Who doesn’t love banana muffins?

While moseying around my kitchen yesterday as our sweet Noralynn slept, I noticed all of the bananas sitting on my kitchen table slowly turning into mush … and I had a brilliant thought — let’s make some banana bread! Though, quickly, my idea for banana bread turned into banana muffins. 

 

While meandering the web to find the perfect banana muffin recipe, you know the perfectly moist, most delicious muffins you’ve ever tasted … well I think I came pretty close with the recipe that I found. 

The recipe was so simple I was actually leery that it was even going to work! But … as my husband even put it, they were the most delicious muffins he’s ever tasted! 

It all started with warming the oven to 350. 

Then, we took some sugar, eggs, salt, oil, and baking soda and mixing it all together. The recipe itself called for 3 mushed bananas, I had 5; therefore, I mushed 5 bananas to put into my delicious muffins. 

After mushing the bananas, you alternate putting in the flour and the bananas. I put in 1/3 of the flour (1/2 cup), then half the banana mush, then another 1/2 cup of flour, the rest of the banana mush, and then I put in 3/4 cup flour (just because it looked a bit too runny for my taste). 

After it was all mixed together, smelling delicious, and looking great … I added some cinnamon, stirred it all up, and filled up my muffin tins with the gooey goodness and popped them in the oven. 

Then came the hard part … waiting 20 minutes for them to be ready to eat! Now, the waiting really wasn’t that hard, Little Miss woke up … needed to be fed, changed, and snuggled; then all of a sudden, you could smell the deliciousness and hear the timer screaming “Time for some Goodness!” 

And out popped these beautiful, moist, delicious banana muffins! 

Banana Muffins: 

• 3+ bananas mashed
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Oil or Butter (melted)
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups Flour

Combine sugar, butter, baking soda, salt and eggs; add flour and banana alternating between the two until mixed. (do not over mix)

Bake about an hour at 350 if making loaf of bread.
Bake about 20-25 minutes if doing muffins

Some people had some recommendations such as … adding allspice to the mixture, using a brown sugar (just not as much), using applesauce instead of oil or butter, using honey instead of sugar, the list goes on and on! 

 

Straight from the source: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=868875

 

Enjoy! 

A must read article, for sure.

http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/being-gay-at-jerry-falwells-university/274578/

This is the most inspiring and uplifting article I have ever read. Not only was this person shown Gods incredible love but it shows that not all of us who are Christians have the same attitude towards people being of the LGBT group.

24 weeks 6 days

Josh and I were talking just the other night about how quickly time has gone. Today is February 28th .. in just a few short hours it will be March. March. April. May. June. June 14th … it’s all coming so quickly. It feels like just yesterday it was October and we were finding out that we were having a little bundle of joy in the summertime. Now here we are … 24 weeks and 6 days into it. Only, about, 15 weeks to go. She’ll be here before we know it. Now our days are filled with finding any possible way to get money and save it, buying things for Nora so that she’ll have what she needs, figuring out ways so this Mama can stay home for the first few months and enjoy the time she’ll have with her newborn and not struggle financially. But I can honestly say I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. I wouldn’t give up the already sleepless nights, the long days just dreaming about sleeping, the aches, the pains, the swollen body … none of it. Just to know that we are going to have a precious little bundle join us in just a few short months … it’s all completely worth it. 

I know this isn’t the greatest pic … but here I was at 13 weeks. 

 

Here I was at 16 weeks (again, horrible picture but I was feeling just about as horrible as I looked) 

 

Here I was at 18 weeks

 

Here at 20 

 

Then again at 23 

 

And now finally at 24 (almost 25)

 

I feel as though I am the size of a house, but with every kick/punch/nudge I feel from her precious little body I completely forget about the fact that I’m huge, can’t get out of bed without help, can’t bend nearly as easily, and get out of breath so obnoxiously fast. Along with the ridiculous hip pain, back pain, achey feet, swollen hands and feet … all of it will just be mere memories when Nora is here. 

