Sugar-Free Chocolate Ice-cream

The girls are working through Kitchen Chemistry for school. Today, the lesson was making ice-cream. Since we've been on a sugar fast, this was going to be tricky. Since we can have xylitol, I figured we could make it work. The girls also wanted to do chocolate ice-cream. In the past, the only way we've done chocolate ice-cream was to use homemade chocolate sauce and since that uses sugar (and we didn't have any in the house), I had to come up with something different. I used our traditional ice-cream recipe as the base, but had to guess on the amount of xylitol and cocoa powder. The recipe I used is below.

As for the chemistry part of it, the girls looked at temperature differences and how the ice-cream changed from when we put it in the ice-cream freezer and when we took it out. They discovered that ice had a temperature of 5 degrees F. After layering the salt and ice, the temperature quickly dropped to below 0 degrees. Since my thermometer didn't go below 0, we don't know how low it actually went. We discussed why the ice-cream mixture needed a lower temperature than water to freeze. All in all, it was a great lesson.

Sugar-Free Chocolate Ice-cream

1 1/2 cups xylitol
2/3 cup baking cocoa
dash of salt
2-3 teaspoons of vanilla
enough milk to fill the freezer

Mix all together in batches in a blender. Add to freezer. (We use a 6-qt ice-cream maker). Layer ice and salt and turn on until done. Enjoy!

Of Puzzles and Life

OF PUZZLES AND LIFE
by Jalisa Wenger

 

A little girl just five years old

She called for Mama’s aid

To put the pieces that she held

Into the puzzle’s frame.

 

But when her Mama tried to help

And show her where they go,

She fussed and tried to make them fit

Her way– not Mama’s– no!

 

Oh, Mama, now let’s do this one!

But Mama thought it best

To lay that piece aside awhile;

It did not fit the rest.

 

And as they worked together on

The puzzle piece by piece,

They found the one they’d laid aside

Now fit right in it’s place!

 

This little girl, she is my own

And I’m her Mother dear.

While watching her, I saw myself.

It really was quite clear!

 

"But Lord," I whined, "I do not want,

To put this piece that way.

It would be nicer over here!

Please tell me that I may!"

 

Or "Father God, let’s do this now."

But Father knows it’s best

To lay that piece aside awhile

Until we’ve pieced the rest.

 

As He and I work on my life,

Together piece by piece,

I later see just why ‘twas best

To heed His tender voice.

 

He saw the big scene of my life

But I saw just a part.

He knew the choice that I so craved

Would draw me from His heart.

 

And so in love He bid me lay

The treasured piece aside

That I might learn to yield to Him

And in His will abide.

 

And now as I continue on

The pathway that He’s planned,

My heart is full of thanksgiving;

I hold to His dear Hand!

 

And when we reach that Heavenly Shore

And know as we are known,

We’ll praise Him for His grace and love

Together ‘round His throne.

Every Bite Counts—The Resolution for Women

I have started reading The Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shirer. It is based on the movie, Courageous. Right from the first chapter, I felt convicted.

by rushing through life, I’d been subtly devaluing those around me and the experiences I was involved in, not appreciating the importance and significance they bring to my life at this very moment, not grasping my responsibility for holding dear and treating well these gifts God has entrusted to me.

Ouch! This hit me right at the core. How often have I thought “if only . . .” I am extremely guilty of not valuing those around me, my experiences, or even how God is working in my life. I need to slow down and be more purposeful in all that I do and experience. I need to relish in everything God gives me. I need to learn to be content!

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” ~ 1 Timothy 6:6-8

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.” ~ Hebrews 13:5a

Some scriptures that came to mind after reading this chapter. Some are scriptures I memorized years ago, some are ones the girls and I have worked on this school year and some are ones I have read recently in my personal time with God.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” ~Philippians 4:4

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” ~Philippians 4:6 (emphasis mine)

“. . .for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” ~Philippians 4:11

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” ~James 1:2-4

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” ~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Build the Home and Leave a Legacy—A Look at Chapter 6 of Be Fruitful and Multiply

What does it mean to “build your own home”? Most people will assume it means to construct a house in which to live. In many cases, they would be correct, but let us look at how God wants us to build our own home.

