Did You Know?

Did you know that if you cut brownies with a plastic knife they'll cut super smooth?

Every time I make a pan of brownies I'm in love with how they look...

Until I cut into them.

As I drag my knife through said brownies the chocolaty goodness gets all drudged up.

Morphing my beautiful pan of brownies in an ugly mess.

Enter Carla.

She recently let me in on her secret of cutting pans of brownies with a plastic knife.

Smooth as butter.  

Nice clean lines.

Pretty pan of brownies.

I will admit I'm anxious to try this out...I might need to make some brownies soon.

 I also wonder if one could put a light coating of butter, Pam, olive oil, or some such on a regular knife and get the same results. 

Let's try it out, shall we?

Everyone to your kitchens!  

It's brownie time.

I thought it might be a good idea to give you an update on our soap making endeavours.

Over the past few weeks, we've made a few more batches of soap with the intention of giving bars out as Christmas gifts (and to of course keep some for ourselves!).

First, we made our regular soap recipe but used a snickerdoodle scented fragrance oil to make it a bit more christmasy. It is the most delicious smelling soap my nose has ever sniffed!! My husband and I have random cookie cravings every time we get a whiff of the stuff.

The next time we got together, we made 2 batches of soap (actually we made 4 and 2 the last time because we decided to double the batches to make thicker bars). The two batches we made were again our regular recipe with  pine tree and peppermint scented oils. To me, it smells like just like Christmas. I just love it, and keep lifting the lid on the soap to let the scent fill my kitchen. It is just wonderful.

We also tried a new recipe, called "Queen of the Nile". This one is an oatmeal, milk and honey soap. Here is the recipe:

198 grams sodium hydroxide

12.8 oz distilled water

1 pound olive oil

3.5 oz wheat germ oil

1 pound coconut oil

14 oz palm oil

1.5 oz beeswax

1/2 cup oatmeal

6.4 oz buttermilk

12 grams grapefruit seed extract

10 teaspoons honey

7 teaspoons pure essential oil or fragrance oil

Here is where I am going to tell you some things we learned while making this soap. We learned that things don't have to be exact. I take on this theory when I am cooking. I never follow a recipe exactly, I almost always substitute or add or subtract or simply come up with something based on what is in my fridge at the time. We sort of had to take this method on with the Queen of the Nile soap because we ran out of one of the essential oils and had to add some extra wheat germ oil and olive oil to make up for it. We also felt the soap needed more oatmeal, so we just added some and we even added more fragrance oil to make up for the not so sweet smell of the wheat germ oil. Anyway, we were a bit nervous because the first few times we made soap we felt we had to follow the directions exactly for fear of ruining an entire batch of soap. Even though we have yet to cut and use the soap, just by looking at it now, it looks (and smells) like perfection.



Our Winter White pine and peppermint soap, and our Queen of the Nile soap.



Our Snikerdoodle Soap - can you smell it?!

Happy Birthday, Meredith!

Dear Meredith,

Happy Birthday!! I have been so privileged over the years to call you my friend. Remember when we first met? You were interviewing at the center and we went on a buggy ride!! Who knew then that 'the new girl' we were interviewing would go on to become one of my best friends??

Over the years, we've shared lots of things...tons and tons of chocolate, Starbucks runs, a carpool to work, a classroom, an insane amount of exasperated glances, an unbearable number of hours spent in faculty meetings, our fair share of Harry Potter analysis, and a billion laughs. Now that I don't see you at work everyday, I enjoy swinging by on my days off and hanging out with you and Gabe. I love our trips to Starbucks, the zoo, whatever. When we get together, I always have so much fun. I never knew on the day you interviewed that we would share such a great friendship.

And, since you got me into How I Met Your Mother, I have to say that we're like the main characters who can communicate whole paragraphs and concepts through facial expressions. I remember entire statements and remarks being conveyed through looks we shot each other across the classroom, or in those amazingly fun meetings. :c)

You and I have had discussions about the nature of family before, and I know we both agree that there is a family we are born with, and a family we choose. Not all family are friends, but many friends are family. I have been fortunate enough to consider you family for a long time, and I want to thank you for welcoming me into yours. I especially love being an Auntie to Gabe, which is a role I absolutely cherish and am honored to hold.

