Completely Homemade Chocolate Cake

A couple of weeks ago I was in the mood for Chocolate cake.  I didn’t have a mix or frosting, so I started digging through my cook books.  I told you a while back that one of the ways that I store recipes, is in a photo album that my mom gave to my for a Christmas gift one year.  I found this recipe in that photo album. 
Wacky Chocolate Cake
I don’t know where my mom got it but, it is so easy and so good.

I mix together the dry ingredients first.
3 cups Regular Flour
2 cups Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
6 tablespoons Cocoa

Next I added in:
2 cups Cold Water
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Tablespoons +2 teaspoons Vinegar

Whirl them together for 1 minute.  Fold into a 9x13 ungreased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min. 

As you can see, nothing by looking at it is wacky.  I think it gets it’s name from the unusual way it is made.  NO Eggs?, Don’t grease the pan?  So, Wacky!!
The frosting is a regular butter frosting that I found in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. This is my favorite Cookbook.  It has everything in it.
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
8 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
Beat this altogether and have a little milk on hand in case it is to heavy.  You want it to be kind of light and fluffy.  By the way this makes a ton of frosting.  You can either store it for later or cut it in half.
Hope that you enjoy this Cake as much as we did.  Oh yah!  It’s gone!  I can only make this every once and a while or I will be as big as a house.  So Good.
Jeannie

On American Motherhood

I found this speech from Theodore Roosevelt the other day when I was looking for material for my son’s schooling.  As I read it I knew that I needed to share this.  He puts, the way that I feel about Motherhood and what I feel is the problem with our society today, so well.  It's just amazing, this was written in 1905.  It is a little long but so worth reading.
Head over here to read.
Enjoy!!

Jeannie

An Internet Surfing Accessory

As I was writing a post the other day I was about to put a link into the post to a scripture verse, which I forgot to do, because I was thinking about…

What a great internet surfing accessory- The Bible.

So many of us look around at the inspirational blogs and run across a post that has a reference to God’s word.  Many times the person who posted will put a link or will even write out the verse they are speaking about.  I want to remind you of how God works.  You all know this but I’ll say it anyway.  God teaches us through things that we run across in our daily life, a song, a radio program and also a blog posting.  So, if a post or verse really jump out or speak to us then what a better time to pull out you Bible and see what else God has to say to you.



You may not need it every time you poke around the web, but you just never know and if you have it handy you are more likely to grab it and surf the Bible as well.  This is just a tip on making you internet time purposeful and meaningful.





Happy Blog Hopping!!

Jeannie

What do you Put on your Face in the Morning?

I have been reading in I Peter this month.  Today I was in chapter 3, it was about wives submitting to their husbands and I won’t get into all of that today but after that part it talked about not adorning yourself with braids and gold jewelry.  Does that mean I can’t wear jewelry? No!  What it says is that we can’t have our beauty come from our adornments. 


A woman with eyes that sparkle with the love of Jesus, cheeks that glow from being madly in love with your husband and smiles that send messages of love to your children.  Those are the adornments that make us beautiful. 
If your face is unable to display any of those things, turn your heart towards Jesus and ask Him to clothe you with the character necessary to possess such lovely adornments.
Ladies, those last two paragraphs are straight from the Lord to you.  All of that came to me this morning and I just knew I needed to share it with you.  I hope it blesses you on this possible bad hair day. 
Ask anyone what they remember most about their favorite Grandma and I tell you, it won’t be her earrings or her lipstick. 
Thank you Lord for that reminder. 

Jeannie

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

This is my all time favorite household cleaner.  I use it for everything.  It is especially great on Carpet stains.  The main thing I use it for is my kitchen cleaner.  Between the alcohol and the tea tree oil you have a great disinfectant.
  plus   
I am currently out of the Castile soap.
This is the recipe:
1 cup Castile soap with Tea tree oil
1/4 cup of Rubbing Alcohol
1 teaspoon Baking soda
Fill the remainder of the spray bottle (32 oz.) with water.  Fill very slowly or you will end up with tons of bubbles.
Once you have add the Water, put the top on the bottle and then gently shake until baking soda is dissolved, check the bottom.

