SMP 5.20.14

Good morning, blog people!

I'm so happy it's Tuesday! Mainly for the reason that it's not MONDAY. My Monday was JAMpacked and I really didn't have time for the curveballs that were thrown at me. I survived though, curveballs and all. It helped that I had a night out with friends on the calendar which ended with birthday cake--for me! I love how a yucky day can be completely redeemed by sweet friends. I am blessed.

This is our last week of school. I think we will be completely finished up by noon on Thursday. So basically there are 2.5 days left for us which thrills me to no end. I am sooooooo ready for summer and a slower pace.

I've been to a couple of graduation events this week (more to come) and it's starting to sink in that this time next year, Will will be graduating from high school. I'm in complete denial. This can't possibly be happening. I've been thinking so much about how intentional I want to be this next year and some of the ways I hope the upcoming year will look for our family. I'm reminded of a quote that I love about raising children, "The days are long but the years are short." It's truer than true.

Blessings, friends. Hope your week is off to a good start!

Hey hey hey, it's Mother's Day!

From St. Louis,  November 2013

This is Abbey typing. Mwahahahahahahaha! Today is Mother's day! So, I wanted to blog on mi madre's computaaaa! We have a had a good day, watched movies!! IT IS SNOWING IN MAY! Why!?!?!?!?!?

I like adding pictures =)

I truly have the best momma. For Mother's day here's a few reasons I love her.

1. She provides our household with a lot

2. She is nice

3. She has a good way of discipline

4. She says yes to a lot

5. She says no to very little

6. We do a lot of fun things together

7. We can go to a 1D concert together

8. There's a lot more, but I'm gonna stop at 8

I also forgot to add: when i make a creation on my rainbow loom, she is always impressed- even if I screw it up

- by Abbey

Saturday Afternoon Baking: Coconut Craisin Pecan Cookies

There's a winter storm in our forecast with 6-12 inches of snow predicted for tomorrow. May 11. Oddly, I'm excited about this. Sure, I'd much rather go on a Mother's Day hike but a late-season round of wintry weather forcing us to stay inside and rest isn't so shabby either. Especially when a day like that is sandwiched between two very busy end-of-the-school-year weeks.

I bought a bag of almond flour at Costco yesterday because I've been wanting to try baking with it as a gluten/grain free alternative. I found a cookie recipe online this afternoon, tweaked it a bit, and the cookies turned out AMAZING! They were so good I wanted to share the recipe here. Cookies make snowy forecasts much more bearable, don't you think?

Coconut Craisin Pecan Cookies (Grain Free-Gluten Free)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup blanched almond flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 cup craisins
1/3 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup roughly chopped pecans
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preparation:
1. Combine the almond flour, craisins, coconut, brown sugar, chopped pecans, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.
2. In smaller bowl, beat the egg until smoothy and doubled in volume.
3. Add melted cocount oil and vanilla to the egg mixture, then pour into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
4. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or overnight).
5. Preheat oven to 375. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Slightly flatten the cookies before baking.
6. Bake 7-10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove and allow to cook on wire rack.

*Original recipe doesn't call for nuts or craisins, but 1/4 cup chocolate chips. I just happen to dislike chocolate so I added craisins and pecans.

SMP 5.6.14

SMP = Seven Minute (Random) Post

Good morning, blog friends. Can you believe it's MAY already? May is nuts around here. So much going on before the end of the school year. We have 2.5 weeks (or exactly 13 school days) left and all of my kids are counting down along with their mother.

Would anyone like a beagle? He's free to a good home. I'm kidding (sort of) but in the past three minutes I've gotten up three times to 1) shoo him out of the bathroom where he'd knocked over the trash can to dig through the trash 2) shoo him out of the kitchen where he was trying to pull breakfast dishes off the counter 3) shoo him out of the other bathroom where he was repeating the same trash can ritual. Oh. My. Gosh. It's reminiscent of the toddler years...

We have an aspen tree in our backyard that I've named "Lazarus". It appeared to be dead last spring/summer/fall. No leaves. No buds. No nothing. Two days ago, John pointed out the buds on it. Today there are green leaves. Huh? Do aspens go dormant for a year? Or is Lazarus an appropriate name? I'm just grateful it's showing signs of life.

Last week I was creeping on my kids' Instagram accounts. My kids know I do this; it's part of our deal with Instagram. As part of my "creeping" I clicked on one of their friend's accounts and saw a picture of one of my kids making an inappropriate gesture with their middle finger. I was horrified. I told John about it and we came up with a game plan for talking to said child upon their return home from school. I decided I should probably show John the picture so I pulled it up and said (after all of our discussion and disappointment), "Hey, you know what? I don't think this is really our kid in the picture." He just looked at me blankly so I handed him my phone. You know what? We got all worked up for NOTHING. It was NOT our child flipping the bird after all. Moral of the story? Momma needs to wear her glasses all the time and not jump to conclusions. I told all of our kids at dinner that night what I'd done and it prompted some good discussion. And some laughter too.

Happy Tuesday!