Homemade Chocolate Chips

Put a few inches of water in a small saucepan and bring to

simmering. Place 1 stick of unsalted butter and 1/4 cup each

of cocoa and sugar into a bowl. Place the bowl on top of the saucepan.

Stir the mixture until it is nice and smooth (about 7 minutes).

Remove bowl and pot from the heat.

Pour the warm chocolate into a parchment lined square baking dish,

and place it in the freezer for a few hours to harden.

This is what it should look like when you take it out of the freezer.

Feel free to break of a small piece to sample... you know just

to make sure it's safe to feed to your family. :)  

Chop the chocolate into little squares, whatever size you desire.

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Our little winter wonderland - that I'm absolutely loving! Perfect day

for reading, baking, crafting, hot chocolate, movie watching, blogging,

and just a dash of school work for Tony. Lots of togetherness time!!

Beautiful Sky

Pink Suede Piggy

This cute little piggy is looking for a new mud puddle

to roll around in ~ A new home with lovely parents

and a little child that will carry her everywhere and

rub her soft belly lots. Come visit her in the shop!

Late Night ~ Odds&Ends

It's well past midnight and I think we'll still be up for a while longer. I do know that the bedtime will be really nice when we get there. Tony has been working on his philosophy paper for most of the evening. I've mostly just sat beside him here at our school desk (aka the kitchen table), looking over his assignments for the week, crocheting, listening to him read his paper as it progresses, browsing the internet, organizing Tony's e-mails, and other miscellaneous things. I figured I'd share a few things that are on my mind at this crazy hour...

Today I really enjoyed following Elsie's blog party ~ all kinds of crafty goodness and inspiration.

I also gleaned much wisdom from these two ladies in the blog-o-sphere this week. I have actually been following their blogs for a couple years now and God has taught me so much through them. These are just a small snippet of the words that rang so true with my heart. I would encourage you to read their posts in entirety to get the context.

"...But I've been thinking about this whole area of relationships alot this last week...
having some old hurts re visited. some new ones made.
And sheesh! people can just be downright baffling.
I mean, I throw myself in there as well cause I'm sure I've baffled more than just one person in my lifetime with my behavior. :)
We're humans. It's life.
But this is what God's been bringing me back to....
Though some relationships are optional,
love never is. {Matt.22}..."

"...there will always be those who question your motives...
people who will misjudge and misunderstand.
And though that's hard and hurtful and there's still times I feel like I need to put a sticky note on a card or gift "explaining" my reasons behind it...
bottom line, there is ONLY ONE judge of my heart - -

ONLY ONE who sees and knows my motives - -

and ONLY ONE who I will give an account to someday.

And when I feel I'm obeying what He's given me to do, I owe no one else an explanation!..."  {Amber @ Hutch5}

"...The Lord has been so gracious to reveal to me in the kindest of ways that He is my defense. I need no other. I need not to plug along, wasting time on accusations, defending my very existence to some and defending the very petty to others. I will instead fling myself into the arms of my God who understands me completely and who also knows so very much what it means to be misunderstood, and let Him be my defense..."  {Alyssa @Resolved2Worship}

Here I am {anxiously} waiting for Tony to get home from work today... always a highlight of my day!! ;)

And I'm pretty excited about our bridesmaid shoes for Joey & Chrissie's wedding, come September. They're so fun! And will look so pretty with our long brown dresses and sunflower bouquets!!