Winter Wonderful!

Winter is REALLY here! This is the snowman that we built this week. According to the weatherman, he'll be around for awhile!

Have fun in the snow with your loved ones :-)

Baking Day

We are planning to go visit my beloved's aunt tomorrow for a little lunch that she is having. She is 83 and is also his godmother. She really knows the secret to long life, and one of her favorite sayings is "Life is short - eat dessert first".
Hence, cookies were needed! These tasty ones are so delicious and we love them very much. The recipe makes quite a bit of dough, so I usually bake two sheets worth and then freeze the rest. Here's a tip - if you spoon the dough on to a cookie sheet and freeze it for an hour, you will be left with frozen individual cookies (just like the ones you can buy in the refriegerated section of your grocery store). Store those in a Ziploc bag, and then pop them directly in the oven as you'd like them! Warm, fresh baked cookies whenever you feel the urge. Just bake for an extra minute or two.


Minnesota Munchers
Makes about 48

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup toffee bits
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two cookie sheets. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; stir into creamed mixture. Fold in milk chocolate and semisweet chips, toffee bits and pecans. Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on wire racks.

Let's go watch something!

It is COLD here. Seriously chilly. What that means, is a lot of time inside; and hence a lot of time in front of the television. I absolved myself of all TV guilt a couple months ago, and gosh, does it feel good! What I mean by that, is I no longer lament the time our count the hours that the boys are in front of the tube. I released all the guilt I was harboring about the baby seeing the TV before he was even a year old, or the fact that the big boy can recite certain movies line for line. Overall, I think I am pretty good mom. My love and I put our kids above everything else, we feed them well, purchase mostly organic foods, co-slept when each of them were babies, breastfed, practice gentle parenting (usually), we shower them with love and affection, and spend an awful lot of time playing with them. So, I've released the TV guilt.

But in addition to watching Toy Story three times the other day, we also made this fun fort our of sheets. Both boys loved it. We snuggled under there with pillows and read stories from the library. See, some non TV time!

Roman Shades

We recently painted, and so I wanted new window treatments to go along with our "new look". So I sewed these roman shades. I used flat sheets from WalMart which made the project really affordable. They are lined in the back with a white flat sheet. I used a tutorial to help me with the measurements, and the entire project took only a few days. Overall, not bad for a starter home decorating project!

These are the folds of the shade.