Baking Confessions

I love to bake. Baking is one of my favorite pastimes. I love the aroma that lingers in the house after the goodies come out of the oven. The aroma of fresh baked goodness makes a house a home. Having food ready and waiting to offer someone is also a way of showing hospitality. (I am currently working on my hospitality skills. I feel so lacking in that skill and God calls us to be hospitable. ) 

For me though, baking is how I relieve stress and process stuff. While I am measuring, mixing, and kneading out my frustrations and my thoughts, I become more focused. The icing on the cake (ha, ha, ha... icing... cake - I crack myself up. Get it "crack" like an egg. Okay, maybe I need to go bake some more.) is the yummy aroma and the smiling faces on my kiddos and hubby (of course) when I pull something delectable out of the oven. Often times it is so hard to wait for it to cool off enough to eat. It is also a great way to unleash my creativity (of which I am seriously lacking) by coming up with fun food presentations.

I made these snickerdoodles the other night. I thought it would be really fun to do something different with them. So I searched the cupboards for a fun dish and came up with this. I coated the rim of a frosted martini glass (one of my dessert dishes) with cinnamon-sugar and then put the cookies in the glass. It made sense to me as snickerdoodles are covered in cinnamon-sugar. If you have never eaten a snickerdoodle you are totally missing out. *sigh* My spell-check keeps telling me that "snickerdoodle" isn't a word. Obviously it has never had a snickerdoodle, or it wouldn't say that, every time I type it.

Snickerdoodle, snickerdoodle, snickerdoodle.

I love how that sounds.

Anyway where was I?

This week was a bit stressful and I ended up baking lots of yummy goodies. It's great therapy and I highly recommend it. Unless you can't follow recipes and everything either comes out burnt or undercooked. Then you might need to come over for lessons.

But first, you must make these Muffins That Taste Like Donuts. (The kids are calling them "dough-muffins." They are delightfully scrumptious little morsels of heaven on earth. And they are easy to make.

Don't they look so very yummy? They made my mouth and tummy very happy. I made 24 mini muffins and they look like scrumptious little cinnamon-sugar coated donut holes. Aren't they just so cute? But I had some batter left over so I put it in my donut pan. 

Yes I have a donut pan, I know, I know I need professional help don't I? Sometime I should blog about all the fun baking pans I own, it isn't a big collection, yet. 

Okay back to these little delights. They were so fun to make and I am going to try making chocolate ones next. Then maybe I'll make healthy ones. Umm... question,  is there such a thing as a healthy donut? 

Oh wait, I don't like the sound of that. 

Healthy donut, healthy donut, healthy donut. 

Nope not going to work, donuts are donuts.

Next up: Brownies as They Should Be. Yummmmm

One of Those Days

It was one of those days today. A day where nothing seems to get done. It started out as a promising Friday when all of the kids slept in until 8:45 including Baby G (however, she was up from 3:30 to 4:30am). Then it went down hill when I hadn't even gotten to finish my first cup of coffee and my step-dad decided to stop by on a whim. He does this always at some inopportune times. He stayed and visited for a while -- totally fine. We had a nice conversation and then I decided the kids had to start school. So, I had them start and he went on his way. Okay not a big deal one interruption is fine. Then my precious Baby G decided to show me she was ready to be with the big kids during spelling. We had a 20-minute spelling lesson that took an hour! After 10 minutes of G's talking while I was trying to explain the -in word family to two confused girls (still not sure why, it was almost the same lesson as yesterday and yesterday they got it.) I caved and asked Daddy Reg to put a movie on for Baby G. The problem was the movie she chose was not one of her stand-bys that the kids are bored with. Noooooo, she chose a movie that hasn't been watched in months. Ugh, I can’t win. As the TV is in direct line with the dinning table by default - there really is no other way to do it with the house design. I lost the battle even though I kept trying. We will be repeating that spelling lesson on Monday - I know that they will not retain a thing I taught them. I fixed them lunch as by this time it was already 12:30! After lunch, we had to get out so off to the library where I checked out sooooo many Thanksgiving books I feel bad for anyone hoping to check out any books on Thanksgiving because what I didn't check out are the ones that someone much more prepared than I am checked out 2 days ago. Or, I would have checked out more. Then naptime for Baby G - yeah some peace quiet and sanity. Oh, wait, no I still had so much to do but by then realized it would be a good idea NOT to try to do more school with the kids. Instead, I did what needed to get done and tried this cranberry sauce recipe but added some chopped apple. Note to self, reduce the sugar just a tad, and add some orange zest. It was way too yummy. And Daddy Reg and I made dinner. Okay that was a shortened but still long story of my day. How crazy.
I know I lost my focus today and I know that I probably should have just decided to not do school maybe but sometimes I get so task oriented that I forget the bigger picture. It is as if I get tunnel vision and all I can see it the end that I want to get to. I don't see that there are little detours that I can escape the tunnel and leave the mountain early.

Busy Being Distracted

Busyness can be such a problem with moms. We have a tendency to become preoccupied with accomplishing tasks. Many times however those things that we seem to think need tackling are just distractions.
I have been finding myself being extremely busy even though I am trying not to be. My head lately has just been spinning and spinning. I am having a hard time finding the off switch. Busyness creeps in, I become so distracted from looking at the bigger picture, and I get hyper-focused. That is not how God wants us to be. I was reading Luke 10 trying desperately to get my head from spinning and just getting plumb with God. Why Luke 10? Because I have been told that I can be a Martha, I think it is true. I find myself getting distracted with all of the preparations that I miss the good stuff. I am listening but not fully. When Jesus came to Mary and Martha’s house, Mary chose to sit and listen to what Jesus was saying without being distracted. Martha was distracted. When she confronted Jesus about Mary not helping, Jesus gently rebuked her and said she was “anxious and disquieted about many things.” (Young's Literal Translation) Martha was stressed out. How often do I find myself stressed out? A LOT. Mary was resting at Jesus’ feet. She was renewing her strength and not allowing distractions to get in the way of her hearing the word of God. Mary chose not to be busy, distracted or stressed out. If we sit at Jesus’ feet, we will not become stressed out. I love that. My stress meter is ready to blow its top. I am exhausted, tired, and desperately trying to fit everything into my day and the kids’ school day. I am finding myself stressed and not relaxed like Mary.
I want to choose the good part and remember not to let myself get distracted.

And it came to pass, in their going on, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman, by name Martha, did receive him into her house, and she had also a sister, called Mary, who also, having seated herself beside the feet of Jesus, was hearing the word,

and Martha was distracted about much serving, and having stood by him, she said, `Sir, dost thou not care that my sister left me alone to serve? say then to her, that she may partake along with me.' And Jesus answering said to her, `Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and disquieted about many things, but of one thing there is need, and Mary the good part did choose, that shall not be taken away from her.'

Luke 10:38-42

Young’s Literal Translation