Peanut Butter Brownies…

 

I saw this recipe for Peanut Butter Brownies on The Homespun Heart

and made it for my Bible study group a few months ago.

I just forgot to share them with you!

The ingredients are things that I normally have on hand.

They’re easy to make and yummy!

Of course I couldn’t leave well enough alone, (as usual), so I topped them with a chocolate glaze.

What a treat to add to your child’s school lunchbox,

or to bake with your kiddo.

I hope you’ll try them, then pop over to The Homespun Heart and tell her thanks for the recipe!

 

Still following,

Elizabeth

Pensive…

The Hubs keeps asking if I’m okay.

He says I’m quiet.

I’m okay.

It’s just that  I’ve had a pensive kind of week.

It’s been the kind of week where I felt God rearranging the furniture and doing some much needed spring cleaning and purging in the inner me…

the kind of week where God lavished me with blessings I don’t deserve…

the kind of week where we enjoyed an evening with our little granddaughters and watched the three year old run wild in her backyard with her three chickens named Bridget, Ingrid and Myrna…

then five month old baby granddaughter looked on with longing as we ate meringues filled with chocolate and strawberries, and big sister gave us a chocolate covered smile…

the kind of week where God-given creative ideas and bargains came together in a supernatural way to make my home office/sanctuary just that, a sanctuary…

the kind of week where we adorned our patio with pots of bargain priced phlox and geraniums

and then I planted that yellow rose I told you about because it was on sale too…

the kind of week where the Hubs mentored the church youth staff at our house and we all ate pizza outside on the patio, then had the first ever fire in our backyard fire pit and made s’mores…

the kind of week that ended with a day trip to the beach with those same twenty somethings,

and the weather was perfect,

and on the car ride we played the alphabet game and we sang with worship music

and then the Hubs played old rock and roll from the seventies and asked them to name that tune,

while on that same day, in Ghana, my daughter had her birthday without me.

Today a new week has begun,

and today in church, God did some more of His rearranging and cleaning,

and in the middle of worship I suddenly missed the dancing ladies in Ghana,

and I couldn’t stop thinking about our dear Ghanaian friend whose house was damaged in a rain storm this week, and I want to know how we can help.

I’m okay.

It’s just that with all of the cleansing, the rearranging, the blessing, the beauty, the missing, and the hurting, and the wondering,

it has me feeling pensive.

*********************

I’ve taken the Joy Dare.

I’m counting one thousand thanks in one year.

I hunt for thanksgiving using the prompts Ann gives us each month.

If you are interested in joining in, click the link above or at the bottom of this post.

I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little black journal…

#1930-#1950

a gift picked up-

-a branch made into my P-R-A-Y mobile for my office

a gift put away-

-Mother’s Day roses from a friend put in a vase, next to the Mother’s Day cards on the mantel

el

 

a gift put back-

-my office getting put back in order

3 gifts about me-

-I love deeply

-I’m loyal

-I have a good sense of humor

3 gifts found in His Word-

-Rev. 1:4 The One Who Is, Who Was, and Who Is To Come

-Rev. 1:5 The Faithful Witness, The First to Rise From the Dead, The Commander of all the rulers of the world, Him Who Loves Us, Who has freed us from our sins by shedding His blood for us

-Rev. 1:6- He rules forever and ever!

a gift in a box-

-IKEA bookshelves for my office were on sale when we went to pick them up,

(they come unassembled in a box)

a gift in a bag-

-beautiful monogrammed French towel from oldest daughter for Mother’s Day,

shipped in a bag with wonderful French stamp on it

a gift in a book-

-reading to my granddaughter

3 gifts unexpected-

-a big sale on planters and plants for our patio

-our first fire in our backyard fire pit

-a trip to the beach

3 gifts from childhood-

-seeing the exact same Tiny Tears doll I had as a little girl in an antique store,

(I didn’t buy her, bit it was fun to see her again)

-my love of singing

-my love of reading, of books, of the library

a gift sweet-

-a giant cinnamon roll (oh my!)

a gift sour-

-lemon in my iced tea

a gift salty-

-chips and salsa

 

Gratefully yours,

Elizabeth

He is the Rock…

 

This verse is so rich in its list of powerful descriptions of God’s character.

Really it needs no words from me to add to it.

This is one worth meditating on for a while,

until its truths sink from my head down into my heart.

 

Still following,

Elizabeth

Friday’s Favs…My home office, aka Elizabeth’s sanctuary, is almost done!