Le’s look at the Hebrew meaning for “build”; the word is banah. Banah translates three ways: to build up, to repair or to obtain children.

Now that we see that we build our home with offspring, how do we go about doing that? “Do we plan our own family, or do we let the Lord choose? Remember, the Word says, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’”

God also tells us to think generationally. 

 

When God spoke to the children of Israel, He confirmed the power of generation thinking. “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” . . . “I am the God of thy fathers” is how He addressed them continually. Then He related the past to the future. When God spoke to Israel, He did not speak only to their present generation, but always included future generations. God’s plan is for building a godly dynasty that will carry on down the generations.

Nancy gives many scripture references to support generational thinking.

“God puts importance on the family name.” How does a family name continue? Through the birth and life of a son. In so many cases, family names die out because of no children or lack of sons because parents stop at one or two children. As for us, if we want to pass on the family name, we will have to have at least ten children! I believe the importance of passing on a family name is the legacy it leaves.

Let’s look at what a legacy can contribute to society. Jonathan and Sarah Edwards had twelve children after being married in 1727. By 1900, their godly marriage blessed society with

• 13 college presidents
• 65 professors
• 100 lawyers and a dean of an outstanding law school
• 30 judges
• 60 doctors and a dean of a medical school
• 80 holders of public office including 3 United States Senators
• 3 Mayors of large cities
• 3 State governors
• A Vice President of the United States
• A Controller of the United States Treasury

What can your family do for God and society? Think about the impact you can have on future generations. You can greatly influence not just your own family, but your country by how you decide to build your home.

Arrows For God's Army--A Look at Chapter 5 of Be Fruitful & Multiply

"In the context of Bible days, arrows were for the purpose of war! We are in a war today and God needs arrows for His army. God wants children born to fulfill His strategies and plans. When a warrior went out to war, how many arrows would he want in his quiver? One or two? No, he'd want to squeeze as many as he could. The more arrows he had in his quiver, the more weapons he had to slay the enemy and the more protection he provided himself."

Psalm 127:4-5 compares children to arrows. If that is the case, then why wouldn't we want as many as God would give us?

One way enemies try to gain the upper hand is by destroying the weapons of their enemy. How is Satan going to destroy God's weapons of Godly offspring? By destroying them before they are even born. He does this through abortion, through birth control (which depending on the kind, can cause abortions), and by making people think it isn't "wise" to have children.

Just think of how many Christians there could be fighting for God's ways today if they wouldn't have been destroyed before they were even conceived. Do you think the country would be in the state it is in if God would have had more warriors to stand and defend His ways? So many Christians moan and complain about how far our nation has come from our Christian beginnings, but in many cases, those same Christians are partly to blame for not sending out more arrows for God.

Ministry at Home

The challenge of ministry in our home

is that we do not always feel very “spiritual”
when we wash our dishes.

It hardly feels significant to scrub our toilet. 

We can feel that we are truly ministering when the Lord

uses us to communicate a word of wisdom to someone,

or He provides an opportunity
to share the gospel with our neighbor. 

That seems like real ministry.

And that is real ministry to be sure! 

But no more so than when we are wiping runny noses
or cleaning the bathroom.

That is because we have a very narrow view of true spirituality...

The Lord wants to help us see the significance of ministry at home.

~Carolyn Mahaney, wife of C.J. Mahaney

One Thousand Gifts Winner!

I'm sorry I'm a little late posting the winner, but I was sick and then dealing with sick family members. The winner of a copy of One Thousand Gifts is Lisa!! Congratulations, Lisa! I will be mailing out the book today. You should receive it before the beginning of the year since it usually only takes 1-2 days to go to your area.

I truly wish I had a book to give to everyone who entered. If you didn't win, I highly suggest still getting a copy and reading it!

To see what the giveaway was, click here.

Still Learning to be Thankful

107. Reading out loud to the girls
108. Ovens
. . . . . .
114. Snow
. . . . . .
119. A working vacuum
120. Essential oils
. . . . . .
124. Brownie crumbs
. . . . . .
131. Restored relationships
. . . . . .
136. Visits with friends
. . . . . .
142. Puke buckets
143. Norwex cloths
. . . . . .
149. Used flannel sheets
150. Sewing machine

I'm still learning to be thankful in all circumstances and will continue recording my "gifts" at least until I reach 1000. I may decide to continue even after that because I am sure it will be a life changing experience.

