This Month's Resolutions Update

Some goals this month have been easy, some have been killer hard (that dang schedule!).  I don't know why, but the schedule thing has been the hardest thing I've done yet.  When I have tried to stick to it, even over an hour behind on my best days :), it has made a big difference in my productivity.

I have noticed that when I speak one love language to my kids (the hugs, way easy!), it makes it easier to speak another (when hugging that child, it is easy to say nice things, for example).

Do you follow a schedule?  What makes it easier for you?  I pride myself on being flexible, but this can also be the bane of my existence. :)

Sleddin'

We got a ton of snow last weekend, so my husband suggested we go sledding.  I'll admit I was nice and warm in the house :), thought maybe I could have a little alone time if I stayed home with the napping baby (wink, wink) (who woke up as it was time to go anyway), but I decided to go (force myself) and had a wonderful time.  Sledding is just so fun! (my hubby and I went sledding together at night on a steep, icy hill when we were just friends in college, it makes for a fun, crazy memory..we nicknamed one hill "The Scraper," lol)  And it was a great time together.  So beautiful too!  I just love these guys.  Went home for some hot chocolate and laughs over my husbands video of K's close encounter with "the jump." (see below)

 We don't have boots for baby, so we pretty much carried him the whole time.  He would act terrified when I took him down on my lap, but at the bottom he'd heave a breathless sigh and say "SLIDE!"  If I asked him if he liked it, he would nod his head.  :)

 Showing us how much "air" he got off a jump.  He talked about this and talked about it and talked about it and talked about it...until he went to bed that night. :)

A Hike

A Perfectionist's Chocolate Chip Cookie and Cooking at Altitude Adjustment Guide

I have been refining this recipe for years now, searching for the "perfect" cookie.  I'm not sure these are perfect, but they are super yummy!  Instead of calling them the "perfect" cookies I thought I'd call them "perfectionist's cookies" instead.  :)  Now, just so you know, perfect doesn't mean low fat in this case, it just means goooood.  One nice thing is, these are so good and filling I don't tend to eat as many (only half a dozen instead of the full tray).  :)

Note: I doubled my original recipe, because it never seemed to be enough.  But I do have five kids.  So, just in case this is a lot for you, you can cut it in half.  I also like to make dough balls and freeze them in gallon ziploc bags for later.  I just thaw them for 15 mins before baking (no need to be thawed completely!  I think they actually cook up the best when they have been frozen or chilled first).  Then I can also cook as many as I'd like at one time, because no matter how many I make they all get eaten (if I make 2 doz, and my kids each have one, I eat the rest, no matter how many are left!  ouch.).  Also, I tweaked the sugar because I prefer the taste of white sugar to brown.  Most traditional recipes have more brown than white.  As long as you have the same total amount of sugar, then you can change that up as needed or desired (could even swap out the requirements, ie, one and a half cups packed brown sugar and 1 cup white).

A Perfectionist's Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 cups plus 4 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour (21 1/4 oz)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
24 tablespoons (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup (7 oz.) packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups (10 and 1/2 oz.) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vegetable shortening (Crisco)
2 large eggs plus 2 yolks
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (according to taste, whether you like a lot or only a few)

1.  Adjust an oven rack to the upper or lower middle rack.  Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit*.  Spray a baking sheet with non stick cooking spray (or line with parchment paper).  (if you are below 4000 feet, heat your oven to 325 and cook a little longer, see note below)
2.  Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl with a whisk.
3.  Cream the butter, shortening, and sugar together either by hand or with an electric mixer until fluffy (it will take roughly a minute).  Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until just combined.  Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until combined-- don't over mix.  Stir in the chocolate chips until you have the amount you like. (I like fewer rather than more, just personal taste)
4.  Roll or spoon out roughly 1/4 cup balls of dough.  The dough balls need to be about the same size so they'll cook evenly, and don't pack the dough too tight when making a ball so they won't be too dense. Make sure it is ball shaped (sometimes I even squeeze mine so they are taller than they are wide), so it will cook into a puffy cookie and not a flat one.
5.  For the most perfect of perfectionist's cookies, chill in the refridgerator or freeze first (if you freeze, let the dough thaw for 15 minutes before baking) and then bake.
6.  Bake until the cookies are light brown and golden and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 10 minutes*.  (watch, they may need more or less time depending on your oven) 
7.  Cool the cookies on the sheet, the enjoy!  I'd love to hear how yours turned out.

