the time I made a million muffins….

….not really more like a hundred, haha! but it sure felt like I made a million. I made these as Christmas gifts back in December for all my dad’s business’s customers. I hope next year to do something different, I enjoyed it don’t get me wrong, but it’s a ton of work and around the holidays that’s pretty much the last thing I want to be doing. cooking should always be slow, and not stressed equaling a perfect recipe for enjoyment.

And I never took a picture of the final baskets. Crazy! I didn’t realized this until I was editing these today…it’s a long story so I won’t bother you with the uninteresting details of the many whys=)

I made carrot/pineapple muffins, cranberry/pecan muffins, banana/chocolate chip muffins, and lastly applesauce/walnut muffins. I baked all afternoon and wrote some about it over here. After I made a batch of every single muffin I had my parents and siblings taste them, and then tell me if I need to add more or less of something etc. The problem at my house isn’t finding people to test taste, but to get them to stop once they have had a bite.

Normally when I cook I’ll finish up making one kind of cookie, muffin etc. I then clean everything up and start on the next kind, in this case it would have been muffins. But this wasn’t what happened this time. I made one batch of one kind and then of a different kind and so on. So I had one huge mess! And we don’t have a lot of muffin tin, only enough to fill our oven  twice. It works out okay. I pulled one batch (24 muffins) out of them oven and put the next ones in. Then wait on the “done batch” to cool for 10 min and then I’d take them out of then tins. And refill them in time to repeat the entire process. Sounds easy, but then put “making up the muffin batter” the entire time into the equation. I was a bit stressed at times…haha.

My mom helped put the muffins, after they had cooled completely, in the muffin cups, even my dad was helping at one time=) Speaking of my dad he even went to the store three times for us that night to get some much needed forgotten items/ingredients. He left for his final trip at 11:30, such a trooper. 

And you come to think of it, I didn’t even taste one myself! Shame on me! lol I will next time for sure…

The banana/chocolate chip were by far everyone’s favorite=)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The customers were all thrilled, thankfully! Grace used to make these for these same customers every year, before I took over her job…she was known, at that time, as the “Muffin Girl” so I was trying to fill some pretty large shoes. I hope I did okay=)

Have a fabulous weekend! Mine will be spent studying=)

 

Vacation with the parents!

I don’t know where to start…this vacation was by far the best one I’ve had this year!

The days leading up to our departure on Wednesday were crazy and fun. So much to be done and absolutely no time to do it…Christina actually packed my stuff the night before, I was baking for the road. that’s why I love her, don’t know what I’d do without her. I wasn’t proud of how much stuff I took, but hey I had to bring all my bedding because I was sleeping on the floor in the room.

So the night before I stayed up till three in the morning with Christina…painting our nails, watched a movie and then sorted pictures together…you know getting as much time together as possible before I left. I was asleep within an hour of sitting in the car the next morning.

The smoky mountains?!?!?!? they are insane, I’ve never seen any mountains before so bare with me=) I was so amazed! But after being on Black Mountain all week, this Indiana girl was ready for the flat land and corn fields. At least be able to see something other than trees all around me.

So what was it like sharing a two bed hotel room with my two younger brothers and parents? Ummmm insane!!!! Seriously…I won’t even go into the parents side of it...don’t worry you really don’t want to know. But my brothers! Isaac isn’t so bad, but now Samuel is a different story. His suitcase was unloaded within the hour of our arrival. Not into drawers, mind you, but all over the floor. It was like this the remainder of the week. the constant “guy smell”.  okay I’ll stop. It was just hard for this girl to get used to=) Sharing one bathroom…that was the hardest. Samuel takes longer than me on just his hair…okay I promised to stop….sorry.

What was our schedule like? It was a conference - so we had a very tight schedule. For instance: breakfast was served from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. We never got to bed before 2:00 a.m. so getting up and showering before this time was a tough one. (at least for this girl) Remember we had only one shower, for five people and thankfully only two of them were girls=) Then we would go to a session and then after lunch, the day was ours. There was organized basketball, volleyball, also hiking, swimming, etc. whatever the camp had to offer was at our disposal. Dinner. One last session.  Then we went to a gym and played games, with a ton of young adults, till about twelve. All the “night owls” would continue the night in the hotel lobby or another room till about three. I only made it to two. We would climb in bed at that 'ungodly hour' and repeat the next day=) so fun right?!?!?!

Are parents are so cool to vacation with…easy going and good with anything. Mom took a ton of pictures of us! I barely used my camera myself, I passed it off to her…I’m sad to admit it. They both got all their sleep so they were in good moods on the way home. As for the rest of us...I won't go there. I loved the 'one on one' time I got with my parents and two brothers for five days straight. I made a lot of good memories that I will hold on to for life. 

I put together a short video of our trip enjoy=)

Just loads of fun! 

~Photo-a-day~ Sept 10 – Sept 16

Vacation plus taking a picture a day equals looking through my pictures at the end of the day hoping there’s one that goes along with the word for that day. Sad I know, but with so much FUN going on it was hard to concentrate on something as simple as taking a picture.

North Carolina was AWESOME…I want to go back!!!!!!