Jeannie

Confident Mom Organizing Planner Review

I just ran across this planner recently.  It is a great weekly planner that helps you to remember to get each and every thing done in your home and yet is not overwhelming.  Below you can view an example of the planner.

http://www.theconfidentmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Page1-Weekly-Household-Planner-2012.pdf

She has thought of everything.  She has a check off for daily tasks to help you get it all done and to help you see it all done and feel accomplished.
Some of the features are:

• A daily quiet time with scripture references to get you through the Bible in one year.
• A place to put “What’s for Dinner”
• A place for notes
• Weekly inspiration
• and More…

Check out the PDF above and take a look.
Jeannie

The Best Banana Bread

This really is the best Banana Bread.  It is slightly crunchy on outside and soft and sweet on the inside.

The recipe calls for Sour Cream but I was out once and used plain Yogurt and it worked fine.  Just to give you a lower fat option. 

I use fresh off the counter bananas or some out of the freezer.  Either works fine.  I always throw browning bananas into the freezer for later.  Also, if you peel the bananas and place them in a ziplock bag they are great for smoothies.  Just pop them in the blender frozen.

They are cooling.  I do have a funny story.  I didn’t think it was at the time,but now it is.  We all nibbled off of the half loaf up there and them I put the other in foil to give to friends.  I went up stairs.  When I came back the half loaf was gone.  I do have a teen age boy but even he doesn’t eat that fast.  Our stinkin’ dog Max got up there and ate it.  We were so mad.  His did the same thing with a roast in the crock pot a few days later.  Yeah, the kennel came back out and he is in there when we leave now. 

1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Butter
2 Eggs
4 Tablespoons Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Bananas (2-3)
1/2 Chocolate Chips (optional, but totally necessary in our house.)
Mix all ingredients together in this order and then bake in a well greased bread pan at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  The bread does turn a dark brown color.  You are not burning it unless you let it cook after the inside is done.
I warn you if you make it, make sure you put some aside or you won’t get any.  Enjoy!!

Jeannie

I didn’t think I would ever do this again.

We belong to a small homeschool group at our church and we do projects with our kids.  This last week it was sewing which is not my thing.  But my kids loved it.  I told them we had and sewing machine and they were so shocked, because they had never seen it.  So, I broke it out and we spent an afternoon sewing pillows of all sizes. 


Here are two of Isabella’s smaller pillows.  Made just for her American Girl dolls. She even sewed a button onto the front of one.

And Jacob stuffing his fire pillow.  He was so excited about this fabric.  Just a hint, which many of you have probably figured out, I bought regular pillows for $2.50 each instead of spending almost $6.00 for a bag of stuffing at Wal-Mart.  I did feel a little destructive (tearing up perfectly good pillows) but I was pretty proud of my savvy thinking.

Here I am with bat boy hand sewing of all things.  You know it wasn’t that bad.  We may even do it again soon.
Jeannie

Taking Care of Yourself- Part 5

Sorry that I have gotten side-tracked.  I have my Homemade moisturizer for you today. 
 
Here are all of the ingredients that I use.  You will see that most of them were also in the eye cream.
This recipe makes 2- 8 oz. bottles.
1 Tablespoon Stearic acid (this is a natural product from plants)
1 Tablespoon +1 teas. Emulsifying Wax
1 1/4 cup Distilled water ( I use my Brita Filter)
5 Tablespoons Jojoba oil
3 Tablespoons Shea Butter
1 Tablespoon Camellia oil (you can combine the amounts of sunflower and camellia and only use one or the other)
1 teaspoon Sunflower oil
2 1/2 teaspoons Glycerin
2 teaspoons of Preservative (refer to the eye cream recipe for the type of preservative and a note)
Follow all of the directions below.

This is the equipment that I use.  As you can see you should have most of these things in your kitchen.  If you don’t have a hand blender, you can use a regular blender.

Whoops forgot this one.  But I am sure you have one.  I use this to melt the Shea Butter.

I melt the Emulsifying Wax and Stearic Acid with the Water in this container in the Microwave.  I also blend all of the ingredients together in here, pour the oils into the water mixture once the waxes are melted.  Add the Glycerin and the Preservative last.  Then blend for 30-60 seconds.  

These are my clean and sterilized containers.

You can add fragrance oils if you would like.  Some skin is sensitive to fragrance, be careful.  There are natural scents and fragrance oils.

Here is the final product.  The lotion is very liquidy at first once it cools completely and sets up it will thicken.  Shake a few times as it cools and thickens. Enjoy!!
Jeannie

100th Post

Thank you everyone for coming over and reading what 2 Better Than 1, has to say.  This is our 100th post.  I am so excited that we have made it this long.  I know that it is because of the encouraging comments that we have received from all of you.  I have also been encouraged by other bloggers and what they have posted.  I don’t know who came up with blogging but it sure is fun and encouraging.  All things in moderation though right.

