The Words I Never Thought I’d Hear …

I made a new chocolate chip cookie recipe the other day. I’d pinned it long ago on Pinterest and then promptly forgot about it {does anyone else have  Pinesia?}. Then my sister made them and raved, so I thought I’d better give them a try.

I’ve written about chocolate chip cookie recipes before. I’ve tried many and usually stick with a few that I rotate between depending on what type of cookie I’m in the mood for – chewy, crunchy, dense, light, etc.

But that is a thing of the past. I have found THE chocolate chip cookie recipe. And I will not be making the others any more.

It was all summed up in one statement by The Hubby. He ate the new cookies and boldly declared the words I never thought I would hear:

“These are the best cookies you have ever made. They are BETTER THAN THE BOYFRIEND COOKIES.”

Excuse Moi? Did I just hear that correctly. Better than the cookies I have been baking for him faithfully for 18 years? Wow. And Wow!

So, here’s the dilly-o on these cookies . . .

They have a secret ingredient which I’ve never used in a cookie recipe before, but now think has made all the difference. Are you ready?

It’s cornstarch!

Man, they are so, so good. Chewy, light, fluffy, sweet, salty, chocolatey. Do I need to keep talking? No! Go make these cookies now. You can thank me later.

Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

barely adapted from Anna Olson, Food Network Canada

Ingredients:

3/4 c. butter, softened

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. all purpose flour

2 tsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4.  Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5.  Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.  Makes approximately 3 dozen.

Remember That Experiment?

Yeah. If you asked me how it’s gone since then, I’d say it was super effective in changing the slobtastic habits of my children. NOT.

These pictures were taken yesterday while the kids were at school.

I’m collecting allowances today so I can go on a date with my Hubby. What good is a consequence if you don’t follow through? No good at all. A date with a hot redhead, on the other hand, is very, very good.

I don’t have the mental energy to fight the mess these kids make right now. I only have enough energy to collect their monies.

In other news, I owe my Hubby an apology for not recognizing his hard work to make my birthday surprise party a reality. He was one of the masterminds behind it – even held meetings with coconspirators - and he is awesome times five. Thanks dear, for making me feel so loved!

At 3:45 In The Afternoon …

At 3:45 in the afternoon, the most perfect light fills the back of our house on a sunny day. I could spend a full hour snapping pictures of my people at this time because the light makes everyone look so healthy, pink cheeked and glowing.

Last week I snuck around the corner and hid while Owlie played trains. I snapped 43 pictures without him even knowing. He is in a fantastic phase right now where he plays independently with his trains, cars, Legos or tools for up to an hour. It is magical, not just because I’m able to get something done, but also because, well, just look at him – he’s fully embodying childhood play time with that intense fascination and concentration that equals pure joy!

I think this picture could be used as an add for toy trains. I may be biased. But that little fellow is really, really cute! Also, the lighting is really spectacular. I think the sunlight is bouncing off the white cabinetry (far left out of photo) onto Owlie’s face like an impromptu light box. Nice. That and the fact that my hideously dirty wood floors look somewhat clean without me Photoshopping any crumbs out. Believe me, that is just an optical illusion!

This picture makes me realize something. I have a lot of white going on in my kitchen! Now with the white table, I’m contemplating painting the island a very soft gray/green. What do you think? And would you like to come play trains with us?

Surprise!

It’s been two weeks. I think I’m finally ready to talk about my birthday. I spent the day doing things I love – reading kind emails and facebook wishes, opening a few cards and packages, and going to lunch with my best friend. I didn’t clean house. I didn’t do dishes. Instead, I told Hannie B. to make a mac 'n cheese dinner for the little boys and I went to Big C.’s last basketball game and then planned to go to a favorite local restaurant with my sweetie. No big deal. Just a calm, quiet fortieth.

When we got home to drop Big C off after the game, I went in to kiss Owlie goodnight and was met by a gaggle of people in my dark house – my DIRTY house – screaming “SURPRISE!!!!”

My sneaky best friend went against my wishes and created a beautiful night for me with close friends and family. It was just the perfect way to end my day. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. It was so beautiful and full of handcrafted lovely details!

And here’s me with Owlie right after the birthday girl sash was put on and I blew out some candles! Thank you to all my “peeps”. You know who you are.This party truly started off what is going to be the best years of my life!  I am so blessed to have each of you in my life!

PS. Mom, sorry I thought you were lame on my birthday. Really you were just being sneaky. 

PPS. Thank you Hannie B for shoving all the “dirty house” into trash bags and putting it in RedDog’s room. The house looked very, very clean . . . for that night.

