Comfort Food: Peanut Butter Popcorn

December 18, 2012 By Audrey Leave a Comment

One of my favorite family traditions as I was growing up was popcorn on Sunday evenings. This is one of our go-to recipes, and is definitely at the top of my comfort food list. It’s fast, easy, and seriously addicting!

Ingredients:
-1 cup brown sugar
-1 cup white corn syrup
-1 cup peanut butter
-12 cups popcorn, popped

In a medium-sized saucepan, over medium heat, combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, and peanut butter. Stir frequently until the mixture boils. Remove from heat, pour over popped corn, and mix well. ENJOY!

Filed Under: family, food Tagged With: comfort food, family, family traditions, popcorn

New Addition: This Sweet Baby Boy

November 30, 2012 By Audrey Leave a Comment

With much joy, my brother and his beautiful wife recently welcomed the addition of this tiny, perfect newborn to their family. We are all beyond thrilled for them. Yesterday we fit in an impromtu photo shoot for some lovely new products (coming soon), and I could not get enough of his sweet little self. Blame me?

(Little Man is wrapped in our gorgeous cable knit blanket. It has awesome drape & stretch qualities…perfect for swaddling!)

Filed Under: christening accessories, family, living the life Tagged With: baby blanket, christening blanket, new baby, swaddling blanket

It Doesn’t Have to be Perfect: Easter 2012

April 10, 2012 By Audrey Leave a Comment

Sometimes the days & weeks become so crazy, I find myself saying over and over again: It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. (Thank you, Nester)

As much as I can clearly see gorgeous holidays in my head and on my Pinterest boards, it just is not realistic to expect that I can nail down all those perfect details in the midst of a blessedly busy life. Reality is that relationships/people, daily necesseties, schedules, and obligations trump visions of sugarplums, impeccably styled photo-ops and dainty handmade decorations.

That said, I still try to pull off as many somewhat-scaled-down traditions as possible. So Easter this year went down like this:

Easter egg hunts – check (3 of them!)

Food & fun with lots of family- check

A beautiful, spiritual feast at church – check

Easter dresses for my girlies – fail (funny, from the girl who makes dresses for a living, no?)

Clean/organized/decorated holiday house – fail (good thing all our festivities took place elsewhere!)

Do you ever find yourself having to reconcile dreams of perfection with the reality of life?

{Oh, and for all of you living life by-the-seat-of-your-pants-with-your-hair-on-fire (like me) I have some great news: One Small Child is now shipping all orders within 24 hours. Woo-hoo!}

Filed Under: ceremonies and celebrations, family, on my mind

An Old-Fashioned Treat: Honey Candy

November 10, 2011 By Audrey 1 Comment

Last week, the kids & I stopped by the home of a lovely elderly couple in our neighborhood, with whom we enjoy visiting often. My favorite thing about our chats is when conversation turns to their childhood memories, and on this particular occasion, we listened to stories of Halloween in the late 1920s, and how children then looked forward to treats of cookies, apples, popcorn balls and honey candy.

I was sweetly surprised this week when my little man suggested we make honey candy to take over to our friends, so, we did! It’s super easy–you can make it too:

Old-Fashioned Honey Candy

2 c. sugar
1/4 c. water
1 c. honey
1/4 t. soda
1 T. butter

Combine first three ingredients in pot and cook over medium heat to hard crack stage (294 degrees). Remove from heat immediately and stir in soda and butter.

Pour hot liquid into a buttered teflon pan (can use a cupcake pan for individual batches) and let sit until cool to the touch, about 10-15 minutes.

Spray hands with cooking spray and pull cooled candy until it turns white and hard.

p.s. Don’t worry, your fingerprints will reappear in a few days. {wink}

Filed Under: family Tagged With: candy recipe, cooking with kids, family cooking, heirloom candy recipe, honey candy

Weekend Getaway

September 7, 2011 By Audrey Leave a Comment

At the last minute, we decided to fill our camper with kids and ATVs and head for the hills over the weekend. We landed in one of our favorite spots…a tiny town next to mountains full of old mines, perfect for days of exploration. Here’s what we found:

Old mine shafts…you wouldn’t believe how cold the air coming out of that caved-in tunnel is!

