Quick and easy brownies

When my friends have asked me what my favorite part of marriage is, I say "Cooking!"

That might sound weird, but I absolutely love to cook for my husband. It is so rewarding when he says a meal is like we ordered it from a restaurant or he wants to save every scrap to eat as leftovers.

Then I have a cookie jar that I try to keep full. I eat the treats too, but I try to ask him what he wants as the dessert for the week. Last night he said he wanted brownies.

I got a recipe from Pinterest about making brownies that are like from a boxed mix. You can keep the dry ingredients in a bag or jar until you want to add the wet. However, it takes about two minutes to put everything together so I just whip it all up at once.

I also tweaked this recipe, because the one I first followed had a ridiculous amount of sugar and not enough cocoa and ended up with a weird consistency.

What's the point in buying a boxed mix when making your own is seriously as easy, and so much cheaper.

Brownies

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, depending on how gooey you want your brownies.

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

powdered sugar, for dusting if desired

Mix all ingredients. Pour in a greased 9-by-13 inch pan. Bake until toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Trying yoga

I'm becoming a huge fan of yoga.

I tried out a lakeside yoga class for a sports magazine article and really enjoyed the fact that it was working out without feeling like you were working out.

The classes were too expensive to continue taking without feeling guilty that I was spending so much money on myself, but then I won a punch card for a discount at a local silent auction.

I finally got to attend my first class at this location tonight, and it was wonderful.

When I first got there, the quiet classroom and relaxing music was a little weird. It's odd to not have some sort of noise going on, and it actually feels a little uncomfortable. However, by the time we were done, I didn't want to leave.

Even on the ride home, I was quiet in the car.

I don't know exactly what I like so much about yoga, but it makes me feel relaxed and ready to take on the next task.

At first, I wasn't sure about yoga. There's the whole meditation angle and the history that the practice is religious. However, I don't think it's a bad practice if you go into it with the right intentions. In some of those silent moments, I would say a prayer rather than focus on the Earth or whatever you're supposed to focus on in the class.

I'm excited to learn more about the yoga moves so that I can do some at home once my punch card runs out. Or maybe I'll get lucky and get a discount again :)

PMS: Praying for Meanness to Subside

This blog is probably more for the women out there.

Yesterday, I was making cookies while my husband was cleaning up, getting ready for company to come. When he would say something to me, I could feel myself getting snippy and annoyed for no apparent reason.

It took me about a millisecond to realize it's a week before that time of the month. The PMS was hitting its stride in my body and in my mouth.

What do you do at that moment? I don't have any Midol to take to cure the symptoms, because I don't really get cramps. The more I try to curb the craving to get catty, the more catty I get because I start focusing on how annoyed I feel. I usually try to stop, diagnose my feelings and pray that God would take them away because I know I have no reason to feel the way I do - other than hormones at least.

I was listening to the radio the other day when a woman was trying to tell her Sunday school about having a pure heart, because whatever is in your heart will come out at some point. A child pointed at his heart and said, "Whatever is in here will fall out of here," pointing to his mouth.

I started thinking of the times when I get snippy, and I realized that it was because that was what was in my heart, although I try to mask it most of the time. I want to be a good wife, so I bottle up my annoyance that he leaves the lights on or is playing video games when I think he should be helping me with housework. However, when those feelings are in my heart, at some point they're going to come out my mouth.

I decided I would try harder to not let that come out. Almost immediately, I realized that I can't do that. I can't curb my sinful nature on my own. I have to ask that God will give me a pure heart and a servantful heart so that the little things don't bother me. That way the ugliness is not in my heart and then the not mean things in my heart will be what comes out of my mouth.

We can't always control what happens when we have PMS, but like in everything else in our lives, we have to turn that over to God too. PMS is not an excuse to be mean but an opportunity to realize that God can help even with hormones.

PMS: Pray for that Meanness to Subside.

Inspiring notes from Beth Moore

There's a couple of other thoughts from Living Proof Live that I wanted to share, but they don't necessarily fit in with anything else.

1. Beth Moore said she always has thought planliness is next to godliness. I disagree with her there. I think planning is great, but I have learned that what is really godly is the ability to disregard all your plans and live in the moment that God has given you to make the most of life and to do what you are called to do, even if it doesn't fit in with what you expected.

2. Going along with that: There's no redoing today. How are you spending your time? Is it in a way that a few years down the road you will look back and be happy at how you utilized your time? We don't get another chance, so make the use of each moment we're given.

3. Many women, and men, tell God, "I want you to use me, but I don't want you to mess with me in the process." We give God a small box to work within, because we want to be comfortable with how he's using us. We should say, "I want you to use me." Period.

4. "When you love God, when you talk about him, you will talk about him with that love." When I talk about my husband, I hope that it shows just how much I love him and how proud of him I am. That love I feel on the inside just bubbles forth. People who have cherished children just beam as they talk about their kids. The love is evident. When we truly love God, it should be evident when we talk as well. What comes from our hearts will spill out of our mouths, whatever it is.

