Happy Joy Cookies

Ram and I were able to get away to a Doxology conference for a couple of days last week. The theme of the conference was "JOY" and it was a wonderful theme for Ram and I to be reminded to thank God for our blessings during our time of transition. I hope to blog about this more, but my post today is a recipe.

On the way home from St. Louis we made a fast stop into the Hodgson Mill store in IL. I have bought their gluten free products the past few years. I did not know that their products were milled in IL and they had a store there right off the interstate. We are starting over on stocking our pantry and thankfully I have found lots of gluten free and Paleo ingredients at Aldi, but I had still not found coconut flour or almond flour at an affordable price. It was such a treat to go into this store and see all their products and receive the discount such as 99 cent pasta. It was close to their closing time and I didn't have a shopping list, but if we travel that way again, I will be prepared to shop there again.

As we were paying they had a few cookies for sale so I bought a few Happy Joy Cookies for a treat for our family. They had a copy of the recipe there. It is gluten free, but not Paleo, but it is acceptable to me as a treat for our family. It was so neat to me that on the way home from a conference on Joy I received a recipe for Happy Joy cookies. Whenever I make these cookies I will have memories of our St. Louis trip.

Happy Joy Cookies

From the Hodgson Mill Kitchen

1 1/2 c Almond Flour

2 1/2 c Coconut Flour

1 tsp baking soda

pinch sea salt

1/4 c butter softened

1/4 c brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/2 c sliced almonds

1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 c sweetened coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl use an electric mixer to blend together butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. Slowly stir in dry ingredients until evenly blended. Fold in sliced almonds, chocolate chips, and coconut flakes. Roll into one inch balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Lightly press down balls into a disc shape. Bake for 12 minutes.

Note: Their cookies were very small, the size of a quarter. They were packaged in groups of 6 for $1.50. I think this recipe would be a great one for bake sales to offer something gluten free. I have not made these yet, but I would sift the coconut flour. I would also experiment to make them a little larger. I will definitely try to make this recipe because what we bought in the store was happy joy!

What I've been up to...

1. I updated our home library list. I worked with a list I began in MN. I also typed up every book that is in our rental house, not packed up in the garage, mostly books for homeschooling and books that we received for Christmas. The list that I began in MN had almost all of our fiction and a little nonfiction. The list includes the Lambs books with Ram and Ewe's. Our list is currently about 2400 books and remember that this does not include very much of our nonfiction. I sent a copy of the list to my dad to keep for insurance reasons. I hope to update the list as I unpack each box at the new house. I am beginning with our home library and hope to also work on Ram's library at his office at church after that.
2. As I worked on this project I weeded through the boys school books and workbooks. Shh... don't tell them that I threw all the completed books away, just saved a couple of handwriting samples. Neither MN nor ID require keeping this stuff and I don't need to keep every school paper they do. Ram joked that there is probably someone that would buy completed workbooks on E-bay, but they went into recycling. After this the bookshelf in my office looks all organized and even has room to add more books!
3. I cleaned out the Lamb's closet. I have two bags for Goodwill and two bags ready to try to sell at a kids resale shop. Lamb 1 and 2 wear the same size now in most of their clothes so they passed everything else down to Lamb 3. Lamb 3 has way too many clothes now and I really should go through his clothes again and give away some more. The closet looks pretty empty on Lamb 1 and 2's side. They actually have a good amount of clothes now. They will have a small closet at the new house. Lamb clothes just seem to multiply here. I wasn't brave enough to tackle toys yet, I just dealt with clothes. I am thankful that I have all boys. I can't imagine dealing with kid stuff for both sexes. No one would believe how much stuff I gave away before we moved here. I don't regret moving what I did because we lived 3 hours away from a kid resale shop when we were in MN and there simply wasn't time to go through more when we moved so quickly. Hopefully I can make a little money with what I sell.
4. Last weekend Ram flew to the last session for Doxology with one of the elders from our new church. We were so pleased that our new church could take part in this last session. The elder that went enjoyed it and thinks it is a great program. Ram is thankful to have his support. When Ram began Doxology last June we had no idea that by February he would be at a new church and have to fly to MN. The Lambs and I got over our colds while Ram was gone and survived the long weekend without him.
5. The Lambs started making Valentines today. I think they are going to be late, but they enjoy making them for family and friends. I told a few family they needed to make them for. They kept adding friends to the list that we HAD to send to.
6. Next on my to do list is to get our info together for taxes. I'm dreading it with dealing with living in two places and moving expenses etc. I'm thankful that we have a tax person to do them, that I just have to get the info together. It takes me long enough to just organize receipts and get ready for her to do them. I'm hoping to send the info to her before we move to the new house so I don't have to worry about it then.
7. I also want to make Valentine cookies with the Lambs.
8. Ram and I have talked about and thought about the new house but we are just at the dreaming point right now. We'll wait until after the house closing to purchase furniture and set up appointments to have work done. I'm sure the first few weeks of March will fly by between closing and moving when we need to do all that. I'm trying to limit shopping now to both save money and to give the Lambs a break before we have all that to do with the new house.

Doxology Trip Day 5

This was our final day of our trip. We drove from our hotel to Cedar Rapids, IA. We ate lunch at Biaggi's, one of our favorite restaurants. Then I called my friend Elizabeth's house to see if we could get together. I caught her mom home on lunch break from work and she gave me Elizabeth's work number and cell phone number. We decided to finish our lunch and do a little shopping to give Elizabeth some more time at work. So of course we had to check out a Half Price Books and buy a few items while we waited. I was getting used to shopping for books without Lambs along! Then we went to Elizabeth's work place. We just missed her at work. We called her cell phone and she didn't answer. I didn't know how to reach her so we were trying to decide what to do. She called back while we were trying to decide. She was shocked that we were in town and could visit. We went back to her place of work and met her there and then we went to a coffee house. We talked for nearly 2 hours and waited for the rain to let up before taking her back to her car. It was so nice to have some time to catch up with Elizabeth, our match maker. It was hard for her to believe we are going to celebrate our 10th anniversary in December. We hadn't seen Elizabeth for about a year so it was good to get together again.
We finally drove pretty much straight home from Cedar Rapids with fast stops for gas, food, and bathroom breaks. We arrived home about midnight, we never would have made it that fast with the Lambs! I had hoped to get in before the Lambs bedtime. We both agreed time to see Elizabeth was worth getting in late. My dad helped us unload the car and then we all went to bed. Doxology, the trip alone with Ram, and seeing friends was all fun and worth being exhausted for the rest of the week after we got home!

Ewe and Elizabeth

Doxology Trip Day 4

A wonderful Divine Service began our last day of Doxology. Then Dr. Yahnke spoke to the wives. Her topic was "Parsonage Depletion Hazards". She spoke about this to the pastors earlier and now she talked to us wives about it. Pastors and their wives give of their time, love, and energy all the time. Sometimes it is good to think about your own (and your spouse's) health and well being. There is more that I could say on this topic so perhaps I will blog about this in a separate blog post as I think it would be good for all pastor's wives to hear.
Then we broke into small groups of wives and discussed our personal goals. We all agreed after participating in Doxology that we had some goals in common now, others were more personal goals. We want to work out our schedules to have more prayer/devotional time, more time with our husbands, and try to exercise more. It was interesting to hear goals from all the women at the table in different stages of their lives-some were just beginning an empty nest and others were pregnant and others had children in the ages between.
After lunch Dr. Kleinig led his last session on "The Cleansing Blood". He was a little rushed as he didn't have his full time but I took a couple of things away. 1. The devil stops people that need church the most from going to church. 2. The blood of Jesus is the remedy for sin. 3. Remember your baptism and attend Holy Communion.
Then we had our final church service and said goodbye to our friends.
When we went out to the car it was nearly 100 degrees. Next we tried to find a Starbucks to buy a St. Louis Starbucks mug. We finally gave up and went to my college friend's house, Matt and Karla and their 6 children. Karla made beef sandwiches and we had a nice meal together. After 4 days away from the Lambs, the supper table seemed noisy! It was cute how Matt and Karla and the children all tried to talk to us at the same time-the children were respectful but they wanted to tell us about things too. We've never visited a family just the two of us without the Lambs. Usually the children all play together while the adults talk. Karla told us where to find a Starbucks. We found our mug and of course had to get coffee and tea while we were there.
Then we drove to Hannibal, MO. We didn't know how far we would get so we hadn't reserved a hotel room. We were too tired after all the activity of Doxology to drive much farther or search too hard for a hotel room. So we went to Holiday Inn and slept and then had a nice breakfast the next morning.
I'm anxious to finish posting about Doxology (1 more day of our trip) so I can post about our trip to DeSmet, SD to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites.

