Happiness. Lately. March 2015 (vol 10)

first off - Welcome new Facebook followers :)  Please believe me when I say that very soon I will start blogging real content again, so don't go away!  I really will be back with posts other than random tidbits.  Pinky swear.   But seriously.  Welcome!  

You know how I don't blog much lately, right?  My plan was to take a break during March so that I could jump back in on April 1st with a bang, but on April 1st I spent the early part of the morning at the pediatrician with three kids, and then the later part of the morning and the early part of the afternoon at the ER with a dehydrated, ear-infected, miserable baby boy.  That afternoon I took a nap.  And that evening I thought it was best not to blog because it was Russ' and my 10th anniversary, so instead of blogging, I did romantic things with Russ, like eat Red Robbin takeout on the living room floor and chat about how crazy and wonderful life is.  

That crazy, wonderful life?  Yeah - we were living it hard core last night with Russ cleaning up one vomit-y bed around midnight and me getting a vomit-y baby out of his crib around 5am.  We have had some version of illness in the house for over two weeks now.  I'm soooo over it.  But, apparently the germ hasn't gotten the message.  I'm really praying that it's all over by Easter Sunday.  A girl can hope and pray, right?

So here, I am.  But it's not with the "It's April and I'm back!" bang that I had planned.  It's just a brief little photo doc on the past few weeks so that when I look back through my archives I can remember more than just the illness of March 2015.   

(As you shall see, even though it was the middle of Lent, we ended up having a lot of special desserts this month...)

We had our last fires of the season (even if it gets cold enough in April - which it probably will! - we're out of fire wood for the season.)  And we burned our scented pine cones from Christmas.  It was pretty!

I turned 36 and made this decadent cake...

I also got a new phone for my birthday which has increased the quality of my mobile phone photos by a factor of 127.  So, if you're not already following me on Instagram that's good, because you were spared all the grainy photos.  Now's the time to follow me so you can witness my transformation into a world class iPhone photographer (or something like that...)  Won't you join me at https://instagram.com/ordinarylovely/ ?

Most of the snow melted.

Russ bought us a shamrock plant and I made some cookies and we celebrated St. Patrick's Day :)

Russ also bought a sprig of lilies, but then he was out of town for St. Joseph's Day, so we prayed for him, but he sadly didn't get to pray and feast with us.  My mom joined us though!  (She had to bring me the heavy cream for the cream puffs, because the cream in my fridge was solidified... obviously, it had been in there longer than I realized...)  These were the best cream puffs I've ever made.  I was sorry Russ had to miss it :(

St. Joseph's (cookie) tools :)

 Then we celebrated Clare's birthday, even though some were a little under the weather and some were a lot under the weather.

Everyone was way too sick on the first day of spring for our traditional "Welcome Spring" cake, so we had it a week or so later after Russ was home and while my sister in law was here visiting from Australia!  

We've been playing a lot of games lately, which usually translate into lots of family fun...

And in other notable March news, since Russ was gone and lots of kids were sick at the time of a crucial library due date - I now owe the public library even more than I did back when I wrote this post.  I'm a blocked user.  I'm now a repeat offender.  You officially follow a blog run by a good-for-nothing shirker of library responsibilities.  

There was a lot of other lovely and smile-worthy things that happened during March, but this is all I can come up with for now.  

I hope you have a blessed Triduum and a very happy and holy Easter!    

Keeping it Quick and Random (please don't forget about me!)

Hi!  It's been a while!  It's not that I've been taking a break from blogging, it's just that I haven't been doing it so much lately.  So.... I guess that's a break?  Well, it's not an official "I'm taking a blogging break and I will announce it to the world in this blog post" break, but more of a "I have a lot of responsibilities that have been neglected lately  because I'm at the computer too much."  And I also started to notice this unfortunate trend - if I'm blogging during the kids' afternoon rest time and I'm not done by the time they get up, I'm snippy and irritated for the rest of the afternoon.  And who wants that??  And I also noticed that if I blog less, I get to read and crochet more... but not at the same time (I think that must be what Heaven is like - reading and crocheting at the same time.)  

Anyway... I'm just here for a few quick quips, mutterings, and musings so that you don't forget about me!

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Clare has started calling James "Lil BooBoo." 

Where did that come from????

That's the absolute last nickname I would ever give a child of mine.

But that's what she calls him.  It started out as a high pitched cutesy thing: she'd scrunch up her face and stick it into his face and say, "Hi there Lil BooBoo!  Hi there!" while mauling hugging him.  But now, it's just a normal part of her life and conversation.  She'll come into a room and very matter of factly address me in a perfectly normal tone of voice like there's nothing bizarre about what she's saying at all: "Mom, is Lil BooBoo still in bed?"  No cutesy, high pitched voice.  Just a brother who is now referred to by one of the most ridiculous nicknames ever.

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Lent.

It's going.  It's half way over.  

It was one of my goals this year to have the kids and I make our new Stations of the Cross before Lent started.  Sadly, that didn't happen.  I bought frames, and hopefully they'll be up this weekend so that we can squeeze in a few family Stations during the season.