Jesus was the master teacher

How? You may ask. Because he was the GUST CENTER. Corny, I know, but stick with me.

He was Goal oriented. He knew what needed to be done and how to do it. He was Understood by all abilities and styles. It didn’t matter how you learn you could understand what he was teaching you. He was Spontaneous in his teaching. He Talked about the easy AND the hard topics. He was Captivating in his storytelling. Everyone was loved, taught, and reached by him. He was Nonjudgmental. He was a Tradition breaker. He sat and taught outside. He used Examples of children to teach the parents how they should love and believe.And lastly, he was Relevant.

All of these aspects and so many more make Jesus the ultimate example of love, the ultimate model from which we should long to live but most importantly they makhim the master teacher. He was the one who knew what he needed to accomplish and did so not out of pure obedience but out of love, acceptance, and affirmation of the love, peace, mercy, and freedom that so many people are searching for.

So, as I stated before Jesus was the master teacher because he was the GUST CENTER.

Goal oriented
Understood by all
Spontaneous
Talked about the easy AND the hard topics

Captivating storyteller
Everyone was loved, taught, and reached
Nonjudgmental
Trading breaker
Examples were made about children to teach the parents
Relevant

So, next time you want to reevaluate yourself as a teacher, whether it be teacher of your own kids, a school teacher, Sunday school teacher, children’s pastor, whatever. Ask yourself if you’re being the best teacher you can be. Are you being a GUST CENTER like Jesus was? Or are you just in it because you have to be.

01/09/2013

My husband has been bugging me for the past few weeks about getting back into blogging. While in college I used to post just about every day; now, it seems to be far and few between. Days go by, then weeks, next thing I know it’s been months since I’ve written. 

Now, it’s not all bad that’s kept me from going on. I have a full time job, I am working on my Masters program — trying to get it done as fast as possible to move onto my Doctorate, have been feeling sick/off/blah on and off for weeks (the joys of pregnancy), have been crazy in anticipation for June … and just going on with life! 

But, after a particularly rough day — for many reasons — as I sit on my bed, waiting for it to be time to leave for church, realizing that life probably won’t slow down at all any time soon – I have realized that I make entirely way too many excuses. There’s always an excuse for something – I’m way too busy, I am exhausted, I’m not feeling well, I have been going non stop I just want one moment to relax, I have homework, I have tests, excuse after excuse after excuse comes up and I just can’t seem to stop it. 

But isn’t it the same for everyone? Don’t we all make excuses – not necessarily because we don’t want to do something, but we just think we have something more important to do? Something better to do? It’s the same with church, finding time to do devotions, finding time to talk about those that we love who don’t know Christ – whether we see them all the time or not. 

Excuses have become such a prevalent choice of words, thoughts, and lives — we need to stop the madness! No more excuses, no more finding ways out of what we know we should be doing. No more feeling guilty for cutting out and forgetting because we feel like something else should be more important when we know at that moment it’s really not. 

If our days consist of God, reading from His Word, spending time with Him, showing His love to others — even if it’s just through simple actions, can you imagine how dramatically different our lives could be? How much stress could be released? How much more relaxed we could feel? Now, I’m not saying that by focusing on God, doing devotions, our prayers, going to church, following God as best as we can means that we won’t feel stressed at times, that we won’t feel beaten up, battered, bruised, frustrated, upset, like we have no idea what is to come next. Instead, it means that we will be in the habit of knowing that God has it all covered. That God always has our back and there’s probably something that, we can’t see right now, but will see in the future as to why it’s going on. We will find comfort in our most uncomfortable times when we know that we have Christ by our side. 

Life as of 11/16/12

Well, it’s been quite some time since I’ve last even logged onto my blog, but it’s been really long since I’ve last posted. I guess a crazy life can do that to you. So here’s a little update on what’s been happening in the life of the Davies! 