Protecting Innocence …

I was working on a project for my Hubby the other day that involves creating a large bulletin board at our church highlighting Eagle Scouts. I did an image search for some of the required merit badges then clicked over to paste a merit badge into my desktop publishing program. When I clicked back, the Boy Scout merit badge was gone and my entire computer screen was covered with a sexually explicit image.

I can’t even begin to tell you how upset this made me. Oliver was no more than two feet from me. I screamed and shut the computer off as quickly as possible. Then I waited for the Hubby to come home and told him what had happened. I was almost in tears.

We conctacted a man in our church congregation whose specialty lies in the area of computers, and specifically computer terrorism, internet predators and cyber crime. He came over last night and is running a series of tests and checks on the computer. It will be protected behind an iron wall when he’s done and I will feel much, much better.

But let me be clear about one thing:

I HATE PORNOGRAPHY MORE THAN JUST ABOUT ANYTHING ON THIS EARTH AND WILL NOT ALLOW IT TO DESTROY MY MARRIAGE, MY FAMILY OR MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MY HEAVENLY FATHER AND JESUS CHRIST!!!!!

I know there are many people out there who think it’s no big deal – just a part of life, of growing up, of a relationship or even a marriage.  They are WRONG.

I felt horrible for the rest of the day after seeing one explicit image. I could not get the image out of my head. I just felt myself in a really dark place.

I felt so sad and worried for my boys. If one image can do so much damage, imagine an addiction to such images, built up over years, damaging normal perceptions of love, intimacy and respect for the female body and mind.

I felt devastated for my daughter. What kind of chance does she stand to have a healthy body image and loving marriage when there are these kinds of images and expectations out there? I am crying right now just thinking about it.

I will do everything in my power to protect the innocence of my children from pornography. I am determined.

For A Sweet Couple …

I know Love Week is over, but can’t we make it last just a little longer?

I made my mother-in-law’s world famous cinnamon rolls for my family’s Love Day breakfast.  The dough was extra sticky, which meant the rolls were going to be extra delicious.

I had enough left over dough to make an entire extra 9X13 pan, but I’m not going to lie, my thighs were screaming at me to get them out the door as quickly as possible! Something about a Beginning of the Year goal to “be more healthy”. Sheesh!

I’d picked up some cute cardboard loaf pans on clearance at the local grocery store a while back and decided they’d be the perfect packaging for two large, lovely, gooey cinnamon rolls.

Some wax paper and a tie of perfect pink and white baker’s twine {thank you World Market} and these bad boys* were ready to go. I delivered them to a few friends and family members on Valentine’s Day with the cheesy greeting “A couple of sweets for a sweet couple!” I hope they were shared between couples and not eaten all at once by a greedy individual {like, say, my older brother}.

It’s the first time I’ve used baker’s twine on something I actually baked. It’s the first time I’ve given the cinnamon rolls away en masse. It’s the first time I’ve baked using cardboard.

It was super fun.

It was also very tasty.

And it looked great in pictures.

I’d call that a perfect example of Love Day Love.

* When I say bad boys, I mean it.

Buddies …

Last week I went to lunch with my mom and my SIL Audrey while my dad kindly watched the Owlie boy. Owlie has a serious crush on his Papa so this was a good situation.

Usually Papa will read Owlie some books and put on a little show for him to watch.  But this day was different.

When we arrived home the two buddies were busy in the basement and called us down to examine their hard work. They had built Fort Valentine out of vintage blocks and army men. It was awesome!

Both Owlie and Papa were so proud of their work and insisted I take pictures of it, which was no problem for me since they are good subjects and so darling together. I will cherish this picture forever!

When I think that five years ago at this time my father was lying on a table getting radiation and eating through a tube in his stomach, I feel very, very grateful that he could get down on the floor and build this fort with my boy.

.

Thanks for being an awesome babysitter, Papa! Owlie loved being with you and was really happy when looking at these pictures today.

Thoughts On Angry Mom . . .

This picture is a visual representation of what I was like yesterday.  I had what will go down in history as one of my finest parenting moments, wherein I totally lost my cool and bit the head off one of my children.

It was not awesome.  To be fair, the child was also not being awesome in any way, shape or form.  In fact, the child was being disrespectful, disobedient and outright defiant to my face regarding a clearly established rule in our household.

I am not at all accustomed to that kind of behavior from one of my children. It was totally out of the blue. I was clearly unprepared for how to deal with it, so I dealt very, very badly myself and consequently spend the rest of the day in an emotional and physical funk. So did the child.

I went to bed sad. But I woke up today feeling much better because I knew that today I could do better.  I have apologized to my child for my behavior. I have also followed through on all the consequences of the child’s behavior.

