April

Wow, where has the time gone?

I don't have, or so it seems, any new pictures of Katelyn. Maybe I haven't downloaded from the video camera, but she is just a busy ball of fun! Last Saturday it was so nice outside, that I sent her out with her daddy to play in the backyard so I could get some cleaning done. She spent the whole morning outside and didn't want to come in for a nap. She loved it! And it was nice enough for a light jacket and then no jacket. She totes her pail and shovel around, picking up rocks from the garden or dirt from my flower boxes. I was in the front yard and could hear her singing behind the house. She was just loving it. It's so nice that the yard is fenced and we can let her run around, of course someone is always with her. I packed up a simple lunch and had our first picnic outside. Just didn't want to mess with having lunch inside when everyone was outside already and the clean up is so easy. She loved the idea of sitting on the blanket and sneaking our dog Tucker some morsels of bread. When the dog is around food, she knows he'll eat it if it's dropped, which is just a thrill for her. She loves her dog, "Ducker". She's caught on to how we talk to him when he's being annoying or he barks outside. She's taken on that commanding tone of voice with him too. It's kind of funny! If any dog barks, "dog, no" or some other babble. We've definitely got a talker on our hands.

Last week, I started helping a girl from church with her daycare, in Cody. It's only for 3 hrs a day and it means that both Jason and I are going to Cody. Jason has been driving with our Pastor's wife, Diana, since she has to drop her son off at the high school which is across from the hospital, so jason can walk. But that means I'm getting Katelyn up early to drop him off at the pick up spot and then heading back home and then driving to Cody at 12:45pm. I'm doing it because we need the extra money. Even though everything I make is going towards the fuel that we use. It's nice that Jason has steady income, but with our bills, everything is pretty much gone with no money for fuel. So hopefully this is going to help. Sometimes it doesn't really feel like it and I'd rather just stay at home, but is has gotten me out of the house which is something that I need and Katelyn can learn to interact with some kids. She's not charging me to bring Katelyn, other wise it wouldn't even be an option if I helped her or not. I'm just sick of the runny noses of the younger ones. And I'm so anti-daycare. Germs are just crossed way to easily and no one gains in it. I've been reading a book called, Home By Choice, and it's a psychotherapist who talks about the needs of children in the first years of life and how they bond to their caregivers, which relates to how they may perceive their relationships with the parents. It's from the 90's but it makes so much sense. Our society has gotten it backwards, putting children last and job first. Of course there are those cases where there is only one parent, but I'm saying in a healthy 2 parent family, why can't the mother stay home and do what God has designed her to do? We've gotten into the selfishness of wanting more things or bigger homes that we think we need to incomes, but the children suffer from lack of parental attention.
I'll get off my soap box now.

Other than that, it has been a quiet month. We've got a few things we're trying to sell, with some bites but nothing has been sold. Jason had his tool trailer sold, but the other party couldn't get the money they needed to buy it. So that was a blow and it's sitting for sale again. We just need to get out of a hole that having no work has put us in at different times. We are so over debt! Debt or mortgage, I can't remember, means "in death's grip". And yes it is. God knew what he was trying to protect us from when he told the Israelites not to owe a man anything because they own you. That's my paraphrase.

Thanks for reading this novel. Sorry it's not much but that's where we are at.
Have a good day

Noir Bars

These look so good!

• FOR THE COOKIE BASE:
• ½ cups Butter, Softened
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 whole Egg
• 1-¾ cup Flour
• ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• ¼ cups Semisweet Baking Chocolate, Melted
• _____
• FOR THE CHEESECAKE FILLING:
• 1 stick Butter, Divided
• ¾ cups Dark Baking Chocolate, Cut Into Chunks
• 16 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
• 1-½ cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• _____
• FOR THE GANACHE:
• ½ cups Heavy Whipping Cream
• 2 cups Semisweet Chocolate Chips
• 2 Tablespoons Instant Coffee Or Espresso

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a medium-sized bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Combine the rest of the cookie base ingredients and stir until well-blended. Spread the cookie dough in the bottom of a greased 13×9″ pan and bake 10-12 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and cool completely (about 30 minutes).

In the meantime, work on the cheesecake filling. Melt 2 Tablespoons of the butter and 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips in a sauce pan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, cream the remaining 6 Tablespoons of butter with the cream cheese in a large bowl. Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla, and then beat in the cooled chocolate mix. Spoon the filling over the cooled cookie base. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, approximately 2 hours.

For the ganache, heat the cream, chocolate, and instant coffee over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Cool until lukewarm and then pour over the filling. Refrigerate uncovered until set, about 2 hours. Store covered in the refrigerator.