*If you are baking below 4000 feet, adjust your oven temp to 325 and increase your baking time from 15-18 minutes.

Some cooking at altitude tips I learned at Cook Street School of Fine Cooking in Denver:

(The above cookies will work fine in either place!  No need to adjust)

When making baked goods with a non-altitude recipe it can be really frustrating.  Most people's easy fix for this is to add flour, which I really, really dislike!  I think it makes baked goods dry.  These tips are the best I've found!  Don't make more than two adjustments at a time as you try to tweak your favorite sea level recipes.   (this is almost a direct quote from one of their resources)

1.  Reduce baking soda or baking powder by 25%.  If a recipe calls for 1 t. of baking soda, use 3/4 t.
2.  Increase the liquid by 2T per cup.
3.  Increase the oven temp slightly to set the cake batter or cookie dough faster.  Place cookie dough on parchment rather than a greased pan.
4.  Decrease sugar by 2T per cup.
5.  Increase flour by 1 T per cup to strengthen the gluten structure.  Don't use this adjustment if it makes cakes tough or dry.

Enjoy! Happy eating from our family to yours.  :)

The Effect of Stress on Parents and Kids - Finding a Safety Valve

Today I took a break from the blood-pressure raising environment of Facebook and took my little ones to the park.  :)  The weather here has been gorgeous, and I have wanted to soak it up as long as I possibly can!  We drove a bit to a different park than we normally visit, which sits between a brick oven pizza place and a fountain.  The air was perfect, the sun warm on our faces and arms and backs.  Tinny music played from a distant radio, the clunk-clunk sounds of builders echoed off nearby buidings, and the sun filtered through gold and brown leaves just-hanging delicately to half- bare trees.  It smelled of warmed rubber and pizza crust toasted brick brown.  (I was feeling really thankful for the free smells) 

(this tree picture is from a different day.  I am just loving the lingering beauty in my part of the woods!)

The baby could hardly contain his excitement, running and giggling and running and giggling and running and....giggling.  Cute little three year-old was more measured and deliberate about where she chose to spend her time, but no less happy.  I enjoyed following their bliss, lifting little ones down from stranded high places or climbing through tunnels or going down the slide with our arms in the air (the baby especially love to watch me do this).  Is it just me, or is acting like a kid again so much fun sometimes?  Letting those inhibitions free and just...jumping.  When was the last time you...jumped?  Well, I don't really jump very often.  I haven't read Gretchen Rubin's new book (Happier at Home), though I mean to, but I know that was one of her resolutions just from reading the synopsis.  Today I tried it out a little.  It made me happy.  How can you feel down when you jump?

So I've been thinking about something.  I've been reading Simplicity Parenting.  I'm not very far into it yet.  But I have been learning about stress and what it does to us.  When kids are subjected to stress for a long period of time, all sorts of negative things happen.  They suffer from more anxiety, perform more poorly on tests, and act out or behave more aggressively, showing less empathy overall.  They also have less impulse control.  They can even get a form of PTSD (I can't remember the clinical term in kids and I'm too lazy to go up to my room to get the book).  All from being overscheduled and over hurried without time to think, play, unwind, and be a kid.

