When I signed up to provide dessert yesterday for our evangelistic team’s meal, I saw it as my opportunity to get to bake and to try a new recipe!  I love chocolate and mint together and had recently pinned a collection of those flavors on my baking board on Pinterest.   I found a recipe there similar to one I’ve made before.  This is one of those “poke” cakes.  You know, where you poke holes in the warm cake and pour something yummy into those caverns.  This recipe gets two yummy things poured over the chocolate cake – minty Sweetened Condensed Milk, and  minty Hot Fudge!  Tell me this isn’t going to be good!

The basic ingredients for this recipe are:

Ingredients:

1 chocolate cake mix, plus water, oil, and eggs on the box to make the cake
1 can (14 or 14.5 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 jar (10-12 ounces) hot fudge ice cream topping?1 1/4 teaspoons Peppermint Extract, divided
8 ounces whipped topping, thawed
3-4 drops green food coloring
1 cup Oreos, crushed

Instructions:
Mix and bake cake according to the box directions. When a toothpick comes out clean, remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.
Place sweetened condensed milk in a small bowl. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract. (You can also do this in the can without transferring to a bowl, if you want to save a dish!)
Remove lid from jar of hot fudge sauce. Heat in microwave for about 30-60 seconds, until it is pourable. Be careful not to heat it too much without stirring, you don’t want it to burn. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract.
Once the cake has cooled for 5 minutes, poke several holes in the top with the back of the handle of a wooden spoon. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the cake, making sure it gets in all the holes. Spread with a spatula if needed.
Pour the hot fudge sauce over the top of the cake, making sure to get it in all the holes. Spread with a spatula if needed. Cool the cake completely before continuing.

Open thawed whipped topping. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract and 3-4 drops green food coloring. Spread over cooled cake and sprinkle with crushed Oreos. Chill for several hours (or overnight) before serving. Best served room temperature.

Ooey, gooey, chocolaty and minty delicious…that pretty much sums it up, friends!  You want an easy recipe and one that will be devoured?  Here you go!

From my parsonage kitchen,

These last couple of months have brought into a sharp reality how little “stuff” matters at the end of our life.  My MIL loved her stuff.  She loved her old stuff, new stuff, free stuff, sentimental stuff, collectible stuff and her stuffy stuff.  ~Cough, Cough~ Get my point?  We are in the middle of clearing out her condo and are reminded how easy it is to want to save “that special card,” or all the copies of that one picture – just in case.  But my  husband and I have determined to go through our own belongings and get rid of the unnecessary things so our girls won’t have this daunting task in front of them some day!

I recently found a great post on simplifying your kitchen here on Goodbye House, Hello Home.  She has some great tips on how to clear out your kitchen and make it organized and clutter-free.  Here is another post about 18 Things You can Get Rid of Today!

I keep a black trash bag in a bedroom closet and when I come across something I don’t need, I put it in that bag.  Then I tie up that bag and take it to Goodwill.  You know what?  I’ve never missed anything I’ve gotten rid of!  As a matter of a fact, it’s so freeing!

Freshen up your Friday (and your life!) by finding 5 things today that you can take out the door!  Put them in a bag, tie it up, and either throw it away, or give it away.  Then get in the habit of doing that each week!  Don’t let your life get cluttered up with your “stuff.”  Trust me, your children don’t want it to deal with it when you’re in heaven!

See you in church for our revival meetings!  If you live away from me, I trust you’re making your way all day on Sunday to a local assembly where you will hear the Word, enjoy fellowship, and have the opportunity to serve the Lord!

Be refreshed,

With love,

Now you know where I’ll be spending my crafting time!  Of course this also doubles as a guest room.  Hmm, think it would be rude to awaken our guest so I could make a card?  Just kidding!

Do you have a dream room you’re planning?

From the parsonage windows,

I have a heart for moms; they’re one of my own kind.  Standing on this side of motherhood gives me a bright, new perspective!  My side of the fence is filled with sweet words of appreciation from my grown daughters.  Memories of their childhood are spoken from them with fondness and laughter.  I’m seeing the “green side” of parenting. It’s the side where the fruit is ripening.  It’s wonderfully sweet!

I remember when I was on the other side of that mothering fence, though.  My husband worked two part-time jobs while pastoring our new church, and I was often the Lone Ranger parent.  I did school all day, managed the bickering between sisters, along with the pouting attitudes and grumbling spirits.  Green grass was often a dream in the distant future.  I was standing on the dirt where I was trying to sow.

Then I would come across a verse in my daily Bible reading that would so encourage my heart and help me to keep my perspective.  It would be a verse like this one that I read this week. It would be an unlikely verse that the Lord would use to snap me back to remembering my purpose in motherhood.

This is not a passage on parenting, but it was a command from King Jehoshaphat to the judges.  He was reminding these men that their work was to be done for the Lord – not for any man under their jurisdiction.  Do you know what the work of a judge was? The judges of these courts were to:

1. keep the people in the worship of God 
2. to punish the violations of the law 
3. to decide controversies between man and man.  

It sounds like they were doing the work mothers do!  Look at the similarities…

1. Have you taught your child about God?  Prayed with him?  Read Scripture to him? Sung to him about Jesus? Reminded your child to fold their hands during prayer,  have their devotions, or pay attention in church?  
2. Have you disciplined your children when they disobeyed?  
3. Have you tried to decide which sibling started the fight that is shaking the living room floor at the point of a 5.6 on the Richter scale? 

If you’ve been a mother for more than a day, and you love the Lord, you’ve at least done #1.  This is a great reminder that your mothering, as King Jehoshaphat said to the judges, is to be done for the Lord. Do all you do as a mom for the Lord.  Make that peanut butter and jelly sandwich, clean up the spilled milk, teach that math lesson, discipline, sing, pray for your child – all as unto the Lord. Sometimes when you’re getting weary and your patience is growing thin, you may literally need to say out loud, “Lord, I’m doing this for you.”

You won’t need to be concerned with what others think about your mothering skills, or whether or not your children still like you. You also won’t have a bad attitude about your responsibilities as a mom if you’re doing it all not for man, but for the Lord!

Let me address those of you that may not be moms. This verse applies to each of us.  If you’re going in to a job today, taking college classes, or staying home in the retirement years of your life, keep the thought in mind that everything we do is not for man, but for the Lord.  There is eternity in front of each of us.  If we’re living with this attitude that Jehoshaphat encouraged, we will have crowns to cast at our Savior’s feet. The rewards will also be for the Lord. 

With love,