I do have to lay out what is on my mind.  I have always felt a nudge from the Lord to write, long before we even knew what internet was (yes I am that old, seriously is 40 that old. Come on.) and yet I often feel torn between doing what I am pretty sure God wants me to do and what I know I have to do.  Be a wife and mother.

 

I don’t know if any of you ever feel this but it has been a constant struggle for me.  I am very proud of this 100th post because in the past I start things and let guilt put a halt to them.  Now I ask you, does guilt come from the Lord.  NO! So, I have been listening to you know who.  I am done listening to him and I am here to stay.  I love to write and know now that I need to use what God has given to me to bring Glory to His name.

Thank you for being a part of this leap of faith and obedience in my life. 

 

God Bless

Jeannie

Monumental- The Movie

I just saw this over at Time-warp Wife and wanted to share it with you.  I can't wait to go and see it.  Hope you all can get out and see it as well.  This goes along with the info I was talking about in my Listen people of God series.  I think this may explain things better than I ever could.

Jeannie

Taking Care of Yourself- Part 4

I have a great tip/recipe for those of you who get a little crazy around the week,week and a half before your period.  I know that a fruit of the spirit is self-control but there are times when hormones are stronger than our constitution. 

A couple of years ago I started to notice that at a certain time of the month, about 1 1/2 weeks before my period, whoever was standing in front of me at the given moment my body decided on, would become my enemy for the next week.  I don’t mean that I just didn’t like them, I was enraged by them. 

I’m the one in the purple,she of course is much cuter than I look at that time, and my poor husband or children were the one on the pink. 

I started to track this horrifying behavior and found it to be consistent.  I talked to my friend  Beth that has done lots of research in the area of women’s bodies and she recommended that I add 2 1/2 teaspoons of ground flax seed meal to my diet daily.  I have been doing this for about a year and that horrible feeling and behavior has been gone. 





However, this month about 3 weeks before my period I ran out of my flax seed meal and the monster (I am not joking) came back.  This is my hypothesis: Jeannie + Flax Seed meal= Happy girl.

I will never go even a day without it.  Apparently, Flax seed has hormones in them that balance things out.  I really don’t care about the science of it all.  I just know that I love this stuff.  Thank you Lord for creating it.  Thank you Beth for suggesting it.  Give it a whirl (literally) I put it in smoothies and in cereal.  I try to eat it at breakfast so that I don’t forget.  It is part of my routine, just like taking my vitamins.  You can find Ground Flax Seed Meal in most grocery stores in the healthy food section or near the flour.  As the commercial says “Happy Period”.



Jeannie

Taking Care of Yourself-Part 3

I want to give you my recipe for eye cream today.  You may wonder why you need an eye cream when you use a moisturizer.  The reason is that your skin under your eyes tends to stay dry, you don’t have any oil glands right in that area.  Also, we get laugh lines there and we don’t want them there. 
The key to less wrinkles is moisture, moisture, moisture.
 
This woman is beautiful and I don’t know her, she is from Microsoft word.  She just had some of those “you know whats” around her eyes.
As we age, and I am talking from 18 on, our skin starts to dry out, or produce less natural oils.  So, we need to put it there.  I even have my 18 year old daughter putting some on at night before bed.  She thinks I am silly, but she will thank me later.
This eye cream contains lots of oils and moisture.  Now you can’t find many of these items in your grocery store so below is a great link to a Christian company that I like to deal with.
http://essentialwholesale.com
Another is http://thesage.com
I have dealt with both and like them. 
Under eye cream
1 1/2 teas. Aloe Butter
1 1/2 teas. Wheat Germ oil
1 teas. Camelina oil or Jojoba oil
1 1/2 teas. Shea Butter
1 Table. Jojoba oil
9 drops of Optiphen (a preservative-this one is very gentle.  Preservatives are necessary or you will be putting mold on your face)
1/4 cup distilled water
9 drops Wheat protein oil
1 Table Emulsifying Wax
4 drops of Vitamin E oil
To make mix all of the oils and melted butters together and set aside.  Then melt Emulsifying Wax in the water in the microwave.  Pour water mixture into oils as you are mixing with a stick blender or a blender.  Last pour in the preservative and blend once more for about 45 seconds.  As soon as you are done pour into the container that you want to keep it in.  Let it cool and then use on your eyes at least at night before bed.  You can use it in the morning as well.
Don’t worry about having all of these ingredients left over.  Next I have a great moisturizer and a scrub for you that will contain many of these. 

