Monkeys and muffins and bears, oh my!

Today is my delightful day at home. Each day throughout the week, there are things that draw me away - Bible study, school volunteering, errands, etc., but Thursdays I protect like a mama bear over her cubs, which is, in fact, what I am! Every other day of the week, I try to stay home as much as possible, but this one is special because the first trip I make is to pick up the kids after school, and there is something wonderful about waking up to a day in the den that makes this mama bear joyful with anticipation.

After checking my email this morning, I wandered over to a blog with which I have recently become acquainted (thanks to a dear friend) and I found a recipe (among many that look delicious!) that grabbed my attention. I will post it here, although it barely makes my twelve items or less requirement. I had slowly rotting (okay, they were just very very soft and turning brown) bananas on my counter so I decided to try Monkey Muffins today. Because I have twelve feet in my house, there are lots of mouths to feed so I can't seem to help myself from quadrupling a recipe, which is what I did here (praying that Mrs. H was trustworthy and her recipe was yummy!). Once I got going, I discovered two things. A) The muffins were great! (yeah!) and B) I had dozens and dozens in my kitchen! (oh my!)

I started to pray - not because I was overwhelmed by a bounty of baked good, but because God was prompting me to use them to bless some people today and I wanted to pray for them all as I prepared their yummies. You can see from my photos the resulting tower of treats. What joy to be able to bring a smile to some families today. Our teachers and pastors and friends will sample the sweetness, but I am the one who is blessed by their faithful service and I am so happy that today, in the quietness of my home, with my two youngest happily playing on the floor, I was able to prepare for them all a small token of the love that our family feels for all of them.

Have you considered that in our rush to fill up our days we might be missing the simple pleasure and the daily blessing of looking outside our hectic selves and ministering to others? Are your days so full of appointments and dates, schedules and plans, that you are missing out on that to which we have been called - loving OTHERS? Jesus said that others will know we are His by our love for one another. Is there room in your date book for "one-another" opportunities? Are you training your children to be always looking for ways to love on people, as Jesus Himself did? Will you join me in pursuing a simpler life that pulls out its day-planner and says, "Today is Yours, Lord, and I have carefully penciled in peace so that You may fill my hours with whatever you choose?" Will you help keep me accountable to this commitment?

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16