Illuminatea

Yes they do kind of look like normal ones but they are mint.

I had promised Devin a batch of chocolate chip cookies over the weekend. When I called to discuss what specifically he wanted we talked about various alternatives like orange chocolate chip cookies that I make. Devin suggested mint but did not know if I had a recipe. Well I have been baking enough varieties just off from ...

The children both seemed to enjoy the Bento lunch. Honestly in some ways I found it easier to make and get ready than the standard lunch. I think part of that was just that it was fun and I had stuff for Bento. I did not have everything needed for the standard sandwich, cookie, carrots, and some sort of cracker/chip lunch. Treanna has Hello ...

Tomorrow is the first day of school, my darling's birthday and the day things really get back into the routines of the majority of the year. We have been attempting to get back on schedule for several weeks but things keep interfering. Overall I am proud of the progress we have made. I have the kids mostly ready. We have all the required school ...

I am writing this blog post on my regular desktop computer. I have a good start to things being back in their places. To be sure things are upgraded and I still have many more programs and things to get set up. For some odd reason my calendar and contacts did not transfer well. I don't want to lose them off my handheld so am holding off a sync ...

I am currently sick with a nasty cough and cold. Luckily Alaric got over it mostly and also got over his double ear infections. Amazing how that curtails your activities to have a sick child.  The week before Spring Break, which started Monday the 9th, he missed the majority of the week of school since he had a fever. By the end of the week ...

Over all I am feeling better. Still sick but now it feels mostly like a cold. The kids are mostly better as well just needing extra sleep. I slept most of Thursday and that seemed to help as well. I did some kitchen stuff this weekend but it was a slow process. I made little mini raspberry tarts. I made several batches of them. They seemed to ...

Today was a rather productive day. I finished all the laundry and there was a lot! I also managed to keep the kitchen mostly clean. I did a few other chores. The big icky one I did was clean the trap for the upstairs bathroom sink. Not sure I really want to do that ever again. I did not quite figure out how to reattach the stopper though. I also ...

As I am typing this Devin and I are finishing off our 11th anniversary. We have been married now for 11 years. Not bad at all considering we married 3 weeks after we met! Many people would not have even given us 11 weeks yet alone 11 years. Last night after dinner we headed back up to the Outlet Mall in Marysville without the kids for a small ...

It smells like cinnamon buns and chocolate chip cookies.  I needed some sort of roll but was out of white sugar. I had a recipe from an online friend for cinnamon buns that used brown sugar. So I started the dough during dinner and let it rise. Nick ended up getting some white sugar so I could make chocolate chip cookies. So I made those ...

Or at least this one wasn't. I had a nice quiet day at home alone. Did laundry and made chocolate chip cookies. Of course I made dinner too. I had to clean the kitchen and the fridge.  Before I could make cookies I also needed to clean out the oven a bit.  I also checked out a band I had heard on the radio while scanning ...

We sometimes like to play this game called Settlers of Catan. We often don't like playing it though because the game is not balanced all the time and the wrong set of dice make it not fun for at least one or more persons. Now I shall link you to the Cupcake of Catan . I got this link from a blog I read called All Cupcakes All the Time. Ok so ...

Unfortunately it has been slightly crazy. I forgot to post a picture of the yummy dessert my girlfriend S brought me for my birthday. It is a mousse filled chocolate teacup! Plus she had a gorgeous little teacup wall pocket for my dining room wall as well! Here is the teacup, it was yummy and very rich! The cup part was dark chocolate. ...

The chocolate mousse teacup I received for my birthday.

What do you make when you are bored with pizza, yet still want pizza taste? Plus you want to use your neat baking stone and have something with the texture of french bread? Well after thinking about it as I was not feeling well earlier today, I decided what I really wanted was calzones. So much to late to really be starting this process, I dug ...

Today did turn out to be a wonderful day even if I did discover that my turn signals were not functioning that well on my little mazda. I ended up going into the office with Devin. Partly so I could have lunch at the Olive Garden with him but also so I could help him put up his office decorations in his new office. We had a wonderful lunch where ...