Enjoy!!
Jeannie

Taking Care of Yourself-Part 2

Over the next couple of days, I am going to give you some recipes for products I use to take care of my skin. 

 First, I want to take you to some scripture that points out that being concerned with our beauty is acceptable.  Sometimes I hear woman think  they are being vein or self absorbed.  Let me tell you, that definitely can happen, but I think for the majority of woman, we just want to feel good about our appearance. 

 In Esther 2, before she was presented to the King she had gone through 12 months of beauty treatments. Six months of with oil of Myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics.

The other interesting part of this section is that she, the one who won the heart of the king, was able, as she was presented to the king, wear any of the jewels that she would like.  A Eunuch advised Esther to take very little.  She listened to the advise of the Eunuch and was not overly extravagant or greedy.
 In doing this she won the favor of everyone who saw her and most importantly the King, himself.  In winning the favor of the king she received the crown.

This to me is a great example to us in caring for ourselves.  We can be beautiful by taking care of ourselves, but we must be modest about it.  I don’t use the word modest to only mean keeping things covered that ought to be covered but I also think that modesty is a state of mind.  If you are a modest woman you dress in a way not to draw attention to yourself or different parts of your body, but you also have that same thought about all of your appearance.  I think there is a difference between wanting to draw attention to yourself and wanting to feel good about yourself.

So,  after all of that, the recipe for today is super simple and you probably have all of the ingredients already. 


I wash my face daily in the shower with:

Olive oil or Sweet Almond oil.
I massage it on my face just like you would any other cleanser.  Always go in a circular motion, being sure not to pull on your skin. Then rinse well.  Any that is left over after you are dried off can be massaged in for moisture.

I know that sounds backward to wash with oil, the thing you are trying to remove, but olive and sweet almond oils are good oils for your skin.  Kind of like good cholesterol and bad cholesterol.  These oils actually wash away the dirt and oil from your skin and leave it feeling very soft. 

Give it a try and feel how great your skin feels.

Jeannie

Taking care of yourself

Last month we did a series with 12 other bloggers titled 10 days of Proverbs 31.  We talked about many different topics with in the passage.  In verse 22 her appearance is talked about.  So, I want to take a few days to talk about our appearance and how to take care of ourselves.

When we get married we have a certain level of primping that we do to look good for our husbands.  Some of us wore make up and had the latest hair style and some didn’t wear make up but just kept up with ourselves. 





Now two kids later, we may not be that same gal.  We may think we don’t have time for one thing or another.
But I have to tell you, the ladies at your husbands workplace or even just out in the stores as he shops, have the time.  So, I just want to open your eyes to something that I finally saw in myself.  I have a faithful husband who would not stray and we have a great marriage but do I want him to be at work with women who take care of themselves and come home to me looking ratty.  If I am wearing his sweatshirt and old jeans, no make up and my hair just thrown up.  What is he going to think of me?  What a slacker, may cross his mind.  I don’t want him to think badly of me in anyway.

Here is what I have discovered.  Whatever we did as a beauty routine as young brides, that is what we should strive to do as young moms (or old ones as in my case).  We try hard to make our homes look great and take good care of his children.  We need to try even harder to take care of his lovely bride.  His most prize possession. 


Oh and believe me I know you may not feel like one some days.  Taking better care of yourself will help with that too.  If we look better we will feel  better.  So, if you wore makeup before find that makeup bag and make it a priority to put some on.  I have had days when I put it on at 4:00 in the afternoon, but it was on before he came home.

Doing this kind of thing and straightening up the house before he comes home, bless him but also show your children the love and respect that you have for their father.

In the next few days I will have some recipes for moisturizers and face creams that I use.  Along with some other great tips.

Jeannie

Please hang in there with me.

This past couple of weeks, life has been so crazy.  I want to apologize for the lack of inspiration in my posts.  I really have strived to bring a variety of posts to my blogging.


I have s’more on my plate than usual.
Sorry couldn’t help myself.


I like to include recipes and tips and real life but also inspiration in other areas of life like marriage and childrearing.  I have not had the time to really think out my posts and rather than drop off of the blogging scope, only to return months later with an apology, I want to at least stay in touch and give fluff until life slows down.

My husband has become Commander of our AWANA program at church, mid year, which puts a lot of work onto my plate.  That along with homeschooling 3 kids and keeping in touch with our out of town girl. Things are just crazy.  I am hoping that I am just speaking to the choir and all of you get it.  We have also helped a few families by taking their kids for them and then the Purity Ball in our area is this weekend and we are helping.  So much it seems. 

