Counting Your Blessings One By One: May 2017

Wednesday, 31 May 2017

Our Month in May...as told by the phone

Another month has come and gone...can you believe it? Time is going by way. too. quickly. And whewy, I gotta say, this year so far has been one of the most complicated, busiest years ever. Lots of prayer would be greatly appreciated 😊

Anywayyy....here's our month of May - in pictures! (and captions. Of course ;))

My best friend gave me this DARLING cup and it was positively necessary to
try and make a cappuccino. Just saying...when you don't have an expresso machine
and you have to foam/steam your own milk by hand...you'll end up with an arm ache ;)
But it was sooooo good in the end :D

Oh yes...so this cutie pie has not only started eating solids...she's also crawling
*cries* She's growing up too fast :/

Late night snack...peanut butter and gingersnaps

Volunteered at the PCC relay again this year and had so much fun with these AWESOME people! :D

Taught a baking and blogging camp this month and had way too much fun! ^_^
(two camps, in case anyone was getting confused xD One baking camp, one blogging. Not those two combined into one....)

My motivation to keep teaching...notes from my students! I got this darling letter in the mail
from my English class student 💜💜💜💜

Ahh yes...results of teaching laminated dough (croissants) for baking camp. Due to the fact that
the camp was live, I made THREE batches of croissant dough so that everyone could see the whole
process. Boy oh boy. After that...we had WAY too many croissants. Bags and containers and more bags full...
apparently there IS such a thing as too many croissants :P

Perks to getting your driver's license...getting to go out for an afternoon with your siblings!
Drove to town, hung out at a park and ate ice cream. #awesomeness

Cream puffs...😋

Oh yeahhhhhh....WE'RE GOING ON VACATION *cheers* *does the happy dance*
*runs around in circles and jumps up and down in excitement* Seriously...I have been looking
forward to a vacation in sooooo long and we're finally going on one! And apparently the cottage we'll be staying at has THE cutest crow's nest (that I may or may not be really really really wanting to sleep in) and we'll get to take lots of pictures, and have some much needed family fun and yesssss.....can't wait!!! Anyhoo...I got to pack everything and yep. Lots and lots of stuff :P

Have this little buddy to help me pack though ;)

Aaaaannnnddd....latest baking venture is this Lego man birthday cake. It was quite ....interesting ;P

Those are arms FYI. Not slugs. Or earrings. Or green fish.

Hand-made Lego bricks. My neck hurts thinking about them xD

Final result!

Birthday Boy!! Happy 6th, little buddy :D *throws confetti*

How was everyone's May?

Ya'll ready for summer??

Wednesday, 10 May 2017

April Highlights // Dudes, Ducks, and Driving

Ok...so before you freak out...I only said 'dudes' cause I was attempting alliteration and couldn't find another 'D' word. And when I say dudes, I mean my Dad and brothers. So there ;)

// I GOT MY DRIVER'S LICENSE.

Like, FINALLY!!!!! 😂 😂 😂 It feels sooooo good to be able to drive by myself ... and yes yes yes, I am being careful and not zipping down roads at 100km/h :P Tiger Lily and I went out on a jaunt by ourselves one night...although it wasn't exactly a jaunt cause we had to drive our siblings down to church for their kids' club. But after we dropped 'em off we went to a Tim Hortons and snacked and did school. That was fun xD

Another day though, we really DID go on a jaunt, just us girls. Us three older girls had been planning on what we could do after I got my driver's license and we really wanted to just have a girls' day out. So one afternoon we all piled into the car and drove to town. It's a nice little village, and great for walking in. We went into a shop or two, stopped at a gazebo, and ate ice cream. *happy sigh* :D

This is a SMALL size, peoples. Imagine a large 😶

// Threw a surprise party for our friend

With cupcakes, of course! And then add a walk in the woods and a jamming session and jumping on the trampoline and just hanging out and yep. Pure awesomeness! ^_^

// Oh yeah and I finally got a phone.

It was decided it was probablyyyy better if I got a phone, especially once I started driving cause otherwise there was no way for me to contact my parents. Also maybeeee because I had kinda taken over Mom's iPod and she maybeeee wanted it back *guilty grin*

My case. I love butterflies and filigrees...can ya tell? ;)

// Sweet Pea
Yep. She gets a category all to herself. Cause she is so. darn. cute. She's already sitting up by herself and she trying to crawl!!!! Someone make her slow down! She's growing up too fast! 😬 😟 😀

// Baking
Currently running low on cocoa at the moment. Been making a LOT of chocolatey things. Specifically brownies and mud pie.

Working on plated desserts, thus the random drops of chocolate on the
side of the plate that are just ASKING to be licked xD

Ok, in the process of making my first Mississippi mud pie, I found one of THE best
chocolate cake recipes EVER. Like, who knew sour cream could make such an awesomely moist
chocolate cake? Totally my new favourite recipe!!!

// Just some randomness

Look. At. How. FLUFFY 😍

Staring contest. Guess who won? ;)

Chemistry .... (*whispers* it took some logic and improvising to actually get the colour scale
working. Before it was just straight up and down purple. So we kinda cheated to get this xD)

Oh yeah...and look what happened to my hair! Little past shoulder-length!! What I've ALWAYS wanted....

Not really. I hate cutting my hair. And it really needs to be cut xD But not THAT short. Tiger Lily and I were just feelin' mischievous and decided to "cut" my hair. It's so long I can double or even triple it. So we arranged it just so and threw the remainder over my shoulders. Then we took the pictures, sent them to our friends, and watched them all freak out. We're so bad 😊

// Tree Cutting Season

Ahh yes....Spring and Fall are usually the times when we cut and stack wood for winter. Easier to do since there's not as much undergrowth in the forest and there are way less mosquitoes too. And I was super thankful because I actually didn't do that much in the wood this year xD I mean, the boys are finally old enough to do the major work!!!! *does the happy dance* So them boys were just splitting and stacking and coming in SUPER tanned. But they seriously did an amazing job and you should see their piles of wood. Pretty impressive stacks, if I do say so myself. And that's saying something cause I'm usually the wood stacker and I'm really picky 😉 But yeah. I'm very proud of my brothers. And very glad that I don't have to do the wood anymore :P Also kinda sad cause that means the boys are growing up 😕 Where's the time going?!

The men ;)

*inserts another random photo of Sweet Pea*

// random funny conversations

That's mud cake around his mouth. I think he kinda liked it .... :P

Mom: Which state would you all want to go to for vacation?

"Nebraska!"

"Wisconsin!"

"Florida!"

"Kentucky!"

"Chuck E Cheese!!!!!!"

// photo shoots at the park

Modelling the Jasmine dress from Skylark Clothing! We've been waiting for what seemed like FOREVER to get a photo shoot in this dress...it's SO pretty! And we finally got the chance after dropping the kids off at church. Tiger Lily and I drove to the park and we had a fun little shoot in the last hours of sunlight. My dear dear sister did not understand the urge to catch the golden hour, but she caught on a little while after she saw the pictures ;)