A little recap. My one year in the bloggy world.

Sometimes I shared the not so pretty in my life.
(Do you know what Lake Stink is?)

And often I shared what I was in love with.

I started Apricot A Lot, designing custom bags and totes!

I started my not-every-Sunday-posting called Church Chat.
Read them all here.

I moved two states away.

But not before having a GarBage Sale.

Sometimes a Recipe.

Salmon Recipe (maple-y/mustard-y/jalepeno-y yummy-ness)

I started a series of posts about my childhood here’s the first one.
(That’s the only one I did…it’s coming, I promise!)

I was syndicated once, Namiste.
(See the article over at the Title Nine.com Blog)

Oh yeah.. I started a little thing called #GNO over on Twitter? Heard of it?

And that little thing has turned into a full-fledged teenager complete with gangly-ness and zits sometimes (don’t ask about the new website that STILL isn’t complete!) We call the whole thing ‘Mom It Forward’ have a look! Hope to see you on Tuesday nights for #GNO, where we do Girl’s Night Out, Twitter style…!

Thanks for joining me. I am better because of you.

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Goodness in a Jar

You know those nasty cookie mixes in a jar? NOT THESE.
A few years ago I tested a bunch of recipes for cookie mixes. And this is the winner. And really. When the main ingredient is chunks of Reeses Cups, how could it not be the winner??

I’m not very good at packaging. As I’ve mentioned before. So it’s a good thing these babies look awesome before you add anything.

(The little tubs in the pic are homemade lip gloss for kid friend gifts–didn’t turn out so well… still experimenting on that recipe…I think we’ll keep ’em around for an April fool’s joke or something because they are AWFUL tasting—too much Kool-Aide mix!)

Merry Ho Ho Ho.

You want the recipe? It’s not a secret. And it’s not mine.
I love the part where it says DO NOT USE Diet Margarine.
What the heck is Diet Margarine? And do you have a better mix in a jar recipe…? I’m thinking about creating a hearty oatmeal pancake mix for next year…

Not Totally Off the Grid…

Hey there dear readers,

I promise I’m okay. I promise I’ll be back.

A real life friend called last night, I think she was genuinely worried that something had happened to me… It reminded me that there are (or were!) some real life friends and virtual (but very real) friends who might be wondering the same thing…

Everyone is busy at the holidays right? So I’m no different. This is my first year running a ‘sales’ business during the holidays! And it’s fun and crazy and wild and exhausting… I have filled all the orders I promised. And I’m almost through with one that I only partially promised… and still crossing my fingers that I can get it in the mail AND it will ship in time for Christmas!

Plus we now live in a town that isn’t afraid to hold Christmas concerts… in fact they are pretty bold about it, don’t even say ‘holiday concert’… and I’ve been to three of them so far and 3 class parties coming up. And the snow and cold weather finally hit here (they’ve been warning us about it.. but we were all.. oh? we can handle it, lived in Utah for Pete’s sake…! Ahem.. had to go get STUDDED tires for the van.. what? I didn’t even know there was such a thing. Now I do.)

Oh and a little thing that I managed to co-create… that little thing called #GNO over on Twitter.com? Yeah, well. Due to the vision of my Biz partner Jyl, big things are happening, and bigger things seem to be coming down the pipeline every day. Stuff like this comes out of my mouth, “I have to run, cuz I have a business conference call…” I love saying that!

Yesterday we found out that the great Sugar Jones, had chosen to award MommyGossip-GNO with the $6,000 worth of HP magic she was giving away! Talk about hyperventilating…

We are so excited and we have great plans for what to do with ALL THAT STUFF!

We have been shaping our vision for several weeks now, and we really want MommyGossip-GNO to be a force for good, yes, in the most cheesy way… We want to change the world, one mom at a time. Can we do it?

We think so. We think Moms Make a Difference.

No Polls For Me

In Oregon?

• There are no polling booths.
• No hanging chads.
• No cute elderly people sitting at a table helping you find your dang name in that dang book. (Oh? I’ve come to the wrong booth? GREAT!!)
• No walking into a school/church/golf course (we once voted at a golf course in Utah, no kidding?) with your three little kids hanging on you while you try to read the impossibly small, small print about an election measure you cannot begin to decipher.

Because the writing is:

“Shall (County) voters adopt a proposed (County) charter and become a Home Rule county under (State) law? “

What? Adopt a what, to do what?
How should I know how many commissioners are needed to run a county? I just need to know whether it’s gonna be MacNCheese or Nuggets for lunch. ThankYouVeryMuch.

So? How’d you vote?
Did your vote count this year?

We manage to live in extremely hot or cold areas. Brooklyn? Dems and leaning so far to the left we barely spoke the same language.

Utah? Um yeah, the OPPOSITE. Same result.

I end up in the middle wherever I am, whatever my slant. Here in lil ole Southern Oregon? Kind of weird. Oregon as a whole? Liberal, hangs to the left. My new town? VERY conservative, as in puts Utahns to shame, righty tighty they are. Current position for me? Again. In the middle. And I almost didn’t vote at all. Neither candidate is making me very happy with the nasty rhetoric and negative marketing. One’s um..old. The other? Lately seems so slippery?

I did make my decision. Then I placed my ‘mail-in only ballot’ in the drive-up ballot box outside city hall.

• No one even noticed that I voted.
• No one gave me a sticker. (humph)
• No one gave my 4yrold a lollipop.

I did my thing and drove away. Did you?

You know you want some…

I took THESE to book club last week.

Yes. I do get out. I see real women at real GNOs. What book for book club?

