Homemade Salted Caramel Mocha!

♫ I went into the coffee shop, to get myself a mocha... ♫

That song has a strange place in our Christmas. It has no merit aside for memories of one goofy night at 3 a.m. Haha :). Anyway...

We loooove the Salted Caramel Mocha from Starbucks, haha :). Daddy had it while on a business trip last year, came home, and ordered some for us to try the first time he went shopping after that, haha! It's now our favorite fall coffee. Mama was hoping it would be out when she and I stopped at Starbucks for my birthday in September, but it wasn't, so she settled for second best. No kidding, ten minutes later they started switching out their signage to the fall menu, Salted Caramel Mocha having the predominate spot of honor. It was too funny!

I made one in our own kitchen this morning, and thought I'd share it with you :).

You'll need to mix together

1 & 1/2 TBLS cocoa powder
1 & 1/2 TBLS Sweetner
1/8 tsp xanthan gum
and 1/16 tsp salt

Make sure you mix it before adding liquid, because if you don't, the xanthan gum is just little pieces of gel in your drink instead of helping make it creamy :P.

Then add

1/2 cup coffee
1/2 cup milk (warm it before adding)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
and 1/2 teaspoon caramel extract.

Stir it well, and voila :)!!! Drink it... or, whipped cream on top makes it even better :)!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! Thankful Thursday, 11/26/15

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!” -Psalm 100:4

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all :)! This week I am thankful for...

~Getting to hold tiny babies at church :D. A couple of people walked by and asked me if I “didn’t have enough children around me at home without “stealing” other families'”, and, of course, the answer is, um, NO! Haha :). Besides, we don’t have ANY that small currently , heehee ;). ~My water tumblers. I enjoy having cups with lids that I can take wherever and not have to worry about, haha :).
~Todd Agnew’s “Do You Hear What I Hear” Christmas CD. It’s a tradition in our family to listen to it while decorating for Christmas :).
~For getting all the decorations out and the lights on the tree :). ~And our pizza party afterwards :).
~My Aunt Heather, who celebrated her birthday this week!
~Daddy changing the light bulb in our closet, yay! It’s so much easier to function when you can see ;).
~Getting my yarn chest cleaned out :). It’s been bothering me for a couple months, and I decided on a whim that enough was enough, haha.
~I’m also thankful to have found five of my missing crochet hooks. Apparently Abbi likes to stick them in her leftover ball of yarn and then just through it in the chest, instead of replacing them in the cup. Nice to know where to look, and to have found them before I start on Christmas presents :).
~Commentaries on God’s Word :).
~The Christmas stocking tree Daddy made a few years ago :). It’s got pegs for each of us, and they are long enough to double them up, so it should work for many years, haha :).
~A homemade Salted Caramel Mocha :)!
~My morning routine :).
~New tree lights. Because, no kidding, some of ours have burnt out in the two days we’ve had them up. I’m also thankful the burnt out BEFORE we got all the ornaments added to the tree, haha!
~“Pardon for sin, and a peace that endureth, blessings all mine, with ten thousands, besides.”
~A good deal on some layering shirts yesterday.
~The special crocheted blanket that my great-grandma passed on to me :).
~My baby brothers little arms around my neck :).
~Lavender essential oil.
~That the fundraiser that I shared the other day had made their goal in two days :)!!!! Any extra money will buy formula for the smallest children :).
~Kleenexes, haha :).
~Paper plates.
~A dishwasher! While we are doing so much baking, that is a very great blessing, haha!
~But, I am also thankful for the time spent washing the dishes that out dishwasher might not be able to handle. Because, though, I might not have time to do them all, I do love washing dishes :).
~For the Pilgrims and the example they set as they put nothing before the word of God. Not comfort, friends, family, safety. They gave all to set an example to others of how God would work through those who followed Him without withholding anything.
~A national day set aside to dwell on all that God has done for us. When we think of how full of mercies our life here has been, and then remember that we have yet before us the blessing of dwelling with God for eternity, how thankful we should be!
~The family gathered around me today, and the loved ones too far away to be here, but who I am thinking of and thankful for.
~Historical documents, and for historians who have put together informative documentaries based on God’s Hand in history, to teach us about the past.
~The wonderful food we will be eating today ;).
~And Salvation, God’s greatest gift to me of all!!!!!

