Scrumptious Homemade Hot Chocolate

As you all know there was a bit of an ice storm here in the south this week! I know, I know, 2 inches of snow in some areas and ice, what's so scary about that? You northerners and midwest folk were probably sitting there thinking how silly we all were for panicking at the first sight of this wet white snow stuff on the ground and the below freezing temperatures. I did live in Colorado after all for three years and got my fair taste of snow and ice, so I get where you're coming from. This type of weather however causes major panic around these parts since we aren't equipped to handle the roads and most people have no clue how to drive on ice (does anyone really though?). It was really scary for a lot of folks and I'm glad the "snowpocalypse" is now over!

Anyways, while the hubs and I were cooped up for two days...that's right he got two whole days off of work in the middle of the week, yipee... I decided we should make some hot chocolate. Well, truth me told I hadn't bought any mix at the store in an attempt to keep as much sugary goodness out of the house as possible while I pack on some extra weight with little munchkin growing away. That did not deter me however and my ploy to trick myself into staying away from sweets was all for nought. Once again Pinterest came to my rescue and I found this simply delectable recipe over at Tastes Better From Scratch. Moral of the story, if you want to whip up some yummy hot cocoa mix but don't have that handy Swiss Miss box in your pantry all you need are these few simple ingredients, which I'm willing to bet most of you have on hand 99% of the time anyways ;) Seriously though, this stuff is the cats meow! I would also like to note that Little C also enjoyed the hot chocolate on her end and decided that she thought it would be fun to kick me at hard as she could during her "sugar high" for about an hour straight...the joys of pregnancy!

Creamy Hot Chocolate

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

⅓ cup white sugar

⅓ cup boiling water 

Dash of salt

3 ½ cups of milk

½ cup of half & half

¾ tsp vanilla extract

(makes roughly 3-4 servings)

Directions:

*Combine sugar and cocoa in saucepan over low/medium heat

*Add salt and boiling water, then stir continuously

*Once boiling reduce heat and allow to simmer, stirring for 2 minutes

*Stir in milk and heat until hot, but NOT boiling

*Remove from heat and add vanilla

*Pour into your favorite mug and add half & half to reduce temperature 

And that's all folks! 

Let Go & Let God

Welp, here we are almost exactly one year from our assignment night! This time last year the hubs and I had just found out we would be heading to Florida sometime in the summer months and all his hard work had paid of because he was going to be flying his dream aircraft. It's crazy how even though that night was over 365 days ago (still seems insane to say that out loud) I can remember almost every second of that day and all the intense emotions that went along with it. The anticipation had been building over the period of an entire year and it all came down to that one night, and boy was it an awesome night. One neither of us will ever forget. Getting to celebrate such an intense year of training with some of our closest and now life long friends was a memory I wouldn't trade for anything.

A few months before Drop though I had had some serious doubts and fears. Fears that maybe God's plan wasn't our plan and where he wanted to place us wasn't where we wanted to be or go...you can see that post here. I'm a firm believer however that God uses all situations and circumstances to teach us things. Both the sudden death of my mother two days before our planned wedding day and the roller coaster ride known as UPT have shown me that and God has time and time again proven to me that his plans for my life and our little family are always the best, period.

Some of the Laughlin Crew...miss these faces like crazy.

Anyways, one year later we are:

 * Settled in Florida,

* The hubs is already well into his training program and loving it

*Our family is growing and we have our first munchkin due in April (eeeeppp)

*We are loving being close to family and driving home

for the holidays was such a blessing

*We have found an incredible home church that we both love, seriously it's awesome!

All this goes to show that all the worrying and stress I put on myself a year ago was for absolutely nothing. I do understand that sometimes things don't always work out "perfect", such as having our dream wedding we had worked for over a year to plan be completely turned upside down with my sweet mothers untimely death two days before saying "I Do", but in all situations I think it's important to recognize that God has his hand on us and loves us enough to have a plan for our lives. 

I love the saying "Let go and Let God". I feel it's a phrase that sums up all of that with one simple saying. Look around and try and find the positive, don't stress, and love each day you have on this earth with your loved ones. Who knows where you will be a year from now and who will no longer be here with you. Someone in our new bible study that we started attending this morning said, "are all the things you worry about, stress out over, and get mad about going to matter in 10 years...100 years...or even 10,000 years?". Most likely the answer is no, so why worry? God has us all in the palm of his hand. All this to say, we should treasure every day, the good, the bad, and the ugly as it's all a part of a greater plan!