I have no idea.

The grown up girly food froze my brain.

Apparently the deal is to OUT-do each other with the treats you bring to book club, and then no one will care that you didn’t read the book, even though you claimed to have read it a hundred years ago in Jr. High. (Who would do that?)

There was this homemade 7layer dip with REAL guac in it. The kind where you walk away from the tray with 3/4ths of it on your plate, and go? Oops. How did SO much of that get on my plate? Oh well, no one wants to eat it if I put it back right?? So yeah, I ate all of that. AND another sweet mom there had gotten all Martha on us and brought these cute little puff balls of chocolate cupcakes with giant marshmallow heads and chunks of chocolate bars for garnish. (Literally. She used a Martha recipe she confessed. The little devil.)

Oh. And HOMEmade Hot chocolate. Did you even know you can MAKE hot chocolate? As in NOT from a metallic packet? Yeah, and whipped cream with cinnamon sprinkled on top.

After all that?
So much for my now not -so-amazing:

Chocolate Cheesecake Pumpkin Bars

Just in case you’d like to try these? (And there were one or two–or 18– twitter friends who said they did….) The recipe seems intimidating. But so did Twitter at first right? It’s easy, just follow in steps. (And USE parchment paper…many a frickin swear word avoided via Parchment.)

CRUST

2.5 C Graham Crackers–crushed
1/2 C Sugar
1 C Melted Butter
–mix well and set aside

FILLING

3) 8 oz PKGS. Cream Cheese (softened)
2 2/3 C Sugar
4 Eggs
1 1/2 C Pureed Canned Pumpkin
3/4 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
3/4 tsp. Vanilla
1/4+ tsp. Salt
–6 Oz. chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
3 Tbls. Butter

TOPPING

2 C Sour Cream (yes the real stuff)
1/3 C Sugar

There are 4 layers total. So we’ll have 4 steps to get to those layers, eh?

Step One:

Lightly grease 15×9 pan for crust (here’s where the parchment comes in handy, I spray the parchment a bit!) Press cracker mixture in the bottom and set aside.

PreHeat oven to 325 degrees

Step Two:

Filling. In large bowl beat together cream cheese & sugar. Add eggs one at a time on low speed. Stir in the pumpkin, spice, vanilla & salt.
—Pour 2 Cups of this Pumpkin mixture into another bowl and set both bowls aside. (There’s a lot of asides in this.)

Step Three:

In small saucepan over very low heat melt chips and butter while stirring. Remove from heat. Add the reserved 2 cups filling to this chocolate-y mixture. Stir till smooth.

Spread the chocolate/pumpkin batter carefully over the graham crust. Bake for 15 min. Remove from oven and slowly pour the other bowl of filling over this partially cooked chocolate layer. Bake another 40-50 minutes. Until the edges slightly puff up and the center is set. (Don’t over cook, a little wiggle-y in the middle is fine.) Remove from oven and cool for 30 min.

Step Four:

Topping. Meanwhile, combine sour cream and 1/4 C sugar and let stand until cheesecake pan is cool. Then spread sour cream mixture over filling. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Keep refrigerated.

Cut into squares and then cut squares into diagonals for the Martha factor.
I honestly can’t remember where I came across this recipe. So if’ it’s your great aunt Edna’s tell her I’m sorry for stealing it?

Oh. And this makes a ton. Taking half the pan into your husband’s office tends to get lots of …ahem…cheesecake points. (Ask me how I know.)

.

~Am on a quest for other great Pumpkin Recipes… Send me yours and I’ll link them here:

Connie Has TWO pumpkin breads for you!

Tales from the recently Handicapped.

I asked the Dr. for a handicap sticker. Just for two weeks I promise!

Twice now, I’ve been trying to park and there were no parking spots. NONE. As in Drive over to ANOTHER parking lot and WALK back. And I actually found myself driving over to the other lot only to remember, oh yeah…I can’t WALK. So should I park in the handicapped spot and risk a gazillian dollar ticket, or what?

The second time was at the pool. Only upper lot parking available. We parked in the handicapped zone to unload. And then I went back to move the vehicle after paying for the kids (yes they made me pay even though I can’t get in the water…grr). I got in the van and was contemplating how I was going to make the trek down from the nether regions, when I saw a SPOT! An open SPOT right across from where I was! I pulled out, angled myself towards the open SPOT, and…some teeny bopper 17 year old boys in a ramshackle truck pulled in and slipped into the SPOT before I even really got backed out. I just sat there. Half angled towards the SPOT.

When they got out, I also got out (needed to show ‘em my fancy shoe) and half asked-half begged them to let me have the SPOT? I sorta assumed they were going to look at me, and go, uh…lady? Bite it, you were too slow.

But you know what? They took one look at me and nearly tripped over themselves loading back into their truck and hauled off to the upper reaches of pool parking-dom. Wow. Chivalrous 17 year olds? Who knew?

Well my sweet Dr. really did give me the sticker. But I had to ask. I keep thinking. Why didn’t he offer it in the first place? And my kids think it totally rocks. I’m just so dang grateful to be able to make the walk from the Wal-Mart parking lot without having to take pit stops.

One more thing. I’m late. For everything. Late for Sadie’s piano lesson (my 10yrold). Then late for the piano recital. Late for TK’s well check. The bathroom.

I dedicate this post to all mothers who do all this with a handicap. Mine is short term. I cannot imagine doing all this from a wheelchair, or with MS, or Lupus. Talk about heroes. This should have been my mother’s day post, eh?