Martha Night

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while.  My sweet friend, Megan and I started hanging out not too long ago, but became FAST friends.  We have lots in common, our kids are the same ages, go to the same preschool {we carpool} and we live in the same neighborhood. What a blessing!  We began sharing ideas on crafting, cooking and all the like and she told me about her Martha Nights from back home in Tulsa.  I LOVED the idea and now we are doing them here in our little neighborhood group.  Megan is awesome to organize the whole thing and arrange for hostess sign ups etc.. here’s how it goes: (and I am telling you alllll this stuff so you organize one with your friend group)

• We get together one Thursday night/month.
• Pick a theme *Italian Night, Mexican Night, Breakfast Night, Crock Pot Night, Appetizer Night, Dessert Night… you get the idea
• Send an Evite out and in people’s response they say what they will bring – so on Italian night you don’t end up with 3 lasagna’s.
• Email your recipe to the Martha Night coordinator person.
• Show up and bring $2 (or whatever y’all decide)

The whole idea is to bring something you LOVE… a long time family recipe, one you made up, or something you just stumbled across and it is a tried and true good recipe.

So whoever is hosting provides wine, drinks etc. and the dish that they will be serving.  We put everything out on the table and tasted it all.  What a great way to get a bunch of INCREDIBLE recipes fast!  At the end of the night of total relaxing and gabbing with your girls, you write down your #1 favorite of the night.  The hostess tally’s the votes and whoever wins gets the cash. So fun – right?!

Oh and the next day you get all the recipe’s emailed to you.

I love the idea and look forward to each of them. I will be posting some of my #1 favorites that I enjoy during my Martha Nights.

I encourage you to start this with your circle of friends – it is a great excuse to get out as well as getting lots of new ideas to break out of the same old same old food rut. 

Not an experienced cook? Neither are about 80% of the people that go to ours – I thought their food was great, but they said they don’t cook – even more of a reason to go.. don’t be intimidated.. just call up grandma or mom or www.allrecipes.com and get something that will be a crowd pleaser!

p.s. the girl that won last month doesn’t even cook.  My paw paw always said, If you can read, you can cook! – Start lookin’ at some recipes girls!

Have fun with it and let me know if you start Martha Night!

Stitches

Sweet Girl.  All she wanted to do was watch care bears with her Mere.

From the top:

Mom came in town to give me a break and to help out yesterday (Tuesday) and I took full advantage and went to run some errands.  Audrey was wanting to watch Care Bears so mom had to figure out how to work our DVD/TV.. it is never easy to figure out other people’s technology… While she was figuring it all out, Audrey was getting her spot cozy and getting her blankets all “so” and BAM.  We suspect that she must have gotten her feet tangled in them and lost her balance – FACE FORWARD FULL FORCE onto the coffee table.   When mom heard the noise, she turned around immediately but never would have guessed that loud thump could have possibly been her head…

it was a HARD it. 

Thankfully, she got ice on it immediately but couldn’t tell what kind of damage was done because Audrey wouldn’t let her take the ice off to see.  Luckily I didn’t get too far (I wasn’t even gone 10 minutes so I got back pretty quickly).. I could hear the pain in her cry and saw her tiny bloody hands – it didn’t take us long to decide, we are taking her in. We woke Will up from his nap and headed to the ER (a super nice free standing private owned ER).  We walked right in and the nurse thought it possibly could be fixed with the “glue stuff” but after a closer look it needed stitches. EIGHT to be exact.  The worst of it was sitting next to her while they held her tiny body down to stitch it. OH that was so hard. I would have let them stitch me all day to not have had to witness that.   It is in the past now and she is doing great!  Things could have been a lot worse and I’m so thankful mom was here to help with Will while I was in there with Audrey… Also glad she was there when the accident happened and not me. I would have flipped. We are sort of opposites when it comes to that. She stayed very calm thru the incident and knew immediately what to do, how to calm Audrey, but was very uneasy during the stitching and fixing.  I know I would have been a wreck having been here when it happened but I was very calm and held it together for Audrey while the doctors and nurses worked.  Will did well since he had a ton of toys at the office and even got a sucker out of the deal- (to keep him quiet) – his very first ever.

My biggest obstacle right now is getting her to be careful – I can’t count how many times I’ve said “BE CAREFUL!”  today… she is a dare devil and accident prone - not. a. good. combination. my dear.

