a.rose

While we are on the topic of cookies, my friend Natalie wanted me to share this recipe and idea for rainbow cookies.  And so, here we go again with the cookies. It all started because I was teaching the letter R to Hallie and Hanna's little group of friends.  Thus, rainbows. I did the requisite pinterest and google searches, and wasn't coming up with very many activities that I was excited about.  In the car I came up with this idea, and Devin helped me make it work.  I give you, rainbow cookies. Recipe: 4 cups flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup shortening 2 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract Sift dry ingredients into bowl, set aside.  Cream butter and shortening.  Add sugar, mix until smooth.  Add eggs one at a time, beat a little after adding each one.  Add vanilla extract, beat.  Add dry ingredients gradually and blend well.  Divide dough evenly into four bowls.  Add food coloring...

My friend Rachel asked for the recipe for these cookies, and so here it is. Chocolate Cookies 6 tbsp butter 3/4 cup shortening 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups all purpose flour 3/4 cup cocoa 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup white chocolate chips 2 candy canes, crushed I put the two candy canes in a ziplock bag, unwrapped, and then gave Hallie and Hanna the rolling pin to crush them with.  They did a great job. Heat oven to 350.  Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy.  Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; gradually beat into butter mixture.  Stir in white chips.  Drop by rounded teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet.  I actually rolled them into balls in my hands, the dough is greasy but not sticky. Bake 8 minutes (Do not over bake.  They will puff while baking, then flatten upon co...

Some of you have expressed concern for me ever since my post about not feeling well.  I really appreciate that, and so I thought I'd let you know that I really, really am feeling better. And the way I know is, is because I am.  I am feeling, that is.  I am feeling happy, and I am feeling sad, and I am feeling angry, and the thing is that I AM again. When I wrote that post, for the past month or so I had been living in a strange dark void.  There was a gnawing nothingness that nibbled and nibbled at my soul until I was a hollow shell.  It left my shadow with more substance than my body.  And I didn't care.  I didn't feel happy and I didn't feel sad and I just didn't feel much of anything except that I wanted to be asleep. I realized the other day just how good it felt to be "feeling" again.  To be "doing" again.  I was making dinner for my family, a thick warm soup, with bread dough rising in a bowl, and cookies in the oven.  The h...

Dear Momma - I thought maybe you'd want to see how the quiet book you gave me to make for Heather turned out. I was really happy with it, and the girls (even Hallie and Hanna) love it!  These pretty little flowers can be buttoned and unbuttoned, obviously great for small motor skills. I added the little flower pot at the bottom because I thought it looked strange without one.  This is easily the favorite page.  The little doggie has a leash from his collar that allows him to come out of the dog house and go on short walks.  He is so loved that he has already been freed from his leash, but after a stern talking to, and being re-attached to his dog house, he is now ready to play again.  As long as he doesn't go too far.  This momma bird is sitting on some eggs.  Pull away her nest and count how many she has!  This one was the trickiest to make, and even now I am not at all sure that I followed the instructions correctly, but they d...

Hallie is a month and a half into being 5.  And there is a little voice in the back of my head that whispers at me all day long that she will be going to kindergarten in just a few months.  Going to kindergarten.   I've been thinking about her entering the big world, her first time truly out of my reach - I don't know the kids in her class, I don't know their parents, I don't know the lunch ladies, I don't know the teacher, I don't know anything. I know nothing. And she will know it all.  She will spend more waking hours there in a few months than she will at home, with me. Ah, that's not what this post was supposed to be about.  So I'm cutting that train of thought off, right now.  Cut. Let's try this again.  I decided it was time Hallie knew how to use a computer, you know, the simple basics.  So I taught her how to click a mouse, what it does, and a friend recommended a nice website called abcmouse where they can do little lessons an...

If you hate poetry, skip this post.  If you don't generally hate poetry, but you do hate it when I write poetry, skip this post.  Thanks! When Heather was about a week old, I wrote two poems.  You can find one of them here.  I saved this one for her birthday.  Happy Birthday, baby girl. In my mind     my brain     my center of control I love you, because my body worked     long shifts               late nights               and double overtime making sure your body had     kneecaps check     eyelids check     spleen check     duodenum check I love you because     You are mine. In my heart     my main frame     my center of emotion I love you, becau...

Well, another round of Three Minute Fiction has come and gone.  I was not as happy with the theme for this round, nor was I at all pleased with my own efforts.  The theme was voicemail - and anyone who has ever heard me leave a voicemail probably knows why I didn't love this theme* - but here is what I came up with, anyway. * Who leaves a three minute voicemail? Seriously, sit down and time yourself trying to talk to yourself for three minutes. It is a ridiculous long time. "Look, I know I was a jerk, and I’ve been thinking a lot about it, and I just, well of course I owe you an apology.  I know it is really late at night, and you’re probably sleeping, and I guess I should be sleeping too, except that I just couldn’t sleep without calling to tell you how sorry I am, even though I knew you wouldn’t answer because, well, I guess you’re asleep.   So now it’s just me, and your voicemail, and you... whenever you listen to this, waiting for my apology.  ...

updated: with links to goodreads! I find myself in two camps of reading: The Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen camp, and the Twilight Stephenie Meyer camp. So sue me, I love them both. In case you're looking for a great read for Valentine's Day (what? you don't read on Valentine's Day?)  consider the following: Mrs Mike by Benedict Freedman The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte Persuasion by Jane Austen (her best.  I get chills at the end, when she's reading the note?  CHILLS.) Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter The Pioneer Woman: From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond (funny, funny, funny) When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin (must have tissues) Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen (simply adorable) Hannah's Dream by Diane Hammond (if you love elephants) Kissed by An Angel Elizabeth Chandler (my favorite book in high school) The Little Prince by Antoin...

Look, I know I ask for your help a lot, but you guys are just so good at being helpful, and I am so bad at making decisions. I have about ten posts that I have wanted to write, but I spent a ridiculously silly amount of time on these pictures instead, and now I can't decide which is better.  That's your cue to step up and say you'd love to help, so that I can free up my brain to tell you all the other things I've been wanting to tell you. (Oreos are involved, so get excited.) What I do is I take pictures that represent the words of the song I am teaching and then I hold up the page for the line and they (hopefully) remember the words and know what to sing, until they have the song memorized. I do this because about half the kids are too young to read, or read very well.  Now you know what I do at church on Sunday. The line of the song in question that I have to teach the kids is "for all His creations of which I'm a part".  Originally I just took ...

Last week both Heather and Hanna wanted to go to bed by 6.  Hallie did not quite want to go to bed that early, so she and Devin made caramel sauce. Of course, as soon as I next went to the store, I bought ice cream. Tonight after dinner I made milk shakes, poured some caramel sauce in, and dropped in a few pink m&m's for good measure.  I served Hallie and Hanna their little cups full of creamy smoothness, and I sat down to share mine with Heather. She really laps that stuff up, her tiny mouth opening like a bird anticipating a delicious meal of... well, you know what baby birds eat.  I could hardly keep up with her demands her little fists flying when the spoon did not reappear fast enough. Which, frequently it did not reappear fast enough, because this was my milkshake too, right, so I wanted to have a bite now and then.  During these lapses, after her initial protestations went completely ignored, she went looking for something else to put in her mouth...

I can't make decisions.  So, tell me what pictures to print and put on my wall.  Thanks. Also, if you are a parent, grandparent, or great grandparent reading this, and you would like me to print a copy of one (or more) (or all) of these pictures for you, please email me and let me know which ones.  Thanks. If you aren't reading this on my actual blog, click here to vote in the poll. Hallie Picture #1 Picture #2 Picture #3 Hanna Picture #1 Picture #2 Picture #3 Heather Picture #1 Picture #2 Picture #4 Picture #3 CUTIE! Family Picture #1 Picture #2 Picture #3 Picture #4 Picture #5 Picture #6 Picture #7 Picture #8 Picture #9