Emma's Thought of the Week

*Not that she only had one thought this whole week. But this was one she shared with me. (If you're new here, welcome to little-sis-Emma's weekly guest post. I agree, Emma, taking some time to think and ponder makes such a difference in feeling really connected to God through prayer. Thanks for the reminder. Love you, Em!

"One thing I liked this week was in Third Nephi 19: 9 which says, 'And they did pray for that which they most desired; and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them.' I think this is cool because the thing that they desired most happened to be a righteous desire and was certainly in line with God’s will because they got the gift of the Holy Ghost in the next verse. I think often times I pray for what I truly want, and that they are good things, but they may not be the best as far as “good, better, best” goes. Maybe if I took the time to evaluate my desires and intentions and what matters most before I prayed I could make my prayers more meaningful. This time for self-reflection may also help me to try and align my will with Heavenly Father’s will and pray for the best things. I may have stretched that verse in my head to get to that thought, so hopefully this makes sense. Anyways, I think it’s cool to think about ways to make prayers more meaningful and personal, and I think pondering about our desires before we pray is one way."

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Great news! It is this girl's birthday today. Oh, to be 19 again.

Here are some of my favorite things about Emma at the moment.

1. One time she came all the way to Alabama to visit me during her Spring Break her senior year, and made me run 9 miles with her because she was training for a race.

2. Emma and I have quoted lines from Freaky Friday for oh, like, 10 years now.

3. When I was a freshman in college, (and Emma would have been 11?) she wrote me lots of letters. With lots of stickers and Freaky Friday quotes.

4. Emma is a really hard worker, yet

5. is always up for a good laugh and

6. she rocks the ukelele.

7. She is one of the most loyal friends I know.

8. Emma is not condescending or proud, even though she has lots of reasons she could be that way.

9. Emma is going to be a missionary in Peru for 18 months!

10. Emma made Chad feel really welcome in our family when he tried to play footsie with her under the dinner table and she started wearing running spikes to family meals.

And of course, because she is my sister. Isn't that enough? Love you, Emmalene!

Bloglovin'

There have been millions of these posts swirling around blog land lately. So, woohoo.

Apparently Google Reader is closing shop in a couple months, so if you are one of those people who likes to follow your favorite blogs with the help of a handy dandy app, bloglovin is the new jam! You can follow me here. Leave me your info so I can follow you back!

Mint Oreo Brownies

Happy St. Patty's Day! Yesterday was not my free day (thanks to the flan episode with my Cuban clients; see previous post), but I still wanted to make a treat to hand out to the ward choir since they were singing in church today. My original idea was to make some variation of these mint brownies, sold famously at the BYU bookstore. But I wanted to simplify things some, and wound up with something fabulous AND easy! So I thought I'd share. The filling (which was really supposed to be frosting), turned out with the exact consistency and taste of mint oreo cookie filling. It was an accident, but I have made the frosting enough times that I know exactly what I did differently to make them turn out that way (melted the butter all the way on accident). So we ended up with "mint oreo brownies!" Get it? Like mint oreo cookies, only with brownies on the outside instead of cookies. Yummmm.

all you need right here, plus some eggs, oil, and water

this is what the filling will look like after you mix it up

the filling shouldn't be sticky or anything--you should be able to flatten it right out or roll it out.

I cut mine into little squares so they'd fit nicely between the brownie squares.

. . .like so.

you can smoosh 'em together a little if you want.

beautiful.

I was equally (if not more) excited about the sticker-buttons I made to go with the brownies. Kiss me, I'm Irish I sang in ward choir today! Cute, right? :) I printed them out on mailer label paper so I could cut them out and stick them over the plastic wrap.

I was pretty excited to tote these off to church.

here's Chad, sporting his sticker. he is my number 1 choir supporter/participant.

The choir did well. (phew). I think everyone was nervous (congregation included), but it came together just fine. I am proud of them. And I hope they all got lots of kisses. Oh, and here's the recipe in full, if you're interested. Printable version here.  

Mint Oreo Brownies

You will need:

1 Brownie Mix

Water, eggs, oil (per brownie mix directions)

Chocolate chips (optional)

3 cups powdered sugar

½ cup melted butter

¼ tsp mint extract

5 drops green food coloring

To Prepare:

Prepare brownies according to instructions on box, sprinkling chocolate chips before baking if desired. Bake in a large pan (9x13). Allow to cool before applying filling. For filling, mix melted butter and powdered sugar, adding food coloring and mint extract. Cut brownies into small squares. Roll out filling, and cut filling into squares. Layer brownie squares and filling with filling in between two brownie squares. Enjoy!