Parenting is tough. Parenting teens is really, really tough. I am going to make mistakes. I am going to learn from them. The next time I feel like exploding at one of my teenage children, I am going to count to ten or walk away and then come back and discuss/discipline with love, care and concern. I’ve tried the anger route. No one wins.

Just my random thoughts for the day. Oh, and this is what I woke up to, so I think God was telling me it could be a beautiful day if I let it.

PS. Hannie B. knows I’ve used this awesome picture. She loves it very much and thinks she is quite hilarious.

Love Week 2013: True Love

For me, this is what it’s all about. These five people are the loves of my life.

I know many people who think Valentine’s Day is nothing but a commercial endeavor meant to sell flowers and cards. I don’t begrudge them that opinion.

I see it differently, though. I think of Valentine’s Day and “Love Week” as an opportunity to spend more time thinking about these five people than I normally do. It’s a chance to tell them and show them, through words, thoughts and deeds {not necessarily money}, that I really do love them so very much.

I hope you’ve had a great Love Week and have a wonderful weekend!

PS. We have FRECKLES!

PPS. Big C with no braces = HANDSOME!

PPPS. Owlie’s face while he hugs RedDog? Yep, I pretty much want to eat him up!

Love Week 2013: A Funny Story

The Hubby and I dated while we were in college.  After four months of dating, he FINALLY kissed me. Not too long after that I had a strong confirmation that this was the boy I would eventually marry.

There was a small hiccup in that plan, however. He was leaving the U.S.to go study Mandarin Chinese at a school in Taiwan for an entire year.

I had a sincere desire to share my feelings with this boy who’d stolen my heart before he flew almost 7000 miles away.  I was in Canada working for a church youth camp. He was in California saying goodbye to family before his overseas adventure.

I made the phone call after gentle persuasion from close friends. The Hubby {not The Hubby at the time} answered. There was a lot of noise in the background. His friends were throwing him an impromptu going away party.

Oh, was I nervous! But I had to tell him, so I summoned up all the bravery I could muster and said those three words that can make or break a relationship: “I love you.”

His reply?

“Thank you.”

Ouch.

We laugh about it all the time now. We’ve told this story hundreds of times. He wasn’t ready to say it yet. I get it. That doesn’t mean it didn’t sting at the time. But three and a half months later, over looking a waterfall in the mountains of Taiwan, he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. It totally erased the horror of the “thank you moment”.

For Valentine’s Day this year, I made The Hubby something to remind him of this turning point in our history.

Now when we say I love you, the thank you that follows means, “I love you, too.”

Hope you have a great Valentine’s Day!

Love Week 2013: To Rose, Or Not To Rose?

I had big plans for a perfect Valentine’s craft today. Then I spent two and a half hours on the phone yesterday dealing with insurance headaches and the plan was no more.

Instead, let’s talk about flowers and Valentine’s Day. Specifically, whether or not you like to get flowers on Valentine’s Day.

I got these gorgeous creamy roses from the Hubby for my birthday. They’ve opened up in the most grand fashion and are such a draw that this lady bug couldn’t resist resting on the velvety petals for a minute.

I don’t get flowers on Valentine’s Day because I usually get them on my birthday. I’m fine with that. I love having fresh flowers in my house, but during the spring and summer months I can cut them from the yard for free. During the winter, a sweet bouquet on a gloomy day can do wonders for my spirits. My birthday flowers usually cover Love Day too, which is a bonus for the Hubby!

I know many women who absolutely DO NOT want flowers of any kind on Valentine’s Day or any day for that matter.

I’m curious to know, do you like getting flowers from your sweetheart? Or are you more of a dinner and chocolates kind of girl? Do leave a comment and let me know!

Tomorrow, I’ll share my Valentine’s gift for the Hubby this year. As a reminder, this is what I gave him last year.

Love Week 2013: You’ve Got Mail

We didn’t use our Valentine’s mailboxes last year for what ever reason  – probably laziness on my part.  My sister picked up this tradition and reminded me that I had them, so I quickly pulled them out on the last day of January, embellished them a little with cupids and names and ran to Target to get a few bags of candy.

Our kids’ schools have cracked down hard on no candy included with Valentine’s this year, which is totally fine by me, but I like to give them a little something sweet each day leading up to Love Day – whether it be a quick note telling them something I love about them or a piece of chocolate.

RedDog was quick to remind me that I missed two days this weekend {we had way too many birthday treats to eat} so I surprised the kids today with three pieces of chocolate instead of one. Owlie thought he’d won the lottery!

