Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Cookies...or Kitchen Pantry Cookies

One of the things about having a blog, especially one devoted to keeping you motivated is the requirement to actually do something so that you have something to post about.  M gets out of school at 12:00 on Thursdays, which gives us a LOT of time to fill before dad gets home.

Today we decided to make cookies.  Unfortunately I only had a little of everything that most recipes require.  So I found this great recipe at the naptime chef that pretty much used up all of the bits of baking ingredients I had in my pantry.

First off, I'm not a great baker, or planner...both of which can be issues when trying to make cookies.  Keep this in mind as you follow along.  Do as I say, not as I do.  I'll explain later.

Step 1.  Combine the flour and baking soda

Step 2. In a MIXER FITTED WITH A PADDLE ATTACHMENT (not in the same bowl...minor oversight), beat the butter, sugars and salt.  Add the eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla (I probably should have done this at this point...moving on).

Step 3. Slowly add the flour to the butter and sugar mixture.  Again, way ahead of you here.

Step 4. Fold in the chocolate chips, coconut and oats, one at a time.

Step 5. Place the dough on the baking sheets. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until cookies start to brown.  Watch M try to be patient and the dogs sleep while the tortorous 15 minutes pass.

Tada!  All done.  M wanted to make hers into a sandwich so we used some canned frosting and rolled it in some sprinkles.  Way too sweet for my tastes.  She of course loved it.  The rest we bagged up and delivered to our neighbors.  All in all a fun way to spend the afternoon.  Now we're heading outside to enjoy our beautiful spring weather.

Playdough

I have a confession.  I can't stand playdough and we do not own any.  So imagine my joy when M's teacher sent home a handy little recipe along with a note saying I was the next parent in line to make the classroom playdough.  Awesome!!

So, M and I dutifully made a very pale pink playdough that kind of resembled raw chicken.  She loved it.  That's all that matters right?

Playdough Recipe
1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup water
food coloring

Combine ingredients in a saucepan.  Heat over medium low heat, stirring constantly.  When the mixture has the right playdough consistency, take it off the heat and allow it to cool.

Mood Boards

First off let me put it out there. I'm addicted to my iPad. Seriously addicted. I spend an inordinate amount of time reading blogs, magazines, message boards, etc. on it daily. I've found that one of my favorite and most useful apps has been Moodboard Pro (BTW, they totally have no idea who I am and this is solely my opinion). This app is so cool. If you're like me and love crafting, cooking and interior design then I highly recommend you stop right now, spend the $9.99 and download this baby.

I think the main purpose of Moodboard is for interior designers to lay out their rooms. We're remodeling a weekend home right now so that was my initial intent for the app.

I quickly found way more uses though. For example, you've just run across a recipe that looks great on your favorite blog. What do you do? Bookmark it? That's what I normally would have done. Then I'm left with a long list of links that have zero visual appeal. Now with Moodboard I can grab a picture of that recipe, paste it on my board and voilà! When I want to see the actual page it came from I simply click on it and I'm taken back to it's source page. Brilliant right?

Another great use is for craft projects, putting together a new wardrobe, scrapbook layout, basically anything that would benefit from having a visual list.

Let me know what you would use it for.

Home Sweet Home

Aww, finally back home after nine lovely, but long days. 

Today's goal:  tackle the mountain of mail that accumulated while we were gone.  So much fun.

While I love traveling, I certainly miss my house, my bed, my mundane normal life...oh, and this guy,

and this one,

and last, but certainly not least...even this crazy one.

Comfort Zone

It's amazing how comfortable you can become with something without even realizing it.  We've been coming to the town of Los Barriles for about seven years.  About an hour and a half north of here are two little towns, San Antonio and El Triunfo.  We've driven past the towns several times but have never stopped to check them out.  Yesterday we decided to hire a driver to take us to Todos Santos.  On our way there we decided to stop off at San Antonio and El Triunfo just to check them out and take pictures of the kids.  We ended up spending two hours exploring these little towns and discovered a great little restaurant, amazing architecture, and the most random piano museum.  Oh, and the pictures were amazing.  Here's one of my favorites of M.

