Sandwiches to Eat for Dessert

Check out these sweet treats you should try for dessert :p

1. Vanilla Bean Waffle Ice Cream Sammies With Maple Berry Mash: Not only are these waffle ice cream sandwiches beautiful to look at, but they’re pretty darn delicious too.

2. Mini Milk Chocolate Sandwich Cookies: Cookies and milk chocolate are a classic combination, but this recipe is far from average. These are even (kind of) guilt-free… if you can stop yourself from eating more than just one.

3. Caramelized Chocolate, Banana and Marshmallow Sandwiches: Marshmallow fluff sandwiches were in everyone’s lunchbox back in grade school. Turn this childhood favorite into a star by adding soft banana slices and rich chocolate into the mix. 

4. Black Plum Ice Cream Sandwiches on Homemade Oat Graham Crackers: We’re the first to admit: We’re suckers for hand-churned ice cream. This sweet and tart black plum flavor with brandy swirls is no exception, especially when it’s sandwiched between homemade graham crackers.

5. Blueberry, White Chocolate and Marshmallow Panini:  As a twist on the classic s’more, this gooey and crisp dessert panini is the perfect ending to a dinner party. 

6. Chocolate Oatmeal Moon Pies: This decadent take on a classic confection combines oats, cherries and pecans with a marshmallow creme filling and a honey chocolate dipping sauce drizzled over the top. You’ll never buy the packaged ones again.

7. Turtle Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich: Known as the Sandwich King, Jeff Mauro takes the old-school flavors of pecans, caramel and chocolate into — you guessed it — a sandwich. After you assemble these decadent treats, you can freeze them for future turtle cravings.

8. Red Velvet Chocolate Chunk Sandwich Cookies: One of the toughest decisions at a cupcake shop is choosing between red velvet and chocolate. But what if you can have both?! This semi-homemade sandwich doctors up boxed cookies into a confectionary masterpiece. 

9. Chocolate-Dipped Coffee Ice Cream Glazed Doughnut Sandwiches: Ah… the classic AM fave… coffee and donuts. This re-imaginged donut sandwich could be the best thing since sliced bread.

10. Nutella Stuffed French Toast with Macerated Strawberries: Dessert for breakfast? Yes, please! Chocolate hazelnut spread makes everything better. And we mean everything. Just imagine your French toast and strawberries drenched in that ooey, gooey, nutty goodness.

11. Mint Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches: This idea is so genius. Layer your favorite ice cream (in this case, mint choco chip) between home-baked dark-chocolate brownies, and you’ve got yourself a handheld brownie sundae.

12. Easy Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches: Throwing a party? You can literally make these in under five minutes. All you need is a box of Oreos, a variety of gelato flavors and colorful toppings. You can even lay everything out for a fab build-your-own ice cream sandwich bar.

13. Mini Apple Pie Sandwich Cookies: This ain’t your grandmother’s apple pie recipe. Unless, of course, your g-ma made mini-pie-crust cookies stuffed with homemade apple pie filling— in which case, it’s just like grandma used to make.

14. S’mores Sandwich Cookies: Just one look at these s’mores cookies, and we’re roasting marshmallows by the campfire. You can’t go wrong with creamy marshmallow fluff sandwiched between two homemade graham cracker cookies dipped in melted chocolate.

15. Frozen Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches: Looking for a gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free and soy-free snack? (Who isn’t?!) Look no further than these chocolate-covered peanut-butter-and-banana mini sammies. Do yourself a favor and don’t skip out on the homemade honey-vanilla-bourbon peanut butter.

VERSE OF THE DAY!

In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.
—Ephesians 1:7

Thoughts on Today's Verse...
Forgiveness! What a sweet and precious gift. What we were powerless to fix, make up or pay for, God did for us in Jesus. With him, each day is a fresh start and rebirth of Springtime. But my, such a terrible cost he paid to give it to us!

My Prayer...
Thank you, Father, for your anguish and cost to forgive my sins by the blood of your Son. I refuse to take lightly the cost of my sin and will live for your glory in appreciation of your grace. In the name of him who sacrificed all for my salvation I pray. Amen.

Ground Coffee Makes THE Most Luxe Sugar Scrub

Freshly ground coffee might be one of the most luxurious all-natural exfoliants known to man. Test it out with this DIY coffee-vanilla sugar scrub!

Coffee + Vanilla Sugar Scrub
Makes about 20 ounces of scrub
½ cup coconut oil
1 cup fine to medium ground coffee (Preferred: FreshGround Roasting’s Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Medium Roast)
1 cup raw sugar*
1 tbsp olive oil
1 whole vanilla bean pod

1. Melt the coconut oil in the microwave (but make sure its not so hot that it melts the sugar when you mix them together).

2. Mix coconut oil with the coffee, sugar and olive oil.

3. Split the whole vanilla pod lengthwise and scrap out the beans into your sugar, coffee and oil mixture. Combine well.

4. Transfer scrub to jars for gifting. I split this batch into 2 smaller jars, cut the leftover vanilla bean pod in half and put a half into each gift jar for added fragrance.