I don’t know about you, but I am still a complete sucker for real mail in the good old fashioned mailbox. This is my little lovely way of sharing that joy with my kids. Happy mail!

Love Week 2013: Class Valentines

It’s one of my favorite weeks of the year! Love week is here and we’re in full swing at our house. We spent our Sunday afternoon crafting homemade Valentines for RedDog and Owlie to take to their classes this week.

It all started when I came upon these lovelies at Michael’s Craft, eighteen to a bag for $1.99. Are they not some of the happiest little heart mazes ever?

I put my top crafter on the job, Miss Hannie B, of course! After I printed out some clever wording, she went to work punching the corners.

I have a great love of punched corners.  I think they make everything look more finished. My corner punch is one of my most used craft tools. Happy, messy stack of round cornered Valentines, you make me smile!

Here’s my sweet RedDog penning notes to each of his classmates. Let’s all just agree that this boy and his red hair are adorbs {have you heard the tweenies using this term?}

After we signed all the cards I put a small dab of hot glue on the back of each maze to adhere it to the card.

Super simple, super cheap and I think they’re super cute!

What are you doing for Valentine’s this year? If you need a few ideas, there are some class Valentines from years past here and here.

In my dream of amazing Valentines, these could go right up to the next level if they were letter pressed. Could you even imagine? Maybe the swanky elementary schoolers do that.

This Is What Forty Looks Like …

Today I am FORTY.

It’s big enough that I decided I should write it in all caps and buy myself a little coconut cake to celebrate.

Forty seems to be a big enough deal of a birthday that people do crazy things like go waste a bunch of money in Vegas or buy an insanely fast car or get a ridiculous tattoo. I am doing none of those things. But I did decide that this birthday needed some sort of big gesture. Instead of a big party (awkward for me) or an exotic vacation (just did that) I decided the big gesture should not be FOR me but instead should be FROM me.

So, I have spent the past month writing forty letters to forty people who have had a strong influence in my life. Choosing to do this has been the greatest blessing to me in approaching this birthday.

Imagine, if you can, thinking about the people who’ve made a difference in your life.  Then think about the effort of taking the time to write each and every one of them, mentioning in detail things they have done that have left a mark on your heart, have truly changed who you are as a person. It is no small task and I just finished the last three letters last night.

When you do this, you become aware of so many wonderful blessings that have been showered upon you throughout your days. You are filled with gratitude for the people you’ve known, the experiences you’ve shared together, the very wonderful gifts they are in your life. You come to your birthday realizing that you want or need for nothing because all that you could possibly every desire has already been given to you by the people God has placed in your path. Love, confidence, humility, humor, charity, hope, empathy, joy – these are the gifts I am talking about. Priceless, precious gifts.

Today, I am forty. And I am at peace with it. If I have forty more years with the people who’ve already blessed my life, plus get to meet more people and receive more of their goodness, I will have lived a wonderful life indeed.

Happy Birthday to me! Forty is the new AWESOME.

Little Fellow …

Owlie is in a really fun stage right now where he wants me to take lots of pictures of him and then show them to him. We play around with the camera a little each day, me laughing hysterically at his antics, him checking them out with pride.

I am completely smitten with this picture of him. His face is totally distorted because he is so close to the camera, but that’s part of what makes it awesome. It’s like one of those caricature drawings from the amusement parks.

I love that I can see every single freckle resting gently on his soft little pink cheeks and nose. I love that his long eyelashes are poking out under his invisible blond brows.

And I love, love, love the look of absolute trust and earnestness in his sweet blue eyes. This little fellow loves me despite all my faults. He tells me every day that he loves me, he likes me, and he is my best friend.

I’m just so lucky to be the momma of Owlie!

I know nobody reads blogs on Fridays, but I hope you’ll come back tomorrow. It’s a really big day for me!

Can We Talk About This?

We just got pictures back yesterday from the photographer who shot our family in Hawaii over Christmas. They are so beautiful! Of all the photos, I can’t stop looking at this one.

If we’re friends on Facebook, you know that I’ve made this my new profile picture. I love it so very much. It’s not because I think I look good in it. In fact, it was super windy, my hair was going crazy, I was in bad need of a dye job at the time and my neck looks like it’s got a few too many rolls, and yet there is still something about this photo that speaks to my heart every time I see it.

It’s the look on my face. That look is me telling the world how much I love my role as mother. It brings me great happiness. There is nothing else I would rather be doing – not blogging or designing or making millions of dollars.

I have the job of my dreams. Every day I get to love with all of my heart and make the greatest difference in the lives of four human beings I co-created. It is something I take very seriously. It is something I am very honored to do. It is something that changes me and stretches me and makes me a better person.

