Button Cookies

One of my absolute favorite cookies right now is this great little butter cookie with M&M candies. Give them a try!

Button Cookies

3 sticks of softened butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
M&M's
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a mixing bowl cream the softened butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Add the vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture. Roll dough into balls, the size of a tablespoon. Flatten the balls out. On each piece, place 3 M&M's. Now, put one flattened ball on top of another flattened ball, so you are stacking two pieces together. Each piece should have the M&M's on top. Put the cookies on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 17-18 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet before moving to wire racks.

Something fun from Flickr

Try it out here!

Odds and Ends of every kind

I've had it with the tomato plants. I threw them out a week or so ago...they just weren't doing anything. Besides, who wants to eat an itty bitty tomato the size of a dime (or in some cases, even smaller than that!)? The plants were looking a little sick and I thought that our view out the kitchen window (as if it could get any better...) would look much nicer if we had some actual flowers. With that being said, I took the boys to the Home Depot and we looked and looked and saw some very beautiful mums, but the mums that are being sold now are gigantic and wouldn't fit in my little window. The only other option at that point was to purchase some pansies. We got three - and they look so cheerful! I wasn't quite ready to announce to everyone driving by our house that I was ready for fall yet. These pansies still tell me that it's summer (or perhaps the end of summer) and that's all I need.

I've thrown in the towel with sewing. I suppose that I got out much of my need or desire to sew during the summer. I've lost a lot of my momentum coming up with ideas of what to make, how to make it, cutting and pinning the material, not to mention the actual art of sewing while wiping snotty noses, wiping a 4 year olds rear end after he poops, washing hands, drinking coffee (because we all know I'm not sleeping through the night yet and any bit of caffeine helps me so much!), stepping on toys, watching my son's planes taking off and landing on our carpet "runway", and taking him to school three times a week...gee whiz that just make my head spin! No wonder I can't come up with anything creative to do on my machine.

Speaking of trying to be creative, I have made a few new scrapbook pages but I have no desire whatsoever to try to post the end results. I guess my thinking is that why would anyone want to see my page layouts? They certainly aren't anything to write home about!!! I'm not asking for a pity party. I guess I started off with this blog posting the scrapbook pages as a means of me to get it done. It gave me a goal. But I'm just not feeling it right now. Maybe later.
WOW started back up last week and I'm looking forward to the group I'll be in this year. We'll be reading a book entitled "Every Thought Captive: Battling the Toxic Beliefs That Separate Us from the Life We Crave" and so far it looks really interesting. I think it's really good timing too. The past few days have been a little hard for me. I've been having lots and lots of thought swirling around in my head like "I'm not good enough," "I'm not that great of a friend," "I could be a better mother/wife/person and why am I not trying?" I don't want anyone worrying about me...I'm fine but just a little bit worn out. And I want to be honest and up front about my feelings and not act as if I'm always happy or upbeat all the time. That's not life.

A little over a year ago I stumbled upon a blog of a person I didn't know at all but have come to really admire her. Amy Wilhoite was diagnosed with AML or Acute Myelogenous Leukemia and was blogging about her struggle with day to day life, with treatments, living and even with her own death. She lost her fight against leukemia last week and I felt so bad all week long. She was only married for four years and had a one year old little boy. It made me want to hold onto my little ones a little bit longer. If any of you have the chance to look through her posts, I promise you it will change you. It might take a while if you start from the beginning, but well worth your time. I have to admire her. She always looked to God and was ready to meet her maker. I'm sure she had quite the homecoming last Monday. This is from her very first post:

I wholly believe my journey through leukemia began from the foundations of the earth. The Lord has had this fully written in His plan for my life. Though we will never know the exact moment a single cell of my DNA acquired a problem, the doctors feel my body has been under attack for months. As I look back, I see the many ways God has been preparing us for this -- He has truly gone before, and for that I must be grateful.

And so my day today begins...lots to do around the house - laundry, cleaning, keeping the boys entertained, outings, and whatever we can fit in! Tonight I will be going to Jonah's "Back to School Night" and I'm not sure what all I'll find out since I didn't go for the previous two years, but I'm looking forward to spending time with his teachers and finding out just what he does in class. Whenever I ask him he simply says that he played and he can't remember the other things he did in school! I laugh. I know he is having fun and making new friends.

Happy Thursday!

My Sisters Birthday Presents

This tote was made for my older sister who has two kids...the pattern is nearly identical to the black and white tote I made earlier, with a few minor alterations. I didn't have any other quilted fabric so I attempted to quilt the fabric I purchased by hand. I added a pocket inside, and while it's not perfect, it turned out ok!

This purse I made for my younger sister who has no children. It's a bit funkier in design, in fact, I made the design up myself. This purse probably turned out the best out of all the totes/purses I have made thus far - I'm slowly realizing how to make each one a bit better than the last. I also tried something new with this purse - D rings. That's how I attached the strap.

Another look of the two side by side. Happy Birthday girls! I love you!

-14.50

That's the total amount of inches I have lost since joining Curves in the middle of July. Don't be fooled though. I have a few little doubts that I've actually lost that many inches...for instance when I was first measured, I wasn't wearing my sports bra, like I was this morning. So really, add back a few more inches in bust category. Also for some reason when this gal was measuring my waist, the measuring tape rode up higher than I thought it should be...so I'll add another inch and a half in the waist department. The reality is that I probably lost somewhere between 10-14.50 inches in a little over a month. Yay! Go me.
I don't normally talk about my achievements like this but I am so proud of this. Ever since Jackson was born, I've needed to lose that baby weight. And it wasn't coming off. At. All. I tried putting myself back on the weight watchers program without actually rejoining but I really needed the accountability so it wasn't working. After convincing my mother to check Curves out, she did and joined. Then she told me that I would love it - so then I joined. I don't expect the following months to be quite as dramatic as this first month has been, but I'm so excited. Now, my weight hasn't really changed but I'm trying to convince myself that it's muscle that I gained so it's not really that bad. Hopefully. Inches people...think less inches!!!