Answered prayers

During the Living Proof Live conference, I wrote down a couple of notes that didn't necessarily have to do with what Beth Moore was talking about but were things that I thought about and wanted to remember.

When talking about Exodus 1 and 2, Moore noted that Moses was supposed to be killed like all Hebrew boys at that time. However, his mother saved him and in the end he was returned back to her and she was even paid to have him. That is a big God that can do something like that.

I doubt that Moses' mother would have guessed that would happen. God answers prayers in ways that we don't expect.

My best friend's dad lost the use of his legs almost a year ago. The family has struggled through the transition, heartbreak and questioning of why this happens. They thought he would be healed and able to walk again, and where they are at now just isn't where they thought they would be when the tragedy first occurred.

During the conference, I prayed for their healing. However, I didn't just pray for physical healing but that their insides would be healed. Perhaps God won't heal my friend's dad's legs (maybe he will in the future) but maybe he will just heal his heart. God may answer their prayers for healing by giving them peace with the situation and confidence in the future. The healing may come on the inside rather than the outside.

However it happens, I know that "our God is bigger. Our God is greater. God, you are higher than any other. Our God is healer, awesome in power, our God, our God."

He knew everything that was going to happen with Moses, and answered the Israelites' prayers in a way they wouldn't have guessed. Watch for answered prayer, even if it's not in the way you are thinking it will be.

Living Proof Live with Beth Moore

The Living Proof Live session with Beth Moore that I attended focused on Exodus 1-2.

Moore said this was the first time she has spoken on those passages, and the topic was on Birthing Purpose as it followed the beginning of Moses' life. Here is an outline of the points that I wanted to note during the sessions.

1. Birthing purpose is birthing something that means something. Basically, we waste a lot of time on things that mean absolutely nothing — Facebook, Twitter, TV shows.

2. Birthing purpose wil not happen without our personal cooperation. We can sit life out and God's purposes will still be fulfilled, but they will not be fulfilled in us. Purpose is important, because a sense of purposelessness in life is worse than pain.

3. Birth purpose most effectively requires significant midwifery. A midwife is someone who helps deliver something; broken down it means "With women." We are meant to be involved in one another's birthings. This is especially difficult in this culture where women are constantly competing with each other or comparing each other.

4. Birthing purpose incites our murderous oppressor. If Satan can't kill your body, he will do his best to murder your purpose for being here on Earth. Just like labor, it will be difficult to birth purpose. The prelude may be exciting and happy, but getting to true purpose will be hard.

5. Birthing purpose results from a series of events and encounters we could never orchestrate. God is obviously in charge.

6. We become our biggest obstacle to full-grown purpose. We feed what we want to grow and thrive and starve what we want to die, but often we don't do that and are our own obstacle. If you don't know where to go, act like Moses in Midian and just sit by the well and wait. God will show you what to do. In those times, you may think that your struggle isn't being heard. "Your tears may go into the pillow, but your cries go straight up," Moore said.

7. God remembers purpose even when we've moved on. We may think we need to bear up and shut up after a while of struggle. But God wants us to cry out to him. If we cry out and he answers, then we know that he is the one that answered, and he is glorified.

8. Purpose lives to help people. Without people, purpose dies. We all come to a place where we don't like people. We want to serve God, but we don't want to have to deal with someone else in order to do it. However, in history all the people who have had significant callings on their lives have had to deal with people. We should pray to have a heart that loves people.

My current struggle

I had the opportunity to attend Beth Moore's Living Proof Live conference with some friends, and it was a beautiful time of refreshing and spiritual rejuvenation.

However, my spiritual need may have been different than many of the women there.

You see, I don't have much turmoil in my life right now. Yes, I get stressed out about work and when little things go wrong, but all in all, my life is going great.

Many women at the conference said "Amen" and raised their hands and cried as they were inspired to get through the hard times. Some shared about loss in their lives, and I knew the women right next to me have gone through struggles in the past couple of years that I can't even imagine having to deal with.

At first, I almost felt empty. How was I to get the most out of the conference without having something to overcome? I wrote down in my notes that my struggle was my lack of struggle in my life. Then I realized that perhaps that is truly my greatest problem right now.

When I started packing for the conference, I knew that I needed to bring my Bible. I went into my room, and it wasn't there. I started looking around the house and couldn't find it anywhere.

Then I realized I had left it at church, when I brought it with me three weeks ago. It had been that long and I hadn't even noticed that it was missing. I didn't once look to open my Bible and read it in that time.

At the conference, I thought "Well, at least I can in preparation for the hard times." That's good to do. However, it's also important for me to praise God in these good times and create a closer relationship. Just because I don't need to cry out to him for a specific tribulation doesn't mean that I don't need him.

I'll write tomorrow about the many points I picked up during Moore's presentations.