We are still in the same spot 🙂 We have been on quite a few interviews for Children’s Positions in churches, but God seems to be telling us this is where we are meant to be at least for a little bit longer. I have started taking my Master’s courses at SAGU and am actually just three short assignments away from finishing up my first semester! Josh is still working like a dog at his job and usually loving every minute of it. 

But here’s the biggest news of all …. WE’RE GOING TO BE PARENTS! We found out not too long ago that we are indeed pregnant and Baby Davies will be joining our little family come June 15, 2013! We are beyond excited as well as is the rest of our family! 

Life beyond college has been quite the exciting and action packed life. Not at all what we were expecting! Between working 40 hours (40+hours for Josh), me going to grad school full time, finding out we’re pregnant, working on moving into a new apartment, and just living life … it’s been crazy! 

Well, here’s the first shot of our darling little baby! More updates to come as we find things out! 

 

Top Ten Things Jesus Never Said

Will Davis Jr. wrote a book entitled “Top Ten Things Jesus Never Said”. Now, I have not read the book, but rather came across it while on Pinterest … read the ten things … and couldn’t help but think, “Oh. My. Word. He NEVER says those, so WHY do we — I — always believe them??”

We NEED to stop believing these lies! God did not create this Earth, send His Son to save it, and then just throw us to the wayside! WE are the chosen ones! We are the children of the utmost High God! WE are princes and princess – children of the King! So WHY do we always believe we are not good enough, God is not happy with us, or that we can go on acting like those who do not know (and they NEED to know) the love of Christ?

These are the lies:

You’re too far gone to be saved

I’m so disappointed in you

This wouldn’t be happening if you were a better Christian

It’s okay not to love certain people

Everyone should believe and act like you do

It’s all up to you

You don’t have to forgive someone who really hurts you

You missed my will for your life

I’ve given up on you

This is a cross you must bear

Now, like I said I have not read this book, YET. (Keyword: YET) But you can bet your bottom dollar that I will, eventually, read it. We ( I ) need to stop believing in those lies that Satan feeds down our throats daily. We ( I ) need to remember that God sent His SON because He loveS us THAT much! We ( I ) need to submerse myself back into that love, back into that TRUTH that only Christ can give.

** You can see the blog post that I saw here: http://www.willdavisjr.com/book_reviews/ten-things-jesus-never-said/

And you can buy the book from amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Things-Jesus-Never-Said-Believing/dp/0800720016/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341605534&sr=8-1&keywords=top+ten+things+jesus+never+said

A Dream Come True

On January 27, 2012 we said “I do” and I officially became Mrs. Davies! Here’s some pictures from the incredible time!

Another post to follow pictures from the ship!

Three. Weeks.

Three Weeks today we leave for Florida. Which means, three weeks today, is the beginning of the biggest journey of the rest of our lives.

Guess what!? I’m getting so close to being done with school and getting married and growing up and being everything that you wanted me to be. I have my one and only final tomorrow and then I’m technically done with college. Can you believe it? I don’t know if you remember my college years that you were around for, but you’re my motivation – you’re what got me through. Just knowing that you’d be proud of me and even from heaven, routing for me every step along the way. Then Wednesday, we sign our lease for our apartment! Can you believe it? I am going to be having my own apartment (well, with Josh of course!) and then Saturday I get to pick up my dress. My gorgeous dress that I full heartedly believe that YOU put in that dress in that tiny boutique in South Carolina for me to find and then placed it into the small boutique up here for me to find and be able to buy.

Even though you can’t be here with us I can feel you in everything that I do. Every little step of the process of the wedding and married life, I know that you are there; you are helping us and pushing us to do better.

I miss you more today than I did yesterday and the day before that and the day before that. I miss you more than you could really truly understand. It’s hard going through this process without you. It’s hard realizing you’re not going to be here to enjoy the whole process with me, with us. But I know you’re still here. And that helps a little bit. A little bit to know that there’s someone else out there who even though he can’t be here with me on earth, he’s pulling for me. He’s routing for me like no one else. He’s helping me along the way in only the way a true angel can. I love you.