One year ago today...

I know Elsa likes to sing about "the past is in the past...",

 but I have learned some life lessons from my past, so I am not going to "let it go". 

*Hey I'm cheezy like that sometimes*

A year ago today I took this picture:

While it may look like an ordinary winter picture to you, it symbolizes so much more for me.

Last year at this time, my husband was away for work.. we got to see him more than military families get to see thier loved ones. This did not make it any less difficult on our little family however. We made a choice, together, that it would be for the better of our family in the end, and it was!

Like with any good tale, there are two sides of a story...

I can not tell his, as I was not there. I know that it was not easy for him to be away from wife and kids, but I will not speak for him. I will, however, speak for myself. 

While I had an amazing support group behind me (you really do find your true friends through struggles) it was still trying at times to raise two little girls through that time. WELL, the only truly hard time was WINTER!

I mean it wasn't like Little House on the Prairie, where I had to chop wood for fire, but hey for some first world problems, I did good. As all of my friends would remind me regularly, "Of course this winter had to be one of the worst we've had in a decade".

When you are not one to regularly do push-ups (or anything else), you need to get up at 3:30 am to shovel snow, then get kids up and breakfast, and shovel snow again, then get lunches packed, then shovel snow again, and kids  re-motivated, and shovel snow again... 

you get the picture! Hence this picture above, this is one of the many pictures I took to remind myself...

You CAN do everything you put your mind to. 

You can push your Camry out of the snow by yourself with two kids inside about to be late for school. You CAN escape all the accidents by taking the country roads slow to work. The metaphors could keep rollin, but the point? You CAN make sacrifices when you know there are greater things to be had.

Giving warms the heart

If you're like me, you want to give and give and give some more around Christmas. I give till I get myself in trouble. I like to shop anyway, and then I continue to see things that "remind me" of this person or that... I have to let them know that I was thinking about them, right?!

Well to keep myself out of trouble, in more than one way, I stay at home one weekend in December and bake & make candies. My munchkins and I have a blast, create memories, & mama spends less dough. {pun intended}

Creating these treats helps me to give baskets to people that I love and think about without breaking the bank. On this occasion, however, I found myself without enough actual baskets to pack in. So here was my innovative solution! Remember the boxes that cuties come in? Yes! I wrapped that sucker in some gift wrap and viola! Instant Christmas basket!

Having girls

Can I just take a minute to express how much I love having two little girls?! I love the fact that they get excited to watch “Cupcake Wars” with me… I love that my little one asks when “Sweet Genius” is going to be on. I just love the fact that I have prissy little girls that love to get excited about the same things that excite me!

Mother’s Day 2013

Did everyone have a wonderful Mother’s Day?

I believe every year with my girls gets better and better! Being a mom is so wonderful, but it seems as they get older it gets better. <3

We went to Whole Foods for a free coffee, flower, & mini pastries. It was lovely, and while we walked about, they had beautiful bouquets in Mason jars, & I had to have one! So I came home, pulled out one of my Mason jars, and started to walk the perimeter of my house. I feel like I came up with a good combo, don’t you? I wanted to put a yellow tiger lilly in there too, but held back. My husband came home later and brought me some white roses too. I love it!

We have Asparagus!

Last year I planted asparagus, & the package says two to four years till harvest. So imagine my surprise when I was seeing little thin sprigs already year one.

So on Thursday, when I came home from work, I saw this, plus a couple more like it. WooHoo!

On Friday when coming home from work, I had all of these! I know it isn’t a lot, but I have them in a jar of water, awaiting a few more. I think I should have them within a few more days, which really makes me happy.

Getting my hands dirty

Bet you’d never guess what I been doing all weekend?!

I know I mentioned that I might not be doing a garden this year because of Europe… but I’m crazy like that I guess.

My thinking is that if I promise someone my harvest for that three weeks, they will come water for that time. What do you think? Even enough trade?

And so I made cupcakes…

Since I couldn’t have sampita for my birthday treat, I scoured Pinterest for ideas.

I found these Tres Leches cupcakes. I did not, however use the recipe for the icing that goes on them. I found a different one that used a box o’ cream cheese & whipping cream. I know it doesn’t look as pretty, but tasted light & airy, so as not to take away from the amazing cupcakes themselves.

My brother also has a birthday close to mine, two days before actually. He came up to visit, and chocolate is his fav, so chocolate cupcakes of course. I had my best friend on the phone at the time, and I also know that chocolate cake is one of her favs as well. She too likes to use her Kitchen Aid, so I ask what was the best recipe to use. She suggested the one on the back of the Hershey’s cocoa container, pretty good I’ll say. I also have to let you in on the fact that I do not like chocolate cake. *gasp* Love chocolate, but not so much chocolate flavored things.

I have been munching on these Tres Leches cupcakes since Saturday, & still can’t get enough of them. I had one minor hang up: once I got to the ‘use a meat injector for the milk’ I was lost for a moment, then, rummaged through my utensil drawer…. SCORE! I surprise myself some times. I used a children’s medicine dispenser, worked like a charm ;)

Sampita 2 vs. Katrina 0

I originally thought that I could never make sampita because I did not have a stand alone mixer. I attempted it once, with my husband’s help (okay instruction), but it didn’t work out too well.