The pumpkin orange walls of my home office are now my favorite soft gray.

The enormous office furniture has been sold.

My goal of having, not just a home office where I can balance the check book, pay bills and take care of business,

but a sanctuary where I can have quiet time, write and blog,

a place I actually enjoy being, is coming to pass.

The comfy chair has a temporary “slipcover” of a white throw blanket.

I made the new pillow cover using heat and bond, since I don’t own a sewing machine.

(But yes, I did manage to sew the button on the old fashioned way!)

My daughter found me this 9 drawer dresser  on Craig’s list.

The owner bought it at Home Goods recently, but had to sell it because of a cross country move.

I got it for $75, which I thought was a pretty good deal.

It fits perfectly my need for something to store both office and craft supplies in.

A simple painting I painted with my third grade level art skills,

sits on the dresser next to a vintage scale.

Maybe I’ll find a thrift store frame that I can paint white and frame the painting some day.

This is my quiet place.

Now onto my desk makeover…

Unfortunately, my desk is computer central, so the wifi booster, extra hard drive and printer have to take up residence here.

But, I’m lovin’ my new desktop look…vintage hymnal pages modge-podged on, then coated with water base polyurethane.

Even my little desktop cubby got the hymnal treatment.

The desk is skirted with muslin, so I don’t have to look at the ugly computer cords underneath.

I trimmed the desk skirt in creamy white grosgrain ribbon from Dollar Tree.

Heat and Bond and a glue gun did the trick.

When the massive office furniture was sold, I also said bye bye to the big, ugly office chair.

Hello, cute, dainty, wood office chair with wheels.

Happy, happy Goodwill find for $14.99!

I still need to find a little chair pad for a bit of cush for the tush!

The desk sits right in front of the window.

Since my office is on the second story,  my view is of the branches of our huge cedar tree.

It feels a bit like being in a tree house.

A simple pennant banner that I made adorns the window.

If privacy is needed, I can just lower the blinds, but really, I almost never do.

Next to my desk sits my little prayer bench.

I originally got the idea for a prayer bench from Ann Voskamp @ A Holy Experience.

Now my little bench has a dark gray coat of  paint, distressed  a bit and given a quick coat of polyurethane.

On the wall above the prayer bench I made a little mobile.

I have a few things left to do and my little sanctuary will be done.

This weekend we’ll get two white Ikea bookcases for the wall opposite the dresser.

Right now all my books are stacked on the floor in the spare room.

I need to cull through them and get rid of some, which is akin to deciding which old friends to get rid of!

I also want some type of shelves for above the 9 drawer dresser.

I really want two of these chicken feeders as shelves, but haven’t been able to find them yet.

If you know where I can get them, please let me know.

I also need to decide what to do about a slipcover for the comfy chair,

or if the throw blanket is good enough.

A new little wastebasket, and that’s it, it will be done.

I am really thankful for this peaceful place and how it’s all coming together.

 

Friday’s comin’!

Have a HAPPY, HAPPY Friday and a BLESSED weekend!

Elizabeth

 

Beauty in the mess…

For over thirteen years I’ve exercised by walking through the streets,

and in and out of the cul de sacs,

of our neighborhood.

Two loops around makes almost five miles.

The people in the houses know me,

we smile and wave,

and sometimes chit chat for a bit.

Two blocks south lives a retired couple,

but we just call him “the man with the perfect yard”.

Maybe today I’ll say,

“After all these years, let me introduce myself.

My name’s Elizabeth!”

Then he’ll tell me his name, and I hope I’ll remember it.

His yard really is perfect.

Not a weed in sight.

The flowerbeds are edged with razor sharp perfection.

Nary a stray leaf dares to blow over onto his property.

His sidewalk and driveway look swept and scrubbed.

No spider webs don the eves of his house.

When I get back home, I see it with a critical eye.

The neighbors huge fir trees overshadow our front lawn,

there’s a sparse place in the grass because of it,

giving our yard a receding hair line,

Weeds pop up in the crooked flowerbeds faster than we can pull them.

The sidewalk and driveway are sprinkled with fir cones from the trees.

I notice the roof has moss growing on it again.

In the backyard, our own huge cedar trees give it the appearance that the forest resents the fact that we dared to disturb it by putting in a neighborhood,

and it’s now plotting to take back over.

Part of me really wants the perfect yard with no weeds and no moss and no crooked edges.

And that part of me almost missed the beauty in all of this mess.

 

Still following,

Elizabeth