Other Lenten things are going well.  The kids gave up chocolate chips in their trail mix (usually a bi-weekly morning snack) and the whole family gave up boxed cereal.  Even though we don't eat that much boxed cereal to begin with, it's really been a sacrifice for some of the kids (especially when they witness James obliviously consuming his Cheerios, because he's exempt :) )  It's been hard on Russ who would live off of raisin bran if I let him, and it's been a little tricky on me because I've had to be on top of the bulk oatmeal buying, granola making, and remembering to get an occasional pan of baked oatmeal in the oven.  But I think Easter week will be especially fun and tasty for the kids - Russ and I decided to celebrate Easter with extra special cereal the kids love, like Puffins and Kix!!!

Nothing says "He is Risen!" like overpriced packaged breakfast grains :)

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Binge watching Gran Hotel on Netflix has made me appreciate the efficacy of foreign language immersion programs.  I'm only a few episodes into Season 2 and I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility to think that I might burst out in Spanish at any given moment.  It's in my head and I can't get it out... eventually it will all come spilling out of my mouth and I will have officially learned another language via a media program that was not Rosetta Stone.  Granted, I may only be able to say things like, "The clean linens have been pressed and stacked," and "I'll take my tea in bed this afternoon," and "I know you don't love him," and "I just have to find one more clue and then I promise I'll go," and "it was the butler in the dining room with the candlestick" but you can't be too picky with these free language programs, you know ;)

I have so much more to say about Gran Hotel, but I'll spare you... for now...!

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My birthday was last week!  On days when I can remember it (or there's a calculator nearby) I'm 36!

We had lots of lovely family time to celebrate.  Russ offered to make a cake for me (as he has done a few other times) but when I mentioned that I wanted something very decadent involving chocolate and hazelnut, he wisely admitted I should probably make my own cake.  I followed this recipe to a T and ended up with a delicious dessert - every bit as decadent and chocolate-y and hazelnut-y as I had hoped for :)

Pinterest came through for me again.

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The snow is melting!  The warm weather and daylight savings time have given the kids the opportunity to play outside after dinner this past week!  That makes it feel like summer practically!

One evening they built a pretty cool sled run down our back deck...

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Not much else to write about, other than to assure you (and myself!) that I haven't given up here.  I'm just using this little down time on the blog to read to my kids, pray, do dishes, maybe start to make some Easter decorations, clean out my craft/sewing room, work on a few big crochet projects, and bake chocolate cakes from scratch :)
When I'm ready for some down time from all that, I'll be back to blogging!

Bread Machine Blueberry Monkey Bread

We went blueberry picking yesterday morning.  And it just so happened to coincide with a "breakfast for dinner" night.  When we eat breakfast for dinner, it's usually spinach sausage egg scrambler, fresh fruit, and some fancy baked good.  So in other words, it's nothing like what we actually eat for breakfast.  I've never made monkey bread before, but I guess I was feeling inspired while doing my menu planning last week.  And yesterday I figured I might as well make the first time awesome by not just making monkey bread, but by making Fresh Blueberry Monkey Bread (with a tangy lemon cream cheese glaze, thank you very much.)

What I made was a mash-up of three or four Pinterest recipes because there was no one out there that had everything I wanted.  I wanted to use my bread machine (because I don't "do" dough), wanted fresh berries (instead of canned pie filling) and wanted a lemon-y glaze.  So, this here's what I came up with.  Everyone. loved. it.  (Why did I even have to mention that... it's white bread covered in various layers of sugar.  Of course everyone loved it...)

Bread Machine Blueberry Monkey Bread
(I took a short cut - the ingredients are in bold)

Into your bread machine:

1/3 c. warm water
1 c. warm milk
3 1/4 c. bread flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 T. butter
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

Hit the "dough" setting and walk away for about an hour and a half.

Spray a bunt or angel food cake pan with cooking spray.

Melt 1/2 - 3/4 c. butter
In a separate bowl mix together 1 1/2 c. white sugar and 1 1/2 T. cinnamon 

Once the dough is done, turn it out of the pan.  Stretch it a bit and use a pizza cutter to cut it into strips, and then into bits that can be rolled into about 1 1/2 in. balls.  

Dip dough balls into butter, then coat well with cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Fill bottom of pan with one layer of dough.  Then, sprinkle blueberries and crushed pecans before placing second layer of dough.  Repeat.  

Cover pan with a towel and set aside to let the dough rise for about 45 minutes.

In a sauce pan, melt 1/4 c. butter.  Stir in 1/2 c. brown sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla.
Pour the sauce evenly over the top of the dough just before baking. 
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Allow bread to cool for 5 - 10 minutes before turning it out onto a plate.  It may be syrupy, so maybe don't do the flip over the stove top like I did ;)

While bread is cooling, prepare the lemon cream cheese glaze:

Soften 2 oz. cream cheese in the microwave for about 1 minute
Stir in 2 c. of powder sugar until well blended
Add the juice and zest from one lemon 
Continue to stir, and if necessary add a small amount of milk to thin the glaze, or sugar if it needs to be thickened.  

Drizzle over the bread and serve!

(ps - I know I've been trying to be better at including carbohydrate info with the blog recipes, but seriously - you're on your own for this one.  How in the world???  I took my best guess but Aaron still woke up high this morning, so I must have undershot it.  Sorry to stick you with the dirty work if you're carb counting.  But hey, if you get a good handle on it, I won't say "no" if you want to share your numbers with me ;) )