YOLO Monday

I posted before about how I was starting to feel just overwhelmed with things. The universe decided to give me a bit of a break. The court case I was going to be a witness in was settled, so I don't need to devote time to prepare and go to trial. I am a little disappointed, because I thought it would have been a fascinating thing to be a part of, but it is nice to have something instantly taken off my plate. I sorted out my health troubles, and am on some huge horse pills antibiotics that left me feeingl much better. I finally made progress on some things for the wedding that I just felt stuck on thanks to my devoted and patient mother.  Also Isaac is on a new medicine that seems to be helping with his vomiting. So those are all big improvements from this time last week.
 
Ryan, his mom and his sister joined me for the Home Show in Philadelphia. The night before I decided to make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to bring along as a snack.  Typical me though, somehow I forgot to put the flour in and this is how they ended up.  Whoops.

We got up nice and early and drove into the city for the Home Show.   There was a groupon for admission tickets so we ended up getting two tickets for free.  Ryan's mom was so excited to see that  Action News from Channel 6 was there.  She volunteered to be interviewed and we were all tickled to see that they included her interview on the 11:00 news.

 Here is a picture of the a screenshot.  You can see me and Ryan and his sister Katherine behind us.

The Home Show was a lot of fun.  There were so many neat displays and my "Maybe SomeDay This Might Be Within the Budget Wishlist" keeps growing.  I ended up getting some cleaning products, a soup mix, scheduling some consult appointments with a home security system and an organizer.  We also spent quite a bit of time at the Sleep Number Bed display.  We might be buying one of these in the near future.

It was a fun day and nice to spend some time with Ryan's family.

What else?

How fun is this sweatshirt I got from super clearance from Forever21?

I don't remember exactly how much it was... definitely less than 10 bucks.

I actually watched the whole Superbowl for the first time, ever, I think, since Isaac and Ryan really wanted me to join them.  I really enjoyed Beyonce's performance, especially her all girl band.   Fingers crossed this week goes quickly.... Only a few more weeks till our wedding!

yesterday

Yesterday, Isaac slept till after 9 o'clock for the first time in AGES.  We went with Ryan and his girls to Hershey Park the day before and didn't get home till very late at night.  A good time was had by all.  Isaac even rode on his first real rollercoasters: the Comet and the Wild Mouse.   He and Allison did a great job reading the map and keeping themselves busy with a rock, paper, scissors challenge. 

Yesterday, Isaac wore cords, a plaid button up shirt, appropriate colored socks and church shoes without one word of arguing.  Since getting dressed every day has been a battle, this has been a major accomplishment.

Yesterday, I remembered again how much I love Sarah McLachan.  I listened to her for about two hours while doing homework and screwing around on the computer.  Hold On will always be one of my favorite songs by her. 

Yesterday, I started this book that my friend Evelyne loaned to me.  It is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants girls at age 30.  I am only 60 pages in and I can already tell I may have to devote every spare minute in the next few days reading it.  I know they are cheesey, but I love those books.

Yesterday, I made cookies that turned out... eh.  I got confused and thought I was supposed to bring dessert for Easter dinner.  I brought them to my parents house and (as expected) my brother's declared them to be "dry and crunchy".  Good thing my mom had still made our traditional bunny cake.   I never claimed to be domestic people.  But I do try.


Yesterday, I finally got a jump on some of my grad school homework that I have need to get accomplished on spring break.  There is more to go, but at least I did something.

Yesterday, when we were driving out to my mom's house we heard "Baby One More Time" on the radio.  I made a comment to Ryan that I would much rather hear her song "Stronger".  He whipped out his phone and had Stronger playing on the stereo within a minute.  It sounds silly but it put a goofy grin on my face.  

Yesterday, Isaac was happy with his Easter presents (we don't do Santa or the Easter Bunny here), but he did pass the comment that there wasn't as much candy as he was expecting.

Yesterday, I lived and loved life with my family.  I sang my favorite hymns at church.  I contemplated the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We spent time together as a family and with loved ones.  Isaac had a blast playing with Ryan, my brothers and my dad.   Happy Easter!

Hey look!

