7 Quick Takes Friday - bloghops, butter, and books!

---1---

Another bloghop I participate in is the Friend Connect Bloghop on Tuesdays. Through it this week, I stumbled onto another bloghop and visited some of the posts and found a recipe for some amazing almond butter that I then successfully made! I got to use my little tiny food processor for the first time (my mom got me several small appliances for Christmas last year)! It took some doing, but it came out great.

 

Since I can't remember where I found the recipe, I will just share the recipe with you.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup almonds (unsalted)

1 cup cashews (unsalted)

1/2 cup shredded coconut

3 tsp guava or sugar

dash of salt

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 F.

Spread almonds, cashews, and coconut over nonstick baking sheet.

Roast for 15 minutes.

Add ingredients to food processor and pulse.

This part will take a good 20 minutes, and you will have to break up the mixture frequently with a spoon or something.

(At first it will just look like a dry, clumpy mixture, but soon it will grow more creamy.)

 

Then you will have...Da Da Da DAA...almond butter!

Please forgive the uncropped pictures. :)

 

 

 

 ---2---

Another accomplishment this week was that of going through my books and picking out a small box full to sell to a used book store! Those who know me will be proud that I parted with some of my preciouses :). I just got to thinking I could not possibly use ALL of those books productively in the future, so there really was no sense in keeping them. I couldn't find many that would be of no future use ;) but I found some, bless my heart.

 

(Not all of the above were payable, but the store offered me my choice of
$38 trade-in credit, or $19 cash. I'll let you guess which I chose.)

  ---3---

Speaking of books, several of the bloggers I follow shared pictures of their bookshelves or descriptions of books they are currently reading this week. I love knowing what others read and thought it would be fun to share a few of mine, too. You would think this would have encouraged me to do a little cleaning and organizing of my bookcases...but it didn't, so joke's on you. (But I did clean my kitchen! O.o) 

 

---4---

As far as the books in my office, I have three large bookshelves in there. Two of them are usually pretty well organized...

 

(This week's photos are again uncropped.)

 But the third I haven't had too long, so I just sort-of took the rest of my books and threw them on (and around...and apparently behind) it.

 

(You can see where I left off painting the room in that corner;
the wall behind the bookcases is the only unfinished one in the room.)

There is also a small shelf in the living room, which holds fiction:

 

(Top shelf = fantasy, with more on my Kindle; Middle = classical literature - Shakespeare, Austen, Homer, Hemingway, etc.; Bottom = random fiction - Madeleine L'Engle, the Princess Bride...and Anne Frank...yes, I know that's not fiction.)

And there is also a shelf in my bedroom, but I will spare you a picture of that disorganized chaos. There are many other things jumbled on the shelves with the books, and a large stack of books on top. That case contains my biography/memoir collection, most of my Church history and Missions books, as well as the ones I most want to read. Here is half of one of the shelves (some of the most-want-to-reads). A couple of them I have already started:

 

(I just noticed none of these are fiction. Interesting!)

---5---

 Back to the office.... I like to see what's on people's individual shelves, so I will give you the same privilege :).

 

Here is a really blurry shot of the top shelf, which consists of various subjects in general theology.

Below that we have Old Testament.

Then New (you can see I straightened it a bit after the last shot lol. And below that you get a
glimpse of a few Missions books and my Pentecostal history collection. The shelf below that contains
books on China and the Chinese language, as well as English grammars and Spanish books.)

 

My counseling and psychology collection.

These books normally fill out that second shelf in the photo above - they are out
because I am currently using them for my thesis, on pastoral care for families of
individuals who complete suicide.

Leadership and pastoral ministry.

 

 The cool black bookcase just holds basic Christian living and spiritual growth books.

 

---6---

The 4th of July was a good day. I cleaned my kitchen and took pictures of my books :). Watched some Netflix. Had some cheese dogs...which seems to be becoming my 4th of July tradition. Gave my dog a bath and trimmed his hair (thankfully, I'm getting a little bit better at that!). The day was tinged with sadness, too, though, when my mom and grandma both called to tell me a cousin's 14-month-old died unexpectedly with a high fever. I can't even begin to imagine the grief of my cousin and her husband. Please say a prayer for them if it crosses your mind.  

 

---7---

 Don't you love this?! It is parked not far down the street from where I live. I love it. It is almost patriotic in color, so that is my excuse for including it here. :) Have a great weekend, everyone!!

 

 

 For more great Quick Takes, check out the post at Conversion Diary!