Cold and Cookies

Anyone who knows me knows that I do not like cold weather.

At all.

When it gets cold I'm unmotivated to do anything other than bake cookies and eat them.

So, since we had our first real cold snap this week, that's exactly what my little baking beauty and I did!

Yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

I included the recipe for any other cold weather bakers out there.

No, even with the pumpkin, they are not good for you.

But they are so yummy it's worth it!

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup pumpkin

1 whole egg and 1 egg white

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups cholocate chips

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

powdered sugar

Sift sugar, four, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a medium mixing bowl.

Combine shortening, pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla in a smaller mixing bowl and then add them to the dry ingredients.

Blend well.

Add chocolate chips.

Blend well.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 9-11 minutes. 

Lightly dust with powdered sugar if desired.

Be careful not to overbake.  The cookies will be moist and cake-like.


Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

10

My husband and I have been married for 10 years today.  A decade.

I remember when we had our first anniversary and I felt like 1 year was a long time!  Hopefully, in 40 years, we will be celebrating somewhere remembering back to when we thought 10 years was a long time.

The first song on the slideshow (Songbird by Eva Cassidy) was our first dance at our wedding.  I just liked the second (Something that We Do by Clint Black). I actually almost picked Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You but realized my mother would flip if I paid tribute to my marriage with a song containing the word 'suck'.

This video encompasses the last 10 years of our lives together. It's a little long, but well, 10 years is a long time.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

PSF and Bibliya

Біблія is the Ukrainian word for Bible.

When we learned Sasha would be coming to stay with us over Christmas, I wanted a Bible to be one of his Christmas presents.

Bibles in Eastern European languages are hard to come by but fortunately I was directed to Eastern European Missions.  They are a wonderful organization and graciously provided us with two Bibles in Russian.  

One was a children's Bible and the other a regular, full verse Bible.

I was amazed when I saw it.  It has some of the most beautiful illustrations I have seen.  I took some pictures, although they hardly do it justice.  

In other Sasha news, everything is going well.  He's such a sweet boy, plays nicely with Jack, Melody, and Charlie and has incredible manners.  I learned today he likes to cook and had a great time helping me make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  Each day, our language barrier is getting better.  He doesn't say too much but his comprehension level is rising.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli 

PSF and Marnold

Meet Marnold.


Marnold, a pygmy puff, was a gift to me from Lauren on her recent excursion to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.  (I know you're dying to know what she got herself.  A wand.  Hermione's wand.  Yes, she is cool.)

Now, I love Marnold.  But not quite as much as Melody does.  From the moment she noticed Marnold, or what she initally referred to as the pink puff ball, she has taken care of him.

She even named him in a way.  His initial name was Arnold Jr.  However, Melody said she didn't like saying that name and was just going to say Marnold.

Marnold's day begins with breakfast, followed by an eventful time watching Melody play with her toys, and then a nap.  At bedtime Melody will place him in my bed and kiss him goodnight.  She also checks him in the morning to make sure he actually did sleep in my bed.

Who knew Melody was destined to be a pygmy puff mommy?!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

PSF and bunks

We are now one of those families.

You know.  Families with bunk beds.

Yes, this is a really bad picture.  But it does capture the excitement.  They were bouncing up and down as I took it.
 

In the 4 days we've had the bunks I've learned some important lessons:

•  The top bunk is really hard to make.
• The top bunk is where the child will want to sleep.
• Don't spend a lot of money.  The beds will be damaged or graffitied in the first 24 hours.
• Jumping off the top bunk or the ladder is lots of fun.
• No amounts of threats and/or punishments will deter said jumping.
 

And finally 

• If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

PSF and Where We Were

I left a few of you wondering where we southerners possibly could have seen snow last weekend...Waynesville, NC!

We went up to the North Carolina mountains to visit with our Granny and Aunt Nan who drove over for the weekend as well.

Saturday morning on our way up there we experienced quite a dusting.  It quickly melted, but the kids enjoyed it for a few hours first.  

Since we rarely get snow in GA, this was quite a treat for them.

Melody and Charlie enjoyed showing off their snowmen.

We found some scarecrows to play with

And Jack developed a love for photography that included taking picture of random golfers on the golf course...

who then turned the table on him and took a picture of this crew!

And best of all, we got to spent a lot of time with Granny Gertie and Aunt Nan!  (Despite his face, Charlie was having a blast.  He just didn't want to stop throwing leaves on Aunt Nan to pose for a picture with her!)

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

PSF and Ouch!

Despite my promises of entering back into the blogging world (which I know no one believes any more) I've been insanely busy and neglecting blogs yet again.

However, this is the end of the business for me.  That's it.  It's over. I quit.  I've had too much going on and I'm slowing down my life.

Hold me to it.

In the meantime, I leave you with this cute little guy who has an important lesson to share; it's not a good idea to get up close and person with a sidewalk!

