For all the HP fans

Can we take a minute and discuss this video?

If you're a Harry Potter fan, I'm sure you've seen it already. A friend posted this on my Facebook wall the other day, and I just love it. I've watched it so many times, and it just keeps getting better. 

And they couldn't have picked a better song to parody. Anytime I hear Uptown Funk it gets stuck in my head for days. Well, now I'll be humming this instead.

My favorite parts?

• integration of the HP theme song --genius!
• Voldemort in hair curlers -- who knew he could look more ridiculous 
• Voldemort giving Harry the "L" to the forehead loser sign -- childish and perfect
• Harry breaking it down on the cover of the Daily Prophet -- I still wish muggle pictures could move
• Filch's embarrassing little dance with Mrs. Norris -- why not have another reason to laugh at Filch
• Voldemort's mic/wand drop -- great exit

Are you a Harry Potter fan? What is your favorite part of this video?

Thoughts | Late Night Worries

Anxiety. Worry. These are things that plague so many of us to some degree or another. 

I'm a natural born worrier. I worry about important things. I worry about silly things. I worry that my bills won't get paid and I worry that my perfectly healthy dog will die in his sleep. I worry that my house will burn down because I left the burner on and I worry that I'll forget to put the trash out on trash pick-up day. Seriously.

These are the things that wake me up at night. And whether they fall into the important or silly category, when I'm half asleep I am also irrational and each worry seems HUGE. All the horrible consequences and possibilities roll around in my head one after another making sleep impossible.

I've talked to so many others, and I know that I am not alone in my worrying. I'm not the only one who wakes up in the middle of the night in sheer panic over their trash. But what is the solution? Scripture clearly tells us not to worry. But when someone tells me "don't worry," I really just want to slap them. Do you think I want to worry? Do you think I want to wake up at night plagued with horrible thoughts? Of course not! If I could "not worry," I would!

It's not so simple to just "not worry." It is nearly impossible to simply banish those thoughts. But I've found one, mmmm let's call it a solution for lack of a better word, that works for me.

Like I said, I can't just take those thoughts out of my mind. I've discovered that instead I need to replace them. And I've chosen to replace them with truth. The truth of who God is, how great and mighty He is. The truth of how I am covered by His protection. The truth that I can operate in His strength rather than my weakness. The truth that He holds my life. The truth that I can seek and find His wisdom. The truth that despite my failure and my short-comings He loves me. The truth that even in this scary, broken world I have hope in Him.

When I awake to a mind full of fear and doubt and worry, I begin to quietly whisper these truths over and over again. My whispers turn to prayers and my prayers turn to peace.

Do my worries disappear completely? No. I often wake up the next night with some fresh, new fear.
But I do find peace temporarily, until I can face my worries in the light of day; until I can see my anxieties clearly and rationally and work to dispel them by His wisdom.

My temporary peace gets me through the night to a place where I can actually find some solution, with the Lord's help, to my late night worries. 

I can't promise that my "solution" will help, but I do know that it can never hurt to remember how great God is. Maybe if we consistently instill the truth of who He is in our heads and hearts that reality will overtake our worries. I have hope that it will. I have hope that by His side I'll find victory over my fear and anxiety.

Are you a worrier? Have you found ways to overcome it?

Browned butter and finding joy in baking

Let me begin by saying that I am not the best baker. I really enjoy baked goods (that's for sure!), but most of the time I'd rather just buy a cupcake or a muffin then put in the time and effort to make them. Something always seems to go wrong when I bake and I just don't seem to get any joy out of it (sorry grandma). And if I'm honest, some of my dislike for baking might stem from pure laziness...MIGHT.

So, when I ran across this article on how to be a better baker I was fully prepared to completely disregard it. However, I was intrigued by Joy's writing - she is hilarious - so I perused around her blog a little more. In my perusing, I stumbled upon her post on how to brown butter. As a non-baker, I had never heard of this before. "Browned butter? What is that?" my simple, bake-less mind pondered. To hear Joy talk about it, you'd think it was magic...actually, I think she calls it just that. Well, if something is magic, I have to try it!

And so today, I busted out my trusty KitchenAid and decided to try my hand at browning butter in an attempt to make Joy's "The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies."

Butter was browned, ingredients were mixed, messes were made, dishes were dirtied (and cleaned), dough was formed, and cookies were baked. All with little mishaps. In fact, I thought I was golden right up until the time I was pulling the cookies out of the oven. I dropped two down in the bottom of the oven, right on the hot coils, so of course those burned and filled my kitchen with smoke. But hey, I didn't burn any other cookies and they are DELICIOUS! The mix of salty and sweet - heavenly!

And let me tell, browned butter? Amazing stuff. It's probably my new favorite smell. Does anyone know if there is a candle in that scent? I'd totally buy it.

So, all in all, I'd say my baking today was a huge success. And it was actually kind of FUN. Maybe I can find some joy in baking after all!?

And hey, if I can do it, so can you! Need some baking inspiration? Check out Joy the Baker, you'll find some there!

What did you do with your Saturday? Bake anything lately? Don't these look tasty?