Chocolate almond pudding

 

 

I was having one of those days.  You know, the one where you feel incapable, underqualified and like life has dealt you too much all at once.  When thankfulness and exhaustion have had a head-on collision.
Then a knock at the door comes with an oh-so-familiar smile.  "Come in, please come in...".  My aunt, an always bubbly, positive encouragement for me. 

 She usually brings something, this visit was two boxes of unsweetened almond milk and 2 cases of baby cucumbers.  Our church hosts a food bank once a week and there are usually some "loss leaders" that don't get scooped up.

At that moment in time I was more interested with my aunt coming in for dinner and saving my children from the person I was about to become.  Okay, it wasn't that bad, I'm probably my most tough critic but it's always nice having another person for your 5 year to quiz with 5 million questions. 

I wondered what I would make with all this Almond milk.  My aunt suggested a custard or pudding.  I thought that was the perfect idea.  I looked on Pinterest and found this recipe.

With a few tweaks of omitting the sugar and adding in regular peanut butter this became the most luxurious dessert I could of ever asked for.

 

I mixed the dry ingredients together and then added in the wet ingredients and stirred....stirred and stirred.  As tired as I was there is something therapeutic about standing at the stove and stirring a pot.  Something peaceful.

Peace is something I crave on a regular basis.  There is only one place I find it in abundance, never to grow tired and that's in Jesus.  He's not called the Prince of Peace for nothing!  The "come as you are" part of the equation is the cherry on top especially when you're so tired of living up to peoples unrealistic expectations (including the ones I place on myself).

 

Since I am not by any scretch of the imagination following and exclusively dairy free diet I finished the pudding with good old fashion butter.

 

After I got my kids in bed, I enjoyed two pre-portioned ramekins topped with cool-whip.  Yes, I know cool-whip is edible oil and no I don't care and also I'm so glad I took the time to portion the pudding into cups when I ate two ramekins at once! The struggles real people!

 

I got into bed and started reflecting on my day.  Trying to bring myself back to reality and place thankfulness back in front of me.  I flipped through my journal and realized I had been writing scriptures based on peace down for weeks.  I started doodling on a page and as I did strength grew from inside me. No wonder the song we sang in Sunday  School was "Read your bible pray everyday and you'll grow grow grow". Why am I so caught off guard when life isn't perfect?  Jesus did make it pretty clear,  "In this world you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world". I'll choose to take heart.

 

 

There's something about being quiet enough to feel your own heart beat, hear your own breathing and taking in the stillness.  To hear Him whisper; "you're not in this alone, I will not let the waves of life take you under".  Peace.