Isn't It Grand? Or Yummy Granola!

Happy Today!

I just received a great and grand recipe for granola and just couldn't wait to try it out and share it with you guys. It is really good and much easier than I thought.

Great and Grand Granola

3 1/2 cups uncooked oatmeal

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup sunflower kernals

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup raisins (optional)

 Combine the first 7 ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

 Combine the next 3 ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, and stir until heated through. Remove from heat and add next two ingredients. Stir well until blended.

 Drizzle the honey mixture over oatmeal mixture and toss to coat. Spread evenly on a jelly roll pan. Bake at 250 for 50 minutes to 90 minutes or until toasted and dry. Check and stir every 20 minutes.

Add raisins after baking, if desired. Allow granola to cool and store in an airtight container. Makes about 8 cups. Have fun and enjoy this granola that really is great and grand for your mouth as well as your body :)

Ruins

Hey dear ones,

I was recently hiking with a friend when we came up on some ruins of an old mill. I have always been intrigued by ruins and I like to imagine what life must have been like when the building was fully operational. Ruins are also a reminder of a simplier way of life. In a way it makes me sad to think that we no longer value what was once valued; a simple life.

As much as I could go on and on about a simple life, that isn't what I wanted to share. God has been taking me on a journey of discovery and one thing He has shown me is that we can be ruins. We as Christians can become ruins. Umm...before you decide to go to another page and ignore this post, hear me out...I promise, I'm gonna make sense in a minute.
Before I saw the ruin of the mill, I was traveling down the road and saw a dilapidated barn. When I saw that barn,  I clearly heard in my spirit the Lord telling me, "Joy, that is what you have looked like". I was thinking, "God, I don't know what you are talking about. I am young and smart. I'm not tired and empty. What could you possibly be talking about?" As I prayed about it, I realized that the Lord was teaching me that by putting religion and church ahead of my relationship with Him, I was like a ruining building. There was odd beauty about me, but there was nothing of any substance inside the building. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that having theology and going to church is bad, they are good. But when they take the place of seeking the face of God and having a personal relationship with Him, it can turn a person into a ruin.
In that moment of realization, I was humbled by the love of my Father. Even in the moments of my seeking other things (that are sometimes good things), my Father pursues a personal relationship with me and wants to continue to save me from becoming a ruin. WOW!!! This really blew my socks off. I pray that by sharing this glimpse into my faith walk, your socks will also be blown off and you will turn to seek God in new ways. God bless until next time...

The Famous Brookie

Hello from Yummy Goodness land!

Ahh...I am one happy girl. Why you may ask? Chocolate! Need I say more? I realized today that I have not shared my favorite brownie recipe. Then I realized an even bigger mistake...not sharing my brookie recipe. I just know you are gonna love both. It's kinda like buy-one-get-one-free day at the donut shop, right? So, get to baking and enjoy! Oh, I almost forgot...be warned...nothing in this post is good for you...just yummy goodness for your mouth :)

Joy's Brownies

3/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x9 pan. Beat the eggs and sugar until well combined. Add vanilla, flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and melted butter. Combine well with a hand mixer, scraping the sides of the bowl. Transfer brownie mixture to prepared pan. Bake for about 25- 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean (unless you are like me and you like them a bit gooey). Allow to cool, or if you dare, enjoy them in all their yummy gooeyness right out of the oven. For the brookies, allow to cool and then cut into 1 1/2 inch squares.

While the brownies are baking, go ahead and start preparing the batter for the brookie. The recipe is at the end of this post.

Ahh...more chocolate! Chocolate chips make everything better, don't you think?

Brookies before baking...there is a hidden surprise inside. Can you guess what it is???

These brookies are huge!!! They are almost as big as this salad plate. Yikes!!! That's almost 8 inches around. Can you believe it? All that chocolate goodness...Oh, yeah!!!

Joy's Brookies

1 baked brownie recipe

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk

1 Tablespoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

12 oz. package miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat butter with a mixer until creamy. Add brown sugar and beat until smooth. Add eggs, yolk and vanilla. Again, beating until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Allow dough to chill in refrigerator for at least an hour (or if you're like me and forgot this step, just throw the bowl in the freezer for about 10 minutes).

Preheat oven to 350. Once dough is chilled, using a measuring cup, scoop out 1/2 cup dough and make into a ball. I flatten the ball a little and then take a brownie and using my hands, wrap the dough around the brownie. Shape the dough back into a ball shape and put on a large cookie sheet. You should be able to bake about 6 brookies at a time. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until brookie starts to brown slightly on top and sides. Allow to cool on cookie sheet.

Then enjoy the yummy goodness with a friend or two, actually, the recipe makes 10 cookies. So, invite nine friends over for a riveting game of uno and enjoy some goodness together :)

Until next time...