Lots of old mining equipment, begging to be climbed upon.

Little Miss stumbled on a pile of Fool’s Gold and spent several blissful minutes gathering a handful of the sparkly mineral.

Every abandoned homestead boasted patches of tiny wild raspberries, which we happily picked and enjoyed on the spot.

The view from 9,000-ish feet above sea level:

What did your Labor Day weekend look like?

Filed Under: country life, family Tagged With: family, labor day, vacation

Third Day of School

August 24, 2011 By Audrey Leave a Comment

The bus came ten minutes earlier than expected on Monday (our official first day of school), so I did not get our traditional first-day snapshots for my older two children. I was slightly frustrated at the time, but looking back, I’m totally okay with it, because today is also a milestone: the official start of Kindergarten. The first day I send all three of my darlings out the door at the crack of dawn.

And there you have it: the end of an era. I’m crying and jumping for joy at the same time…motherhood is full of absurd contradictions. {grin}

Filed Under: family Tagged With: back to school

August Campout

August 23, 2011 By Audrey Leave a Comment

One of the highlights of summer at our house is *the* annual August campout. This year we met with eleven other families in beautiful Challis, Idaho (one of my favorite places on the planet). The Challis Hot Springs Resort is nestled between a gorgeous mountain range and the powerful Salmon River. The campsite is lovely, the hot springs are heavenly, and the company, well, it’s pretty great.

We spent four days playing with cousins. Activities included rock-painting, hammock-swinging, croquet, food (the best part!), lots of chatting, swimming, bicycles and ATV riding.

The only sad part: when it’s over, so is summer.

Filed Under: country life, family Tagged With: camping, cousins, summer, vacation

Looking Closer

August 5, 2011 By Audrey Leave a Comment

I was going through the photos on my camera card the other day, and ran across a large (LARGE) number of images I did not shoot. 9-year-old Jessa has been sneaking Mom’s camera and snapping close-ups featuring various in-and-out-of-focus flowers, clocks, wall-art, her brother, the cat, power poles, trampolines and sunsets.

My first impulse was: Sigh…There are a lot of pictures of nothing here…I don’t really have time to slog through them all…Where am I going to store them?…How many should I keep?

And then I looked closer.

Sure, there were a lot of throw-aways. But there were some amazing photographs in the bunch. (The image above is unedited: straight-out-of-the-camera.) They told me something about the world she sees through her eyes, the details that catch her attention, the natural artistic talent she possesses. And my feelings changed from mild exasperation to profound gratitude for the glimpse I gained into her, and for the opportunity to be part of her life.

The experience reminded me of something I truly believe: there is joy to be found in everything around us. Sometimes a closer look is all you need to see it.

Filed Under: family, on my mind

Easter 2011

April 27, 2011 By Audrey 3 Comments

Easter blindsided me after a week filled with kid-running, crunch-time deadlines, and an all-day Saturday meeting. As much as this mama craves visions of Easter bonnets, frilly dresses and darling pastel tea parties with bunnies & fresh flowers, we were doing good to make it to 9 a.m. church on Sunday…sans pictures of children in Easter finery. I did, however, manage to catch a few shots of the action at our annual egg hunt before it was all over. Yay me!

How was your Easter?

Filed Under: family

I Blinked

March 31, 2011 By Audrey 1 Comment

It happened. I hoped it wouldn’t. But it did. I blinked…and my baby went from this:

To this:

Really, how is it possible for five years to go by so quickly?

So I’m left to hope the next five slow down…but I’m here to tell you: snuggle and kiss and soak up all those precious tiny moments. They go by fast.