Recipe Time!

Alrighty, the FUDGE is here :-)




First some tips:

1) Get all your ingredients ready plus the final pan buttered. And try to distract your little ones, haha.

2) Use a candy thermometer and TEST it first! Mine was only off about 2 degrees, but I read where some can be off almost 10! Make adjustments in your cooking.

3) Try not to have your daughter break a glass in the middle of the ‘stir constantly’ step.

4) Attempt to have a strong man handy for the “stir till it thickens” step

5) Follow the directions and have fun!



I cut the original recipe in half, so this makes about 1 pound and fit in a 7” x 5” pan nicely. Doubling should allow you to use an 8 x 8 pan.



¾ C milk (though I did use half and half to see if it’d be really creamy)

2 oz unsweetened chocolate (should be 2 wrapped squares)

2 C sugar (yes, this isn’t healthy!)

1 ½ Tbs light corn syrup

1/8 tsp salt (I didn’t measure, just did a few sprinkles..)

1 ½ Tbs butter (Though the husband suggests more next time, but I don’t know how it would affect the setting of the fudge)

¾ tsp vanilla (I’m a vanilla lover, and threw in a whole tsp. I’m convinced I could have used even more)



Combine the milk and chocolate over low heat till melted.

Up the heat a little more (to medium or so) and add sugar, corn syrup and salt. Stir constantly till boiling.

Then stop stirring and don’t stir at all (so hard!) until the mixture reaches 234°F. (if you are a regular candy maker, this is soft ball stage and a little bit of fudge in a glass of cold water should form soft balls. Not sure what exactly that would look like, but when I put some in water, it still kinda smeared on the bottom of the glass just a bit, but also had one little bubble looking drop suspended.)

Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla, but don’t stir yet!

Wait until the mixture reaches 110°F. (This took a considerable amount of time – maybe 30 min or more)

Then stir/beat (with a wooden spoon) until it thickens and loses its gloss. The recipe says this is about 15 minutes, but Nathan only stirred about 9 minutes.

Spread in buttered pan. I then refrigerated and it was set in an hour or 2.



One last tip – they say not to scrap the sides of the pan when stirring after it reaches 234, because that can bring in some of the crystallized sugar and make it a little lumpy. Since I can’t stand being wasteful, this is probably why I don’t have the absolute smoothest fudge. Shouldn’t affect the taste, however.

Need Encouragement?

I did today.
A little over a week ago, a single male friend of ours simply asked "So...what do you DO all day?"
Really?
I wish Nathan would have been there, because I'm sure his answer would have been better, but after a minute, I simply said "Well, Samantha is pretty much my day."
I know SAHM do much more than care for their kids. One thing I knew growing up was that when Daddy was home, we got to play, because he had time for us. He might have projects or other things of his, but it wasn't a whirlwind time of housework, bill paying, or shopping, because my mom took care of all of that during the day. Our family had quality family time. A lot. And I appreciate that.

So to encourage myself, today I'm keeping a list of everything I do that isn't for me. So my shower (however wonderful and necessary it was) doesn't go on the list, however feeding Samantha breakfast, does. Yes, every little thing, that I couldn't do if I wasn't home.
I won't brag by sharing the list, but I will let you know that at 10:30 am, its already got quite a few things on it. And I'm feeling much more accomplished - and encouraged to do more!

I like Steven Curtis Chapman's new song Do Everything. Here are a few lines...

"You’re picking up toys on the living room floor
for the 15th time today
Matching up socks and sweeping up lost
Cheerios that got away

Little stuff big stuff in between stuff
God sees it all the same
And while I may not know you I bet I know you
Wonder sometimes does it matter at all
We’ll let me remind you it all matters just as long as you do

Do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you
Cause He made you to do
Every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
And tell the story of grace"

There may be people where I used to work that don't understand why I left behind the job, the money, or the accomplishment.
But I'm pretty sure my family REALLY appreciates me. And I'm doing what *I* feel is the best thing to do.

