Meals as a Mrs. ~ Peanut Butter Fudge Cake

Right before school started back up this past semester, on the night before classes started actually, I had a lot of nervous excitement and energy that was pent up and itching to be released.  So what did I do?  I made a cake at 10pm when I should have gone to bed "early" for the first day.  Hah!  It was SOOOO good that I couldn't help but mention it in two of my classes on that first day.  The description of this yummy chocolate peanut butter goodness must have been drool-worthy considering a student's request to "please make that cake for us!!"  So, here we are halfway through the semester and I'm just now getting around to blogging about this dessert.  Following the recipe caused me to use a sifter for the first time in a long while.  Sifting the powdered sugar took me right back to when I used to help my mom as a child by sifting the flour when assisting with baking cookies...ah the memories!  Here is the recipe followed by some pictures from when I made it in mid-August.  Following this recipe for a cake made from scratch, as well as the icing, took some time but I found it therapeutic and it helped to calm my back to school jitters.  Plus, it was nice having the snack of a slice waiting for me after school each day that week.  ; )

Homemade buttermilk

The smell as this cake was baking was divine!

Obviously I was too impatient to allow the cake to cool entirely before sampling a slice.  Oh my word, this was melt in your mouth yummy goodness!  In fact, I think I will make this cake again for my night class on Monday as they take their mid-terms!  Ah, the perks of having a smaller class of only 14 students....!  There will be enough slices for all.  ; )  P.S. - As you eat this cake, I find that it tastes extra good after warming it in the microwave for about 20 seconds as it makes the peanut butter gooey and the chocolate icing tastes more like fudge that way...YUM!

The below information is taken from some materials we received one year ago this weekend when completing our Engaged Encounter Weekend.  One of my personal goals this semester is to draw closer to the Lord; to not get so caught up in the busy-ness of day to day to-do lists, and hopefully that Adam and I can try to strengthen our individual and couple prayer lives by following this advice we learned last fall.

Jesus said in Mark 10:7, "A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one flesh".  Jesus, quoting the book of Genesis, uses the sexual image to symbolize the unity of the marital community.  Praying together is one very beautiful way of not only expressing this unity, but growing in it.  The following are suggestions to help pray together as a married couple using the Bible that I have paraphrased as some of the recommendations are a bit wordy:

* While sitting together or lying in bed together, feeling each other's closeness, take time in silence to be aware of the Lord's presence.

*  Listen together to a short passage.  One of the two of you reads the passage aloud slowly while the other listens.  Take turns doing this.  After, let there be a peirod of silence to let the word sink into our heads and hearts.

*  Next, each can share what each reflected on from the passage.

*  Read the passage a second time, if desired, and reflect some more.

*  If passage is read a third time, follow up by praying prayers from each of you speaking out to the Lord your faith and hope and love, your longings, desires, gratitude, joy and praise and adoration, your hurts and disappointments, and whatever moods and feelings are yours.

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." - Matthew 18:20