I baked something and it actually turned out delicious! I've tried a few things from The Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook and been pretty successful. I was supposed to take a dessert along to a little BBQ this past weekend, so I figured I would give this recipe a try.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Rounds

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup of peanut butter*

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup chopped cocktail peanuts**

* I used all natural organic peanut butter

** I realized once I started that I didn't have any of these on hand, so I just substituted 1 cup of chocolate chips, because, you can't make anything worse by adding chocolate chips, right?

1. Mix butter and peanut butter with a mixer on high for 30 secs or until combined. Add sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats and peanuts (or chocolate chips!).

2. Drop rolled dough 2 inches apart on un greased cookie sheets. Bake in 375 degree oven about ten minutes.

They were really yummy. I definitely plan on trying them again with the cocktail peanuts too.

as summer time approaches

I get to stop worrying about intense parents, IEPs that need to be completed and lesson plans that need to be written and start focusing on the more important things in life: like cheesecake! Remember my baking buddy Becky from last summer? I pretty much forced her to come over again and teach me how to make cheesecake because I honestly had no clue. I didn't even really know you had to bake them. She bought me the springform pan as a present and even brought along an already made cheesecake so I could practice taking it out of the pan and moving it onto a pretty plate. That's dedication. We used this recipe with chocolate graham crackers for the crust. I even managed to pull off the water bath method which is something I had never even heard of, let alone attempted.

The cheesecake was delicious. Perhaps there is hope for this undomestic goddess after all!

Obligatory Blizzard Post (Part Two)

So there is like 4 feet of snow on the ground. And good old Pottstown still hasn't cancelled school for tomorrow. Gotta love it. Here's a look at our day (being snowbound for the second time in a week). We're hanging. Getting bundled up to go outside. Extra socks, scarf, snow pants, boots, winter jacket, hat and gloves. Approximate time to put on clothes: 20 minutes Approximate time spent playing in the snow: 10 Minutes

Repeat process 3-4 times.

When we finally threw in the towel with shoveling, we had a chocolate craving so we had to make some chocolate chocolate chip cookies (recipe found here -- delicious!!!):

And Cody Pablo is still chilling...

How did you pass the time on this snowy day?

Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

The quest for true domesticity continues. I tried to make apple crisp, which was a flop... BUT I made these delicious cookies and they turned out incredible!! I thought I would be 0/2 when I messed up the amount of baking powder. However, I managed to save it by tripling the recipe. So there are cookies galore at my house-- come visit!!

Ingredients:

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional-- I skipped these)

Directions: 1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well. 2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. 3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Help!

I know someone out there must know... How do you get baked on Pam off the sides of a glass casserole pan? It looks so icky. Any suggestions would be much appreciated...

Look-- I'm making something from scratch!

Okay, so everyone knows that I have had a goal to become more "domestic" now that I am in my own place, etc. So I pretty much forced my good friend Becky to come over and teach me how to make something from scratch. She is an amazing baker and a wonderfully patient teacher.

A tip I learned from Becky -- put a little bit of Pam spray in the measuring cup before the shortening so it slides out easily.

My helper. Another tip Becky gave me was to use bread flour instead of all purpose flour. She also said to tap on the bread. If it makes a hollow sound it is done.

The teacher and the student.

The best part.

Look at how yummy. Inside contains the "perfect swirl" of cinnamon and raisens.

So delicious.... Thanks again Becky!

No good deed goes unpunished

So I was lazily reading blogs over the weekend and I came across this blog with the cute little pumpkin treats for teacher appreciation week. Now, I am not niave enough to expect anything for teacher appreciation week. All I got for Christmas was a horribly nasty phone message. But Isaac has two wonderful and devoted preschool teachers who definitely need to be recognized. And while I don't think I can make a cute stamped box like the one featured, I thought I ought to be able to whip up some pumpkin bread and do something cute with packaging. And, in light of my new quest for domesticity, I decided I would NOT get a pumpkin bread mix, but I would make it from scratch. Now, Cathee and Christi I am not, but I thought I could manage pumpkin bread. So I bought the ingredients yesterday but decided I would wait until today to bake them. Well around 9ish I figured I should stop nodding off to Lita videos and get cracking. I forgot that bread takes a lot longer than cookies to make. Like, six times as long. Whoops. Then I realized we didn't have enough flour, so I had to run out to the store and buy more. Whoops. And now I sit and wait. And hopefully not burn anything...