I normally don't actually post about my own birthday, however for some odd reason I am feeling really good and just want too. Today I am 34 years old. I don't feel old and am actually very happy. It was a bit strange hearing on the radio this morning about how the highschool I graduated from had a shooting. Like I said I am just feeling ...

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope yours was as nice as ours was. As much as we missed Devin's family it was nice to be home this year. Christmas Eve was interesting as we had 2 different church services that day. Alaric made his debut as an acolyte at those services and did a great job, he was adorable. Unfortunately I could not seem to get any ...

Since the children have half days I have had a lot of my time kind of shortened. Tuesday I finished laundry and then decided that I really needed to make up some cookies and other goodies. I have wanted to make the orange butter thins again but this time just a bit smaller. I also really wanted to make some chocolate dipped orange madeleines ...

Along with other Yorkshire Pudding experiments Monday night I made Toad in a Hole. I started by baking the sausages in the giant roasting pan and mixing up the pudding ingredients and getting them ready to go. After the sausages were done there was plenty of grease in the bottom of the roasting pan to just pour in the batter. It smelled wonderful ...

A couple of weeks ago I picked up some magazines from Freecycle. I am not one to normally just go pick them up but I saw that special keyword of "Victoria" so off to Sammamish I went to get them. It was a nice drive and when I got there the piles were huge! I ended up picking up all the Victoria magazines hoping to fill in the last 4 ...

This recipe was such a hit! I think I ended up giving away all of them today. They were a lot easier than I thought to make. I will be making these more often.   Orange Butter Thins 2/3 cup butter, room temperature 1 egg 1 cup sugar 1 1/4 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 teaspoons grated orange rind       ...

I used the very last of my Black Orange Spice tea to make my morning pot of tea. It was a pour out the dust on the bottom of the container sort of use up. This is just sad and a bit perplexing. Normally I would have run into my wonderful tea supplier but she was not at the show in September like she normally was. I noticed looking around that I ...

Some weeks we just really seem to be on the go. I started looking at the calendar for the rest of the month and there are really few “off” days. Often we had several invitations for any given day.  Monday we went bike riding again, Tuesday we went swimming at Silver Lake and we all swam, I even got a little sunburned, Wednesday we ...

This week has been pretty good! The children discovered there is a girl in our neighborhood they go to school with. She is just a year older than Treanna but is coming over to play regularly. Been very nice for both of them to have someone to just spontaneously go and play with. Friday the children and I went to Snohomish in the afternoon. I was ...

Chloe's Blue Ribbon Scones 2 cups flour 1 Tablespoon baking powder 2 Tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 6 Tablespoons Butter 1/2 cup buttermilk or regular milk 1 lightly beaten egg Mix the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter until it resembles pea sized crumbs, add the milk and mix just until it sticks together. Turn the mound onto an ...

Over the weekend I really began to feel better so kind of got caught up with much of the house. We also had company over and a very relaxing visit that was just relaxing. By Sunday evening I was beginning to feel much more like myself. Consequently I again perused CraigsList as will be my wont and looked at China Cabinets. Lo and Behold I found ...

Well sometimes life just does not go the way you want it too. My plans for the weekend got completely rearranged yesterday afternoon. I finally found out why I have not been feeling the greatest. Apparently some minor outpatient surgery I had done now has complications. Knowing why I have been so tired and run down was a nice change however. The ...

I hate to be one to gripe about weather but we had a difficult time keeping ourselves cool Saturday and somewhat today. Fortunately we did find a few things to do that did cool us down somewhat and I attempted to think cool thoughts. It was difficult to eat and sleep however. The children finally got over the whole grounding thing today. It was ...

I have been meaning to make Carbonara for dinner for some time now. I finally remembered to buy the bacon for it too. So yesterday for dinner I made it. I chopped half a sweet onion and the bacon and fried it until it was nice and crispy, then drained. I made the fettuccine and the rest of the carbonara sauce. I even managed to remember that I ...