My horse missed me. I missed him. Anyway we’re back together so everyone’s better.

I didn’t know how good our homemade food is, until I went a week without it.

I miss my brothers so much everyday and didn’t realize it until we were together constantly for a week. We even shared a room…”constantly together” took on a whole new meaning=)

We’ll more about this amazing week in a later post.

Trying to pull my life back together wasn’t hard except I never slept didn’t get much sleep while I was in North Carolina, so trying to catch up on that while not at work (yeah I’ve been nodding at my desk) has been difficult.

Day 253

~starts with a ‘B’~

book would be the word=) mom was reading to Isaac on the way out to the smoky mountains and back…reminded me of the many long car trips to and from church as a kid listening to her read these same books.

Day 254

~in the distance~

mountains….nothing but mountains everyway you looked=)

Day 255

~new~

a new place…I love hiking new places and there was so much here to go and see.

Day 256

~a friend~

I take for granite the life long friends we are so fortunate to have as siblings. As we get older and life takes on a faster pace and we see less of each other, I forget sometimes how special they are to me.

Day 257

~I wish for…~

I wish for many more vacations just like this one, one spent with family!!!

Day 258

~my shoes~

these shoe bags were Christina’s idea for an ideal flip flop and sandal storage.

Day 259

~routine~

making my lunch for the next day the night before, has become a routine I try never to skip.

So that was my week…in a few pictures.

Which photo do you like best, please comment below and tell me=)

Shipshewana with mom+dad =)

A day with both my parents and just me!!!! This never happens!!!! and that’s what made it this trip that much more special=)

We left at 6:30 am…

…no 7:00 am

…no it was actually 7:30 am…haha

so much for telling my mom we needed to be gone by 6:30. It’s common knowledge around our house that whenever she ask what time we need to leave you need to tell her an hour sooner than you really want to leave. And then you’ll always get out of the house on time. I forgot this valuable information…so we were late=) but hey we had no time limit so what did it matter. (just I did in my head) We just needed to be in Shipshewana by 4:00 pm that afternoon (for my doctor appointment)…and we were=) Disclaimer: my mom knows we do this=) 

We visited the several local stores and the flea market. It was great fun! We all enjoyed ourselves very much and came home tired but happy.

My wonderful parents!!! waiting on our foodapple butter and their famous peanut butter spread…=)and leave it to me to forget to take pictures of our plates, because I was so hungry…this is a very serious problem of mine that I need to correct soon=PI don’t even drink tea that much and I wanted them all. They smelled so good=)

Happy Friday!!!

Hope your weekend is full of fun and family=) What are your plans…?

Father’s day…the games etc. Part 2/2

Now for the games on Father’s Day…they were so much fun!

First we played a handprint ID game…we all drew around our hands on a paper plate and put our name on the opposite side. Then dad had to guess which kid’s hand shape it was. All the left handed kids were spotted rather quickly=)

Then I did something for the little guys. I had my nephews JT and Max shave their dad and another one of my brothers (my brothers weren’t too thrilled about this=) but once JT caught wind of what was going on, he begged his dad and the contest was on). they used butter knifes to scrap the shaving cream off with. Of course JT won, he’s the oldest. But Max was by far the best to watch. First he takes his hand full of shaving cream and just loads it onto Samuel’s face. eyes and all were covered. Then he lost focus messing with the shaving cream on his hands=)

After the “trust me” or  “blind fold” game we had a sack race! Funniest thing you every saw. Watching them going down the yard hopping with all their might was too hilarious=) sometimes I think I come up with these games just to see what all I can get my siblings do. And of course I have to head up the games so I rarely participate. Besides I’m taking pictures=)

I took JT and Max to see the horses with Isaac….which, of course, turn into a scavenger hunt for horseshoes. They both found one! Its not like their not all over out in this pasture, where just horses have been kept for years. We all got muddy, me more than the rest – I had to carry JT over the creek aaaannnnd yeah, I slipped just a bit and but enough to splashed mud all over myself.

All in all Father’s day was a very eventful joyous day for our family! Enjoy the photos=)

We all have a particular Atherton trait to our hand shape…pretty cool seeing them all laid out – definitely siblings=)a very intense IsaacI <3 this picture of Samuel=)And the race is on!!!!!!Careful JonOkay he’s going down….yep…but if his hands touch the ground he’s outSo he didn’t use his hands…lol that had to hurtMeanwhile Samuel crosses the finish line=) And we have a winner!Christina just stopped! haha Look at that face, beat all of his brothers, and that’s actually quite a feat…....and your not a winner without all the HIGH FIVES=)awe <3Isaac, gotta love that face=)I believe she might have broke a nail, hahaboth uncle and nephew have their fingers in their mouth, they’ll love this photo one day=)all then of us with a gift from our dad, for father’s day – definitely the worlds greatest dad=)Business shirts from mom, dad loved them – he’s been wearing them ever sinceHappy ‘lil boy!we had to try some raspberries…it never ceases to amaze me how much one berry can do to a child’s face/ haha

What did you all do on Father’s Day? now that you know what ours was like…=)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!!