Giving Thanks

^" Rejoice always, pray continually,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful husband who loves and adores me, a big family that is always there for me, and sweet, encouraging friends who listen when I need to talk. I have a house and plenty of food, a job and two cars both paid off. I am very, very rich. I do not take what I have for granted because I know that there are millions out there suffering at this very moment, from poverty, from abuse, from neglect, so many people who need love and who need people to step up and help them in the name of Jesus Christ. 

"If you give to the poor, your needs will be supplied! But a curse upon those who close their eyes to poverty." Proverbs 28:27

If I'm sounding a bit preachy, then good! A friend of mind posted a photo on Facebook today that showed a woman thanking Jesus for helping her find her keys, a football player with his hands raised in prayer thanking God for helping him play well, and the last photo was a starving African child. I wanted to retort, but how could I? The Bible says, "...give thanks in all circumstances" and we should. It is not wrong to thank Jesus for small blessings in our lives, but we must also remember that as Jesus has blessed us, so must we bless those in need. Give your money, or your time, or whatever God is calling you to give up and your rewards will be heaped upon you, if not in this life, then in eternity. Despite what people believe about God, he has a heart for the poor and the needy and the oppressed, and he has commanded us, His disciples, to care for them. 

"There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." Deuteronomy 15:11.

I don't want you to think that I am not saying this to myself as well as to you, because I am a very selfish and self-serving person. I give though, and I help. I have a husband who's spiritual Gift is service. But we can always do more, and give up more for the sake of those who are hungry or have no place to lay their heads. There will always be poverty because this is a broken world, but that does not mean that we are to let it carry on without a fight.

**

And, on a lighter note, we had a great time in Joplin with my mom, sisters, and their families. The visit was relatively stress free and I enjoyed holding my nephew, Collin, who is four months old. I love all of my nieces and nephews, and I love when I get to see them!

Sweet Collin

Six of the eight grand kids

Cupcakes and Haircuts and Good Friends

Last weekend was pretty busy. I had a cupcake competition that I was entering, a haircut appointment, and one of my best friends, Genni, was home from her six week vacation in Indonesia so I had to spend some time with her, too. It was a really fun weekend, but it went by too fast!

Cupcake competion:

I work at a library and for the past few years we have been doing some sort of baking competition for the patrons to enter. The first year they were asked to read a mystery that had a recipe in it and I chose to make a cake that won first place in the staff competition. The next year was cookies, but I didn't enter. This year was cupcakes. I have never made cupcakes from scratch before, so I really had fun! My mom got Ben and I a KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas last year and I've been using it every now and then. I really got to use it for the cupcakes I made. I made everything from scratch, including the frosting. I found a recipe for Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Icing from Brown Eyed Baker which was actually pretty easy to follow and make. It was a really fun process! It was really messy, too. They were really tasty!

Oh, when I was taking the photos of my cupcake I took one outside for the good lighting and I was laying on my stomach on the front porch trying to get a good shot. A neighbor from across the street saw me lying on my porch and thought that I had fallen. She came over to see if I was okay and I couldn't help but start laughing because it was funny looking! I was so focused on taking the photo that I was oblivious to my surroundings. That's dedication! :)

Here is a photo I took of the finished product:

I also got my haircut between having to make/drop off the cupcakes and when they were judging. I wanted a shorter haircut, but I think she may have cut it a bit too short. I wasn't super happy with how the cut turned out, but luckily hair grows back.




Before



After

 After getting my haircut I rushed over to see Genni. We caught up and then she and I and her oldest boy went to the cupcake competition to try all the entries. The winning patron cupcakes were peanut butter cupcakes, and they were so tasty! My co-worker won the staff competition with turtle cupcakes. They were good! I was a little bummed that I didn't win, but I just had so much fun baking them that it really didn't bother me. Genni and I went to Target after and tried on hats and looked at things. I really missed my friend a lot!


Genni looked cute in this hat!





















Later Ben and I went on a date to Chili's. Ben forgot his wallet at home and I didn't bring mine so we had to call his dad to come help us out! It was definitely embarassing, but it's nice to have family around to come help you when you need it! Ben's dad ended up ordering something and then Ben and I went to his parents house to play Settlers of Catan with Gerald. It was fun. :)

Sunday we took Eliza and James and Gerald to see Wreck-It Ralph at the Rave. The movie was...okay, but it wasn't as amazing as I had hoped it was going to be. Sarah Silverman is not one of my favorite people and she was one of the voice actors.

After that Ben and I went out to eat at Senor Tequila's with Genni. There was a guy who was playing live music who was really talented and we had a fun time laughing and talking about travels we've been on. Two of my favorite people makes for a fun time!

Missouri and Star Wars

I had a great trip visiting my mom last weekend. The drive up to Missouri from Little Rock was very nice because I was driving through the Ozarks and all the trees were changing their leaves. I made it to my mom's a little later than I intended but that seems to be the way things are now. I used to be on time and prompt for everything, but since I married Ben I've become a bit more lackadaisical about being on time.

Mom's house was not ready to take pictures yet so we hung out, went shopping at Lowe's for stuff for her house, and plenty of trips to Target. We also stopped off at a petstore called Petland that had a lot of puppies that you could play with. It was so fun! I played with a Rottweiler (who wanted to chew my shoes) and a sweet little Dachshund. I also got to pet a bunny and some little Chinese Jumping Mice. I have to say, I like playing with puppies and then leaving them at the store instead of taking them home. Maybe that will help me get over my wanting another puppy syndrome!

On Monday we drove two and a half hours to Mansfield, MO to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum as well as her house on Rocky Ridge Farm. We watched a short video and then toured the home. We also got to see a lot of Laura and Almanzo's old things like clothes and household items. It was so neat to see some of the things she wrote about like her bread plate that says, "Give us this day, our daily bread", and the clock that Almanzo gave her. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Sign near the museum.



            

                Laura's first house, the original Rocky Ridge Farm house. It took them 17 years to complete the house..



Laura's second house that their daughter had built. They moved back to their old house later.



View from the rock house. It was so beautiful!

On Wednesday was Halloween. We didn't dress up last year so I really wanted to dress up this year. Lauren always has a theme with her kids and this year's theme was Star Wars. James was Luke, Eliza was Leia, and Brian was Yoda. I decided to dress up like an Ewok, but I have no sewing skills so Lauren helped with my hood and shirt and Ben finished the hemming. Ben couldn't think of a costume so I finally came up with young George Lucas so he found a flannel shirt, wore his jeans, and some glasses that I poked the lenses out of. I thought we all looked great! We met up at Trunk 'r Treat at Parkway Place Baptist and got to see my parents-in-law, brother-in-law, Gerald, and Adrienne and Emma there, too. Gerald was dressed like Han Solo, so all we were missing was Chewbacca and the droids.

Here are those pictures:


Emma was a cute bunny!




Emma loves her Uncle Ben!



An Ewok and George Lucas!



Star Wars!



 I'm hoping next year we'll have our own little one to dress up!