Every year, I mix up a big batch of hot cocoa mix to enjoy throughout the winter. This year, I couldn’t find the recipe I used to use. This time, instead of searching for a recipe, I made up a cup of hot cocoa from scratch, and then did the math to make a big batch of it.

The nice thing about this recipe is that it calls for basic ingredients. Some recipes I’ve seen call for chocolate milk mix (like Nestle’s Quik) – but that’s more of a luxury item in our household. I do, however, usually have cocoa, so that’s where I started.

Here’s the final recipe. We love it!

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Hot Cocoa Mix

2 2/3 cups dry milk powder
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup granulated (white) sugar
Generous pinch of salt

Mix all together and store in an airtight container.

To make one cup of hot cocoa, stir 2 Tbsp of mix into 6-8 oz hot water.

It will dissolve better if you mix it all in a blender or food processor, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

This isn’t overly sweet, so you may want to increase the white sugar some. You don’t have to use the powdered sugar, but I did because I had so much of it in the house that wasn’t getting used. If you use all granulated sugar, taste test it before you add it all to make sure you like how it tastes.

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I’m still working on a sugar-free mix recipe using Splenda, but I don’t have one yet. I know you’re supposed to be able to substitute it one-for-one with white sugar, but I just haven’t tried it in this recipe yet.

Tomorrow morning I will be mixing up several batches of the mix. . . Our church is having a Halloween outreach tomorrow, so that’s why I’m making this with real sugar. :O) We set out a table in front of the church, and parents can stop by to get a warm drink and use the facilities. The church is located directly in the center of the main streets that are used for trick-or-treating, so we take advantage of the opportunity to witness and pass out tracts.

Ever get a routine established, and then weeks pass before you realize that you’re not exactly doing things the best way you could?

Have you ever stopped to reconsider your priorities and realized that your priorities aren’t in the proper order they should be in?

Priorities and routines are a big reason that I’ve been quieter here lately. Well, ok, my parents just left after visiting for several days, and that helps, but other than that. . .I’ve been rethinking a lot of things.

I’ve found that while it’s not always that hard to develop a routine, it is a challenge to develop a routine that makes the best use of time while still keeping priorities in order. It is so easy to get busy doing good things that we lose sight of the best things that we should be doing instead.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that being on the computer or having a blog is wrong – but if it takes up too much of your time or becomes an idol in your life, it is. It also becomes wrong if it keeps your priorities out of order.

So if you don’t see quite as much of me as you used to, don’t worry. It’s probably because I’m trying to better manage my time on the computer, so I can become a better wife and mother – and a better woman of God. I don’t want to be so caught up in the good things that I’m doing that I forget about all the best things that God wants me to do.

Today’s hearing test went great. We had a college intern doing it (Purdue University uses our doctor’s office for their interns – I didn’t realize that), but he was great! I was very impressed. He seemed pretty nervous, but he was fantastic.

Anyways, Little man did so well. I was praying that he wouldn’t fight some of the tests, and he didn’t. He responded really well to being shut in a tiny little room (I was in there too so that may have helped). Even when they put tiny little earphones in his ears, he didn’t even flinch. This mama was very thankful!

Overall, they said his hearing was great. That was a big relief. They did tell me that with fluid in his ears, he will lose hearing temporarily. It makes sense, but I hadn’t ever heard it before. It does explain a lot about his behavior when he has an ear infection.

We scheduled a follow-up appointment for Monday to discuss the results with the doctor.

Little man had an appointment with an ENT today to discuss tubes for his ears. He’s had ear infections on and off since July, and I finally told my doctor “that’s enough.” My little guy has suffered too much – it’s about time the root cause of all this was discovered and treated.

We go back in in the morning to have his hearing tested. The doctor didn’t want to pursue tubes yet until he had a chance to see about his hearing. Our pastor’s wife just commented the other day about Little man’s hearing, wondering if I had noticed anything. I’m curious to see what happens.