Blessings to you all,

Bri :)

PJ Party for Pleven!

We've been working on Thanksgiving cooking this afternoon, and the cranberry sauce, which I will absolutely not be eating ;), is making the kitchen smell wonderfully delicious and Christmas-y. Too bad it's taste does not appeal to me...

But, while I am waiting for the maple twist to finish rising, I wanted to share this with you :).

In a few weeks, one of the ladies who has adopted from Pleven (for those of you who remember me talking about Penny, this is her Mama) is getting a chance to go back to Pleven. There is a need for 90 pairs of pajamas in the orphanage, and her family is raising the money to provide those. They need it quickly, though, if she is going to be able to take them with her, which would be best. You can read more about what is going on here. Prayers and donations would be so helpful to them! You can also join their FB group to keep an eye on their progress.

While she is there, she will be getting to interact with several of the little ones there... several sweet little ones, 3 and under, who have recently been listed, and others among the older ones, including adorable Owen and precious Tiya. These two have been on Reece's Rainbow for several years now. I can not wait for their families to see them! During this holiday season, they have no family to celebrate with. How thankful we can be that we are blessed with people we love being around us!

I need to be finishing up my maple twist now :). I hope you each have a blessed Thanksgiving!!!

Spurgeon on Prayer

I was reading an article by Spurgeon on Romans 8:26; "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words", and I wanted to share this paragraph from it...

"I think, dear friends, you will all admit that if a man can pray, his trouble is at once lightened. When we feel that we have power with God and can obtain anything we ask for at his hands, then our difficulties cease to oppress us. We take our burden to our heavenly Father and tell it out in the accents of childlike confidence, and we come away quite content to bear whatever his holy will may lay upon us. Prayer is a great outlet for grief; it draws up the sluices, and abates the swelling flood, which else might be too strong for us. We bathe our wound in the lotion of prayer, and the pain is lulled, the fever is removed. We may be brought into such perturbation of mind, and perplexity of heart, that we do not know how to pray. We see the mercy-seat, and we perceive that God will hear us: we have no doubt about that, for we know that we are his own favoured children, and yet we hardly know what to desire. We fall into such heaviness of spirit, and entanglement of thought, that the one remedy of prayer, which we have always found to be unfailing, appears to be taken from us. Here, then, in the nick of time, as a very present help in time of trouble, comes in the Holy Spirit. He draws near to teach us how to pray, and in this way he helps our infirmity, relieves our suffering, and enables us to bear the heavy burden without fainting under the load."

 The rest of the commentary can be found here if you're interested :).

Now I'm off to help prepare for some Thanksgiving prep shopping :). I hope you each have a wonderful day :)!

Blessings,

Bri :).

The Blessings We have been Given in the Holy Spirit

"The Spirit helps us in our weakness. for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit." (Romans 8)

Mama invited me to join her in studying Romans 8 with her this month through an online study she joined, and I have been enjoying it so much! The assignment I worked through today was to find all the things that the Spirit does for believers to be found in the chapter, and I thought that I'd share the list here, just because I thought it was a wonderful reminder of the blessings we have been given as the children of God :).

The Spirit
-Set us free from sin and death.
-Fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law in and for us.
-Set our minds on the things of the Spirit.
-Gives us life and peace.
-Dwells in us.
-Gives Christ ownership of our life.
-Puts to death the deeds of the flesh.
-Leads us as a Father leads a son.
-Bears witness with the Father that we are His children.
-Gives fruit in the life of the believer.
-Helps us in our weakness.
-Intercedes for us.
-Searches the heart.

This last point reminds me of another passage that I enjoyed another more-in-depth study of this summer, Psalm 139, where David cries out, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me, and know my thoughts! And see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

"The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God," (Romans 8, verse 26-27).


Among all that Christ does through His Spirit in our behalf, I think one of the most precious is that one point, "He intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words". When our hearts are heavy, He is there, pleading for us with a heart full of love to us who are so undeserving. Matthew Henry states that "though we may be losers for Him, we shall not, we cannot, be losers by Him, in the end." He repays all we may suffer, for a time, in this world. Though we may not even know ourselves what it is we need, He sees the most confused or hurting thought behind our cries for help, and comes before the Father to plead for us!