Visiting Violet

Samantha and I and, thankfully, Nonie, went to Baltimore to visit the newest member of our family, Violet. She is currently 5 weeks old and pretty darn cute :-)

Meeting Violet "Hey, you're smaller than me!"

Some of my cousins came to visit!

Cristy and Violet

Celebrating my brother's 30th Birthday!!

The babies and mommies at the party.

We went for lots of walks because there is a cool park very near their house.

There is a working farm at the park! So we saw chickens, pigs, goats, and sheep!

Nonie and her new grandbaby!

Nonie and both grandbabies!

Violet smiles, kinda!

Another day, another walk :-)

Pretty girl

Samantha learned how to treat a baby nicely...she's fairly good at it :-)

Pretty little girls!!

The Jackson cousins!

So we had lots of fun. The 3 hour plane ride...not so fun. Perhaps next time we should just buy her a seat and strap her in the carseat.

Summertime

I'm such a bad blogger. I love reading other people's, but so slow in updating mine.
So the updates on baby #2 is that he/she is not as easy going as Sam was. Still feeling a little bad most evenings, though I had a good day yesterday. I'm trying to figure out what is causing the certain symptoms I keep getting and, yesterday, battled them witih some medicine. I wish I didn't have to resort to that, but I am so tired of feeling bad and it ruins my evening by 4 or 5pm. So alas, a little bit of medicine yesterday went a long way. I got to finish Violet's quilt after Samantha went to bed when I would normally have been lying on the couch wishing the day to be done. Nathan tried a fun dinner of battered/fried chicken and onion rings. It was not quite as good as he hoped, but then he was so sweet to clean up all of the kitchen and do the dishes when he was done. I didn't complain when someone else cooked and cleaned. Yes, my husband is amazing :-)

Samantha's birthday party came and went. It was very enjoyable. We had more people than I thought (yes, I invited them all, but I guess I didn't expect everyone to come) and we didn't do everything I planned, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We mostly just relaxed and chatted inside, ate and did presents and ice cream sundaes. BTW, I still have 2 unopened bottles of whip cream if anyone is interested! I prepared for everyone to eat sundaes like I do, not like most people, haha. I sure have enjoyed the left over ice cream and toppings!

Sam still isn't walking and doesn't seem any closer than a few weeks ago. I think she physically could, she just chooses not to. She doesn't want to walk much with you helping her, but she does walk all day with her walker or cruising the furniture. And though occasionally she seems like it might be really cool and exciting to take a step by herself, in the end she sits down and doesn't do it. I thought I had a little daredevil, but she's pretty cautious about walking alone.

She babbles all day now and points all the time to what she wants. I've been trying to be more consistent with signing a few select words every time I use them, but she doesn't seem so interested in that either. My child is MISS Independent, I'll do it on my own time, thanks mom.

I do love that she is more interested in books again. Our naptime/bedtime routine now includes reading 2-3 books before being laid in bed (awake) and most of the time she is very attentive. She also goes to sleep on her own with little fuss. Much more pleasant times now!

I cut up some of my own t-shirts to start a quilt and then yesterday got a whole stack from a client to get started on a quilt. I think I'm still going to do my quilt first to make sure I know the best ways to get this all done, but it sounds like I may have more shirts coming my way after that. I am very excited that SOMEthing is finally, maybe a little, taking off. And I was very surprised at how fast Violet's quilt finally came together. Granted, it was cut out by my mom a few weeks ago, but all in all, I got it finished in just 4-5 naptimes after that. (Yes, everything I need to do alone is measured in naptimes) Of course Violet's quilt was a bit smaller, since made for a baby and not out of t-shirts, but essentially the same design, so it gives me a bit of a base for how long this will take.

And tomorrow Sam and I head off to MEET the new Miss Violet and hold her and snuggle her and take lots of pictures with her! Oh, and we'll get to celebrate my brother's big 3-0 and see my wonderful sister-in-law. AND my mom is coming with us, YEY!

Warning: Complaining Ahead

I'm just tired of being a mom today. I'm so tired of feeling sick. I thought it was getting better and the last 5 days have not been. My house is a wreck. I wish I was exaggerating.

