Monster Cookies

My dear friend Tiffany introduced me to these no-flour-monster-cookies! 

Chocolate chip cookies have always been my favorite but I am so glad I tried something new! 

One wouldn't even guess they were gluten free! 

I made them myself a couple weeks ago.

I had some people in mind that I wanted to deliver to. 

I am sharing the link with the recipe.

I might have made baking look a little harder than what it should be. 

For starters, make sure you actually have all the ingredients you need.

Not just the candy... 

After a few trips to the store, I was ready to bake. 

However, Mom noticed I was measuring peanut butter in the peanut butter lid instead of a measuring cup. 

That goes to show my baking skills level. 

So I re-measured the peanut butter the correct way. 

 Then I started to have fun with the chocolate chips, mnms and oatmeal. 

This cookie har recipe made a cookie sheet full of bars. 

Enough to deliver and enjoy!

They are delicious! 

Try the recipe in the link below. 

 https://togetherasfamily.com/no-flour-monster-cookie-bars-2/

Thai for a blog

Last week I shared on Facebook that I enjoyed gluten free Thai food.

My cousins Mike and Courtney went all out and made Thai just for me. 

As my gluten-free friends know, gluten-free is hit or miss.

This, however, was a big hit! 

I asked if I could share the ingredients. 

  

Gluten Free Thai Ingredients

Cook on stove

Thai rice noodles 

Eggs 

Chicken or shrimp

Sauce 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chicken broth

3/4 cup soy (gluten free)

4 tbsp rice vinegar

1 TBSP Fish sauce (optional) 

Peanut butter

Siracha

Ginger

Mix sauce with stove ingredients and add the following to top it off 

Garlic

Lime

Cabbage

Carrots

Cilantro

Peanuts

Gluten free Thai! 

 

Maybe I might try making it or I might just leave it to the professionals. 😆

The Sound of Freedom

First, I want to thank everyone for their heart felt comments on my Take this Heart prayer card. 

I am moved by each response.'

We are in this life together. 

Yesterday my family and I went to the movie "Sound of Freedom." 

I admit I was nervous about going. 

How would my heart handle this reality? 

I can now say that it was necessary for me to watch. 

It would have been easy to have made an excuse not to go. 

"My heart is too sensitive." 

"I don't want to cry." 

"I don't want to know what's happening." 

Shamefully this has been our world's way of ignoring this horrendous attack on children. 

By making excuses for ourselves to avoid the truth. 

We have normalized sex trafficking.

Just typing that truth makes me sick to my stomach. 

Normalized slavery.

Normalized and ignored innocent children.

I am unfathomed by how we have become so numb.  

Are we so desensitized by our own freedom that we forget to fight for those who have lost their dignity and freedom?

Critics are making false accusations toward this film because it speaks the hard truth.

There is evil in this world. 

Through tears I ask, "Why?"

From the Catholic Catechism 

57. If God is omnipotent and provident, why then does evil exist?

To this question, as painful and mysterious as it is, only the whole of Christian faith can constitute a response. God is not in any way - directly or indirectly - the cause of evil. He illuminates the mystery of evil in his Son Jesus Christ who died and rose in order to vanquish that great moral evil, human sin, which is at the root of all other evils. Further reading: CCC 309-310,324,400

This answers why there is evil but the question of how we are going to stop evil is up to us. 

This movie was a big wake up call for me. 

"God's children are not for sale." 

Watch the movie.

Your heart will be moved.

 

The Sound of Freedom. 

Take this Heart

 Here is a piece of my heart I want to share with all of you.

I wrote this Litany "Take this Heart" a year ago when I was battling deep depression.

I wrote this "through tears" in Adoration on First Friday, May 6th, 2022. 

I shared it with Sister Jordan on her home visit last year. 

 I knew I wanted to share this Litany and Sister Jordan offered to help make that happen.

I want to give credit and thanks to Erin McAtee for sharing her artwork with me.

Mary's heart was the first painting I was drawn to after writing this prayer for hope.

The sword marks resemble my own heart. 

“And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart”

“…you yourself a sword will pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed”

Today in First Friday Adoration I reread my journal from last year. 

I had a pretty scary doctor appointment last year which I had already blogged about. 

It was the emotions I was feeling after the appointment that led me down a spiral stair case of despair. 

The emotions of fear, sorrow, and hopelessness came over me. 

The reality of my brokenness became real again.  

I pictured myself dying in a hospital bed. 

The feeling of being done.

The tears came from a heart that was tired and could do no more. 

These appointments are reminders of what I cannot do. 

I visualized a glass wall in front of me and Jesus on the crucifix above the altar was on the other side of the glass. I could see and know the love of Jesus but my heart could not feel the love because of that "stupid" wall there. If I opened the door the glass would shatter.  

Remove the glass wall. 

Give Jesus your heart. 

I am sharing this one year later with love and peace in my heart. 

Take this Heart.

Fam Bam

 It's been a while since I have blogged. 

My sisters traveled across the country to visit home. 

My favorite time of year is when we are all together as a family. 

Sister Jordan and Maddie managed to be together on the flight from SLC to Lewiston. 

We went to the Off Broadway Musical Aladdin in Spokane. It was amazing! 

We spent the night in Spokane and the next day traveled back home to greet Nicole and her boyfriend Dalton in the car behind us on the highway. 

All eight of us were together for a few days. 

I've been waiting for this time together all year! 

And on the first day we were all together, Nicole and Dalton shared the exciting news of their engagement!

I am proud to have you for a future brother-in-law, Dalton.

Thank you for sharing this special moment with us in person. 

Welcome to the fam!

"We are a perfectly normal family..." Joe Rehder 

All of us laughed. 

We had fun taking family pictures and quality time as a family. 

We laughed hard and repeated what was funny over and over. Right, Dalton? 

We saw lots of family! 100+ gathered together while everyone was home. 

We went to Max's basketball game in Lewiston. 

We went to Mass everyday, thanks be to God for Mass availability!

We celebrated the 4th of July in both Greencreek and Kamiah.  

The house isn't full anymore but my heart is filled with gratitude. 

Sister Jordan offered to help me with a prayer project I have been wanting to work on. 

The product is now complete and I will share it with you tomorrow on the First Friday of the Month. 

Stay tuned! 

Photo by Aaron Burden