Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ashley has decided to make Red Velvet Cupcakes.

She is concentrating on breaking the eggs.

She is measuring the dry ingredients with exhuberance!!!!

She is mixing up the wet ingredients intently.

She is tasting the batter after she has mixed it carefully.

She is scooping the batter into the cups joyfully!

She has baked the cupcakes and is preparing to frost them.

She has frosted them with valentine sprinkles.

She is eating them with silly pleasure!

Blizzard 2011

It's a blizzard! Snow, snow and more snow! There were snow drifts on the back and front doors! They proclaimed a state of emergency, closed the airport, closed I-70, even Sams club! Two cars got stuck in front of our house and it took them 45 minutes to get them unstuck and back in action. The kids are excited to have more snow days. They are playing cards, video games, baking granola and making hippo puppets. And of course the weather has to be watched and updated every hour on the hour. "Mom, we're in a state of emergency. Mom, they closed the airport. Mom, they closed I-70. Mom, we have to be careful when we open the door to let the dog out because they say there is 14 inches out there!" We have cleaned, decluttered and organized rooms, we have baked new recipes, we have enjoyed each others company! We have enjoyed talking with friends on facebook and calling grandma and grandpa in Utah to tell them of our blizzard. But mostly I am grateful to have a warm, comfy house, that we have good food to eat, and that we are all safe and sound!

Gratitude

My mom would always say when life gets you down let's play the Pollyanna game. Oh it would bug me! I would want to have a pity party and my mom wanted to play a game. But the older I get the more I understand. She was teaching me to have gratitude. To be grateful for what I had. And now I am teaching my children to be grateful for what they have. Like my mother I see that having a positive, grateful attitude brings more blessings and circulates a joyful, happy life. I am reading The Power by Rhonda Byrne and it looks like mama knows best! Gratitude and positive thinking are powerful emotions that replace the negative with love and joy. And I find that when I practice this in my life and model this for my kids we are all lots happier and find joy in the little things. And gratitude comes easier and easier. And your world is filled with wonderment and awe. Martha Washington said "I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not our circumstances." Well said!