Thursday, May 20, 2010

Success!

E-Money is COMPLETELY potty trained! She actually has been for a while, but I've been reluctant to declare it publicly! We're talking dry through naps and at night, pottying (#1 and #2) on the BIG potty with NO potty seat. Potty trained. She's a rock star :)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Pound Cake Cupcakes

These are so yummy! Nice and buttery...mmmm.

The original recipe came from here. Credit where credit is due.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 large eggs
• 2 cups softened, not melted, butter
• 1/2 cup 2% milk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla


Pound Cake Cupcake Recipe Directions

Combine all of your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add butter, milk, and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Stir until just mixed then mix at medium speed for about 4 minutes. Scrape bowl.

Add eggs one at a time and mix on low speed for 30 seconds after each egg. Once all eggs are in the batter, mix at medium speed for 1 minute. Batter will be thick and fluffy.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spoon batter into cupcake liners until 1/2 full. If you fill them any more, you risk having a mess in your oven.

Bake your cupcakes for 20 minutes or until a cake tester, or toothpick, inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Cool your pound cake cupcakes completely in the cupcake pans. Store in an airtight container.


I didn't want a whole bunch of cupcakes, so I halved the recipe. I knew from the look (ok and the taste) of the batter that they would be yummy. And they turned out great!! I found that 1/4 cup (or 2 scoops with my 2T scoop) of batter for each muffin cup was perfect. I baked for 17 minutes. Try these. They really are great!

RAWR!!!

In an effort to forget the terrible two-ness that currently abides in our home, I'm remembering the wonderfulness of having a toddler.

* She loves me. No, she REALLY loves me. She told me so. "I love you SOOO much, Mommy", she told me the other day. I love you too, baby girl.

* She loves my cooking. She eats with such delight. I love watching her eat. She is very much like her daddy in that aspect. I love watching him eat too....he eats with such gusto. Like whatever he's eating is the most wonderful thing ever made. But E-Money really does think that whatever I make is the most wonderful thing ever made. She is always telling me how good it is.

* I just walked into my bedroom more than a dozen times so she could jump out from behind the door and scare me. And I had to act surprised every. single. time. It was so cute because I could hear her giggling before I would even make it to the doorway.

*She sings. All the time. She'll even try to sing along with you to a song you're making up right then and there. Yeah, she's THAT awesome.

* She tells me "Big girl!!" when I go potty. :)

Ok...now I remember what's fun about this age. Terrible Twos?? Nah...TERRIFIC Twos!!!

Until she writes on the walls again. *sigh*

Dear Terrible Twos...

I hate you. Please go away.

Sincerely,

The Taylors

Thursday, May 13, 2010

5 Minute Showers

Five minute shower, how I love thee. It's not often that I am able to get away from the pulls of daily life. The constant "Mommy!", "Honey!", and "Mrs. Taylor!". The ever present "What's for dinner", "Do I have clean clothes?", and "I poop!". But there you are. Waiting for me. To envelop me in your steamy goodness. To cover me in your warm embrace. Where I can laugh, cry, pray, and sing. Where for five minutes, I'm whoever I want to be. Not that I don't want to be wife and mommy....not at all. But for five minutes, I can remember who I am. I can recharge, regroup, and de-stress. Thank you five minute shower. Until next time...

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Sister Love


Why I believe...

Why I believe:

My children. As I watch my children grow and learn, I think of how it all began. A little cluster of cells that grew inside my body for 9 months, then let my body know when they were ready to come into the world (well, with Chloe at least). The instinct to suckle at my breast, their tiny hands, feet, fingernails, etc. As I look at my children, and feel an overwhelming sense of unconditional love, I think about where those instincts come from. Maybe I’m naive to think my emotional and physical instincts (love, compassion, protectiveness, nurture, etc.) were deliberate instead of a product of happenstance.

Nature. Where did it all come from? A big bang? The whole world and everything in it created from a single organism? The complexity of even a strawberry makes me think there HAS to be something much bigger at work here. The inner-workings of the human body, photosynthesis, the water cycle: all things that make me question the single organism argument. I don’t know....maybe I’m simple minded. Maybe I’m weak and need a “crutch” to stand on when it comes to creation. Maybe I’m unintelligent to think that an almighty God is at work here, instead of a random bang in the sky that came from essentially nothing.

My husband. Maybe we’re just compatible. Maybe we have similar interests and personalities, and therefore make a good pair. Maybe I’m not strong enough of a person to accept the fact that it is all coincidence. Maybe I need to believe in a higher being because I’m weak and need to give someone else the power because I can’t handle it, or feel undeserving of it.

I believe because I’ve been spoken to by the Lord. I believe because I can see Him at work in my life. Some may call that coincidence. Some may say that I’m giving credit to a ‘god’ for the things that I did, or that would have happened regardless. But I call it having faith in an almighty power. Maybe if I hadn’t felt His presence, seen His will at work, heard His voice and urging in my heart...Maybe then I would think there might be something else at work here. Maybe I really am so simple minded and weak that I need to believe in a God that saves. Maybe. But I do believe. I believe in an all knowing, all seeing, POWERFUL God. And I thank Him daily for my blessings and for saving my soul. And if that makes me any less of a person in the eyes of the world, then that is a trade off I am happy to make. Because at the end of the day, I am responsible for my own destiny. And I chose life. Everlasting life.