New Saint Patty's Day food

Something else I must try.

Irish Cream Cupcakes

• FOR THE CUPCAKES:
• 2-½ cups All-purpose Flour
• 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ½ teaspoons Cinnamon
• 1-½ cup Granulated Sugar
• 12 Tablespoons Butter, At Room Temperature
• 2 whole Eggs At Room Temperature
• 2 whole Egg Whites, At Room Temperature
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• ½ cups Irish Cream Liqueur
• _____
• FOR THE BUTTERCREAM:
• 1 cup Butter
• 4 cups Powdered Sugar
• 3 Tablespoons Irish Cream Liqueur

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line muffin tins with 24 cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes. Add eggs and egg whites one at a time, beating on low between each addition. Add vanilla.

Add flour slowly in 3 additions, alternating with Bailey’s, starting and ending with flour.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 15–17 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, beat butter in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, until completely mixed. Add the Bailey’s and beat until well combined.

Poke holes in the tops of the cupcakes and brush some Bailey’s on each before frosting. Load frosting into a piping bag fit with a large tip and decorate as desired.

If you want to frost all 24 cupcakes with as much frosting as I’ve pictured above, you’ll want to double the frosting recipe

Bailey's Irish Cream! Sinful sounding!

Double Fudge Irish Cream Cookies
These just sound so good. Must go buy some Irish Cream.

• 1 cup Butter, Softened
• 1-½ cup Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 8 Tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream Liqueur
• 2-⅔ cups All-purpose Flour
• ½ cups Cocoa Powder
• 1 teaspoon Instant Coffee Powder
• 1-¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 1 cup White Chocolate Chips
• ½ cups Milk Chocolate Chips

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Add in Bailey’s one tablespoon at a time. Add flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee, baking soda and salt and mix until combined.

Fold in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 4–6 hours.

Roll into balls and set on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350ºF for 8–10 minutes.

Bubbos

Nothing makes my girl happier than playing in water and "bubbos"! I think we have a fish on our hands.

Middle of March Already?

Didn't we just have Christmas? Wow, and I haven't posted anything since February.

I haven't had much to post since we haven't done a lot in the last month. I stick pretty close to home and Jason gets out to Cody everyday, with his new job! A huge answer to prayer! He's a Plant Operations Tech for the Cody hospital and he loves it. Something I never thought I would hear uttered from his lips, but it did happen. He has to take my car everyday since his truck may be on the fritz again. My car doesn't do that great on fuel either, so with the skyrocketing gas prices, it could take a chunk every month just to keep him on the road, since he has to drive a 1/2 hr each way. So good-bye self-employment! Yes, when he works, we make more $, but that's only if he works and work has been pretty much non-existant this year. So even if he took a pay cut, we know that there is still money coming in every 2 weeks and any side work is extra money.

That's our biggest news.

In other Pelly news, we have moved K into a toddler bed. I was not ready for this because it was so nice to put her in her crib, give her some books and she would eventually go to sleep.
Not now.
We have been reading to her on the spare bed, and when she falls asleep, we leave her and sleeps all through the night for the most part. In her toddler bed, she doesn't sleep too long and hen I find her at my side of the bed, "Daddy, daddy," I'm not mommy but daddy or da-yie.
So sleeping has been a struggle at our place. She goes to bed, but can't settle down and then doesn't fall asleep until late. Oh, the joys.

She enjoys playing with "wader" any time of the day. I now get more wet giving her bath, than I have before. Splashing and throwing water is a new game. I even got daring and let her play with water and the new word, "babobos or babos" (bubbles) and water doesn't always stay in the sink. We have to change after this treat. I had a book of paint with water from when I was a kid, years ago, that I had. So she has liked doing that, but the water doesn't last long, because she ends up drinking it out of the little cup or dumping it from her chair on the floor.

Spring has shown her pretty face lately and all the snow around here is pretty much gone. Yesterday was so beautiful after church that we hauled out the slide from our pastor, which we've been sliding on inside, outside and played in the sunshine with a neighbor girl. Echo walked by with her grandpa and told me she was so bored, so I invited her to play with Katelyn outside, which kept both of them occupied all afternoon. Echo is 6, so there is an age difference but that doesn't stop her from playing with Katelyn. I was able to pull out the lawn chair, throw off the socks and shoes and read a couple of pages in between talking to the neighbors we haven't seen all winter. Everyone here is getting cabin fever and it's time for some warmer weather.

So now you're caught up with the goings on around here. Hope you have a great rest of March if I don't write before then.

New Creations

Not new, just new and fun fabrics.

Something girly


This goes along with the cowboy cover I did.


These went to a friend who just had a little girl last week. My Cricut helped out on the card.