2 Amazing Recipes

Recipe: From Journey to Crunchville
Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, room temp
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 TBSP (yes tablespoon) vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinammon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 3 cups oatmeal (quick cooking or old fashioned, not instant)
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

1. The key is to soak the raisins. This makes all the difference in the world. Beat eggs and vanilla together and then add the raisins, stir. Soak for an hour or two. I just walked by a few times and stirred it while I waited.

2. Preheat to 350 F. Cream butter and sugars with mixer. In a seperate bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinammon, ginger & nutmeg. Stir the dry ingredients until well blended. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix well. Now add in the egg & raisin mixture (I used my hands). Then add oatmeal and chocolate chips/nuts and combine well. Form into balls on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2-5 minutes or until firm enough to transfer to wire rack.

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3-1/2 oz. (3/4 cup) bleached all-purpose flour
1 oz. (1/4 cup) cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
6 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 large egg, separated
1 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

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Heat the oven to 200°F and heat the waffle iron. Mix the flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Measure the buttermilk, milk, and vegetable oil in a Pyrex measuring cup; mix in the egg yolk and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the egg white almost to soft peaks. Sprinkle in the sugar and continue to beat until the peaks are firm and glossy. Beat in the vanilla.

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until just mixed. Drop the whipped egg white onto the batter in dollops and fold in with a spatula until just incorporated.

Pour the batter onto the hot waffle iron (mine takes about 2/3 cup) and cook until the waffle is crisp and nutty brown (follow the manufacturer's instructions for timing at first and then adjust to your liking). Set the waffle directly on the oven rack to keep it warm and crisp. Repeat with the remaining batter, holding the waffles in the oven (don't stack them). When all the waffles are cooked, serve immediately.

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I just had to share these amazing recipes that I have tried a few times each over the past week.

My Troll Doll

Juliet goes back and forth between looking like a Glo Worm and a troll doll. Above? Troll doll. Minus the crazy hot pink hair. Here she was eating one of my flaxseed muffins (I wouldn't recommend them - it was for my candida cleanse that lasted four days =)). She continually shoves her mouth full of food all day. I think I have a little foodie and I love it.
And today since I am stuck once again in the house with viral children, I will be organizing all these photos I ordered from scrapbookpictures.com. So fun!

Bathroom Remodel

Samuel helping Colin smooth out the cement for the shower pan (way past bedtime, might I add!).
The mission style cabinets, custom built by Colin himself.
The shower pan.

I apologize for the lack of blogging this last week - we have all been under the weather. Have I mentioned that I'm ready for the flu season to be over? It feels very lonely a lot of times being a stay-at-home mom with sick kids. At any rate, Colin has been making rapid progress with our bathroom remodel. This will be the main bathroom and he's built me everything exactly as I like - so sweet! I seem to have very simple, mission style taste.

The Dreaded Spring Cleaning.

Spring cleaning for me has been this ominous, foreign thing, mocking me from the corners (right next to the dust bunnies and long discarded Rescue Hero backpack). I don't know where to start and I know that the attic is barely passable (somewhat akin to another person's garage - I leave Colin's garage untouched because I respect his workspace.) and the children's clothes that have been long grown out of linger in boxes here and there. The thing is, my creativity and spiritual life (yep, even that) blossom amidst an organized environment. My cooking would be much quicker if my pantry was full of neatly labeled glass storage jars and a spice rack. And with homeschooling right around the corner, I don't really have a choice but to be organized.

I stumbled upon the Hillbilly Housewife's blog which set forth a schedule for spring cleaning. I love schedules and the fact that I don't have to face the entire house at once - just one room at a time. I can do that, right? So, here I go, taking my first nap time and diving into that thing that once mocked me from the dirtiest, darkest corners of my house - facing it head on. Scary? Yes. Doable? Absolutely.

Scrapbook Page - May

Here's my scrapbook page for the month. For the remainder of my craft time (as I can grab a few moments here and there) I will be making my aunt some bandannas as she is undergoing chemo and I'm also learning how to make pj's for the kiddos. Samuel has the first completed pair of pants and Jude's a bit jealous =). I may also be making a friend an apron (which I love)!

Hair and Teamwork.

Jude seriously woke up with this hair a few mornings ago. It must have been a hard night.

Check out the team work helping Sissy ride the trike!! So sweet. Most of the time, though, the boys completely ignore her and play with their boy toys.
Juliet discovered flowers (above) for the first time.
And Juliet has been spending her days handing me various objects she thinks I need. In this instance, she doesn't want my camera lens to go uncovered =).