Happy birthday!! I love you, dearest!

Love,
Sondra 

Happy Birthday, Meredith!!

So, I have to admit that when I first met you, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of you. I remember that there was some sort of accident and you were stuck in traffic so I was sent to cover in your classroom – which I had never been in before – so I didn’t know the babies, parents or teachers! When you got to work – you were so nice and sweet and thanked me a million times, I remember thinking – who is this girl?! I think I had unfortunately assumed that since you were so nice – you must be a phony.

After getting to know Sondra, and then through her, getting to know you, I quickly learned that you really are just that sweet and nice and wonderful. It is refreshing to know somebody like you, who, always takes the higher road, very rarely spouts any negativity, and faces all of life’s challenges with beauty and grace.

I hope you have an amazing birthday Meredith, you deserve it!!

Lots of love,
Nicole

Mere,

Happy Birthday, Lovely. Mere, you are one of the most amazing people I have ever known, and knowing you has taught me so many things about the type of person I want to be...

...Working in your room I learned about the kind of teacher I wanted to be. You taught me so many things in our short time together in your room, I think of your amazing composition whenever those darling kids of mine get a little too darling.

...Seeing you interact and care for me and your friends showed me the type of friend I should strive to be for others. Compassionate and ever ready to love.

...Watching you with Gabe has taught me so many things about being a mother. Most simply; You are the type of mother I long to emulate.

...Talking about faith and watching your journey has (on more than one occasion) given me hope, convicted me, and forced me to look at my life through a different lens.

I've been meaning to tell you for awhile, and your birthday seems as good a time as any: Thank You. Thank you for always being there when I need something, for being such a lovely example of what it means to be a beautiful, young, striving, Christian Mother. Most of all, thank you for trusting me with some of your story. I appreciate what it takes to let someone see the hard times, mistakes, and hurt. Let me assure you, the parts of your story that may not be pretty and all shined up for the world to see are the parts that make me love you all the more. They only stand to show your growth and beauty in more brilliant light. You are lovely, Happy Birthday.

~Meg 

Bad Math

Ink Pen Plus Dryer Equals Disaster

That was my problem a few shorts weeks ago.  Either my husband or I had left an ink pen in a pair of pants.  (I won't tell you who it was....but feel free to guess.)  I have a strict rule at my house regarding laundry.  I will do all the laundry, all the time, requiring minimal help from Steve...so long as each of us empties our own pockets.  I don't check pockets.  If you have papers, chap stick, money, rubber bands, or anything else in your pockets it's your responsibility to empty them before sending them down the chute.  Your pants, your job.  Well, one of us failed.  Seriously.

The pen made it through the washer.  But not so much the dryer.  There was ink everywhere.  I mean E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E-!

So I looked up how to get ink out of a dryer.  There were tons of suggestions.  I went for easiest.  Which, unfortunately, was not so green.  I soaked a white towel in bleach and tossed it in the dryer.  I ended up needing to repeat this process about three times.  But it worked.  All ink is gone.  I simply needed to wipe down the dryer with a few damp towels after I was done bleaching it.  There was dry bleach residue all over the barrel of the dryer. 

The only change I would make if this situation occurred in my house again is the following: using an old any-color towel versus a perfectly good white one.  All that bleach ended up eating through my bath towel turning it into a holey rag.  Oh well.  :-)

We're Baaaaaaaaaaaack! [Hopefully]

I don't have much to talk about at the moment (I'm actually trying to get kids to nap, and am not even at my house. So this needs to be a little quick). As you can tell, we HHH Gals have been a bit out of touch lately. We've been a busy with our own things, to say the least. But we haven't forgotten about all of you...if there are, in fact, any of you. I for one have had tons of things in past month or two that I've wanted to share with you guys. I'm excited to get a few things up and going. Keep in touch, keep checking back, we're going to give you some new stuff pretty soon. And hopefully, things will remain calm for your faithful HHH girls. Calm us means more updates for you. :-)