Ouch!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

PSF and Meet Sasha

In the past few weeks, we've had some exciting stuff going on at our house.

Alex and I recently became involved in a non-profit, Christian organization that brings over orphaned children twice a year from Eastern Europe to share with them God's love and allow them to experience Christian family life.

(Click on the photo to visit their website.) 

We have decided to be a host family this Christmas.

Meet Sasha.

Sasha is Russian and he's 13 years old.  We don't know a whole lot about him, other than he's a funny, sweet, and active boy.  He will be joining our family in mid-December and will stay with us through mid-January.

New Horizon's is a wonderful organization.  I urge you to check out their website and our website as well for more information or for more ways to be involved.




Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27

PSF and Diva-in-Training

How do I know that Melody is a future diva?  

(Other than the fact that she has mastered drama completely.)

She has also mastered the fine art of pulling off a wardrobe malfunction.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

PSF and Muscles

It's no secret that Jack's greatest desire is to be a superhero.
Preferably Batman.



I have to admit, I've used this to my advantage at every possible opportunity once or twice.

I can't help it. It's just so easy. All I have to do is tell him that I used kryptonite as an ingredient and he will happily scarf down anything on his plate.

Yesterday as he was inhaling peas kryptonite balls the following conversation took place. "Mom," he said excitedly, "I feel these lumps in my chest! I think I'm finally starting to get muscles like Batman!"

"Great." I responded.

"It's because I'm eating all these kryptonite balls!" he said. "Pretty soon I'm going to have muscles just as big as Batman's."

(silence for a few seconds)

"Mom? Why doesn't Daddy have any muscles like Batman?"

It was hard not to giggle at that one.

Oh, and the lumps? His ribs.


Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Ok, I know what I said in my last post. I've been trying to think about what I want to post about these past few days. I do want to get more open and honest about things really going on, but it's hard. After all my mom reads this blog. Just kidding, Mom. I've realized that I'm just not a real emotional person. Or not good at sharing my emotions. I know that people who know me IRL are probably laughing but I'd just like to point out that acting emotional and sharing (verbalizing) emotions aren't the same thing. Ahem.
Anyway, stick with me. I'll get there. After all, this kind of counts,right? I mean, I opened up about how I'm not good at opening up.

PSF and Meet Melody, the hoarder

Meet Melody.

Any regular reader of my blog know what a sweet, spunky little girl she is.

What you probably don't know is that she's a hoarder. In a big way.

I used to think it was just a phase but now I'm fairly sure it's becoming a lifestyle.

To prove my point, I have evidence that I found in her school bag the other day. Her "treasures" include miscellaneous plastic bags, mardi gras necklaces (that's a whole other worry), wood chips, a few rocks, and a duck. A duck, incidentally, that she found her her friend, Ava's car. I guess I can add klepto to her list of issues as well.
Hoarding: Buried Alive now has their first contestant for their children's edition.

It's a good thing she's so cute because she sure is a handful.

PSF and How to Catch Ants

One of the things I love about my six year old (and six year olds in general) is the big ideas they come up with.

Jack came home very excited from school one day last week. He and a friend had hatched a genius plan to catch ants.

In preparation of this venture, they wrote step by step instructions, complete with illustrations, in this handy notebook.

I am now passing this knowledge on to you.

You're welcome.

1. Drag your foot across the ground.

2. An ant will walk out.

3. Drop rock on ant.

4. Dig a deep hole.

5. Ant will fall in the hole.

6. Ant trap.

See, simple. Yep, it's nice having a genius as my son.


Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

PSF and 2

It's hard to believe that's it been almost two whole years (1 year and 362 days to be exact) since our Charlie came into the world and made our family complete.

(1 day old)

He's been our happy, rolly-polly baby

(6 months)

easygoing, unless he has an opinion on the matter

(12 months)

always curious and determined to do whatever his brother and sister do

(18 months)

and a smile that just melts my heart.

(almost two years old!)

Happy birthday, Charlie!! We love you more than you'll ever know!


Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

PSF and bat-attack!

Anyone who knows our family knows Jack loves adores is insanely obsessed with Batman.

But he's not the only one.
We seem to be a family of Bat-people.

(all photos courtesy of the incredibly talented Pam Powell)

Along with Batman, we have Bat-girl (or Bat-grr-al as Melody pronounces it).

And the Bat-xcutioner.

And sometimes I even join in the fun and become Bat-mommy.
(After all, why should the kids have all the fun!?)

I'm not sure what possessed me to put this totally embarrassing picture up. So, enjoy it now...when I come to my senses I'm sure I'll take it down!

PSF and mixed up

Is anyone else as confused as I am?

One child seems a little overly prepared

while the other two only have enough clothes between them for one person.



I'm not sure where I went wrong that day!