That’s how many inches I’ve lost so far – eight and a quarter inches in three weeks! I haven’t weighed myself since last week because we don’t have a scale, but with two dress sizes gone – something’s working.

I’ve begun to wonder if God timed things just the way He did to get me the referral to that new doctor. Without seeing her, my insulin levels might never have been checked and I wouldn’t have made these changes. I feel so much healthier now.

Results like this are not what I expected. After years of trying to just cut back, and it never working, it is nice to find something that actually works.

The really fun part is going through all the boxes of clothes that are stored in the garage that are marked “Melody’s dress clothes, size M/L, etc” and seeing what fits. I didn’t save everything, just my favorites, but it’s been a lot of fun to be able to wear them again.

And the old bigger clothes? They go to the big garage sale box in the basement. Come spring, they’re gone. Unless I can find a consignment shop to take them before then. . .

The funeral dinner went well. When we headed over to the house, we had been told to expect over 200 people there. I’m not sure how many were actually there, but it was a lot.

We arrived and had everything set up in plenty of time. As far as serving itself goes, everything went really well for the most part.

What I didn’t plan on was the number of people in the family that are lost. I knew that a great deal of the family members weren’t saved, but it was a different matter entirely to actually see just how many. I stood in the corner out of the way while the family filed into the house. I watched the boy’s mother (he was only 25) enter the room and be seated. One lady pulled me aside to tell me just how much of her family needed Christ. She said that there were at least 40 young people there that weren’t saved. Amazing.

What really struck me was that in a way, my eyes were opened to the way things really are. One lady at our church refers to our town as “Sin City,” and while I stood there watching people walk by me, I began to see what a hold the devil really has on our little town.

What must it be like to lose a loved one and not have the hope of Heaven? I absolutely can not fathom the bitterness and sorrow of it all. How hopeless.

How appropriate it is then that our church is named New Hope Baptist Church. A New Hope for our town – Jesus Christ. Wow.

I came home that afternoon after having been on my feet for almost thirteen hours straight (got up early to make the food, then served it, then had to do some errands which involved standing at the pharmacy for an hour waiting for our prescriptions). It was utterly exhausting. It was worth it though. We were able to help a family out on a dark, dark day in their lives.

Maybe they’ll remember it and decide to come visit New Hope some day. . .

Ok, first, let me clarify. Our church is preparing a funeral dinner for tomorrow, and the expected number of family members is coming in right around 100. For the first time though, I find myself on the other side of things – the planning side.

I love it.

It has been a priveledge to be able to work closely with the lady who is heading things up. I’ve never been able to plan from this end before, and it is refreshing to have some input.

We left the grocery store talking about the total amount for all the groceries and paper products. While I’m well aware that the grocery store is not the cheapest place to purchase paper goods, there were a myriad of reasons that dictated that we get them at this particular store. Our total came in a full $50 less than the amount that we were told to expect. I wondered why but didn’t give it another thought.

I had to giggle tonight though when I got home from the grocery store and began cooking, all while on the phone to our pastor’s wife. I’m doing a fair bit of cooking (2 cakes, 4-5 dozen dinner rolls, a box of mashed potatoes, and making iced tea). To me, it doesn’t seem like a lot. Maybe it is. Maybe I like to overcommit, whatever. It doesn’t matter – this is what I’m doing.

So I was on the phone, and made a comment about the ingredients in a cake. She asked why I didn’t just buy a cake mix to save myself some time. Honestly, it never occured to me. I’ve become so accustomed to doing everything from scratch (it’s so much cheaper, and don’t even get me started on preservatives and extra chemicals that are added to processed food) that I just figured I’d go though my cookbooks and find something to make that used ingredients I already had in the house.

Then the same comment was made about the iced tea. Why didn’t we buy the premade iced tea? Again – this didn’t occur to me. I don’t understand this though – we make several gallons of iced tea a week (on the stove, using real teabags) – it takes me next to no time at all to make it. Why should I consider buying premade tea when I can buy a box of teabags for $2 and make it up myself and save the church some money?

