Spring decorations

This morning I was reading in Psalm 50. Verse 14 says "Sacrifice thank offerings to God." Next I read out of "Today in the Word" it was from Hebrews 13. And guess what verse 15 says? "Through Jesus therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess His Name." I also read out of Streams in the Dessert and what is the verse for today?? Hebrews 13:15! So 3 times today, the Word reminding me to offer to God an offering of praise.



Sophia was over this morning. She LOVES to sing so we sang several times throughout the morning:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heav'nly host.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen

(and yes, she sings "Amen" too!)

Can you guess what we did this morning? Hint: Look at her mouth!



Sophia loves chocolate! And we made Waffle Iron Brownies!

Different from the usual brownie, these are baked on a waffle iron instead of in the oven.

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

1 tablespoon water

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

confectioner's sugar

Preheat waffle iron to medium setting. I spray mine with Pam.

Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat. Blend cocoa into butter with a wooden spoon. Stir in sugar, eggs and water. Add flour and salt; beat well. Add nuts.

Bake in waffle iron like you would waffles. It will bake in 1-2 minutes. Watch it so it won't burn.

I have a Belgian waffle maker so it took longer than what the recipe calls for. Use the tip of a wooden skewer or other sharp object to remove brownies. Let cool on rack and then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

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After we made these waffle brownies, I told Sophia that it was time to take down all the snowmen and Valentine decorations. After all, tomorrow is March! We had our first hail storm yesterday and there were tornadoes south of Wichita. Yup, it is Spring!

So we boxed away all those snow things and Sophia helped me place the Easter and Spring decorations around the house.

We even got out the Resurrection eggs that tell the Easter story. Each egg is numbered and you open them.

Example:

#1 - there is a flower. "In the beginning, when God created the world, it was just beautiful! It was perfect!

Each egg has something to represent the Easter story - like a cracker to represent the last supper. (Sophia opened this egg and said "A cwackoo!" and almost popped it in her mouth! That little oyster cracker is probably 3 years old so I quickly stopped her from eating it!)

The very last egg is empty to represent the empty tomb. It was fun to tell Sophie the story and I'm sure we will do this multiple times before Easter actually arrives. And I am sure the girls will want to hide those eggs too and try finding them.

I am so ready for flowers and warm weather!

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Yesterday during the storm, I saw these 3 geese out in the field by the house, just not caring at all that it was pouring rain and also hailing some too. We had mostly pea size hail but a few were quarter size too. One of the geese flicked his head like he'd been bonked on the head by some hail. I would have gone for cover!

Take a look at that first goose. I cropped the picture to get a better look. It is rather blurry from the rain, but look at its' face. Not the usual Canada goose face. It actually has the face of a Barnacle goose, but the body is more Canada goose. Barnacle geese live in the East and mostly upper Canada and in Greenland and arctic Europe. Do you suppose it could be a cross-breed of a Canada goose and Barnacle goose? Or just a mutated Canada goose?

Then today in our back yard I saw this hawk.

Praise God from whom all blessing flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below...