The Basics: What will your holidays look like?

One of my friends was teasing me for choosing basics as my theme for the month that kicks off the insanity of the holidays. I have been spending the past week or so thinking about that and about what I want the holidays to look like for our family this year. (Side note- can you believe that Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK already?!?!) Continue reading

Baking #38: Bread Bowls!

It’s finally feeling like fall here in Phoenix. So it is finally time for soup weather! My husband has a theory that everything tastes better if it comes in it’s own edible container- ice cream and waffle cones/bowls, the Cozy Cones of deliciousness they sell at Cars Land in Disney’s California Adventure, and most especially soup in a bread bowl. Continue reading

Basics: Food, Drink, Shelter

My toddler has been going through a sleep regression. And it’s tech. So up late, up early- coffee has been my most basic day to day survival and parenting tool. I know this is normal, and it’s not my son’s fault that he’s going through a rough transition of milestones and teething and the weather changing, so taking sips of coffee before I say what I’d like to impulsively helps all of our quality of life stats. Continue reading

Baking #37: Sugar Cookies for a Sweet Celebration!

Aside from chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies are probably what I have baked the most in my life. Add some colorful sprinkles and they just scream simple delicious celebration to me! So I knew that was what I wanted to make last week to celebrate a day that has been a long time coming. Continue reading

15 Books That Have Impacted My Life

I relate very much with the Cinderella character Drew Barrymore played  in Ever After (Danielle was the name I believe?) who explains to the prince that she can’t choose a favorite book any more than she could choose a favorite star in the heavens. But I wanted to write a post on some of my favorites and was still having a hard time narrowing those down when I came upon an old note I’d written on Facebook several years ago. I wrote it at the request of a friend and the note was basically titled the same thing as this blog post. This discovery made my life infinitely easier because not only did it give me a guideline or cut off point, it also turns out that I would still keep most of the books on there in my top 15 (though not necessarily in a particular order and including plays as books) : Continue reading