Applesauce Cake

Have you ever had applesauce cake?

It is delicious.

I made one yesterday because it was a snow day, and well... what better way to spend a snow day than baking delicious things with a more than willing to help 18-month old?



I need an intervention.




Molly

Newly Obsessed

Do you have an iPhone? I have no idea if this is specific to the iPhone, but I discovered this nifty little {free} app called "Red Stamp."

You pick a little template, snag a picture off your phone, type in a few words, and "wah-lah" you have a cutesie announcement, thank you note, or any other "just because" kind of note you want to make. Then all you have to do is hit "send" and you can text or email it to whoever {whomever? whoever? grammar people?} you want! For free!

Now, of course they have templates you have to pay for... and duh they are way cuter... but there are also lots of cute non-paid for ones too.

Maybe this means I won't be eternally behind on thank you notes anymore. {Or still be writing Christmas ones in... um... march}. Cuz let's be honest, it's not that I'm not thankful - it is just so hard to find notecards and stamps and get things in a mailbox. So. Many. Steps. And so many possible distractions in between.

So here are two cutesie examples that I made just for fun...

Snow Day

Today was about 53 kinds of lovely. I got to sleep in, snuggle, read books and play with my very sweet (but very busy) little one, sip hot tea leisurely through the morning, take a long hot shower, get a little sewing in, make a pot of soup for tomorrow, enchiladas for lunch, and an applesauce cake just because.

Now I'm caught up on laundry, diapers are washed and dried, dishes are done, toys are picked up and put away for the day, and Em is tucked into bed. Sigh.

Maybe I'll treat myself to a bath, good book, and a second piece of applesauce cake. :)

Molly

Muffins. Delicious, tasty, muffins.

I am not a health-nut crazy of any sort... but I do like to look for healthier options to the current things that we consume/do in our home.  Things that are manageable.  Similar to what we are currently doing, but a step above.  Things that won't break the bank or make me crazy in the process.  Moderate things.  Nothing too extreme. 

So I found a delicious chocolate muffin recipe with no flour, no sugar, no oil, no butter, and just a few egg whites.  What is in this delicious morsel you wonder?  Unsweetened applesauce (of which I made and canned this summer... so it is 100% legit), plain greek non-fat yogurt, egg whites, a little stevia, unsweetened cocoa, and old fashioned oats.  (Along with a couple of other random baking ingredients... but these are the big ones.)  They do not even taste healthy.  Trust me.  And then repeat: 58 calories.  58 calories.  58 calories!

Check out this deliciousness...

 

Does it make you drool?  Because there is currently one sitting in front of me that is making me drool.  Why haven't I eaten it yet?  Well... I'm trying to be moderate, remember???  It's only 7:30am and I have already had one.  I need to save the other one for at least 9:00 between seeing students.  It's going to be hard.

So that's my story.  I hope you liked it.

Molly

P.S. Here is the link for the recipe (so I don't lose it) AND in case I've made you curious...
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/06/low-calorie-triple-chocolate-chunk.html 


Oh... and here is my sweet little helper.  If you don't have one of these, I'd recommend getting one too.  The sweet little one pictured below is already taken (unfortunately for you), but you could probably find a similar alternative of your own if you looked hard enough.  Or I could probably loan you mine for an hour or two.  Maybe. 

Emberly carefully and strategically placed each muffin liner in my muffin tins for the entirety of the time it took me to mix up the muffins.  She would finish and say, "more?  more?  more?  hep?  mama?" until I would take them out for her and she'd do it again.  Yup.  She's pretty awesome. 

"Mommy"

I'm not really a "cry it out" mama, but I do believe some crying is good, healthy, and necessary for a child to "decompress" at nighttime. I feel like I know when Emberly needs something and when she is just a mess and needs to come down from the day. However, it was a lot easier to let her cry before she started crying while calling "mommy! mommy! mommy!" in this pathetic, tear filled little voice. It is not easy to ignore.

So last week I made the mistake of going to get her to have her tell me she needed a snack, and me plopping her in my bed while going out to the kitchen to grab her some milk. Now she wakes up and thinks she needs to get in my bed and eat a snack. Bad mama. Now to undo that...

Funny Child

Papa Juice and Emberly have this special connection. I mean, why wouldn't they? Papa doesn't have to say no to anything. He doesn't make her get her diaper changed, put her to bed, or eat her vegetables. Plus he feeds her ice cream when I'm not around.

Well they like to tease each other a lot, so every time Papa does something silly Em says "papaaaaa" in this low growl voice that is beyond silly. And then he copies her tone and says "Emmyyyy." You just have to hear it to know.


Anywho. Tonight from her crib when she is supposed to be sleeping I suddenly hear "papaaaaa" in this little growl about 10 times in a row and a little giggle.

And then she proceeds to list off everyone she knows, because we name all the people who are sleeping at night, and then all the people that love her. So after I hear "papaaaa" I hear...

Mama. Go go. (Grandma Margo)
Mama. Eeciee. (Grandma Tracie)
Papaaaaa. Ooice. (Grandpa Juice)
Papa. Nack. (Grandpa Mike)
Hadweeee (Cousin Hadley)
Aaaniene (Cousin Adrienne)
Haaa-poo (Friend Harper)
Maw-mee (mommy)
Da-da (daddy)
Nack (maybe grandpa mike again, or maybe uncle mike)
...

And there were more but they trailed off in a quieter voice.

She's funny. I think I'll keep her around.


Molly

For Sale By Owner

Once upon a time, the week before we went to Florida for our little getaway vacation, we were sitting in the living room and said to each other, "hey let's put our house on Craigslist and see if anyone bites."

So we did. With not a picture or a single thing ready and cleaned up in our house.

We had 2 people ask for pictures in the next hour, and 4 people total inquire that day.

So we took some pictures and threw a few online and went on vacation.

While we were gone we were suddenly in high demand by realtors who had seen our listing and wanted to represent us. "No thanks friends," we said, because we had all the time in the world and were not interested in paying a realtor commission. Nope. No thank you to that.

But then individuals started looking, and then realtors wanted to bring some interested people even though we weren't going to pay them, and then suddenly last night we had an offer.

It wasn't a great offer, but it wasn't bad either. So we countered, and they countered, and we countered, and they countered, and 3 hours later we had a fantastic offer and a deal!

Bah!

So... now I guess we have to find somewhere to live!

The end. Or... maybe the beginning!


Molly