You Hold My World

Hey guys,
Do you remember the childhood song, "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands"? Like many other songs from my childhood, I still like to sing that song once in a while. What I love so much about the song is how it tells that my God wants to love on all people, of all nationalities.
Sometimes I think it is harder to wrap my mind around a God that is personal and intimate. Just as much as God loves the nations, He also loves you and me and cares about every detail of who we are. Check out this song by Israel Houghton. It is about the way that God holds our individual lives in His hands. I think it will bless you!

Until next time, may the Lord bless you!

Devastation

Hey,

Today there is something that is heavy on my heart. I won't beat around the bush, it is the issue of homelessness. Why is this on my heart? Well, there are two reasons, one is a recent conversation that I overheard and another is a recent trip to the mountains. I will start with the trip to the mountains.

 My sister and I headed to the mountains to meet with our grandparents. It was a beautiful day and we were riding with the windows down and the music blasting. It was a perfect day to be outside. We enjoyed our visit with our grandparents, as we always do. But...we went through an area that was devastated by the recent tornados that hit our nation. Above is a picture of an area that was spared from destruction.

 This area was not spared. It looked like a waste land. There was nothing good about the images we saw. We saw whole houses in the lake. We saw whole houses that had moved from one place to another. We saw whole mountain sides completely bare of trees that were uprooted. It was and is a very sad picture of reality.

The reality is that there are people who died. There are people who no longer have a home to go to. They are homeless. They are without hope. Hopeless. Bleak. Burdened. Hurting. Grieving. It is a reality that many of us would like to leave in the news headlines and not take to heart.
Enter the conversation that I recently overheard. The conversation started with talk of vacation plans. Then the conversation got interrupted when one person noticed a man standing on the curb with a few grocery bags. One of the people in the group went off on a tirade about homeless people and how they are a drain on society. As I listened to this 45 minute tirade, my heart and spirit were grieving. There is such potential for hope, but we would rather spend our time talking about how our life is impacted by the drain of "these people" on us.
Is this life really about us? Is it really about our comfort? I don't believe it is!
"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." -Mark 12:30-31
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." -John 13:34-35
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.'" -Matthew 25:40
I believe we are here to be God's hands and feet on earth. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that we can earn our salvation. That is a different conversation all together and that is not what I believe.
I cannot and will not accept the thought process, that my life is suppose to be comfortable all the time, while there are millions and billions of people who are hurting all over the place. Hello...they are in our backyard. The homeless and hopeless are right here.
What will I do when my heart quakes inside me for those that are hurting? It is always different...It is always challenging...but it is always worth the sacrifice...because it is a sacrifice of joy for my Lord's glory. Being the hands and feet of Jesus is really easy, because it is not something that I am doing in my own strength. It is actually Jesus in me. I am just humbled that He would use me.
So, here is the challenge: Don't just let the devastation around you become simply a headline. Allow it to penetrate your heart and challenge you. Allow the devasation to call you to action. Action in the Lord's service. Love God and Love People!

Scrappy Project

Hey, hey, hey!!!

So, I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy quilting as much I have. When my friend, Mary, asked me to take a quilting class with her, I really had my doubts about my ability to actually finish a project. And yet, here I am on my second project and (shhh) it's a gift for Mary :)

 It is a small project made from nothing but scraps of fabric. So, the first step was to piece the scraps.

 This is what the piece looked like after piecing all the scraps.

 Then I cut the backing and batting and put the sandwich together. This is the quilt sandwich all pinned and ready to be quilted.

 Unlike my last project (on which I stitched in the ditch), I decided to just free stitch and the wavy lines are what I ended up with. It looks kinda cool, doesn't it?

After putting the binding on, here is the finished project. It it a small scrappy pocket for all those little buttons and sewing notions...I even stitched in some pockets on the inside. It was a fun project that I was able to complete in a few hours. By the way, Mary liked it...which was the best part of the whole project. Until next time...

Things That Are True, Noble, Right, Pure, Lovely, Admirable, Excellent And Praiseworthy

Happy Today!
As I often do, I headed out into the lovely woods to be with my Jesus today. It really was a lovely day and I was so enjoying the day until...Wait...I need to explain a few things before I continue with my story. I work in an office where I don't have control over the music that is being played all day long. This is not really a problem, but I think it will make more sense if you know that. Also, there is this one song that plays over and over and over during the day. It is a catchy little song, but it is full of things that are not, umm...godly.
So, back to my story. I was hiking along enjoying the day, when "that song" popped into my head. I was shocked and surprised when I knew the words and the tune without the music. Again there isn't anything "wrong" with this song, but it really bothered me that I was trying to have time with my Jesus and this silly song would not get out of my head. I am being as serious as a heart attack, that song would not go away. I even started singing praise songs just to try to get "that song" out of my head.
Then I stopped in my tracks and realized that God was trying to teach me something. He is trying to teach me that everything in my life has an influence on who I am and how I spend my time.
Then He went a step further and said this is what I want you to look like. "Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." (Colossians 3:1-2, 8 and 12) He wants me to be set apart...not because there is something "wrong" with something, like music, but because He wants me for himself. He doesn't want "that song" to pop into my mind when He is having a special set apart time with me. I know that I can relate to that feeling. When I am with my family, I will sometimes not answer my cell phone, because I want that special time with my family not to be interrupted. It's not that I don't want to talk to the person who is calling, but in that moment it is more important to me to have that set apart time with my family.
Just one more thought along these lines:
"Finally my brothers (and sisters), whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things." Philippians 4:8

Who You Callin' Short?

