This-N-That

 Love my piano players!  My dream at the end of my life is to have each of my daughters play the piano.  I want them to play hymns for me when I'm on my death bed.  There is no sound more beautiful than the piano.  I love it!  (I'm starting to turn into an old lady in the fact that I can't remember what I've already shared.  I feel like I repeat myself, I apologize.  It's not intentional.) 

 Funny story about Anna.  I love that she is such a fireball.  She's been working on one particular piece for a LONG time, "French Children's Song".  She can play it.  As the recital approached, she became frustrated with the piece, which caused her to make lots of mistakes and become very irritable.  Emily (the teacher) talked to me and said that students who develop a "block" with a song have a disatrous time at the performance. She recommended Anna skip that piece and just play one song.  I was fine with that.  Anna and Leah have a notebook that Emily writes their weekly assignments in.  Anna's assignment: "London Bridges" and "French Children's Song" (which was erased).  I began to notice that Anna was still playing "French Children" with more vigor than ever before.  I didn't discourage it or ask her about it.  I peeked at her notebook and noticed that she had rewritten "French Children's Song" where it had been erased.  She's NOT a quitter.  I love that she made that decision all on her own.  She played the piece and it was beautiful.  It was a good lesson for her to persevere. 

 Leah is just ALL about the performance.  She loves clapping and smiles.  She and Anna were taking turns practicing for the big day.  One would be the audience and cheer when the playing was over.  When it was Leah's turn to be the performer, she said, "Hello, folks, I'm Leah.  I'll be playing 'Lightly Row' and 'Busy Bee.'"  "Hello, folks."  hahaha!

Emily was kind enough to invite Raychel to perform as well.  She enjoyed playing "Phantom" and playing the Phantom!  She also made each of the performers a solid milk chocolate piano. 

 

Not more than an hour after this picture was taken, we had an “incident” at home.  Obviously, after the adrenaline rush of performing followed by the ice cream dinner, the girls were beyond hyper.  We came home, and they  got into the shower.  Loud laughing, squealing, and dancing around on a wet, slippery surface was the beginning of the spiral downward.  After several stern warnings from me to “CALM DOWN”, I just gave up.  I went to get toothpaste on toothbrushes ready for shower delivery. 

I guess I should preface this by saying my girls all shower together.  They love that time together.  They are silly, they tell jokes, they have serious talks over loofahs and bubbles.  Quality sister time.   

As I was prepping the toothbrushes, I hear blood curdling/deafening screams coming from the other bathroom.  Mind you, this may be alarming to some.  Not to me.  Anna and Leah use the same war cry for a paper cut as well as an amputated appendage.  Typically, the injury is non-life threatening, falling into the “paper cut” territory; therefore, I don’t find it necessary to rush to the scene.  As I rounded the corner, however, I was in no way prepared for what I saw.  My naked, dripping, wet seven year old was looking at herself in the mirror covered in blood.  As she screamed, blood squirted out of her nostrils and mouth.  Oh my gosh!  She’s hemorrhaging!  I immediately panic.  I’m not a blood/injury mom.  I’m totally fine with scrapes and bumps, but not “real” injuries.  I (as calmly as I could) asked her if she just got a bloody nose.  “NO, LEAH TRIPPED ME!”  As blood pulsates with every word.  Her little face is swelling right before my eyes.  “Ok, stop talking.”  Now cue Leah’s screams of despair and guilt (as she has just been ratted out…snitches get stitches!).  She comes charging out of the shower to check out the damage.  She’s slipping all over the tile flinging soap everywhere.  “Get back in the shower, and let me think!”  I jam the token I-have-a-nosebleed-rolled-up-toilet-paper in her nose and start mopping up all. that. blood.  I’m ready to pack up and go to the ER.  Then reason steps in…otherwise known as James.  He gets Anna elevated, situated, and iced.  Thankfully, she is back to normal and there have been no other “dance parties” in the shower.    

 Nerd Alert!  I know I've talked about my concerns with Raychel and her eating.  The more troubling part is the fact that she is completely unmotivated by any reward.  She can't be bought!  Until now.  In her reading class she wrote an essay...read for yourself.

Is that not the cutest!

James wrote up a serious, legal binding contract.  She complied, and earned 30 minutes of WoW time.  She LOVES it!  She decided on a "blood elf" character and named her "Ali Hunter".  Who knew this would be such great motivation!

 

We planted a garden.  Potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, pumpkins and cabbage.

I thought I should start sharing a recipe or two.  I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not a cook.  I love to eat, but I don’t enjoy the preparatory process.  I love chocolate chip cookies!  I’m quite particular about my cookies.  I’ve tried all kinds of recipes and methods, and this is the recipe I have settled on (with a couple of modifications).  My friend, Yvonne, gave this to me a while ago, and it’s my go-to recipe.  I love it because it makes a ton of cookies.  You’re lucky to squeeze out 24 cookies from the recipes on the back of a chocolate chip package.  So here are my tips and tricks for (in my humble opinion) the “perfect” chocolate chip cookie.  I didn’t take pictures during the baking process because I find those pictures boring.  I know what creamed butter and sugar look like.  I just want the recipe and a helpful hint or two thrown in.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup Crisco (butter flavor)

1 cup sugar

2 cups brown sugar (The original recipe called for equal parts of brown and white sugar.  I like to add more brown sugar because it makes the cookies a lot chewier.)

3 eggs

3 tsp. vanilla (A couple birthdays ago, my friend, Tammy, gave me some Mexican vanilla for my birthday.  That vanilla made all the difference in my baked goods.  The vanilla was so smooth and sweet.  Not potent and alcohol-y.)

4 1/3-1/2 cups flour (depending on how thick you like your cookies.  I like my cookies chewy, thin and really spread out, so I tend to use less flour that what is called for)

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 ½ package Ghiradelli MILK chocolate chips (It has to be Ghiradelli brand AND milk chocolate)

Mix butter, shortening and sugars until light in color and fluffy.  Add eggs and beat some more.  Add vanilla.  In a large, separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.  Add wet dough to dry ingredients.  Mix by hand.  Because this is a larger recipe, you will save yourself a huge flour mess is you do this by hand in a large bowl.  Then add the chocolate chips.  As I mentioned, I like my cookies chewy, thin and almost under cooked.  I use a small melon baller to scoop the dough.  The smaller the ball, the more likely they are to bake all the way through.  If the balls are bigger the bottom tends to be mushy and undone.  You also bake these cookies at 350 for 11-13 minutes.  The lower temp and longer baking time make the cookies spread beautifully.  I also love my baking stones.  I think that makes a difference as far as giving the cookies an even bake.  Now I need to go make some!



These are Nana's favorite!