Ewe, Daniel (almost 1 year old!), Karla

Doxology Trip Day 3

This day was a full day at the conference center. We started with church. Then Dr. Kleinig had another excellent session-"Access to the Father's Grace Finding Help for Ourselves and Others". What did I take away from this session? Who do I know that is spiritually crippled in my family, friends, and former church members? What can I do for them? Pray for them specifically. Make a list of these people and "take them to church with you each Sunday". The devil will continually be on our back-you can't even get all your family to go to church! You can bring yourself and others to the Father through the Son by the Spirit.
Then we had another session about financial strategies. Ram and I thought we are doing pretty well financially for the salary we have. We have no debt and are in a parsonage so we don't even have a mortgage. We have started to save for retirement. One thing I learned was if you have been working 1-5 years your goal is 6 months salary/More than 5 years your goal is 1 year salary/More than 30 years your goal is 2 years salary of emergency savings. Ram and I have worked on this and we are close to 6 months salary of emergency savings. But it was clear we need to work on this more and start with getting the whole 6 month salary saved first and then since Ram has been a pastor over 8 years we need to work towards the 1 year salary. We know it can be done with some serious work. Ram and I discussed our financial goals on the way home and came up with a "plan" for how we can work on our emergency savings some more.
Then we had a nice lunch that I've already mentioned chatting with Adriane the Lutheran Witness editor.
Then the wives broke off into small groups and had time alone with other pastors wives. I took a couple of things out of this conversation. 1. We need to work on having people over more. I don't need to always cook a big meal or have a perfectly clean house to have people over. Ram and I talked about this more on the way home and we are making a goal to have people over to our house at least twice a month. We always talk like there aren't "friends" here our age, but there are a few, plus we want to have the area pastors over more often and our church members too. With 3 churches it will be difficult to get all of our members over here-but we can invite a few couples at a time. Ram and I discussed that when we first start this our church members will be surprised since we haven't done this before, but after a few come then it will be easier. I think it will be good for our Lambs and good for us. Our plan is to have dessert or just ice cream with a few toppings-keep it very simple, but actually have people to our house instead of just talk about it.
2. The second thing I learned was when you hear yourself say "I'll pray for you", have the goal to already have prayed for them before you say that. When you receive that e-mail with bad or good news from your friend, pray for them immediately before you open the next e-mail. Then try to pray for them several times the rest of that day while you do your work around the house. If you do it several times that first day it will be in your mind to continue to pray for them instead of just praying for them once and forgetting.
Then we had church again.
Then Dr. Yahnke had a session for the wives about parenting and discipline. This inspired Ram and I to talk on the way home about how we could do better in this area with the Lambs. We especially want to work on nice manners and have a tone in our household of nice talking and working together. That needs to start with Ram and I doing a better job of  talking to each other and to the Lambs because the Lambs will copy us. We have not implemented Dr. Yahnke's "discipline plan" but it was so nice to have an uninterrupted conversation with Ram about this on the way home. I feel that we are "on the same page" now and have noticed a difference about this since we got home from Doxology. The real test will be when we get back to a full homeschool schedule if we can continue it.
Next we had a banquet and they actually ran out of cheesecake so our table didn't get any! Other than that it was a nice meal and nice time to chat with new and old friends.
Then we had church again and a wine and cheese reception. I already mentioned that we had time to chat with Rev. and Mrs. Harrison. We were tired when we got back to the hotel this night and there was still one more day.

Doxology Grand Reunion

The title for the Doxology session where the wives attend with their husbands is called "The Grand Reunion". Oh, was it ever a grand reunion for me! There were many friends I hadn't seen for several years. 

This photo is for Cheryl . Cheryl's husband was the cantor for all of our worship services at Doxology. Ram and I also had a chance to talk to him for a little while at the hotel one morning. It is nice to talk to a fellow Looper dad. The music was excellent at Doxology.

These are the parents of a blog friend that I've never met. Hopefully one day I'll meet Kristen too.

Suzan, one of my new Doxology friends. She is a pastor's wife in rural CO. We had many conversations of things we had in common over the few days of Doxology.

Sarah and Preston, my CUW friends. I hadn't seen them since we moved to MN. They also live in MN but in a complete different part of the state-probably 6 hours away. 

This is Teresa, a pastor's wife in the same circuit as us. One of her husband's churches is closer to one of Ram's churches than to the second of her husband's churches. 

