And there went March

I can not believe we are into the very last day of March already, where oh where has the last month gone ?
For me a huge chunk of it was spent behind a sewing machine sewing up fun things for the store like bright and cheery oven mitt sets
Clothespin bags in anticipation of the warmer days ahead making way for us to hang out our wash

Teacher appreciation gifts

A couple of gifts were thrown in the mix and then on the first day of Spring we were treated to gorgeous weather, weather warm enough to beckon us to the beach for the first time this year, it was glorious

Now we are in the early days of Spring break and the throes of Easter preparation, the eggs are cooking as I type, in order to get ready for decorating later tonight.
Talking of eggs I'm going to share with you my fool proof way to the perfect hard boiled egg, one where you can be guaranteed no cracked shells and no icky grey around the egg yolk.
Add your eggs to a pan of cold water, bring to a rolling boil and then turn off the heat. Yes, I said turn it off. Let the eggs sit for about 10 - 15 mins ... the eggs will cook themselves in the hot water. Pour out the hot water and refrigerate the eggs. Voila, the perfect hardboiled egg.

Tomorrow the perfect Easter cookie. See you then.

2 things I have learnt today

1) I am an incredibly impatient person

2) I do not have ADD

How did I draw to these conclusions today ? My SIL IM'd me on Facebook Saturday night to let me know she had finally gone into full blown labor, for a while it was just the 2 of us talking, my brother was in bed sleeping, her family were all tucked into their own beds and the 2 of us were visiting, she was telling me how she was feeling and asking if what she was feeling was normal, then things got a little too uncomfortable for her and she went and woke up my brother. I then went to bed, anticipating that I was soon going to be an Auntie, I took the portable phone upstairs with me and placed it on my nightstand, I slept deep and panicked when I woke up, sure that I had missed the call, checked the ID unit, nope hadn't missed the call. I came downstairs, Chris had said he might email me, checked my email.. nothing, checked my Facebook, yep a message from Chris, Boo, it was about something totally unrelated but did mention they were now at the hospital. That was 6:30 am their time, 1:30am my time.
I waited and waited for the call telling me that a new member of our family had arrived, I ran knocking everyone out of my way every time the phone rang (never them) I didn't want to go anywhere, I must have sat at the computer staring at the screen hitting refresh every 2 minutes, wondering if my SILs sister was going to IM me with an update, then I remembered a very important soccer game was on the TV and she'd be glued to that.
I had sewing to do, orders to fill and I did a little of that, but all the while wondering what was going on 3,000 miles away, I finally gave up with the sewing, it wasn't going too well. At about 3pm a chat box popped up on Facebook, it was my brother FINALLY, he asked if I was here, yes, yes and yes, I fully expected a call to come in, nothing, then up popped "She's in the final stages" Thank goodness !! Then he went on to tell me that she was at 5cm, uhm, no that's not the final stages, that's halfway there, I didn't have the heart to tell him that (they're 1st time parents), so we chatted for a bit and then he logged off because his phone battery was getting low and he needed to save some juice for later.
I knew the next time I would hear from my baby brother he would be telling me that he was a Daddy.
Knowing that Sharon was only at 5cm, I knew there was maybe about another 4 or 5 hours, finally I was able to relax and take my mind off of them for a while and get some stuff done around here, I fixed my sewing machine problem, fixed dinner, tidied up, watched a little TV and then about 9pm the phone rang, I sprinted, I hurdled I got to that phone before anyone else even heard the first ring finish, and I answered it to this garbled noise, WTH was that ? Who was that ? OMG it was my brother, I have no clue what he first said to me, he was having a 'moment' and it was surreal, finally he told me "It's a little girl, she's beautiful" He then told me to hang on, she was about to let out her first cries, I gathered Ben and Reagan around the phone with me and then all of a sudden we heard that wonderful noise of a baby's first cry, is there anything better ?
Ben had a grin plastered from one side of his face to the next, Reagan's eyes sparkled and cheeks flushed, she was no longer the youngest and she had a baby girl cousin, could life get any sweeter in her world ? I think not.
So baby Grace, welcome to the world, you taught me that patience is not my thing, never have I been more impatient for something to happen in my whole entire life and no I do not have ADD, my mind was on your Mummy, Daddy and you the whole time.
I'm yet to meet you and see pictures of you with your eyes open, but I love you so deeply it almost hurts xoxo

It's the weekend

For most families the weekend means spending quality family time together, right ? Here it means that Ben and Reagan will annoy the living crap out of each other until one or both of them get hurt and today is definitely no exception, I am at the point where it's almost white noise, for Marc not so much, he escapes to run errands, (I swear he makes them up as he drives away).
So today heard from the living room, while Ben was trying to watch T.V

Ben: Reagan you make a horrible window

Reagan: That's why I'm standing here, practice makes perfect.

O.M.G !!!

