I have to give my super sweet, wonderful Aunt Vikki credit for this one! She brings me a batch of these delightful cookies almost every time she comes visiting, and let me tell you, she is one No Bake Cookie extraordinaire! So, I would like to pass along this healthy (hey, it has oats in it!) chocolate, easy, amazingly delicious cookie recipe on to you. Enjoy!

First things first – the ingredient list:

1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. cocoa
1/4 c. margerine
1/2 c. milk
3/4 c. peanut butter (creamy)
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 -4 c. oats

Okay, here we go…

1. Bring the sugar, cocoa, margarine and milk to a boil. Stir continually and boil for about four minutes (don’t boil too much longer or you will end up with a bunch of crumbs when all is said and done!)
2. Remove from heat and immediately add the peanut butter.
3. While mixing, add the vanilla, then add the oats one cup at a time.
4. Put spoonfuls on long sheets of wax paper (you can dip your spoon in water between each scoop to help). Let them sit for a couple of hours until they harden (or you can put them in the fridge for faster “hardening” time.
Eat up! And remember, they’re healthy, really, they are! ;)

Today’s post is from Courtney, author of the blog Women Living Well and speaker at the upcoming Relevant conference.

I’m not saying you are crazy.

But I am saying that your thought patterns affect your marriage. I remember sitting at the dinner table with my daughter in her high chair and my 2 year old son, watching the clock. Tick tock tick tock. These thoughts ran through my mind, “Why is my husband 20 minutes late? He knows the kids are hungry and can’t wait.” Tick tock tick tock. “He is 30 minutes late and hasn’t even called. If he loved me he would at least call”. Tick tock tick tock. “This is so boring just sitting here with 2 children who can’t even carry a conversation…why is he doing this to me?”

Finally, the garage door went up and how do you think I greeted him at the door? Since I had spent 30 minutes brewing angry thoughts, guess what came out of my mouth – angry words. In Luke 6:45 Jesus says “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

Imagine you had a cup of hot tea in your hand and your husband bumped your arm and it spilled onto the table. What came out of the cup? Hot tea. If you had coffee, then coffee would have spilled out. In the same way, if you are filling your mind with bitter thoughts towards your husband – then when your “cup gets bumped” what’s going to spill out? Bitter words. But if your mind is filled with good thoughts – then when your “cup gets bumped” what is going to spill out? Compassion and forgiveness.

What have you stored up in your heart towards your husband – are your thoughts of him good?  They were when you were dating!  Many of our marriage problems begin in our heads – in our thought patterns.  If we play a recording over and over of selfish and bitter thoughts then we can expect to have a bumpy ride in marriage.  Here’s how this dinner scenario went once I matured and learned that getting into World War 3 with my husband is more miserable than eating dinner alone!

It’s dinner time, tick tock tick tock…”he’s late again…he knows I hate this so he must have something really important to finish up.  I am so blessed to have a good man who works so hard.  We have food on the table and warm beds because of him. There are widows eating alone tonight.  They don’t even know where their next meal will come from.  I will wait peacefully for my husband to come through the door.”  And when he arrived he was greeted with warm hugs, kisses and the promises of warm intimacy in bed.  Extreme you may ask – not at all. It’s disciplining our minds to stop evil thoughts and create good thoughts.

When a plain ordinary wife spends her day thinking thankful, loving and respectful thoughts about her plain ordinary husband – they can have an extraordinary marriage.  Start today to weed out bitter thoughts in your mind and begin to plant seeds of thankfulness – in no time your marriage will be extraordinary too!

Walk with the King!

Courtney

Courtney has been married to her high school sweet heart for 12 ½ years, home schools her son and daughter and is a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute.  Her passion is to see women living well as they drink from the living well of God’s word.

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Click on “Compatibility View” (an icon right after the URL that looks like a piece of paper ripped in half) and that should fix it immediately. It’s an Internet Explorer (IE) issue.

eLisa!

Congrats friend!  Email me at sarahmae (at) likeawarmcupofcoffee (dot) com with subject “Gussy Winner!” please!  :)

Do you ever just have days where you feel like you’re in a pit…a dark, dreary, deep pit?

You know what I’m talking about. Those days.

The ones where you just want (need?) to crawl into a closet and sit alone in the hush…and cry.

Quiet desperation.

Read the rest at (in)courage.

Thank you for including Like a Warm Cup of Coffee in the top 100 Christian blogs of 2009!  There are so many inspiring blogs on the list – check it out!