SO Southern

Oh My..oh my.  I certainly have a sweet tooth and have a loving appreciation for food done well… these pralines are {BY FAR} best I have ever tasted.  In the past I honestly wasn’t even much of a praline fan because the ones I had eaten were hard, gritty and very sugary… NOT THESE! :)

I will try to describe them the best I can without salivating.. oh who am I kidding – my mouth is already watering for some.

Delicious, Buttery, Creamy, Soft, Smooth, Rich, Melt in your mouth, Caramel-ish flavor, perfect balance of salty and sweet… leave you begging for more, GOOD!

The owner of Honey’s pralines, makes them in her own kitchen in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  She is a life-long, never-let-you-down kind of friend of my mom’s.  She’s a woman of class, character, humor, integrity, and style. 

Go to her site and show her your support by ordering some of these pralines for yourself or a friend… You won’t regret it!

http://honeyspralines.com/

Thanks - I deleted the posting about feedback because I felt that I got all the info that I needed - Thanks and I appreciate your time and mostly your encouragement!!

Gift Chick

 

I’m sure a lot of you are wondering about the Etsy store stuff on the right of the blog.  Well, I have been very busy lately learning how to do something new and have decided to start my own little online shop.  With software I create the design and I have a machine that cuts for me.  I love the final product and plan on adding  a lot of new items very soon. 

Please consider shopping Gift Chick the next time you need any type of gift.  I will also take custom orders.  I couldn’t have done any of this without the help of my mom – without her this wouldn’t have been possible. {THANKS MOM} 

My sweeties

enough about cookies and business etc…. here are my sweet babies.  Will is quickly approaching his 1st birthday and Audrey is loving preschool SO MUCH and learning more and more each day.  I had a big plan for Will’s bday which included a farm theme and a petting zoo and ALL kinds of fun stuff… plans are having to change since Charles is having to travel now and wouldn’t be able to make it.  Soooo – back to the drawing board and instead of all the hoopla.. *(which he is totally worth) We will keep it simple and small.  Old school style.  I’ll save the big, fun, over the top party for next year… besides if you haven’t noticed, I’m a little busy lately :)

Back to the mixing bowl.

Ok, so I know i’ve been really bad about posting lately.  It just seems that I have no. time. at. all. The cookie orders came flying in and I worked diligently to complete all of them.. I had a great time doing it! however it was quite a tall task to make and decorate 152 cookies all due within 6 days of one another all the while caring for an “into everything” 11 month old and a 3 1/2 year old.  whew.

The question I get a lot right now is, “So are you still enjoying doing this or is it more than what you bargained for?”  My answer: Both. I love doing it… I mostly enjoy decorating the cookies and getting a picture out of my head and onto a cookie… very fun… The part that gets to be a bit overwhelming is the amount of time that it requires.  for example, I can generally decorate about a dozen cookies per hour but before that it takes about an hour to make the icing and get all the colors right and into piping bags and another couple of hours to prepare the dough and cut the shapes and bake. A LOT of time.  I used this surge of orders to help me gain experience as well as figure out pricing etc.  All of my “customers” have said that these GIGANTIC cookies.. (most of them are about the size of a piece of sandwich bread) should be at least $2/cookie.

so, guess what. now they are. I would be better able to justify the amount of time it takes.  The smaller cookies will be $1.50/cookie and to accommodate the people that want them party ready – I will also add the option to ribbon and tag them for an additional $6/dozen.

cupcakes i made for audrey’s class :)

Love Is…

Love is ...

By Athena Hall, Area Coordinator of MOPS International

When Mackenzie was small, I taught her the prayers I’d memorized as a child. She was a fast learner so when we needed new material, I decided to teach her the love verses in 1 Corinthians 13. She soon had it memorized.
My husband was gone with the Army that whole summer, and I was alone with five children. I let that stress get the best of me. Finally I was at the end of my rope and needed some me time. Everyone was tucked in bed but they kept getting up (“Just one more drink of water mom!”)
When Mackenzie called for me, I threw open the door and yelled “What do you want?” She quietly replied, “I want to say my prayers.” Then she started, “Love is patient, love is kind.”
I started to cry.

“It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered…”
I felt like the worst mom in the world. How do you apologize to a three-year old?
And still she continued, “It keeps no record of wrongs.” “I love you mommy,” she finished as she gave me a hug. I left the room thinking love keeps no record of wrongs.
I am so thankful that my children don’t keep track of how many times I’ve messed up over the past 16 years.

Dear God, I can only pray that I will learn to love whole-heartedly and unselfishly like my children do.

rolling in the dough

I’ve been knee deep in cookie dough/icing for the last week.. and will be for one more.  here is some evidence: