We are very excited to announce that we have another grand baby on the way!!
Kayla is due in early June! Less than a week away from the second trimester, and hopefully when the morning sickness will disappear!
David and Kayla are also in the process of a concurrent foster placement of a sweet, beautiful baby as well!
We are CLEAR EXCITED!!!
Congratulations David, Kayla and Clyde!!
We love you FIVE SO MUCH!!
I have made these monster cookies for years now.
The original recipe came from a book called Breaking the Vicious Cycle. You can find info about it here.
The original recipe calls for eggs and butter, but I make these cookies gluten-free, grain-free, egg-free, and dairy-free. They are also soy-free, which is a big one for us too!
Monster Cookies
2 TBSP flax meal mixed with 6 TBSP hot water
(set aside and let gel)
5 cups almond meal (also called almond flour)
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnut pieces
1 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup honey
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (we use allergy-friendly enjoy life brand)
Mix all ingredients. I do this in my Kitchen Aid Mixer, literally dumping everything but the chocolate chips together and then turning the mixer on low until all is mixed.
Add the chocolate chips while the mixer is still running, and let it mix until they are incorporated. You may want to measure, or not pour from a jar while taking a photo at the same time. Just saying.
Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. We use bleach free parchment paper, to avoid chemicals being leached into the cookies.
Use a 1 1/2″ cookie scoop to scoop out the cookies. If you do not have a cookie scoop, get it on your Christmas list pronto!
The dough will be a bit sticky, but also crumbly. Just use your fingers to press the dough together as your cookie scoop releases the cookie. I promise they will stay together once baked and cooled!
Press the cookies down with a fork, dipping the fork in water between each press.
Bake at 325 degrees, for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. The cookies are very fragile when hot. Let them cool completely before trying to move them. Or, get a spoon like my kiddos do and dig right in!
This recipe made 55 cookies. I store them in the fridge, and they freeze very well too!
Enjoy!
*This is the flax meal we use to replace eggs. I buy this at Costco, but last time we checked, they were not carrying it anymore.
To replace one egg in a recipe, mix 1 TBSP of flax meal with 3 TBSP of hot water. Let it sit until it gels, and then add to recipe like you would an egg.
It is a gorgeous Friday here in our neck of the woods!!
It is chillier than it has been all week – but no complaints here, because our weather has been non-stop warm and sunny!
I need to dig out some warmer coats, hats and mittens for the kiddos!
And then find a place to put them all! Cause a puppy lives in our mudroom now – and she puts anything and everything into her mouth!
Right now our hat and mitten bins are on the back porch. Which is about 3 miles from the front door!
So about Tuesday. Everyone of age in our home voted.
That is all I will say about that.
Except that I took a crew with me. It was a good history field trip.
As we drove over the hills and down the road, I couldn’t help but notice how the landscape has changed!
The corn is coming down, you all.
I already posted about how we kicked off the holidays.
Every year during the holidays, I listen to this flash mob a couple of times!
It is SO beautiful! I would have loved to have been there!
Addie Mae and I have planned our Thanksgiving meal, Christmas cookie baking day, and we have drawn names within our family for our gift exchange!
I cannot believe Thanksgiving is two weeks away, can you?
I was looking for some butternut squash soup recipes.
I thought this one and this one looked good!
I have really enjoyed cooking and baking lately! More than ever!
This past Saturday it was so warm outside that Blake grilled our whole meal.
Have you ever grilled pineapple slices? SO yummy.
We had a tiny bit of illness here this week.
The kind where I was asking “Are we getting sick?”, but one child had a slight fever for most of a day. And myself and another child felt kind of like we were fighting something, maybe? SO thankful it wasn’t anything more than that!
When I just could not get warm that day, I made a pumpkin spice latte!
And then yesterday I was just the right temperature and I made another one!
And now that I am telling you all about it, I am gonna need another one!
We had two calls on the farm this week (yahoo!!) and may have two showings tomorrow from those calls!
We just got the house shining this morning, and the rest of the farm is ready too!
We are still hoping and praying that the Lord will bring a buyer for the farm!
Maybe, just maybe, one of these family’s will be the one!
Hope you all are having a GREAT Friday!
Have a GREAT weekend too!
Every year we kick off the holidays with Operation Christmas Child shoebox shopping, decorating and packing.
The kids count on this! I love this tradition too, so it is an easy one to put on the calendar and follow through with!
Monday afternoon we met Kayla and Clyde at the local Dollar Store to shop for the shoeboxes.
It is SO hard to get a good photo of this little man!
The kiddos filled a box for their same age and gender.
Us adults filled a box for our same gender, but the 10-14 year age group, as we were told they were in need of more people to donate boxes for this age group.
The kids have a blast walking the aisles of the Dollar Store looking for just the right things to bless whoever receives their box!
We also buy washcloths, soap, and candy in bulk to add to everyone’s box.
We headed back home to eat dinner before we had our packing party. Kayla, David and Clyde were going to pack their boxes at their house.
Trying to get used to a sunset at 4:45 p.m.!!
I always have the cashier at the Dollar Store ring up one box at a time and place all the items back in the box.
That way the kiddos have all of the things they picked still together in a box, which is GENIUS when we go to pack them.
I may be speaking from an experience of not thinking to do this before. Once.
After dinner and the littles baths, we got to work!
Grant works a gazillion hours a week, but he arrived home in the middle of our packing party.
We planned ahead! We had filled a box for Blake and Grant both, so they could be a part of it as well!
Ring pops for every box!
Even though we do not know where our boxes will be shipped to, we made homemade cards for each one. We wrote them in English, and decorated them, saying things like “God Bless You,” “Jesus Loves You,” and “Merry Christmas!”
As soon as all the boxes were finished, labeled, and rubber banded shut – we had leftover cup cakes from Clyde’s birthday party! A perfect end to our holiday kick off!
It is a joy to make traditions with the children that they look forward to during the holidays! It is super sweet to hear the big kiddos reminisce about years gone by – and it is these seemingly little things that have a huge place in their memories!
Holidays 2016 – we are ready for you!