Incidentally, this also happened to me.  I was actually diagnosed with a form of traumatic stress disorder from a very stressful period in my life (a couple of years ago).  We did two building projects ourselves within a few years, moved 7 times in nine years, while I was having my dear babies.  The final straw was moving, having a baby two weeks later, moving again 6 months later into a house that needed a lot of work.  I had a little mini breakdown with all the symptoms listed above.  This is one of the reasons that part of my efforts to be a good parent includes a personal safety valve, what I call well-filling activities.  I think that is one reason this project has been an overall success so far.  While there is always more I want to do as a parent (you can probably tell by my millions of over-ambitious goals many months), its nice to have that little safety valve to keep things real.  So I can keep up the marathon pace I need to be what my kids need forever, and not just right now.

Which activities are a stress reliever, well filler, safety valve for you?  Today, for me, it was taking time to relax with my kids at the park.  We even stayed a little extra time, ate white bread smushed into various shapes that my three year-old had packed into a gallon ziploc bag with some juice boxes.  (yet enjoying those free smells!)  Blogging has been therapeutic for me too.  What are yours?

What is a good stress reliever for your kids?  How can you tell when they are not getting enough "kid" time?  Do you have a hard time saying no like I do?  It really seems to take such concerted effort!

A Parting Glance at Halloween

 A few things that happened right before or after Halloween at our house.

We received a mysterious shipment of wands from Ollivander's shop (a friend far away).  The kids wer so stoked to get these handmade wands.  Aren't they beautiful?  Ah, I love having thoughtful, crafty friends!  You can make wands that look like these with paper (though these are made of real wood), its not too hard, see this link.  We made our own a few years ago for a Harry Potter party, inspired by this very friend!

My husband had some cream soda sitting in the fridge that we were mysteriously told was for a Halloween treat.  One night my husband called us down from getting ready for bed and we discovered he had made Butterbeer for everyone.  Just like the Butterbeer that we loved at Universal Studios Wizarding World of Harry Potter earlier this year.  Yuuuuuuuummmmmmm....(after eating an entire bag of Costco Halloween candy, just me, yes, just me, this is the last thing I needed, but it was so good!)  See here for a recipe, though there are tons out there.  I'm pretty sure my husband used the easier version toward the bottom.

The week before Halloween, it was my husband's idea to go on a little outing to see some old homes-- a street full of homes on the national historic register.

On our walk this little girl found a stick shaped like a rake, quickly raked some leaves together, and started jumping into the "pile."

Have you recovered from your candy coma yet?  What do you do with leftover candy?  I get to a point where I throw ours away so I'll quit eating it, but I haven't done that yet this year.

Halloween Number 2

We enjoyed a gorgeous Halloween evening as the sky deepened into a beautiful indigo, lights from flickering jack-o-lanterns and torches filtering through the darkness, the shouts of excitement and children's delight hanging thick in the air.  We shut up the house, left the porch light on and our spooky candelabra flickering in the window (battery powered), set out a paper plate stacked high with goodies, and attempted to corral our excited children as we set off together.  

We made it around the block, picked up a mummy and some friends along the way, then wended our way home, where we piled in the car and drove to a friend's house.  There we found our friend handing out cotton candy.  As she swirled the colored spun sugar in cotton puffs around and around for a wiggly line of children, lit by a lone lantern, the darkness thick around the edges, some kids tried out the makeshift haunted house in the garage.  They could choose "big scary," "medium scary," or "low scary."  My kids had to try all three, and each time they came out giggling to each other.  On the ride home, we found out our nine year-old had poked one of the "actors" with her sword.  The actor then said a surprised "oh." 

We realized we have never been to a haunted house with the kids-- and had to explain that you don't mess with the scary people, as those ones are our friends and neighbors in disguise, no matter how disgusting they may appear on Halloween night.  My husband and I had a sort of horrified snort-suppressing laugh at that little incident.  We finished the night over a hot bowl of chili with some other friends and yawning droopy sugar coma voices in the car on the way home.

How was your night?  Do you trick-or-treat?  Hand out candy?  Or hide in the dark and wait for all of it to go away?  :)