On Great Weeks.

When [it] was good, [it] was very good indeed
And when [it] was bad, [it] was horrid.

(Adapted from "There Was a Little Girl" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

"It" = my job. This week was really, really great. There are lots of reasons why. Maybe if I list them I can have another week just like this one sometime.

1// I decided to embrace my night schedule instead of feel sad about it. Right now, I'm working primarily with non stay-at-home parents (translation: if I want to be doing in-home therapy with them, I have to sacrifice my evening hours). This week, I just embraced it. I enjoyed my non-working daytime hours more. I also spread out my appointments more so I wasn't running frantically to and from appointments and I was actually able to take advantage of the opportunity to stretch out my appointments with clients.

2// I got a new family on my caseload, and I adore them. They are Cubans, and they are straight out of my dreams. We are working through a traumatic event, and tweaking some parenting stuff, but all the basic love/support/cohesiveness stuff is there already. And we have a blast together. Yesterday they made me FLAN! Best work surprise, ever. They may be the biggest reason I am feeling so much better about work this week.

[source]

3// I did fun stuff with my clients. Sometimes I get into such a rut of just talking with them. Talking, and making behavior plans, and following up. This week, I played football with a 7 year old and then we sat on the grass and talked. This week, I went into a high school (I felt like such an imposter!), attended a meeting, went to class with a special-needs client, made connections with teachers and school officials, and helped her create a system for identifying her emotions at the beginning of each class period and then using a plan to address the negative ones (we are working to decrease her occasional blow-ups). This week, I played the "thimble game" with one family and I played Jenga with two families. This week, I was assertive with one of my somewhat-flaky clients and I agreed to follow up with her daily about whether she was following through on her parenting goals.

I want to remember to have weeks like this more often, because it is awesome.

Just. Keep. Swimming.

So. . .I almost forgot about this fitness link-up. Almost.

My big fitness moment this week was definitely at the pool yesterday. Swimming is always my biggest source of insecurity when I train for a triathlon. (I cannot tell you how many times someone says to me, "I could never do a triathlon--I'm just not a swimmer." Hello! Me neither!)  Something about swimming is anxiety-provoking for me. It reminds me of when I was a kid in swimming lessons and I couldn't make it across one length of the pool without grabbing the lap lane and gasping for air.

I had decided to swim 2200 yards yesterday (1.27 miles). When I hit about 1200 yards, I seriously considered throwing in the towel. I was having a really hard time breathing, and started telling myself it would be easier another day. (Some days it is just harder, I swear!) But I realized that giving up would just be selling myself short. I would pay for it one way or another--maybe not until race day--but I would pay for it.

I know what it feels like to be inadequately trained (let me tell you. . .it feels really bad), and I also know how amazing it feels to race when you've trained well. Trying to keep sight of the end goal and how it will feel to be doing that half ironman on June 1st--that's what keeps me going.

with Espy and Alisa in FL, 2010. I train so I can feel how I did that day. (sun, sand, and waves certainly didn't hurt)

Link up by clicking below and sharing your fitness story of the week!

                                                          

Emma's Pearls of Wisdom

I hope you all are enjoying these weekly write-ins from my little sis, Emma. She is wise beyond her years! This week, her thought reminded us of a great video, posted below. You can always learn more about our Church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) or about the Book of Mormon, which she quotes in these posts, here. I am also happy to field personal questions here. 


"Third Nephi 12-17 is packed with tons of awesome teachings in it because it is when Christ ministers to the Nephites. However, one part I especially loved when I read it was Third Nephi 14: 8-11, which is completely worth quoting. It says, 'For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then…know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?' 

I love this because it offers a wonderful comparison. I love my dad here on earth. He always provides for me and always has my best interest at heart. It is important to remember that my Heavenly Father is the same in that He always has my best interest at heart too. If my earthly father is so awesome and tries to give me what I need, Heavenly Father as a perfect being is an absolutely incredible Father and is always able and willing to give me what I need. If we need help from our Heavenly Father, all we need to do is ask. Being a perfect Father, He will never abandon us or ignore our pleas but will respond and help us always. Understanding how much our Father in Heaven loves us can help us in numerous ways, but it can certainly help us feel happier and develop a more personal relationship with Him."