If you are seeing two headers, click on “Compatibility View” (an icon right after the URL that looks like a piece of paper ripped in half) and that should fix it immediately. It’s an Internet Explorer (IE) issue. (I HIGHLY recommend switching to Firefox or Google Chrome.)

These blogs/articles have inspired and challenged me…perhaps they will be of use to you as well:

Women Living Well – Courtney makes me want to just slap her, then cry, then rise up and be the woman God called me to be. (Then I go and ask her to be the newest member of the Relevant speaking team.)

The Journey – Just read the blog.  Wow.  (21, 14 kids, Uganda, ablaze for God.)

In His Image – My friend Amanda nails it with this short but “right on!” post about comparing ourselves with others. (She also wrote this sweet post.  The “show” she’s referring to is my baby projectile vomiting all over during dinner!)

If you are seeing two headers, click on “Compatibility View” (an icon right after the URL that looks like a piece of paper ripped in half) and that should fix it immediately. It’s an Internet Explorer (IE) issue. (I HIGHLY recommend switching to Firefox or Google Chrome.)

I just want to say thank you.

Thank you Dana and Jessie for your vision, your hard work, your grace under pressure (ticket debacle), your detail “orientedness,” and your amazing insights.  You are wonderful co-hosts and I am thankful to be working with you.  There would be no Relevant without your organizational skills (of which I have none).   I love you girls!

Dana, Mrsmoneysaver.com (save money – hello!)

Jessie, Mutheringheights.com (she is hilarious!)

So, thank you.

That is all.  :)

It feels like a thousand miles to get from self heart disease to torn veil cross God joy.

My disease infects my marriage, my mothering, my home, and my (lack of) hospitality. It bleeds in my mind as my thoughts settle on untruths.  I sit comfortable.  I don’t wash anyone’s feet.

I need to push myself past the veil and into Him, but the veil of my heart must first be ripped in half, because my self heart disease is a killer.

“There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free.  We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us…In human experience that veil is made of living spiritual tissue; it is composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our would beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain…To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that is what the cross did to Jesus and it is what the cross would do to every man to set him free…{God must do this}…the cross is rough and it is deadly, but it is effective.  It does not keep its victim hanging there forever.  There comes a moment when its work is finished and the suffering victim dies.  After that is resurrection glory and power, and the pain is forgotten for joy that the veil is taken away and we have entered into actual spiritual experience the presences of the living God.”  A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

I need Him. “Lord please tear the veil in my heart that I may know you and experience you and be satisfied by your presence alone.”

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step.”  -Lao-tze

I want to learn about the selfless women who have gone before me in servant-hood and faith, and I want my daughters to know about these women as well as we seek to be selfless servants. The Daughters of His Story paper dolls, created by Emily Rose and Breezy Brookshire (some of my favorite people in the world) are a wonderful resource to have in teaching our daughters. From now through Friday you can get 15% off these paper dolls at my OpenSky store with discount code DOLL15.

You know what is great for the babes on these looooooooooong winter days?

A BEACH PARTY!!!!!!!!!

We had our little party on Friday and my kiddos (4 and 2) had SO much fun!  Here’s what we did:

Props:

• Towel
• Hula Hoop (for use as an inner-tube – my 4 year old came up with this one!)
• Sand (your carpet or rug)
• The ocean (couch or blanket on the floor)
• Sunglasses
• Beach ball

What To Do:

• Lay out in the “sun” on your towels
• Have a picnic
• Play volley-ball with your beach ball
• Let your kiddos throw you in the ocean – mine had a ridiculously fun time rocking me back and forth until I was tossed into the ocean (me rolling and falling).  They threw me into the ocean about 500 times (many giggles ensued)!
• Once you are worn out from being tossed in the ocean, have your kids grab all their stuffed animals and throw them in the ocean!

This was such a hit with my babes and a splendid cure for the winter time blues!

Now go get on that beach with your children and have some FUN! (Remember to take pictures – wouldn’t you know, I forgot! Guess we’ll have to do it again!)

What would you add to make this beach party a hit?

This is Gussy:

This is some of the loveliness Gussy creates:

This is what Gussy wants to give Like a Warm Cup of Coffee readers:

$30 towards anything in her shop!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s how you can enter (leave a separate comment for each thing you do):

• Visit Gussy’s shop and then come back here and leave a comment with your favorite item (you must do this to be entered).
• Tweet, Facebook, Blog this giveaway (each is a separate entry).
• Put Gussy’s button on your blog.

You can get a real taste for the lovely, FUN, Gussy by reading her blog and by following her sweetness on Twitter.

This giveaway ends on Thursday night at 9pm EST and is open to U.S. Residents only.

Good “luck!”  :)