All of this busyness does make me appreciate life as it usually is.  I am thankful that my life is not always chaos.  I think my family is thankful also.  I don’t want to miss everything because we are trying to do everything.  Thank you Lord for our lives and the things that you put into them or don’t put into them. 
Jeannie

Don’t you love when your kids get ahold of your camera!

I was downloading all of my pictures the other day and found these.  I love seeing things from a kids perspective.

O.K. I took this one.  He was “fixing” the TV.  What you can’t see is the retro Atari controller in his hand.

SuperBoy, Bella must have gotten this shot.

Big brother playing with a balloon.  Shh!  Don’t tell anyone.  And please do not look to closely at the messy kitchen behind him.  Hey, I said don’t, please it is terrible.



This I thought was cute.  It is a picture of Mike and I and you can see Bella’s reflection in the shot.  Then there is the bouncy ball. Gotta get a picture of that.

And last and certainly least, the shot of my son in his usual at home form that we try to reserve for home alone.  I just wanted you to know that your kids aren’t the only ones that are gross.  Mine are too.
Jeannie

Three Generations Loving the Lord

Hi everyone, 

I wanted to share this post with you from my Mom's blog.  By the way the granddaughter is my daughter who was doing her favorite thing ever, bake cookies.  My little ones miss her cookies.  Check it out!  You can find this post here.

What do you think it means?

See the question at the end of the post.

My eighteen year old granddaughter was baking cookies yesterday and out of the blue said, “Grandma, I want to read you something I read this morning that really made me think”.

She went to get a book who quoted A.Z. Tozer. He wrote,

“Sometimes God gives us the desires of our hearts to teach us that it is possible to famish while we feed, that these desires gratify self but send leanness to the soul. In fact, if we ask God for anything, only desiring to get pleasure out of it, we are asking on a low level. For prayer is God answering His own desires: that is, desires begotten in the soul by God the Holy Spirit which are presented in the name of God the Son and answered by God the Father”.

First, I was so thankful that she understood it and that it made her pause and meditate on it. I had to have her read it again. It is pretty deep and I was a little slower than she was to get it. It helped me to break it up into separate sentences.

1)“Sometimes God gives us the desires of our hearts to teach us that it is possible to famish while we feed, that these desires gratify self but send leanness to the soul.

2)In fact, if we ask God for anything, only desiring to get pleasure out of it, we are asking on a low level.

3)For prayer is God answering His own desires: that is, desires begotten in the soul by God the Holy Spirit which are presented in the name of God the Son and answered by God the Father”.

How profound.

1)That the Lord gives us what we “our” desires are to see that they don’t satisfy like we thought they would.

2)That when we ask for things we want to get pleasure out of, we are asking on a “low level”.

3)That our desires need to line up with His desires and they will be answered.

How do we get out desires to line up with the Lords?

Matthew 6:32-33 says to, “ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Seeking God and His righteousness.

Question: What do you think that means? How would you go about seeking Him?
Please send a comment! I will share it with our readers. Thanks so much!

Blessings, Pat
A.W, Tozer, “Missing Jewel,” Essays on Prayer (Downers Grove, Ill.A: Inter Varsity, 1968),9-1

Family Fun!!

We had a crazy busy weekend, full of fun.  One the the highlights was doing a joint b-day party (I know we had b-day month in December but the little ones didn’t get a party with friends.  We wanted to do it in February to break up winter a bit.) with Melissa and her family.  We went to a fun place that has bowling and laser tag and of course pizza.
Now you can see more of her family too.

All of the b-day kids and their cake. Melissa’s twins Ethan and Ella in front and Bella and Jacob in the back.  Happy Birthday!! Sorry we cut the cake a bit before we thought to take a picture.

Mike and Melissa.  Aren’t they cute.  I love the funny face she is making.

Both of our little Boys.

Anna the star bowler!

Zach and Morgan (girlfriend).  So sweet!

The ever graceful and sweet Bella.

Not the best shot of my handsome man but the only one I had on that day.  Love you Babe!


What does everyone want to eat?
For some reason I didn’t get any pictures of Melissa’s Allie and of course our Allie wasn’t there either.  Sorry girls.  I missed getting a shot of Allie getting cake faced by her Dad.  Where is your camera when you need it?  I’m sure she would not have let me put it in anyway.  But I had to mention it.
Jeannie