Following The Star...A Daily Online Advent Devotional

A great morning for me is waking around 5:30am (at least an hour before my kids wake up), starting my coffee maker, throwing in a load of laundry and then heading downstairs to read, journal and pray.  This time by myself each morning is so important to me and gets my day off to a great start.  Sometimes it's hard to do this during the holidays though.  I'm tired and busy and sometimes even sitting for 15 minutes to write something in my journal is difficult.  A few years ago I discovered Following The Star...and I loved it from the first click.

I encourage you to visit the site.  The music is beautiful and helps me focus.  The readings are not long and are relevant to the Christmas season.  If you don't already have a daily devotional time to read scripture, talk to God and focus on your day...this site is a great way to start.  If you would like other devotional time ideas let me know and I would love to chat with you about it.

My Devotional Basket

Jackie

Putting The Apron On...

It's time to pull out the aprons at my house...this coming weekend the oven will be busy with all the baking that will be done.  All my gifts are purchased and wrapped.  My house is somewhat clean...as clean as it's gonna get anyway...and now I can spend some time in the kitchen.  

I'm looking forward to baking bread this weekend.  My boys are really excited about taking gifts to our neighbors this year.  We haven't really done this in the past...but it's never too late to start, I say!   I plan to use my bread maker to make the dough and then bake in mini loaf pans in my oven.  We're doing yeast bread and I have a couple of recipes that I'm going to try out.  The absolute best bread machine recipe that I use often is Light Oat Bread.  I'll probably use that one if the others don't work out.  As my family knows....I frequently have to start over in the kitchen.  I foresee that we'll be eating a few of the test runs before they ever make it out the door.

The top photo is of Ted's Mini Loaves.  I don't know who Ted is...but his bread looks yummy.  We'll be trying out his recipe.

The photo below is from Country Living Magazine and it's another recipe we'll be trying called Mini Country Loaves.  Looks yummy and the box is adorable.  I hope to find something similar to package my loaves. 

I hope all your holiday baking is going well and that you're having fun with it.  We're supposed to have fun, right?  Sometimes, for me, the baking feels like another chore to add to my already over-packed schedule.  This year, I'm trying to enjoy all the moments and not worry about perfection.  So far...it's working.  I'm less stressed and enjoying the holidays more.  I hope you are too.

Jackie