A Recipe, Faith, and String Cheese

1. In an attempt to keep my body from hating me so much and yet satisfy a craving for some yummy fresh baked cookies I googled and found this recipe for dairy-free chocolate chip cookies. [Disclaimer: obviously if you use milk chocolate chips they would add diary to the recipe.] I know most of our friends with allergies have gluten-allergies so these still wouldn't work for them but for anyone else who needs to avoid dairy like the plague these are pretty good! Andree actually ate about 10 of them. :-P [And for our gluten-allergy friends, go to Trader Joe's and buy a bag of "Tortilla Chips With An Identity Crisis." Seriously. Soooooooo good.]

• 3/4 cup margarine (check ingredients)
• (Or substitute 1/4 cup of margarine for peanut butter - very yummy)
• 1 cup unrefined sugar
• 1 banana
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa (can be a little more if you like)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 175 C. *FYI if you’re not as smart as me you’ll notice this is in Celsius and not Fahrenheit and translate that this should be preheated to 375 F on your oven.

Cream margarine and sugar (and peanut butter if included) until light in color and fluffy. Add banana and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, soda, and baking powder.

Add dry mixture to wet mixture and mix until everything is well blended. Stir in the chips.

Form balls and squash them down a little bit on a baking sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes until the tops are no longer gooey.

2. I read this today on Of First Importance today and man, was I instantly encouraged! I am so grateful for the way the Spirit works in the midst of busy days to bring fresh encouragement and perspective.

“Faith is not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Saviour is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.

Our security is this, that it matters not how poor or weak our faith maybe: if it touches the perfect One, all is well. God has asked and provided a perfect righteousness; He nowhere asks nor expects a perfect faith. So a feeble, very feeble faith, will connect us with the righteousness of the Son of God; the faith, perhaps, that can only cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.’”

- Horatius Bonar, “Not Faith, But Christ”

3. Finally... Andree needs to take a picture of these little guys in their special "hoodies" (I cannot be held responsible for my creative urges when I was sick a few weeks ago) but a blog post without a picture is boring so...
Here's our brood who bring me regular smiles especially when Puppa makes them talk and tucks them in at night. The little ones can say "cheese", "string cheese", "Mamma", and "Puh" but that's about it. Special memories in our very special marriage.