*You can use regular granulated sugar, but I prefer raw sugar for scrubs because of its grainier texture. 

CHANEL is one of my fave designer brands!

VERSE OF THE DAY!

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
—Hebrews 12:2

Thoughts on Today's Verse...
"He drives where he looks, he drives where he looks!" That statement made by a disgruntled wife about her husband really spoke the truth. He invariably would turn the steering wheel in the direction he was looking. This principle is also true of each of us and our life: "Lives where she or he looks!" That's why it's important to fix our eyes on Jesus! Our life will follow where we look! Let's make sure that our gaze is on Jesus.

My Prayer...
Almighty and holy God, without your grace and the gift of your salvation I could not approach you with confidence. Thank you for sending Jesus! Thank you for his life, his death, his resurrection, his exaltation and his intercession. I pledge this day to keep my eyes on him! Through his holy name I pray. Amen.

S'mores! Yummmy yummmy!!

VERSE OF THE DAY!

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!"
—Matthew 20:17-19

Thoughts on Today's Verse...
One thing the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) make clear, Jesus' death on the cross was no accident. Jesus knew the challenge that awaited him in Jerusalem and he walked into it to deliver us from the same fate. If only we will face our challenges with a faith that God will lead us to triumph beyond our pain!

My Prayer...
Holy God and Loving Father, thank you for your plan to cover my sin with your grace by the death of your Son. May I live today aware of his sacrifice and confident of his victory over sin and death, so my life may reflect your victory. In the name of Jesus, my precious Savior, I pray. Amen.

I'm obsessed... A girl could never have too many heels !

What Is Autism...?

For those of you who don't know...

AUTISM is a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts.

((Info from www.medicalnewstoday.com ))

What is Autism? What Causes Autism?

What is Autism
Autism is known as a complex developmental disability. Experts believe that Autism presents itself during the first three years of a person's life. The condition is the result of a neurological disorder that has an effect on normal brain function, affecting development of the person's communication and social interaction skills.

People with autism have issues with non-verbal communication, a wide range of social interactions, and activities that include an element of play and/or banter.

Genomic research is beginning to discover that people with autism spectrum disorders probably share genetic traits with individuals with ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or clinical depression. A team at the Cross Disorders Group of the Psychiatric Genomic Consortium suggests that the five mental disorders and illnesses have the same common inherited genetic variations.

What is ASD?
ASD stands for Autism Spectrum Disorder and can sometimes be referred to as Autistic Spectrum Disorder. In this text Autism and ASD mean the same. ASDs are any developmental disabilities that have been caused by a brain abnormality. A person with an ASD typically has difficulty with social and communication skills.

A person with ASD will typically also prefer to stick to a set of behaviors and will resist any major (and many minor) changes to daily activities. Several relatives and friends of people with ASDs have commented that if the person knows a change is coming in advance, and has time to prepare for it; the resistance to the change is either gone completely or is much lower.

Autism is a wide-spectrum disorder
Autism (or ASD) is a wide-spectrum disorder. This means that no two people with autism will have exactly the same symptoms. As well as experiencing varying combinations of symptoms, some people will have mild symptoms while others will have severe ones. Below is a list of the most commonly found characteristics identified among people with an ASD.

Social skills
The way in which a person with an ASD interacts with another individual is quite different compared to how the rest of the population behaves. If the symptoms are not severe, the person with ASD may seem socially clumsy, sometimes offensive in his/her comments, or out of synch with everyone else. If the symptoms are more severe, the person may seem not to be interested in other people at all.

Child hiding his face
It is common for relatives, friends and people who interact with someone with an ASD to comment that the ASD sufferer makes very little eye contact. However, as health care professionals, teachers and others are improving their ability to detect signs of autism at an earlier age than before, eye contact among people with autism is improving. In many cases, if the symptoms are not severe, the person can be taught that eye contact is important for most people and he/she will remember to look people in the eye.

A person with autism may often miss the cues we give each other when we want to catch somebody's attention. The person with ASD might not know that somebody is trying to talk to them. They may also be very interested in talking to a particular person or group of people, but does not have the same skills as others to become fully involved. To put it more simply, they lack the necessary playing and talking skills.

Empathy - Understanding and being aware of the feelings of others
A person with autism will find it much harder to understand the feelings of other people. His/her ability to instinctively empathize with others is much weaker than other people's. However, if they are frequently reminded of this, the ability to take other people's feelings into account improves tremendously. In some cases - as a result of frequent practice - empathy does improve, and some of it becomes natural rather than intellectual. Even so, empathy never comes as naturally for a person with autism as it does to others.

Having a conversation with a person with autism may feel very much like a one-way trip. The person with ASD might give the impression that he is talking at people, rather than with or to them. He may love a theme, and talk about it a lot. However, there will be much less exchanging of ideas, thoughts, and feelings than there might be in a conversation with a person who does not have autism.

