Today

Today I realized how fast time flies.
Today I realized that's it been forever since I've posted.
Today I promise to try harder to post more often.
Today I realized that there's so much to share. Recipes, crafts, pictures, life.

For now, here's a snippet of finds:

1. I read this book.
I love it. I loved everything about it. I want it to be a movie. I want to sit in my seat, with my bucket of popcorn, and watch these wonderful characters come to life.

2. I have one of these:
I HEART my Cricut. It's changed my crafting life. Ohhh, the paper...the vinyl...the love.

3. My garden has taken control of my life.

4. My baby lost her first tooth. At 4.75 years of age, baby might be an overstatement but, she's still my baby. How can she already be loosing teeth? Did someone spin the earth a little faster in to a warp speed? UGH!

4. Next up, a recipe. It's delightful!

2010

Where did the end of 2009 go? And how can I be "meaning to make another post" for 6 months? Life has been busy in our little corner of the world but I can't help but stop for a moment and think about the events that are occurring right now.

Heartfelt prayers to all of the people in Haiti, and to all of the people all over the world, near and far, that have been affected by this horrible event.

Up North

I love "up north". I love the trees, cool breeze, ample lakes, and relaxed atmosphere. We were able to spend some time with AJ's sister Sam, her husband Jamie, and their two boys Jakob and Seth last weekend. Coincidentally, they live "up north".

This is the view from Sam & Jamie's deck. It was also the view from our bedroom. What a wonderful way to wake up each morning.

We took a trip to Madeline Island, part of the Apostle Islands, in northern WI. If you're ever in that part of the country I recommend you check it out.

Jakob, Seth, and Sidney

Miss Sidney

Tom's Burned Down Cafe. VERY cool, eclectic place!

Tom's has several of these signs hanging all over the place. This one was my favorite.

A beach on Madeline Island. Sidney is trying to put a feather in the water.

I found this little guy walking down to Sam & Jamie's dock.

Thanks for the wonderful weekend Shaw family! We had a great time.

Where's Missy

We know all about the Where's Waldo books. Here's a spin off of that....

I was taking some pictures of a bouquet of roses when I noticed something in the background. Let's see if you can see it.

Yep, that's a cat and apparently she likes roses too.

Ahhh, they smell so good.

And they're pretty too.

Tiny Bubbles....Big Fun

Wouldn't it be wonderful to be three years old again?

A jar of bubbles + a little wind = a lot of fun

It's moments like these that makes me love being a mom.

Great Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been making chocolate chip cookies forever. I've tried dozens of recipes that have been good but I could never find that one special recipe that produced the perfect cookie. I like my cookies a little chewy, a little puffy, and chock full of oatmeal.

While I am a daring cook, I'm not very daring when it comes to baking. Baking is more science than art and sometimes over tweaking a recipe can yield unwanted results. That being said, I've tweaked and worked this cookie recipe until I found just the right combination of ingredients. It's really become my go to recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. Bake a batch today you won't regret it.



Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened (3 sticks)
  
• 1/4 c. peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
• 3 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp. hot water
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 3 3/4 c. old fashioned oatmeal (yes, that 3 and 3/4 cups) (not instant or quick cooking oatmeal)
• 1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 - 1 cup bittersweet/dark chocolate chips (alternately you could use white chocolate or peanut butter chips)

1. Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium size bowl and set aside.
2. Cream together the sugars, butter, and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
3. With mixer running stir in vanilla, hot water, flour mixture and oatmeal and mix until combined.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by spoonful on to an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes until the middle is set and the edges start to brown.

Let rest on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Store in an airtight container. These keep well for about 4 days and the freeze very well.

Makes 6-7 dozen.

Note: I like to pull these out just before they are completely baked, they finish baking on the pan while they are resting for a minute or two.

Another note: I use medium sized dough scoop instead of a spoon. If you have one, it works really nice because the cookies are roughly all the same size and there's no mess getting the dough off the spoon.