This is the pastor and his wife of my sister's former church in SC. Evelyn became a second mom to my sister. My sister is very close to the Burgers. I had never met them before Doxology. They had never been away from their children before either. I'm so glad they were able to come to Doxology and I was able to meet them.

I believe these were all the female Loopers at Doxology
Ewe, Glenda, Beth Speers
(Glenda forgot her camera so some of these photos are posted for her)

I had been reading this blog for awhile. It was so nice to meet  Emommy! Emommy is expecting her first girl. I had some girl items here and decided to pass them on to someone who could use them instead of sit in a box. It was embarrassing to have so many girl items when I've never had a girl before! She was thrilled to receive baby girl clothes-after 2 boys they are going to have fun with dresses/pink/other girly items!

Adriane, the editor of Lutheran Witness. We had a nice chat over lunch one day of Doxology. We talked about what our members would like to see in Lutheran Witness. Who knows, maybe after our lunch Ram will be asked to write an article? Adriane came just to participate in Doxology and be a journalist. It was wonderful to have her give up her weekend and participate with us. 

This is Jennifer, one of my close CUW friends. Seeing each other at Doxology saved at least one several hour phone call, but we still talk on the phone a few times a year and those talks turn into several hour talks. Saturday was her 17th wedding anniversary. I went to her wedding. I'm having a difficult time accepting that was 17 years ago. 

Our LCMS President, Pastor and Kathy Harrison, joined us for the whole weekend. We took this photo after church on Saturday night. There was a wine and cheese reception after church. I walked back to the reception with the Harrisons and then we waited in line to get our treats together. From our conversation I could tell the weekend was as good for the Harrisons as it was for the Doxology participants. Everyone in the Synodical office is working so hard-17 hour days are the norm. It was so good to spend the weekend together as a couple away from other responsibilities. I was glad to get the chance to speak to them together on Saturday night. It was also a good reminder to continue to keep the Harrisons, their marriage, and their boys in our prayers.

There were others that I didn't get a photo, but it was fun to see again. Rev. Juhl, the Uttenreithers, and other Seminary friends.

So LCMS friends, in this small LCMS world, who do you know in these photos?

Doxology Trip Day 2

Even though we were in late the night before, we were up early to do some shopping in the Saint Louis area while we had a chance. We began at Target getting Starbucks and a few treats for the Lambs. Then we had to go here...

I know that this was the beginning of the Borders Going out of Business Sale and that the prices weren't that good. But it was a chance to go book shopping! It has been over 7 years since both Ram and Ewe went to a new book store to shop at the same time. Usually one watches the Lambs while one shops and then we switch. Unfortunately there was a family with one small brat child and I still felt like I had a child along. There were a few times where I just couldn't help myself and I tried to distract the child and it helped her to stop whining for a little bit. We picked up more treats for the Lambs and a few things for homeschool and even got some Smencils like Jan recommended. Everything was at least 25% off and we didn't have to pay shipping so we got decent prices if not a great sale.

Next we went to Cracker Barrel and had a nice lunch. It was so nice to eat the whole meal without taking anyone to the bathroom and to eat my whole meal without sharing anything off my plate.

Next we went to the Seminary bookstore. Ram had not spent very much of his "allowance" for theology books this year so I helped him do that. Then we discovered their "free books". So of course we had to check that section out and had a few good finds there too.

Then we checked out Concordia Historical Institute.  I felt like I should read everything since we didn't have Lambs along, but we really didn't have much time. I was very glad to see CHI even though we didn't spend long there. We remarked how empty the campus looked as compared to being there last September for the installation service.

Next we went to Costco for a few items because I wanted something that was only on sale until Sunday. Our time was very limited by this point. I got a huge bag of baking soda (for laundry) and as we were leaving I realized there was a hole in it. I ran to replace it. After driving through traffic we arrived at Doxology right on time. After we sat down for the first session I realized that Ram had baking soda on his dark colored shirt!

Doxology began at 3pm and they kept us busy for three days. Dr. Kleinig began with a great session on the Family Altar. I learned a lot at this session and we were challenged to rekindle the family altar in our own homes and the homes of our church members. We want to pass on this heritage of faith. Then we had Vespers and it was marvelous to worship with all those Lutherans! After dinner we had time to break into small groups. Our group ended up being 3 couples all from MN in small parishes that are either dual or triple. It was nice to share together. Then there was an ice cream social and after dinner with apple pie I wasn't even hungry, but I couldn't turn down ice cream. We returned to our hotel tired but knowing the next day was going to be wonderful.