high five for friday...

Here are five of my favorite things from this past week!

1. New earrings from Target...on clearance!  They are gold and silver...and covered in little flowers.  In the center of each flower is a little jewel...they are so dainty yet chunky at the same time...is that possible?    

2. Trying out this new cupcake recipe...yummy!  They looked so pretty, and tasted delicious!

3. Maybelline Baby Lips... I am in LOVE with the Grape one... the perfect amount of color...some gloss, and not sticky (which my hubby appreciates).  Plus, it smells great and makes my lips super soft!

4. Getting to spend my a few hours snuggled up with my hubby by the fireplace in our house.

5. By the end of this first week back to school after break, I was so happy it was Friday!

Now to relax for the rest of the weekend...and soak up these rare moments of peace and quiet with my man.

raspberry almond cookies...

When I was younger there was this shop in our local mall that had every kind of 'scent' you could imagine... I can't for the life of me remember the name, but there were tons of little jars with delicious smelling perfumes you could mix to make your own scent.

There was one in particular...It had a sweet, delicious almond smell that was out of this world. 

And so began my love affair with almond extract.

I found this recipe over at www.tastykitchen.com, and decided to make it last night.

I liked that I had all the ingredients, and it didn't take a lot of time... plus, eating fruit on my cookies makes them healthy and fit into my diet...right?

Raspberry Almond Cookies

  

Ingredients
1 cup Butter
⅔ cups Granulated Sugar
2 cups Flour
½ teaspoons Almond Extract Or Vanilla Extract
1 jar Raspberry Jam (I only had mixed berry...but it was delicious!)
1 cup Powdered Sugar
1 Tablespoon Water (I used part almond extract and part water...yumm!)


Cream together the butter with the granulated sugar. Mix in flour and extract. Scoop out a spoonful of the mixture and shape into 1-inch balls. (The mixture will just barely come together.) Put each ball onto a cookie sheet and press your thumb into each one to make an indention. Put as much jam as you can put into each thumbprint.


Bake 14-18 minutes at 350 degrees.
Once cookies are cooled, mix together the powdered sugar with the water and drizzle onto the cookies.
Makes about 24 cookies.

as so it returns...

Tomorrow I return to my usual schedule... my routine... my passion.

And while break has been awesome... 

I'm excited to get back to see 26 kiddos. 

I don't do so well when I am home alone and don't have a purpose... although today I was able to get quite a bit done! 

Had coffee with a good friend, did some grocery shopping, and then cleaned up a bit. 

Thought someone broke into my house, had my Dad come over and clear my house (which actually looks quite different than in the movies) and good news: no one was in there.  Too many cop shows over these past few weeks.

My older brother who lives in Maryland is home for break right now, so R and I went out to dinner with him...yum!  Went off of my diet a bit tonight... but luckily I ate really good all day, so it balances out...right? 

Off to bed early tonight... back to work tomorrow!

2012 list...

Ryan and I sat down last night at wrote out some of our goals for this new year.... so looking forward to 2012!

	Eat Healthier Eat at the dinner table Exercise more Read a marriage book together Go to bed on time Take more pictures Blog on a regular basis Pay off our debt Keep our house more organized - Bake more Read more and watch less TV No TV on Sundays Date night twice a month Spend more time with family Be still and spend time with God Walk outside more Do more craft projects Take REAL vacation

New Years Resolution...

One of my resolutions.... BLOG.  


Tomorrow brings us to the year 2012, and I feel like my life has changed SO much in 2011...and I'm hoping to stick with it and blog my life in 2012.  


I am feeling settled and inspired... to photograph things more, to write down my classroom stories, and to share   the happenings in our little life. 


Hoping I can follow through! 

5 days.

5 days.

5 days.

5 days.

Three days left of being a "Miss" to my students.

Three days left of being at work.

My last Monday of being NOT married.

5 days till I am {married}.

Seriously can't even wait.

It's been a while...

Did you know I'm getting married in

{SIX}

days?

Yep. 6.