who needs leprechauns when you have your own cute little shorties

On Valentine's Day I swore that I would stop putting so much energy into my holidays for awhile... the kids are probably too young to enjoy it and I am fairly sure my husband would survive if a day passed without decorations, themed desserts and craftiness.
aaaand here i sit on St. Patrick's day covered in icing and glue bits. In other words, I lied to myself :)

Not completely though- I have toned it down considerably. I didn't put up any decorations until this morning when N and I slapped a little banner together in 10 minutes. Since his little hands cut and glued and stickered, it was perfect.

and we made cupcakes and other green food and corned beef and cabbage. we slapped on our green and pinched and pinched and pinched but that is all. It was low-key but it felt nice.

Let's be honest, who can live up to a pinterest holiday these days anyway??
Happy St. Patty's Day!

hmmm... unexpected or maybe a little bit expected

i awoke today with the grandest of sweet plans. no work until the PM and two weeks out (seriously people two weeks) from the Christmas calls for some cookie engineering.

and then i stepped on the damn scale!!! it has been AWHILE. and i could blame it on those silly little fluctuating female hormones or on my children who probably broke the scale... i did start out at the 100 mark instead of 0 because it would have taken too long to scroll all the way around to fix it. but let's take a moment to acknowledge that i did just yesterday admit to knocking over a giant clock.
with my ass. i had left that part out.

hmmmm. so baking jumped right off the day's agenda and we can pretend like it won't mysteriously appear somewhere else on this week's schedule. the oven is going to get used though, i made a lentil loaf... because it will taste like caramel corn. or maybe because it is meatless monday and i have a rear stuffed with random pounds that showed up on the scale.

sooooo, the moral of the story is do not weigh yourself before you bake.

incidentally you should also not weigh yourself after you bake... unless it's a lentil loaf

Sugar Monsters

I LOVE Christmas! The while season just swallows me up. My halls are sufficiently decked, we have hosted a party with another to come, gifts are bought and wrapped and baking is DONE! In general I don't bake but this year I have gone to the dark side :) The last few days were spent in the kitchen. My baby was underfoot the entire time picking up crumbs of who knows what nastiness and stuffing them into her little mouth.... Up to this point she has only had a few fruits and vegetables, her cereal and some egg yolk but after yesterday, you can add cookie bits, artificially flavored sprinkles and brownie dough :( She was just so fast- every tiny particle went onto her mouth and after awhile I stopped going in after them. I would turn and see her tiny little mouth chomping up and down with a sly little grin- oh well I guess. My 3 year old popped in and out all day stealing cookies from the baking rack and being generally "helpful" with the mixing and stirring. With two small children, each dozen cookies is a triumph in itself, so I give myself a big pat on the back for this one. And after arguing with my sugar induced maniac of a son and stepping over the particle thief all week, I am pretty darn tired.