Probably some of the reasoning was “Just buy it premade so you don’t kill yourself working on it.” They say that “time is money” and while that’s true, I just don’t know. I enjoy baking. I enjoy doing things like this. When my grandmother died this summer, it was an immense relief to be able to just go to the funeral without worrying about what or how or when I was going to eat. Knowing that I’m being a small part of that for another family – that’s a blessing to me. So to do some extra work and spend some extra time, all while saving some extra money, then great.

Shortly after we got married, I gained quite a bit of weight. I planned on losing the weight again right away so I didn’t get rid of all my smaller sized clothes. After a few years passed and I still hadn’t lost the weight, I gave away some of the smaller sizes, but kept my favorites just in case I’d be able to wear them again someday.

Fast forward to the present. I’m learning to shop thrift stores more and have bought some really pretty new clothes (like the day I brought home bags and bags of clothes for only $3). I decided that since I’m supposed to be off my feet today (I had minor foot surgery yesterday) that I’d go through everything to see what to put in the dresser and what to box up to store in the basement.

This has been so fun! I went downstairs last night to find some slippers (and yes, I got in trouble for going down there – Stephen has been making plenty sure that I obey and stay off my feet) and found a tub of my Christmas clothes. It’s about time to start wearing Christmas socks again anyways, right? In that tub I found my old denim skirt which is considerably smaller than the one I’ve been wearing lately.

I tried it on and it fits. YAY! This is good considering the other one pretty much remained on the verge of falling off because I’ve lost weight already. It amazes me how this is working out. Since I kept all my clothes in the next size down, I don’t have to go buy new ones yet or keep trying to wear the old ones. What a blessing! There’s quite a few really nice things that I can’t wait (or should I say I can’t “weight” lol) to wear again.

As for losing weight, I’m pleased. After just one week of different meds and a much healthier diet, I’ve lost 3 pounds and 2 1/2 inches. That puts me down 18 pounds since the beginning of August, if you count the time we spent living with our friends. This is wonderful! Maybe the weight loss will slow, maybe it won’t, but I’m not worried about it. I feel so much healthier already that any weight lost is a bonus! Stephen says it’s due to the exercise that I’m doing, but I really think that it’s a combination of everything. I am so thankful!

Just wanted to let you know that I’ve added some more home management binder forms. It’s the binder divider pages that I have in mine – in blue, green, and red.

Tammy over at Tammy’s Times posted about making her own lightbox, so I had to try it. I haven’t been that satisfied with my own jewelry photographs, so since I had all the stuff to make a lightbox, I figured there was nothing to lose.

This is one of the photographs that I took a year ago. It’s not horrible, but it’s so dark that I don’t care for it.

The detail and focus was fine but I was having some issues with lighting.

Somehow I ended up at a lightbox-making tutorial that also included instructions for editing the photo in Adobe Photoshop. I wasn’t that interested in changing or editing how the bracelet looked, per se. I just wanted it to look as good as I possibly could. I opened up my photoediting program…..Adobe Photoshop Elements…….to see if I could follow the tutorial. Unfortunately, since Elements is kind of a “lite” version of Photoshop, it doesn’t have all the features that the tutorial mentioned. I decided to just play around with it and see what would happen.

This is the exact same photo. All I did was adjust the lighting and color a little bit. I’m much happier with this one.

Then I took one of my photos that I had taken in the lightbox. This one was easier to edit because the photo started out a lot better.

Eventually I hope to replace all the photos in the entire store with better and more edited ones. That will take a while, since I have several hundred photos in the store, but that’s ok. At least I know the best way to photograph my new designs when I put them in the store the first time.

Here is the final edited picture. It’s the one I used for the store picture.

The bracelet is called I Will Not Forget. It’s made in honor of grieving mothers, because October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.