Once we made it to Todos Santos, we had lunch at Tequila Sunrise.  It was a bit pricy, but soooo delicious! We then headed to the beach where we witnessed fishermen preparing their catch and got a real crash course in the beauty and brutality that's involved in the fishing industry.  I'm thinking that M is probably the only kid in her class that saw a decapitated hammerhead shark on vacation! 

In all, we ended up spending less time in Todos Santos then we did in our side trip stops.  Sometimes the best things are right under your nose, you just have to step out of your comfort zone a little bit to see them.

Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville

My goal of accomplishing something, anything, was not met yesterday.  Wait, I did successfully hold down a pool-side lounge chair for several hours.  That counts, right?  :-)

I have a feeling today's adventure will more than make up for yesterday's loungefest.  We're loading up all nine of us and going on a day trip to Todos Santos, a quaint little artsy town on the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula.  Should be fun as long as the children don't spontaneously combust somewhere along the way!

A Primitive-ish Night

I have a good reason for missing yesterday's post...no electricity.  One of the joys of having a house in rural Mexico is the possibility of power or water outages.  Yesterday we got blessed with the double whammy, a power outage that lasted for hours and resulted in us using up our water reserve.  No electricity equals no replenished water pila.

The kids took full advantage of the outage and had me roasting hot dogs on a campfire we built in the front yard.  The hot dog roasting took forever so luckily we still had gas  and were able to salvage dinner with a meal of boiled hot dogs and pasta salad which I thankfully had prepared earlier in the day.  All in all it turned out to be a fun night with everyone sitting around talking instead of having their attention focused on a TV or iPad.

Oh, and the stars, wow.  With the entire town cloaked in darkness, the stars covered every square inch of the sky.  Our city-dwelling kids, and the adults, were star struck in the true sense of the word.

Angry Birds...Baja Style!

Ahh, another beautiful day in paradise. So yesterday's plan to paint rocks like Easter eggs morphed into something much more fun. I decided to take pretty much everyone's love of Angry Birds and our abundancy of rocks here and turn that into a virtual Angry Birds game!

M and I spent a few hours yesterday collecting the perfect size rocks and painting them to look like our beloved feathered friends. They turned out so much cuter than I ever dreamed they would! Our only obstacle was a slingshot. How were we going to get the birds to fly? Keep in mind we're currently in the middle of nowhere in Mexico so there's not a handy Walmart nearby. Hmmm, what to do. Cue the cousins arriving. The first thing out of M's mouth "come look at the birds!". I quickly explain that while they're super cute, we have that one logistical problem of no slingshot. Sister-in-law says, "how funny, I packed one!". What more can I say. Angry Birds Baja Style was a go!!!!

Needless to say we're ALL having a blast flinging the birds at the pigs.

Mission accomplished. :-)

*I'm currently on my iPad so images to come once I get to a computer.

Jen

A new beginning

I've decided to change the direction of my blog.  Previously it was focused on promoting the new products from my now defunct website, doodlehearts.com.

As a world-class procrastinator, I'm going to use my blog as a personal tool to try and keep my complacency in check.  My goal is to write a post every day, detailing what I accomplished, however small it may be.  Baby steps, right?

I'm a creative person by nature so expect many crafty posts.  Definitely not major accomplishments, but a start on my journey to change the parts of myself that I'm not proud of--read, I'm notoriously lazy.

As I write this post I'm sitting on the coast of the Sea of Cortez, about on hour north of Los Cabos.  Instead of enjoying the beach, I'm sitting in the house with my 4-year-old, I'll call her M, watching TV and reading magazines.  I've got to change these habits!  I'm hoping that by seeing my lifestyle in print, I'll realize the scope of my problem.

My sister-in-law and her family are arriving this afternoon.  Yesterday M and I walked along the beach collecting rocks that had been tumbled to the point of resembling eggs.  Perfect little spheres.  I plan on having the kids paint the rocks like Easter eggs...Baja Easter eggs!  Anyone who has ever spent time in Baja will totally "get it.". Baja is super rocky and sandy, nothing sweet or dainty about it so rock eggs are perfect.

Now, I think I'll get dressed and go for a walk!

Jen