Wacky Weekends (Espresso Cinnamon Shortbread)

I love being a nurse.  Aside from enjoying the actual work of "nursing", I love the schedule - 2 or 3 twelve hour days might seem long, but to have the other 4 or 5 days off every week to spend with the kiddo makes it all worthwhile.  Our scheduling at work is pretty flexible, but we're required to work every other holiday and every third weekend.  Since your weekends are assigned when you're hired, you spend each one with pretty much the same group of people.  My weekend peeps are awesome - we usually have a good time while we're there.  

To me, this is a great opportunity to try out new recipes and pawn them off on hardworking, unsuspecting co-workers.  This weekend, figuring we needed a little kick in the mornings, I opted for espresso shortbread from a recipe off Smitten Kitchen (one of the yummiest food blogs I read).  The first batch, the ones that I took to work on Sunday, I made with chocolate chips (like Deb does in her recipe) and toffee pieces.  Those, however, I didn't get a chance to photograph before they were snapped up by my husband and my co-workers - that's how amazingly good they were.  

Winter Woes (Chicken Pot Pie Soup)

I had a plan for this winter.  It involved cozy sweaters and blankets and hot cocoa.  There was cuddling in front of the fireplace, sipping tea, showing my kiddo driving snowflakes out of the windows.  Maybe even some shoveling snow - I can deal.

There were dinners of rich beef stew, pasta, chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese - warm and hearty comfort food.

Maaa!  What's for dinner??

Instead, we got warm temperatures, rain, and no weather-induced time off for my golfer hubby.  And to that I say "pffffffffft".

Adventures in Living...

I've been neglecting this poor blog for some time now.  It's not that I haven't been in the kitchen as much as it's because I haven't really made anything original lately.  After Chase's baptism two weeks ago and hubby's birthday last week, I'm all party-planning-baking-fun-timed out.  It's been a whirlwind here over the past four months (four months!!!  Say whaaaat?), what with all the having a baby, celebrating the holidays, hosting a christening, two birthdays (mine and his), and oh yeah, going back to work.  (And fitting my Pinterest addiction in there somewhere.)  Now that all of that is complete, I've been enjoying just Living.  Living in the moment, day to day, not planning or getting caught up in anything else.  Just Living as a mama, wife, nurse.  Life.  It's a wonderful thing.

I wanted to post some pictures of what we've done around our house lately.  Every night, when I'm rocking and nursing the kiddo before bed, I sit in his bedroom and marvel at how different things are from a year ago.  Mostly because I was laying in that same room, with different furniture and pictures on the walls, in a different bed, and throwing up everything I even considered putting in my mouth.  We've come a long way, that baby and I.  Honestly, though, everyone morning, noon and night I thank God for my wonderful husband.  I give single moms mad props - there is no way I could do this alone and keep my sanity.  Kudos to the single ladies out there raising their own little ones!!