It's a wonderful life -- Bible style!

Our Daily Bread
The holiday classic "It's a Wonderful Life" has been a family favorite for decades.  The banker who is in trouble gets to see what the world would have been like if he hadn't lived.  He comes to the realization that no matter how dire the situation he was facing, there were things that were much more important.  He truly had a wonderful life!

I laughed at myself when I named this entry "It's a wonderful life - Bible style!".  ha!  Instead of seeing what the world would be like life if he hadn't lived in it, the younger son saw what his life was like without the care and love of his father and family.  After making a complete fool of himself, he went back home to apologize to his father. This was a quite different route to figuring out that he had a wonderful life!

What things does our God have for you that you don't realize? That you are not accepting?  God has been working on me in some areas of my life (see the Witness Wednesday entry for this week!).

Lord, help us to always recognize and be grateful for the wonderful life we have in you!

Foodie Friday
A family favorite is the homemade Buckeyes I make each year!  If I am too busy to make them, I outsource them to my mother!  I am making them this year because Mom broke her shoulder in a fall last week.  I made a few for my new friend on Monday.  I will make up the rest of them this weekend and early next week.  Here is the recipe that my family uses.

Buckeyes
Ingredients
1 pound butter (do not use margarine)
3 pounds peanut butter (use smooth)
2 pounds powdered sugar.
1/2 teaspoon salt
2- 12 oz packages semi-sweet chocolate chips (prefer Nestle or Ghiradelli)
paraffin

Bring the butter to room temperature.  Mix the butter and peanut butter together either by hand or in a large mixing bowl.  A Kitchenaid mixer works great for this.  Slowly fold in the powdered sugar.  Chill for one hour.  After chilling, roll one teaspoon (or tablespoon if you want larger buckeyes) of mix at a time into a ball and place on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper.  Chill again.  This makes the balls easier to dip in the melted chocolate.  While the balls are chilling, melt the chocolate chips and paraffin together.  Use about 1/4 stick of paraffin per package of chocolate chips.  The wax helps the chocolate set after dipping.  For each peanut butter ball, stick it with a toothpick and dip in the chocolate, leaving a little bit of the top of the ball uncovered.  This gives the appearance of a real buckeye!  Place the dipped balls on a cookie sheet covered in waxed paper. Chill if you want them to set faster.  After the chocolate sets, gently pull them off the waxed paper and place in the storage containers of your choice.  I usually put waxed paper in between the layers if I use a deep container.  Enjoy!

Other Stuff
I had a busy evening.  I had a session with my counselor.  That went well.  I went to choir practice after that for our Messiah concert on Sunday morning.  It should go very well.  I went home and went to sleep after a short conversation with my friend.

I plan to go to Easton for a short time tonight to see a buddy perform.  I usually go to one of his performances each year.  It is fun.  I need to do some grocery shopping and pick up some stuff from the cleaners and tailor as well.  Lots of church stuff to do tomorrow.  Whew!  I will be glad when Sunday night arrives and I can slow down!

Let go, my friends!  God will be there to catch you and hold you in his loving arms!