Don't forget about my giveaway of Ann Voskamp's One Thousands Gifts. You can enter to win up to four times--just don't forget to leave a comment telling me each thing you accomplished.

Learning to Be Thankful and Giveaway!

When One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp came out, I was told by numerous people that it was a good book. I wanted to read it, but didn't have the money to purchase my own copy. After a few months, I discovered I had a friend who had the book and would let me borrow it. I devoured the book. I want to learn to be more thankful in my life and I want to learn to have joy (which only comes from being thankful). I knew that I would need to read the book more than one time so I kept my eye out for my own copy. I have now gotten a copy for myself so I can read it again and I am working on coming up with my own thousands gifts. Here are a few of what I have already written down.

2. Quite time with God in the morning
. . . . .
6. Laundry to wash
. . . . .
17. Fruitful womb
. . . . .
33. Prayers of others
34. Praying for others
. . . . . .
48. Hair to braid (my girls')
. . . . .
64. Dirty dishes (because it means we had food to eat)
. . . . .
75. Bills to pay (because we can pay them and we are fortunate enough to be able to have things like electricity, phone, etc.)
76. Indoor plumbing
. . . . .
89. Cloth diapers
. . . . .
97. Hand-smudged windows
. . . .
101. Spontaneous songs of praise by my girls
. . . .
104. Muscle testing

I will share more as days go by. I still have a long way to go, but I have to say that it is getting easier and easier day by day to find the joy in life just by simply giving thanks. Many people might call that a "Pollyanna" view of life, but it is God's view of life.

I was also able to secure a copy of the book at a great price just this past week and I want to pass it on to one of you! The giveaway will be open until Christmas day. I will draw a winner the day after and get it mailed out so that hopefully whoever wins it will have it for the new year. Wouldn't giving thanks and finding joy be a great New Year Resolution?!

For your chance to win a copy of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, simply leave a comment telling me one thing you are thankful for and an email address where I can contact you (please feel free to leave a broken address if you wish--example: memoriesmama @ netonecom . net or memoriesmamaATnetonecomDOTnet)

For extra entries:

• Follow Gracious Daughter of the King
• Share this giveaway on your blog (make sure to include a link back to this page)
• Share this giveaway on Facebook (again, make sure to include a link back to this page)

For any of the extra entries, please leave a separate comment on this post.

Good luck and be thankful!

Gifts From God--A look at chapter 4 of Be Fruitful and Multiply

"Scriptures reveal that children are God's gifts to us." I love how this chapter starts! She goes on to list some of the scripture that reveals that truth to us.

How should we receive  a gift? My thoughts are that we should receive it thankfully and graciously. Campbell goes on to explain that the Greek word for receive means "to accept a gift deliberately and readily; to receive heartily; reaching out eagerly to receive something; looking for; waiting with earnest expectation." Do you "receive" your children (and possible children) like that?

Scripture also teaches us that conception is a visitation from God. Many times when the scriptures is telling us about when someone had a baby, they had been visited by God (Genesis 21:1 and 1 Samuel 2:20-21 are two great examples).

Campbell points out the reasons why God gives us children. According to Genesis 1:28, it is to procreate the earth. Jeremiah 30:19b tells us it is to honor us through glorifying God. God wants to do something good for us through the gift of children according to a number of different scriptures. Children give us joy and delight--"Happy is the man who has his quiver full of children" (Psalm 127:5). Another reason we are gifted with children is for service to God. The more children Christians have, the more warriors for God! Children are also a gift to the nations. Just think about the differences children make to our country.  Psalm 127 also tells us that children will defend and protect us against the enemy (Satan). Children help us; many hands make light work. While I know that for most people it isn't the case, but children are supposed to take care of their parents when we are older. A number of scriptures point this out; unfortunately, not many people (Christians included), follow this command. And the ultimate reason why God gifts children to us is for Himself! When we raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, He receives all the glory!