Quiet

Happily, I haven't stuck to the "blogging at least once a week" plan.  I'm happy about this because it means a breakthrough in that my actions are according to my priorities.  Does that even make sense?  I mean, instead of crumbling to the smaller desire of establishing a consistently-updated blog, I kept attention on the bigger priorities.  Victory!  Currently, the "bigger priority" has been leaving room for understanding revelation.

It's been a season of much learning, and I don't know about you, but for me, after revelation hits, time is needed to really digest and absorb the new findings and then eventually it trickles down to daily application.  What are these revelations, you ask?  Well, it's still being digested and absorbed.  Soon it will trickle into this blog, but for now, I want to make sure to take enough time to digest and absorb it properly. Random post?  Maybe.  It's an attempt to explain the reason for a temporarily quiet blog.  :)

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte... ish

Making my own pumpkin spice latte has been on my mind. A lot.  I love them, but can't afford them. And I wanted to find a way to make them with natural, unharmful ingredients, anyway.  Making pumpkin bread with the pancake squash last night sparked an idea. What if I put the spices I use in pumpkin bread into my coffee?  So this morning, I pinched and sprinkled some cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, added about a teaspoon of maple syrup (The real kind, people. It has to be the real kind.) annnd... a couple teaspoons of cream(mmm).  It was tasty-licious!   But it was missing the pumpkin taste.  Go figure.  Next time, after I process the pumpkins in the garden, I'll whisk about 1 teaspoon of the purée in there and let you know how it turns out. ;)

~Browse more riddlelove recipes here!~

"You Will Not Pass"

I was planning on blogging during my carved-out free time last Thursday.  It was a pretty uneventful day (at first), but I wanted to write, anyway.  It was going to be about enjoying those slow days instead of slipping into a stupor, hoping writing that would wake me up out of mine.  After clipping some basil and flowers from the garden, the kids and I bumbled back into the house to find a scented soy beads candle burner that had somehow re-ignited itself into a HUGE flame.  There was a cup of water sitting nearby.  I knew not throw water on burning grease, but I figured it'd be okay on wax and I had to act fast for fear the flame would reach the tablecloth that I thankfully folded away from the candle before lighting it.  I tossed the water and WHOOSH!  The fire shot up to the ceiling, spreading out in a horrible fan of flames.  I shouted at the kids to get out of the house! and ran my baby out to the front yard away from the house as she screamed.  I sprinted over to my husband in our 5th-wheal studio and screeched, "Fire in the kitchen!" Then, running into the house to make sure none of the kids went back in, I expected to see the whole kitchen lit up in flames.  But it wasn't.  There was no fire.  Just the sound of the fire alarm and my kids wailing in terror outside.  My neighbor rushed over because she saw the flame from my window and came to see what was going on.  I told her what happened, but that there was no more fire and the house was fine.  I rushed to help Jeremy comfort the kids.  We walked them back inside to show them it was safe as they clung to our sides, whimpering.

I immediately felt like I was just given an opportunity.  I  needed to stop and wait to find out what it was, because I was still pretty rattled.  Then I felt the answer.  I told my kids that what was at first bad and scary turned out to be so good.  We're not to get caught up in the fear of this situation, but to realize how protected we were.  No one was hurt, and the house remained unharmed except for a little blackening on the ceiling (that we'll soon paint over).  It's good to talk about our feelings, but to always remember the ending of this story.  We were completely protected, and there is no reason to play the what-if game.  This isn't a bad story that we'll shudder about every time we look back on it, but it's a story of miraculous protection, and we praise Jesus every time we think of it!

It feels so good that the power of fear has been broken off of my own life, and I long for my kids to grow up without that evil power stifling them.  I've recently been feeling the importance of identifying generational strongholds and destroying them, just as my parents did with so many issues for my brother and I.  It feels like what Gandolf in "Lord of the Rings" did when standing against that demon thing that was trying to get Frodo, and he yelled, "You will not pass!"  That's what that moment felt like to me.  I was yelling at that spirit of fear,  "You will not pass!"  This isn't going to get through to another generation.  We have been redeemed, and with me standing in agreement with my Savior... It. Will. Not.  The end.