is hard, and though I would not say it is a burden, it does place a lot of weight on your shoulders. I commented to some of my friends the other night- Maybe it is just because I am a parent now but I am constantly analyzing the world around me- Christian an secular- and I find the lack of love and adherence to God's truth astounding. Even in the church so often we accept the world's message. Our local Christian high chose to perform High School Musical. Their performance was good the choice was not. As Christians we should strive for excellence in both performance AND material. "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." The thing that really has me is the message that you need to follow your heart. NO the heart is wicked and deceitful beyond all things! We need to follow God's truth and that alone.
Thanks for the encouragement Joelle!
PS I was disappointed in Glee too- "If girls just put out things like this wouldn't happen."

Today I am thankful that I can cast all my cares on the Lord. That I can pray to him and that I don;t have to worry. 

Warm Chocolate soother

This morning was pretty chilly. it didn't help that we left one of our windows open. It wasn't too chilly, just enough that you wanted to snuggle up in a blanket with a warm beverage.

Today, as most days, my breakfast was in shifts. of course, some of you consider a piece of toast with peanut butter and jam to be breakfast. I don't. I think of it as part of a breakfast. As forementioned, this mornign was a perfect morning for hot chocolate. But, that is not a decent breakfast. First of all becauseof the sugar. Second because of the other ingredients and third because it lacks the protein and fat that I need to make it to lunch.
I was pondering what to do when I remembered the warm vanilla soother from Laura at Heavenly Homemakers and that she had mentioned that she had a chocolate version too.
As claimed, it tastes like what you would imagine to be a warm liquid brownie.

Warm Chocolate Soother
3 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup real maple syrup
3 T. sucanat
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 T. arrowroot powder or corn starch
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, sucanat, cocoa and arrowroot powder.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (I use a whisk) until mixture begins to thicken.  Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.  Stir until creamy.  Pour into mugs and serve warm.

Food Pyramid

As a teacher, especially one that teaches science to two classes of students at different grade levels and as a person who is passionate about real food, I really struggle with how to teach health and nutrition. Our curriculum uses the USDA approved guidelines which are wrong.

I seek to teach from and with a strong Christian perspective in all my classes. I have quite a few students whose families have slowly started food conversions but don't always have access to quality information. However, most of my students eat SAD.

(In case you are wondering how real food and christian perspective connect,  God create food for us to eat that is healthy for us. He create food for animals to eat that is healthy for them. When we stop trusting him and decide to re-engeneer things oursleves, taking away the God given healthy way of dooing things, how can anything but something inferior result? We sin against God saying that we are smarter than He is.  We sin against God saying that we can create better than He can. We sin against God by denying his creation the life God intended for them and denying them to express the characteristics he gave them.  If history and science teach us anything, it is that the more we try to control things apart from God, the worse things get. )

I have a lot of leeway, but no matter what I teach in health and nutrition, I'm just not sure. The more I learn the more I lean towards the truth, especially with my older students. I figure, if they do go home and talk about science/ health class, at least I have opened a door to the truth, at the worst, I get reprimanded for not teaching the curriculum.

Here is a great post about a REAL FOOD pyramid.

God's real food gives me a reason to be passionate about food.

Bagles

My husband LOVES bagels. Every once in a while I ask him to pick something up from the grocery store on his way home from work if he is going to get home after I do.  He always picks up bagels on the way home. So, since I want to redeem our family's food, I was ecstatic when Laura of Heavenly Homemakers posted about her honey whole wheat bagels. Whoot whoot!
I plan on trying these no later than Saturday. (Then they will be ready for both my dear hubby and my parents.) - Next? Maybe cream cheese.

See additional bagel post for reviews.