Chocolate Salted Caramel

Butter mix, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup vanilla instant pudding mix, 1 teaspoon vanilla

4 eggs

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup milk
2 cans frosting
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 cup dark cocoa
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 stuck salted butter
1 bag caramels (50ish pieces)
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Chop 20 Oreos and set aside.

Beat 3 egg whites until they look like this. Set aside.

White cake mix, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix on low for 3 minutes.

Scrape the sides of the bowl, turn the mixer on low and add 1/4 cup sour cream and 1 cup milk. Mix about 2 minutes scraping the sides as needed. It may be a little lumpy, but it's ok as long as it looks like this.

Gently fold in your egg whites leaving them not completely mixed in. Gently fold in your cookie pieces just until mixed. If you stir too much the cupcakes won't rise properly and the cookie dust could turn the batter grey.

Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes (give or take). You'll know when they're ready because they'll look like this.

Makes a little more that 2 dozen cupcakes.

It is Hard to Tell

There always seems to be a sure fire way to tell if something is as it should be.

Easy Cheesecake Filling

Scattered and Faded Toys

Lilli is now taller than her faded playhouse. If those walls could talk...
If those walls could talk, I think they would whisper secret memories.
If those walls could talk, I think they would proudly tell of a time when Lilli was the same age as ... All of the rest of them.
If those walls could talk, they'd tell me that they didn't see as much of me as they would have liked - but, oh! The stories I'd tell.
If those walls could talk, they would tell Nettie thank you for passing them on to the Sanchez family. There were 5 very special children that dreamed and played make believe within those walls before mine did.
I'm sure that if those walls could long for a time, it would be for the time when all of their children played together inside.
A fortress, home, castle, bunker, hiding place - worn, faded, and now smaller than most of the children they harbored.
My children are growing and changing before my very eyes...and each day that passes is one day closer to them outgrowing me. Time with family is so precious.

Dust Bowl :: Winds of Change?

The outcome of today determines their tomorrow.

Laundry=details.

The contents of my laundry room are an open book to the souls of my household. The more I pay attention to the laundry, the fewer questions I have to ask. The laundry room is a quite place for me to accept that my children are maturing while I hear the humming calm of the ever-tumbling dryer.

If you're like me, the growth of your children is bittersweet. Everything that is right here today is gone tomorrow. It seems as if I could close my eyes and they'll all be gone - raising their own families.

But, instead, I'll take a deep breath and touch their tiny socks and soak up the wonder of now...and take notes that someone needs new undies and then we need more hangers...again.

And I'll try not to rush through it.

I want to know more so I can remember more.
...the ramblings of a multi-mom.

Time to iron on numbers.