Hey guys and gals,

So I have been trying to find recipes for yummy goodness with a little less sugar...and I found shortbread cookies. I don't really know why it has the word bread in the name, because these are cookies all the way. And they are so yummy too!

 The ingredients are simple: flour, sugar, butter, salt, baking powder, eggs and flavoring (I used almond extract, well, because I love almonds). The above picture is what the mixture looks like before adding the flour.

 The process of making shortbread is easy enough, you just need to have enough room to roll (or in my case, pat) the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Then you can use any cookie cutter that you want. Of course, I picked the flower cutter :)

Don't they look like fun to make? And they are equally as good to eat. I served these at a girls night and the girls seemed to enjoy them. Until the next baking adventure...

Mother's Day

Hey guys,
I have almost allowed Mother's Day to slip by without a post about my mother. In reality, I wasn't really sure what to share. I mean, I believe that my mom is a blessing and I am so thankful that the Lord put her as my mom. I really am who I am because of my mom and my dad. They both have taught me so much about life, love and the Lord. With all that said, I still wasn't sure what I needed to share. And then it hit me...
I was at work on Friday when I was walking with a women from one building to another. I was chatting with her and mentioned something about my mom. Tears welled up in her eyes and she said, "mother's day is so hard for me. My mother has passed away and I never had children." At first, I wasn't sure how to respond. I think I fumbled around and said something about God's purposes and our worth in Him. But the point is that I realized that even during a time that I celebrate, mother's day, there are people still hurting. This was a reality check for me.
I was then reminded of the verse in James about widows and orphans. I have stated many times that those are the people that I feel called to, the widows, the orphans and the least of these. In reality though, what am I doing to make a difference in their lives? What can I do to serve the lady that I met on Friday that almost cried because of her lack of family?
The answer isn't easy. The answer looks different for each individual person that I come in contact with. The answer isn't easy for you and it will look different for you then it may for me. The simple fact is that the strongest tool you and I have is prayer. Actually, that is where I believe that we need to start before any "act" of service. Allowing God to go before us by praying, allows us to know when and where we need to be, so that we may be in accordance with His will for our day. Does that make sense?
So, in closing, I am so thankful for my mom and all she means to me. On this mother's day, I have been marked with a compassion for those that are not able to celebrate with me. I am marked by the love of my God for each one of those. I am marked to pray with zeal for those that are the least of these. Just consider this:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -James 1:27
Be blessed, until next time...

Strawberry Breakfast

Today is a happy day!!!

Why, you may ask? Because I had a strawberry breakfast! I love strawberries so much that it doesn't matter what you put with them, it is gonna be delicious! You know what I mean?

Above is a picture of one of my favorite strawberry treats during this time of year when strawberries are in season and I can pick my own bucket full. I simply mix up a batch of bisquick pancakes (with a few of my secret additions to the batter). Then I top with fresh cut strawberries. Then there is nothing like a hugh dollop of fresh whipped whipping cream with just a bit of brown sugar added. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
For a few more yummy things to do with strawberries, check out a strawberry post from a few years ago: http://thewonderfulworldofjoy.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html
Enjoy the yummy goodness of strawberries while the season lasts :)
Until next time...

Puttin' On The Armor

Hey fellow warriors,
I was reading in Ephesians this week. Side note: Can I just say that scripture is always new and alive to me these days!?! Today Ephesians was no different, it was coming alive to me. I was reading the following:

"Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness...and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." 6:13-14, 17

Now imagine with me for a moment that the God of EVERYTHING took a moment to write you a letter. A letter just for you and just to encourage you, His warrior. This is what that letter might look like.

My precious choosen one,

It is time to get dressed for battle. My beloved. I am going with you onto the battlefield, and in those times when you feel as if there is no fight left inside of you, My Spirit will rise up inside your soul and My strength will become your strength. My mighty armor will guard your heart from the fiery arrows of the enemy. In the power of My Holy Spirit, you will find the passion and power to step out in faith and face any spiritual giant that comes against you. Your battles won for My Kingdom will become a blessing to all generations!

Love, Your King who fights for you

(Taken from His Princess Warrior, Love Letters for Strength from Your Lord by Sheri Rose Shepard)

Fight the good fight and don't lose heart, my friends! I am fighting with you and even more important the Lord is fighting for you! Blessings until next time...