Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Well, since I clearly haven't been blogging much lately, and since I clearly have not been resting enough lately, what have I been doing?

1. Baking.
Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (that I PIPED from my very own KIT from the grocery store - I was so pleased by how much less cupcakes look like a five-year-old made them when covered in piped icing versus spread), chocolate cupcakes with fluffy peanut butter frosting (also piped), numerous coconut cakes (with sour cream whipped frosting - it turned out pretty well, though it was not the recipe that I tasted in July at the beach and was hoping to re-create), cookies and cream cake balls (that really deserve a better name, because they are SO GOOD, but "cake ball" just doesn't do it justice. It sounds like something Asher would create with whatever is left on his plate after dinner), pumpkin pies, chocolate chip cookie bars (finally settling on a bar recipe I like), and - drum roll please - a dessert that is safe for Silas to eat. Thankfully, I have eaten maybe a piece (sometimes not) of each of these desserts, then passed them along to hips that could handle them a little better than my own. I also threw away an entire carrot cake, because it was too dense and a total overkill with the stir-ins. Oh well. One bad recipe all month isn't too bad at all.

I've gotten hooked on Sandra Lee. I saw a recipe for a black bean burger that looked like it would be really fun to try, but since Brian doesn't eat black beans and Silas can't have oats, I'll have to save it for ... what? I'm not sure. But it looked really good.

I'm considering trying to make my own yogurt next month. Making my own would allow me to control the sugar that goes into our yogurt (which is good for everyone, but especially good for my household, with our blood sugar issues), but it's also a little scary. I ate some over the weekend (at someone else's house) and really liked it, though - it's creamier than store bought. But the recipe just goes against everything you've ever learned about keeping milk at a safe temperature, so it just seems a little like I'm TRYING to poison my family. We'll see. I'm also going to try to make granola. I love love love homemade granola, but I've never made it before. And I'm considering homemade bread, but I don't know. Dude, homemade bread is WORK.

I've also been

2. Hostessing. (Wait, that's not right. I'm hosting, not hostessing. Hostessing sounds like I'm wearing all black and leading you to your table. Or like I'm a cupcake - neither of which are true.)
I have cooked/cleaned/prepared for a baby shower, a supper club dinner, our pastor and his family, and the kick-off of a small group in the past three weeks. That is where many of those cupcakes went, in case you were wondering. Our house has seen many many many small feet lately, since almost every person we have over anymore has small children of their own. We had nine kids under five at our small group last week. I absolutely love the chaos of small children - so long as mine aren't clobbering their guests. Asher in particular seems to find an impish joy in hearing little girls SHRIEK as he tries to drive over them with his life-sized car. Lord, please send this child a sister (eventually - not today! eventually!) so that he can avoid prison time. Amen.

and I have been

3. Out.
We started a play group out of our church that meets twice a month. We have continued in our neighborhood playgroup, that meets once a week. I have - as I've mentioned - taken on a little extra work, which has been squeezed into mornings here and there. Asher started going to Mother's Morning Out one day a week. My weekly "Catholic" Bible study also picked back up last week (praise Jesus - we adjourned for the summer and I missed it a lot).

The kids and I have been enjoying the end of unendurable heat by going outside as much as possible. Asher and I also made a trip to the library one Saturday and met a few milestones in the doing - Asher was introduced to both Dr Seuss and Charlotte's Webb. I let him stay up half an hour after his brother for several nights in a row, watching a little at a time of the original Charlotte's Webb movie, and he loved it. He still talks about Wilbur and Templeton. It was very fun.

We have also spent more time at my parents' house lately. The introduction of Hudson to the fray has upped our treks to the lake, so that I can hold him whenever possible. Going to my parents' really is a day-long trip, typically, since I'm balancing an hour drive each way with nap and bed schedules and trying to maximize our time up there. I hate to get up there just in time to put them down, and then have them wake up just in time to prepare dinner and leave. I've also made two unplanned trips, once a few weekends ago (when that little joker scared us all by turning blue), and once last Saturday to hang out with my dad after the death of a great-aunt.

All of that to say, I just haven't spent that much time on the computer lately. But I am focusing now on a better maintenance schedule. I know what gives me energy - writing and exercising and a few minutes of quiet every day - but I do them in fits and spurts. I seem to work until I crash, crash until I'm bored, then pick up new projects and start all over again. I am focusing now on maintenance - on taking a few minutes to myself before I'm desperate for it, so that maybe I can avoid the crash altogether. We'll see if it works.

Anyway, that's been my life lately. What have you been up to?

4 comments:

Lisa said...

Wow! Busy. I blog in my head all day but have no mental energy to do it once I get a moment at the computer.

Heather said...

I started using a baggie to pipe my cupcake icing, last year. Looked so much better. I agree.

I like Sandra Lee. I had a black bean burger at Chile's and was impressed. Me, the meat-eater.

My friend, here, Jennifer, makes her own yogurt. I am not a yogurt eater, but she says it is very eay.

Nick M. said...

After reading your post I have been doing the following:
1) hoping for some pumpkin/cream cheese cupcakes
2) hoping for some chocolate/peanut butter cupcakes
3) hoping for some cookies and cream cake balls

yeah, can't really focus on my else right now...

...oh and "you guys should really have Fresca around here"

Jason said...

I been losing weight !! and I have two of Sandra Lees cookbooks if you want to borrow them