So, this being the case, I began to dream about a Kitchen Aid, and dream, and dream… I would read several recipes needing a mixer. I would watch Food Network, and tell myself some day.

As you know some day came! First mission was Sampita…

And here you are, 10 egg yolks (for the crust) & 10 egg whites for my dreamy, fluffy, cloud-like delishesnesses. Well, FAIL! what a waste of 10 eggs. The crust turned out lovely, and tasted good, but the meringue is just not gonna happen.

I guess I will have to find a baka (OLD Bosnian grandma) to help me :/

One nice thing happen out of the mess. I learnt how to make my own vanilla sugar. One teaspoon of vanilla to a 1/2 cup of sugar. You need this to make my favorite Bosnian treat, you can buy packets at the “Euro-supermarket”. I thought I had some in my cupboard, but did not on close inspection. So, that being said, I guess I am a domestic Goddess for being able to mix sugar and vanilla, right? LOL

My Birthday gift!

Easter Sunday just also happens to be my birthday this year, yeap! I feel kinda special. There is something else that I am feeling the most special about though. Wanna take a guess? Well, Finally got an extra special gift I’ve been eye-bawling for a few years now.

~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~

~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~

*drum roll please*

~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~

~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~

~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~.~~~~

She’s like the retro Cadillac of Amazingnesses! Can you tell I am super excited? First moment we will be having together will be Sampita. Here is your mission: comment below your first moment together with your KitchenAid/your favorite recipes that involve the KitchenAid mixer. I need some wonderful things to try!

<3

Naturally Perfect Eggs

I talked the other week about “natural dyeing” our Easter eggs this year… ironically, a week later I stumbled upon an event at the St. Patrick’s Park locally. I was so ecstatic, I invited everyone I knew who had kids my kid’s age. Lucky for me one of my best friends & her son were able to go with us.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but at $5 per kid, it was nearly fee entertainment. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the teacher had things planned out for the kids to do. There were color pages, and she had strips of pastel paper to make rings for the eggs to set on.

We got to make 6 different colors, so 6 different techniques. Here, all of them are pictured together. From top left: the first was dipped twice; turmeric & then red cabbage (gave us a greenish hue); the second was of course drawn with an amazing sun, then dipped in mashed blueberries; the third was colored quite literally with beets. Next row from left; soaked in grape juice (which left the egg quite sticky); the second on bottom row was boiled in turmeric water; the final egg, boiled in onion skins, was such a pretty brown, no really! The speckles were created from rice.

 

It was overall a long process, but we five had a lovely time. Like I said before the teacher was kind enough to have extra things for the kids to do, so they wouldn’t get bored. My girls loved showing their eggs off to their dad, and I was just as excited with the little carton as the kids were. Too Cute!

Oh no! I thought I had that!

The other night I started boiling my pasta, the plan was to make baked rigatoni. I grab my pasta sauce jar out of the fridge only to see it half empty. My first thought was “great this is suppose to be my quick fix go-to meal”, so now what? Off to the store? In my baby-fit manner, I spin my lazy susan quickly around, and something caught my eye! Hmmm I can make pasta sauce homemade, I’ve done it before, but it takes all day of simmering. I grab the tomato sauce can that caught my eye, and rummage through my spice cabinet. There we go!

I pour into my sauce jar the tomato sauce that will fit, and start “doctoring it up”. I throw in about 2 Tbsp. of Parm, and a few, three shakes of Italian seasoning, a dash of garlic salt (I didn’t have garlic powder on hand). I put the cap back on, and give it a good shake, shake, shake. Then I poured it all over my rigatoni as usual. It worked out so good, I had to share it with all of you, my favoritestes peeps. 

March 8th–Women’s Day…

The first time I heard of International Women’s Day was after I became a mother. With a husband from Europe I should have been getting flowers the 8 years prior to this, right? *sheepish grin here*

Okay, let me tell you what women’s day means to me….  The year that I learned about Women’s Day, I was going through a lot. It was the stuff dreams are made of, two beautiful, and amazing little girls in tow. As all of you women know, this is hard hard work, especially when you have two under two. It was not flowers and trinkets I was looking forward to. It was not some time alone at a spa, & it sure wasn’t a “night out on the town”. It was, in fact, something only a women could truly give me… moral support. This is how International Women’s Day came full circle for me. Women helping women.

Why do we, as women, get so cagey and catty with other women? We have it hard enough ladies.. we need loads of support to get through all that domestic stuff that us “goddesses” are expected to do. Okay, well, let me back up for a minute. All those domestic things that a lot of (but not all) women like to do. Everyone has their own arrangements in their households, but I feel like I would be an awesome “goddess" if only time allowed. This is where our support team steps in, to talk us down off the ledge, we can’t do it all. Also, to let us get the praise we deserve, who better knows how hard it can be than another woman?

So in short, be extra kind to all women today & everyday, because like in my favorite quote:

If we all understood that everyone has their own battles to fight, insecurities to face, loves to contend and goals to attain, the world would be a gentler place.

Happy International Women’s Day! <3