Almost everybody on this planet prefers to talk about himself/herself more than other people; it is human nature. The person with autism will usually do so even more.

Physical contact - Hands making contact
A number of children with an ASD do not like cuddling or being touched like other children do. It is wrong to say that all children with autism are like that. Many will hug a relative - usually the mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, teacher, and or sibling(s) - and enjoy it greatly. Often it is a question of practice and anticipating that physical contact is going to happen. For example, if a child suddenly tickles another child's feet, he will most likely giggle and become excited and happy. If that child were to tickle the feet of a child with autism, without that child anticipating the contact, the result might be completely different.

Loud noises, some smells, and lightsAlarm clock - loud noise
A person with autism usually finds sudden loud noises unpleasant and quite shocking. The same can happen with some smells and sudden changes in the intensity of lighting and ambient temperature.

Many believe it is not so much the actual noise, smell or light, but rather the surprise, and not being able to prepare for it - similar to the response to surprising physical contact.

If the person with autism knows something is going to happen, he can cope with it much better. Even knowing that something 'might' happen, and being reminded of it, helps a lot.

Speech
The higher the severity of the autism, the more affected are a person's speaking skills. Many children with an ASD do not speak at all. People with autism will often repeat words or phrases they hear - an event called echolalia.

The speech of a person with ASD may sound much more formal and woody, compared to other people's speech. Teenagers with Asperger's Syndrome can sometimes sound like young professors. Their intonation may sound flat.

Repetitive behaviors
A person with autism likes predictability. Routine is his/her best friend. Going through the motions again and again is very much part of his/her life. To others, these repetitive behaviors may seem like bizarre rites. The repetitive behavior could be a simple hop-skip-jump from one end of the room to the other, repeated again and again for one, five, or ten minutes - or even longer. Another could be drawing the same picture again and again, page after page.

Repetitive photo
People without autism are much more adaptable to changes in procedure. A child without autism may be quite happy to first have a bath, then brush his teeth, and then put on his pajamas before going to bed - even though he usually brushes his teeth first. For a child with autism this change, bath first and then teeth, could completely put him/her out, and they may become very upset. Some people believe that helping a child with autism learn how to cope better with change is a good thing, however, forcing them to accept change like others do could adversely affect their quality of life.

A child with autism develops differently
While a child without autism will develop in many areas at a relatively harmonious rate, this may not be the case for a child with autism. His/her cognitive skills may develop fast, while their social and language skills trail behind. On the other hand, his/her language skills may develop rapidly while their motor skills don't. They may not be able to catch a ball as well as the other children, but could have a much larger vocabulary. Nonetheless, the social skills of a person with autism will not develop at the same pace as other people's.

Learning may be unpredictable
How quickly a child with autism learns things can be unpredictable. They may learn something much faster than other children, such as how to read long words, only to forget them completely later on. They may learn how to do something the hard way before they learn how to do it the easy way.

Physical tics and stimming
It is not uncommon for people with autism to have tics. These are usually physical movements that can be jerky. Some tics can be quite complicated and can go on for a very long time. A number of people with autism are able to control when they happen, others are not. People with ASD who do have tics often say that they have to be expressed, otherwise the urge does not stop. For many, going through the tics is enjoyable, and they have a preferred spot where they do them - usually somewhere private and spacious. When parents first see these tics, especially the convoluted ones, they may experience shock and worry.

Obsessions
People with autism often have obsessions.

Myths about autism
A person with autism feels love, happiness, sadness and pain just like everyone else. Just because some of them may not express their feelings in the same way others do, does not mean at all that they do not have feelings - THEY DO!! It is crucial that the Myth - Autistic people have no feelings - is destroyed. The myth is a result of ignorance, not some conspiracy. Therefore, it is important that you educate people who carry this myth in a helpful and informative way.

Not all people with autism have an incredible gift or savantism for numbers or music.However, a sizeable proportion of people with an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) have high IQs and a unique talent for computer science. German software company SAP AG has become aware of this and announced in May 2013 that it planned to employ hundreds of people with autism as software testers, programmers and data quality assurance specialists.

VERSE OF THE DAY!

The fool says in his heart there is no God.
—Psalm 14:1

Thoughts on Today's Verse...
At one time or another, most of us raised an angry fist to fate and cursed the darkness. Each of these actions is about as equally effective. But to deny there is a God is something else altogether. To rob heaven of God is to rob ourselves of grace, hope, and future. How foolish indeed to forget that behind a Creation of wonder, order, variety, beauty, power, and pattern is the Creator. He is far greater than his handiwork and we dare not ignore, deny, or dismiss him.

My Prayer...
O Lord God Almighty, Creator and Sustainer, thank you for not only being there, but being with me today. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

APRIL IS AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH

PHOTO CHALLENGE!