5 minutes later, Reagan came out crying / whining, Ben went to block a slap from her and elbowed her square in the mouth.

Have a great weekend folks !!

The Perfect Man

According to Reagan (6 y/o) The perfect man is a snowman.

Reagan: I want my husband to be a snowman

Me: Why ?

Reagan : I can dress him how I like and when he gets on my nerves I can take him to the beach or blow a hair dryer on him.

Bwahahaha

When the weather outside is frightful

We have to do something inside, that's delightful. Today that consisted of Reagan and I whipping up some scrumptious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies. DELICIOUS !! and because you might be in need of some baking therapy while stuck inside, or just because you want to bake something for fun we're going to share our recipe with you.

COOKIES
--------
2 sticks butter 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar 2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt 3 C oats
1 C raisins ( we used 1/2 C raisins and 1/2 C chocolate chips)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Beat together sugars and sugar until creamy
3. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well
4.Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mix well.
5. Stir in oats
6. Divide mixture into 1/2, adding chocolate chips to one 1/2 and raisins to the other.
7. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet
8.Bake 12 - 14 mins or until golden brown
9. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet ; remove to wire rack.
ENJOY !!!

I was also in need of some fabric therapy and so whipped up a pair of two handed oven mitts and a co ordinating kitchen towel in some bright cheery fabric featuring Summer fruits. I'm in desperate need of cheery and bright right now, enough of the white already and in case you are too, they are available in the store www.thegivingtree.etsy.com (Blogger isn't co operating with me tonight to give you a direct link)

Be careful what you wish for....

Because you might just get it. For weeks and weeks several friends were hoping and praying for snow, they'd wake up pissed at the Northern hemisphere for they had lots of the white stuff and we were still brown, cold and gloomy. Then I got on the band wagon, yep, it would be nice to see some of the white stuff, just enough to play in for a day or 2 have a snow day off school and then be back to normal again, but noooooo, what do we get ? 2 weekends of HEAVY snow, I'm talking record breaking snow. Bear in mind this town gets an annual average of 8 inches of snow (I know, because I looked it up)On January 30th it started snowing and it didn't stop until it dumped 13 inches of that beautiful cold white stuff on us.
The kids were ecstatic, we all got bundled up and hit the slopes, A.K.A the Elks Lodge, hey don't knock it, in a town of no hills you do whatcha' gotta do, there we enjoyed several hours of sledding enjoyment. Reagan proved to be the dare devil out of the 3, at 6 y/o the other 2 would not have thought much about going down those hills, Reagan laughed so much I thought she was going to pee her pants (really). True to form the schools were closed on Monday.. more sledding, the schools were closed on Tuesday, we attempted sledding, but nope too many people in one spot, no snow just mud, Wednesday, O.M.G still no school, just antsy kids and a crazy Mom, Thursday, reprieve, 2hr late start but it's better than nothing, right ? Friday, school started right on schedule, only to be interrupted by a whole new storm. Seriously now, that's a bit much, the snow started falling at about 3pm Friday and didn't let up until it had dumped another 18 inches on us 30 hrs later.
Sunday it was back to the slopes, this time w/ sleds and snowboards and this Momma decided to give snowboarding a go, fun as heck, ever tried it ? No, then you really should, word of warning though, you will hurt and be stiff as a board for the next X amount of hours, not sure how many because I'm still hurting, wine and Ibuprofen aren't touching it right now. Monday, guess what ? No school, so yes we hit those pesky slopes again, Tuesday, no school,Victoria did, I don't know what, Ben went snowboarding, Reagan and I built snow people, Tonight another freaking storm has started, only this one has started with ice, turned to freezing rain and sleet, is going back to ice and then just for the hell of it, it's going to give us another 4 - 12 inches of snow... these kids will NEVER be going back to school at this rate.
So as of February 9th a town whose annual average snowfall is 8 inches we have received 31 inches and counting.
It's been a blast but Mother Nature after this round, please no more until next year and then can we have it a little more spread out please ? Our kids need to be in school during the gross winter months, not the glorious sunny ones.

The wisdom of hot chocolate

The Wisdom In Hot Chocolate...

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were discussing their lives at a class reunion. They decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired, who was always an inspiration to them. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work, lives and relationships. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups. Some cups were porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, and some exquisite. He invited each to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor shared his thoughts.“Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones ? While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you are drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What each of you really wanted was hot chocolate. You did not want the cup . . . but you consciously went for the best cups.”

“And soon, you began to eye one another’s cups. Now friends, please consider this . . .Life is the hot chocolate,your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor does it change, the quality of life you are living. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the 'hot chocolate' life has provided us.”

Enjoy your hot chocolate!!

Always remember this . . . . . . . . . . The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have!! The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

Live simply . . .
Love generously . . .
Care deeply . . .
And Speak kindly . . .