She's Walking.

Above: we got really distracted by a leaky washer this afternoon and found Juliet had helped herself to the Trader Joe's cookies above. Below: they were taken away immediately (well, after we captured a few pictures =)).

Also: Juliet is really into accessories - wearing things on her head (headbands! Yay!), wearing things on her wrist, nail polish, shoes. What a girl!!

I think it's safe to say that Juliet is now walking. She spent the day cruising along furniture and walking halfway across the room - so for the sake of the baby book - at 15 1/2 months (adjusted), Juliet is a walker. Not to say that she won't spend most of her time scooting still....

Monday and Tuesday Collages.

I'm finished with the digital part of this project!! As you can see at the top, I had to create 2-3 5x7 canvases in Photoshop (for each day) to get my baseball sized prints on them - that was the lengthy part of the process for sure. So, now I upload my collages and photos to scrapbookpictures.com and wait for the package. I'll post photos of the process and finished product.


This process was a learning experience - learning to use the photos that aren't perfectly sharp for the sake of getting the memories documented - perfect or not. I learned to pay attention to the details in our lives right now - the baby "helping" me with makeup, Samuel sitting on the bench at preschool, the baby playing with the dog, the dinners we eat, etc., Life pasts by so fast, doesn't it?

Sundy Photo Collage

Here is the collage and photo opener for Sunday. We had the kids help in the garden, which always makes for good pics. Juliet really does not mind getting dirty - which makes her a perfect fit for our family.

The Trike.

Juliet has laid a claim on the trike - she just lets her feet dangle while either Colin, Jude or I push her along. Any lag in movement irritates her, so there is no relaxing while she is around...
And apparently she takes this trike business very seriously. I could just eat her up! And when did my sweet little baby get so big? Sniff.

More Collaging.

This project is soo much fun!! Lots of work, though...

Some Photo Collaging.

Today, while Jude has been gone and Samuel at preschool, I've been educating myself on Photoshop CS4. I grabbed a couple of textbooks from the library and learned how to do clipping masks and layered templates. It's really not rocket science, but for a novice like me, it takes some time. These templates are for my "Week in the Life" project and I'm in the middle of digitally sorting, trashing and cropping all my photos of that week (somewhere near 500 photos - ugh). I'm doing photo page openers (above) for each day and collages (below) as well. This part of the process is pretty fun. After finishing all of my digital editing, I will be sending them off to scrapbookpictures.com for printing. Then I get to sit down and put them in my 8.5x11 album.


I am excited to look back on this album in years to come and actually remember the little moments.

I'm Laughing at These Pics.

These are more pics from my "Week in the Life" documenting. The above one seems to be a repeat throughout the week of the baby clinging to me. And below, she was "helping" me with laundry. How sassy does she look?! I love her vintage slip I found at Value Village - so frilly and fun.
And here is Samuel going to grab Juliet after nap time. He couldn't resist some acrobatics.
Life has been a bit of a whirlwind around here with sick kids and a husband working lots of shifts. Finally I get a break tomorrow for Mother's Day - I will insist on slipping out to regain some sanity. Is it bad to want to escape the children for Mother's Day? I don't feel too terrible about getting a chance to miss them.

I'm currently loving the Totally Rad Actions - playing around with photos is so fun. I tested out the Acid Wash and Lux actions above.

How I cook while alone with kids....

Finishing up my "Week in the Life" (tomorrow is my last day) and loved this picture Samuel just took. When I'm alone with the kiddos and am getting dinner ready, normally I cook during their nap time, but when I can't, the baby clings desperately to my legs and cries. Family's gotta eat, so life goes on...
And here's Jude today in Trader Joe's helping me shop. He loves the kid baskets.

More Day in the Life...

I'm surprised that I've been able to keep up with A Week in the Life and I can't wait to look back on this week many years down the road. The photo above is Jude in the shower a few minutes after he woke up - throwing up. Fun for me! He has viral bronchitis and pink eye as well. Needless to say the girls beach weekend I was going to go to is not an option for me now. The photo below shows how clingy the baby is to me all the time.
Here Samuel asked me to write him a book while he drew the illustrations. It involved Superman and "bad guys". And jail, inevitably. Notice the messy table - that's real life for us around here.
And thank goodness Colin came home yesterday (he's only home one day out of four right now). Out of pity for myself, I rented Sherlock Holmes and we stayed up until 10 and watched most of it. Good movie!

Oh, happy National Scrapbooking Day. Yes, I said it.

Have a great weekend!!