Life of Reilly

Many of you are already fans of Rick Reilly's weekly columns, and hopefully the rest of you will be after you read this.

Cookies- success tips

I have struggled forever at making chewy cookies. I generally will make a different dessert or there a a couple of no fail cookies that I occasionally attempt. But really, I just try to avoid making them all together.

Nate, who is very aware of my struggles, was kind enough to share this link to help me out.

Apparently butter is the key.

So I tried a few of their tips and followed the directions on the Andes Mint Chips bag(check out the link for a copy of the recipe.

and Voila! Chewy cookies!

(the photo is from the above link but honestly this is what mine look like too!)

They are really minty- in the future I may be tempted to put in a little less mint chips and maybe put a few chocolate chips into the mix- but they did still turned out really well.

And for an extra bonus- I didn't burn any! I can rarely successfully cook an entire batch without messing up one pan- and with my bad luck lately with cooking I was really nervous but I guess I was extra careful and actually remembered to set the timer and had no problems.

Snow= sledding time!

The best part of winter snow is the opportunity to go sledding. I have so many memories of sledding. It used to be that on Thanksgiving we would hit a sledding hill near my aunt's house- maybe that only happened one year- there hasn't been snow on Thanksgiving for a while.

Christmas Day we always brought our snow gear to slide down my Gma's hill. She has a good yard for sledding as long as there is snow. Now my kids bring their gear with them when we visit there.

We used to have a really big wooden toboggan with cushioned seats. Gosh, we felt cool riding that down. And Mom and Dad were generally left to drag that back up to the top. I wonder if they still have that somewhere?

Then in high school, it wasn't cool to wear snow gear while sledding. So I would try to find some boots that didn't actually look like boots (and usually weren't extremely warm) and then would wear long underwear under jeans. Also hats were not the fashion it was some sort of ear muffs or something similar. Weren't we silly! Luckily warm mittens were acceptable, we weren't totally crazy. Once we were "appropriately dressed" we then hit the hill.

One of our favorite hills was Starring Lake in Eden Prairie. They had a nice hill with hay bales protecting those walking up the hill. It was generally very fast and you really had to watch out for those coming down after you. Good times. They also had a warming house- lovely! The best part of that hill is that they had free inner tubes you could use. It was awesome...I wonder if they still provide those? That is the way to ride down a hill and it was easier to go down in groups with tubes too.

There was an article in the Star Tribune today about the best 10 sledding hills. Perhaps the reason that I haven't been sledding for awhile is because I realize how much effort it takes. Now that I no longer have to pull or carry my kids up the hill as well as the sled I might be more willing to take my kids this year.

But that would require actually getting some real snow gear for myself, like snow pants. I am beyond looking cool and am ready to just stay warm.

Christmas Music...

it was so fun to sing so many Christmas Carols at church today. My kids are still singing or at least humming the tunes. In fact, Spencer has already asked to go out an purchase some Christmas sheet music for his cello. While I am all for finding more ways to get him to practice...buying some easy sheet music is not something I wanted to do.

So what thought occurred to me? "Google it" -of course!

I found a wonderful website that had just what I needed. So if anyone else is looking for some easy sheet music that is free I would suggest this site Celloonline.com. The link takes you to the free portion of the website. There are other arrangements available for violin, viola and full score (piano).

Now that Spencer has his cello out and is currently playing Jingle Bells (the only Christmasy song in his current book) I should bring him some more options.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday- we are bundling up and getting ready to do some baking. Wish me luck- I swear I have been so distracted lately that I keep burning stuff! Even toast- perhaps I should have kept that to myself.

And the numbers are in...

Seriously, my kids just won't stop growing! We keep trying to tell them to slow down but strangely they are not listening to us.

My dad has been keeping track of their growth on their kitchen wall (just as he did with us except that our measurements were lost when we said goodbye to the wallpaper.)

He measured them Nov 1st and then again a few days ago.

Spencer has grown 5/8 of an inch
and
Jenna has grown 7/8 of an inch
in 1 month!

Then I decided to double check Jenna's shoes... yeah, she has outgrown her size 1s. They are not even close to being worn out yet. Poor kid, no wonder she had an overly clumsy month- she was growing too fast.

She asked me at the beginning of the school year why she doesn't have as many different shoes as other kids in her class. This is why. And yes, I was astounded that she has already taken an interest in shoes. I blame her Aunt Jill for her shopping addiction. :) (BTW Jill, we need to go shopping!)

Currently the kids heights are: Spencer at 4'6" and Jenna 4' 1".

(and no, I haven't checked Spencer's shoes yet, he generally tells me when his feet hurt- apparently Jenna hasn't realized that her feet are not supposed to hurt since I am constantly replacing her shoes.)

Wouldn't it be great if they invented expandable shoes that had stretch in them to allow kids to wear them longer?

How to know when it is cold outside...

Now, this is not to scare those of you who may not be from the frozen tundra up here...there are only a few days that live up to these descriptions -one of those happened to be today! BRRR

• The car washes are closed- too cold!
• The dog doesn't want to go out at all- but makes her trips very quick!
• It hurts to breath through your nose (nostrils freeze) and through your mouth (teeth freeze)- cure is to wear a scarf
• The car finally warms up after you reach your destination
  
• You remember that there was a reason to buy a coat with a hood
• The neighbors disappear behind your not-so-well-insulated windows
• The automatic car windows refuse to budge- no take out windows for you! (Was true for both cars today and they spent most of the day in the garage!)
  
• The Dairy Queen starts writing messages on their sign "we need customers!" -I actually saw this today!
• If it gets really cold you can blow bubbles and watch them bounce on the snow
• There will still be a large number of fisherman- possible more than usual since they can now drive on the ice (those fish houses are heated don't ya know)
• You thing that the cart return guys probably aren't earning enough money
• The fireplace/space heater, a good book, and a blanket are sounding REALLY inviting
  

That is all that I can come up with for now...anyone else have any other great signs of a cold day?

A small miracle...

Spencer is having a wonderful day! Last week, while on vacation, his favorite Discovery Channel hat was lost at Universal Studios. It was a very sad day. We had checked the lost and found with no luck. It was a real bummer.

But today, Nate called the Lost and Found again to see if the hat had turned up...

Guess what...Spencer will be receiving his hat in the mail in a week or two. Lost and Found called back not 10 minutes later and his hat did turn up. Spencer is SOOOOO excited!

So much for my gift giving ideas this year...that may be his favorite package to open this Christmas.

Ordinary things you suddenly notice...

I find that I notice a lot of things after I return from a trip...

• I no longer need to refer to a map in order to figure out where I am going
• The license plates of the cars on the road all remind me that I am home
• My body is thankful for the familiar bed and pillows
• I always seem to need a day or two to sleep off the "relaxing" vacation- (which I don't get)
• Running errands in the car to escape being at home - not so tempting
• Real meals rather than eating out-more work but worth it

I am sure that there are others but I have forgotten.

I have fallen off the blogging wagon as late. Twittering was so much easier than blogging, but I am returning because you just can't replace good old blogging.