When is MY vacation day??

What to do when you want to change your status on fb every 2 seconds..

Blog it all!

So this morning Sam took a 30 minute snoozer in her swing while I showered and got ready. Unusual, since it was an hour earlier than her normal (and still early) naptime.

We headed to the mall where she proceeded to get fussy and all I did was get my watch fitted to my wrist (thank you wonderful husband for the mother's day gift) though I did find some maternity clothes at Burlington and a sale at Motherhood, but someone was too cranky to let me try anything on! :-( I may have to go back.

I am in love with Chick-fil-a chicken biscuits. Why do they stop serving breakfast at 10:30?? Couldn't they carry just MY one breakfast item all day?? :-(

I've had 2 in the last 3 days and WOULD have more but again, its hard to get out before 10:30am. Though I might have planned my day around a chick-fil-a breakfast. Yes, I had this plan last night, and yes, luckily it worked out for me today!

Speaking of cravings, I'd really LOVE a coke right now...I'd only drink a little of it, promise. But cravings and having a one year old...its not easy. I can't just go get myself whatever I'd like. Sad times. :-P
I'm currently settling on sparkling apple cider. Nothing like a good ol' coca cola...but at least its sparkly?

And my sleepy head fell asleep in the car on the way home. I was super surprised that I was able to get her out of her carseat and inside and back to sleep on my shoulder. So I just layed on the couch with her on my chest. She moved around a few times, I got her shoes off. I thought surely she'd wake up. But no. So I finally REALLY had to go to the bathroom. I laid out a blanket and put her on the floor. She is STILL sleeping. 1.5 hours after she started her nap in the car. I'm truely amazed. However, I don't think her diaper is going to make it.
Oh well! Happy baby, wet floor is FINE BY ME! :-D

Go Figure

It would be the one day in 2 weeks that I blog that blogger decides to pitter out in the middle of my post and not save it. Yeah, I copied it on my clipboard but of course didn't do anything with it from there and now, well, a day later, its gone.
And the feeling from yesterday's post is gone, so I'll have to come up with something else.

Today.
Today I made my own laundry detergent :-D
Stolen from Mrs Weldy's blog (who I believed probably found the recipe via google) I made 2 gallons of detergent today. Then I'll use 1/2 cup per load. The supplies I bought means that the 6 gallons total I can make would cost me $0.04 per load. Compare that to one of the cheapest detergents at $5 for 44 loads (or about $0.11 per load) and that's a pretty good savings. Not to mention that I'll probably have 2 of the 3 ingredients left for many more batches, so in the end it will be much more savings than that!
But I won't lie, I did it for fun too :-)
I was hoping that the fels naptha (one of the ingredients) would help with baby food stains as well (in the concentrated form as directed on the package) but it did not. I'll try some other combinations, but for now I'll need to rewash some bibs with shout. Oh my do I need to find a cheaper stain fighter. I went through a bottle of shout in about a month, maybe a little less. It seems like almost all of Sam's clothes need Shout. Either a bib with food, spit up on her shirt or poop through her bottoms.

Sam.
Yes, my baby is one week from being a year old!! The (second half of the) year seems to have flown by! I can't believe she's growing up, but its also so much fun!! She pulls up on everything and has even stood in the middle of the floor a few times by herself. She doesn't seem all that interested in walking. If she stands up when you hold her arms, she'll only take a few steps before sitting and crawling. She does have a walker that she's so proud she can walk behind. Then again, after awhile, she'll just push it on her knees...
I've been kinda lazy about food with her. I was doing well introducing her to feeding herself, then we moved, I got pregnant and sick and she's had all jarred baby food for over a month. Well, she feeds herself cheerios and rice krispies, but I haven't made her peas or carrots in a long while. Soon, soon, when I get past this 'morning' aka "all-day" sickness.
She got a baby doll for Christmas and she's always liked it but this week she has been LOVING it. The doll came with us shopping and 2 mornings in a row she wouldn't give her up so she could eat breakfast. Its pretty cute.

Well Daddy just got home, so that's it for now!