I will treasure this picture forever. A moment was caught here that need to be able to see and remember. I have this look on my face more often than I realize.

I’ll share more pictures in the upcoming weeks.

{Image by Meimei Photography}

There Was Carnage . . .

My computer is acting funny when it comes to pictures. So today I’ve got one whole Experiment photo. Sorry. But, it involves stuffed animals piled up in the hall in a chaotic heap, their faces staring blankly into the distance.

Kind of like my kids when I told them what I’d been doing for the last week.

There was shock. And awe. And a little bit of anger.

Oh well.

I think when I started totaling up numbers (of times beds were made, of times towels were hung, of times dishes were loaded, of times chores were even merely contemplated upon) they got the picture quite clearly.  Zero. Zero times.

We have now reeducated our children on the Division of Labor in our home. Every person has some piece of the work to do so that no one person (me) does it all. This is how a family works together happily and successfully.

It is interesting to note that when we asked the kids what the word division means, they had a hard time not using the word “equally”. We had to correct that quickly. Unlike division at school, division of labor does not necessarily come out equally. Of course The Hubby and I are going to do more work than Owlie or RedDog. We also expect that our two teenagers can shoulder a larger portion of the “burden” than their siblings because they are older, stronger, smarter, get paid more allowance and are closer to leaving us for the real world.

They did not love this idea. They kept going back to it being fair and equal. But that is not the real world. And we are trying to prepare our kids to be successful in the real world.

We also had to have a long discussion about entitlement. We do not owe our kids money. It is something they earn by contributing to our family and home. We live in the “Wealthiest County in the Nation” and the entitlement attitude of the kids in this area is blatantly obvious and blatantly fed, but that is not what we desire for our children.

We want them to know that working hard for something brings results and a sense of ownership that cannot come from being handed it without effort. Real life stuff.

I am happy to report that three Lee children left for school today with their beds made and their lunches self-packed.  Will it last? I think so.

Why, you ask? Because they’ve been told that if they don’t work they can pay their allowance directly into a date fund for me and their dad.

Yep. The Meanest Mom In The World reigns supreme.

That Was Painful …

Whew! We are done with THE EXPERIMENT.

I’m going to be honest though – I caved on Saturday when I couldn’t stare at the plate of waffles and syrup one more minute. Big C was lazily sitting on the couch playing a game on his iPod and I just about lost it. When I asked him about the plate his response was, “I put that on the counter but you never washed it.”

Excuse me? WHAT DID YOU SAY?

When he picked up the fork, the entire plate came with it! Yes – the plate, fork, syrup and waffles had become one entity. NASTY.

I am waiting for good light so I can run around the house and snap photos today to share tomorrow. But I did get a picture of Hannie B’s room on Saturday morning. When she saw me taking a picture a little light bulb went off in her mind. The look on her face said, “We are definitely NOT going to be in a magazine.”

A few observations from the week:

• Not one of my kids made a bed or did one of their every day chores the entire week.
• I can overlook a lot of messy, but I can’t handle dirty dishes. Although I never unloaded the dishwasher, I did hand wash dishes throughout the week . . . just not the waffles.
• I had to completely retrain my own brain to stop picking up stuff every minute of the day.
• The only reason the kitchen trash went out is because RedDog tripped over the bag I’d left sitting on the floor.
• Even though my kids live in a pretty clean home, they are completely blind to their own messes.
• Our stairs were a serious hazard this week, littered with random toys, books, clothes – you name it.
• A few things went “missing” in the chaos. When kids asked me where they were, I just shrugged and said, “I don’t know.”

Tonight we’ll have a Family Home Evening and reveal the experiment to the kids. The discussion is going to include the possibility of reduced allowance, how we all contribute to making this house a great place to live, how a house of order is the best place for everyone to function successfully, and how certain “chores” should be a part of daily living without reminders from mom.

Pictures of the house plus the kids’ reaction tomorrow.

Just Two More Days …

Reader Sue kindly pointed out that I’d forgotten to take a few pictures in my clean house! Secretly I was hoping no one would notice because I’ve been working on some projects in these rooms that I wasn’t ready to “reveal”, but I decided that’s just silly.

So here are the kitchen eating area (newly painted white table) and the family room (can you see what’s new?).

As far as the experiment goes, I think the Hubby blew it a little last night be encouraging certain kids to “walk around and see if there is anything they can do to be helpful”.

I will say this much: no amount of cleaning can remove the smell of stinky basketball shoes from a teenager’s room. GAG.

On Sunday we will review the state of the house and have a Family Home Evening about contributing to our family and our home.

Until then, the plate of waffles and syrup is STILL on the counter.