Pumpkin Recipe #2

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf, or Loaves or Muffins

1 2/3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
dash of salt
2 eggs
1 cup plain pumpkin
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl. Set aside. In small bowl, blend eggs, then add pumpkin and butter. Whisk together. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold together. Pour into greased baking pans and fill 2/3 full.
Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes for bundt cake, 40-45 minutes for loaves, and 20-25 minutes for muffins. You can cool completely and then freeze if you want.

I made 12 large muffins and about 12 mini muffins. I didn't get to 24 large muffins like it said it would make. The mini muffins took 13-15 minutes. Great snacks for my little one! I got this recipe from my friend Mandy. They are yummy!

Pumpkin Bread recipe #1

Made it today and it is really good!!! Light and fluffy and crunchy crust. So good. I got it from Robin O'Hara. Thanks Robin!

3 1/2 cups flour
3 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup oil
2/3 cup water
1 can pumpkin (2 cups)

Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, oil, water and pumpkin and mix well. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture. Pour batter into 3 greased 8x4 loaf pans or 2 greased 9x5 loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool before slicing.

Week Three of family devotional...

"My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them." Proverbs 1:10
We had to explain entice... "What if one of your friends at school tried to get you to come make fun of someone else?" They seemed to get that.
Interestingly, we had a bonus family time tonight. Cooper saw a clip of Brett Favre's wife on Sportscenter saying she was surviving because of her faith and she quoted Isaiah 41 passage (one of my favorite verses right now). He said, "why is she talking about the Bible on a sports show? The Bible has nothing to do with sports." Well, that was the wrong thing to say around Jason, so he made him read I Cor. 9 passage about running to win the race and wearing the crown on your head when you win. And we talked about how you learn how to behave in your sporting events because of what the Bible says. It kind of hurt my heart to hear Cooper's bad attitude about Brett's wife on the show. I want him to want to hear God's truth everywhere. I know its because he's not a Christian yet. I've been convicted this week that we really need to pray hard and consistently about him being ready to accept Christ. I know he knows all the answers, just isn't at the place where he realizes his sin is serious. I wouldn't be surprised if Cade becomes a Christian before Cooper because he's more relational and sensitive about his sin. We'll see!

"Your Money God's Way" By Annie Streater

I was a little nervous when I picked up this book that it would contrast the financial program by Dave Ramsey that my husband are trying to follow. But when I saw Dave’s review of her book on the cover, it gave me his blessing to dive in. And I was so glad I did. This book should be required for everyone who goes through Dave’s program because Streater helps you to look at your motivations for why you have been making poor financial decisions. She shows 7 myths that people hold about money and confronts them with God’s truth. This book was so practical and down to earth, not just about financial issues, but about heart issues on so many levels. Streater is bold in her confrontations about poor decisions, but because she prefaces that with her own story of mistakes, it comes across as a friend giving you a kick in the pants instead of an expert belittling you. I am inspired to carry on with our financial changes and now have God’s truth to back up my decisions.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Something I'm proud of...

As I said in my last post, one book I'm reading is Revolutionary Parenting. Jason and I are going through it with two different groups at church. The main thing we're realizing is that we have to have a plan, one that's written down, goals for each of our kids and how we want to get there. Well, we're aren't there yet, but it has inspired us to try again to have a family devotional time. So each week we are picking a character trait that we need to work on, and talking about it on Monday night, writing a verse about it up on our wipeboard and referring to it during the week. We've done it two weeks now. Starting slow, but I'm proud none the less.
Week one, we talked about self-control and talked about Proverbs 25:28, "A man who does not control his temper is like a city whose wall is broken down." It was great during the week when the boys were in a situation where they were losing self-control to remind them and they immediately changed their ways.
This week we are talking about having a good attitude and our verse is Philippians 2:14-15, "Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation among whom you shine like stars in the world." We talked about how stars shine so bright because the sky is so dark at night, and we want to shine like that. We sang Twinkle Twinkle to get Campbell in on the conversation. He talks the whole time like he has an opinion on the matter, but we have no idea what he's saying. I'm proud of us. I figure if I share this on my blog, then maybe I'll be held accountable and it will last longer than the two weeks it usually does. We'll see!

Randomness...

I'm on the search for the best pumpkin bread recipe in the land! I made my first batch last week in honor of October out of the Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book, and it wasn't very good. Very dense, heavy, and not much pumpkin flavor. So I put a call out on facebook and have two new recipes and another promised on the way. So I will slowly make them all and report to you which is my favorite recipe. Of course, that's you trusting that I made them correctly. Usually I can bake fine, its the cooking that gets me. That's also assuming I can find more pumpkin. I was looking all spring and summer for pumpkin and couldn't find any. I asked a store clerk once and she said it was just a seasonal thing, which wasn't true. I googled canned pumpkin and it turns out last years crop was so bad because of flooding that there wasn't any canned pumpkin to be found. Even Libby pumpkin had no pumpkin in their warehouse. So I found some at Walmart last month and bought two cans. The next time I went, there wasn't any. Hopefully shelves will be stocked soon and I can continue my bread making journey.

Football! Cooper's freshman Falcon team is 6-0! But this week we play Beaumont, the other 6-0 team. We've already made the playoffs, so Jason says it doesn't matter if we win or not. That's crazy! Of course it matters! I will say watching pee-wee football has totally made me appreciate the NFL. Those guys are so big and fast and accurate! That doesn't mean I'm going to watch it, I just appreciate it more.

What I'm reading right now:
Your Money, God's Way, by Amie Streater. I'll be reviewing this when I finish it, but let me just tell you, we've already gone through Dave Ramsey, and this book should be required follow up. It is so good!
The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. I can only read a little of this at a time. It is a lot to digest. It is truly life changing.
Becoming More than Good Bible Study Girl, by Lisa Terkeurst. This was my 75 cent purchase at Mardels a few weeks ago. The best 75 cents I've ever spent. Really good!
Revolutionary Parenting by George Barna. Jason and I are going through this book with two different groups at church right now. I highly recommend it. Its amazing though when you are learning about how to be better parents, your kids test what you are learning.
The Bible! I am still plugging along in Psalms, almost done. Spent a lot of time on 119, but this week Dr. Sloan told us in church he spent 22 days reading it recently. I didn't spend that long. I treasure the 5 minutes I get here or there, and really relish if I have 20-30 to spend. I just leave it and my journal out open on the dining room table so I can run in there when I have a minute. It is changing so many parts of my life. I honestly think I'm sleeping better too. That might be crazy, but I think that's Biblical!

Please be praying for my grandfather. After 22 years of being together, his wife moved to OK this week to be put in a nursing home closer to her son. I am going home next week to help mom move him to another part of the Glen with a smaller apartment. Its a huge relief for everyone, because they weren't good for each other, but its still sad.

Hate to end on a sad note. Let me see... Oh, Campbell is potty training himself. It may wear off soon, but its saving me some diapers at the moment. He's an amazing kid. Cooper was retested for peanuts and dogs this week. Peanuts went down, but that doesn't mean anything, and dogs went up. So maybe we won't get another dog anytime soon. I think that's it for now. If you made it through this randomness, you are either really bored or do care for the minor details in our lives. Thanks!