I know you're dying for an update on my exciting life, so I'll oblige. We bought a house. We sold our old house. We moved.
Did you know that moving entails packing every single itty bitty item you own, putting it in a box, putting the box in a vehicle and driving it to a different location?
I won't even get into unpacking every little thing.
If I had thought that through, I might have thought twice about moving. Oh my word. Children have a lot of little bitty things. Times four. And I had stuck a lot of things in a lot of places. Wow.
But we're moved and it was all totally worth it. More than worth it. So worth it, we're never doing it again. Ever.
We love our new place. All of us. Especially the dogs and the kids. They run and romp and dig holes (this applies to kids & dogs alike). The kids play in the dirt and run in the field and help their daddy prune trees. Kids are supposed to be dirty and sweaty, you know? Also, most of us have shared poison ivy (that was fun).
I have a long list of farm animals I plan to procure at some point. And no, the list does not include goats. Nearly everyone has asked me this. What is the deal with goats? To quote my dad: "If a fence won't hold water, it won't hold a goat." There ya go. No goats on this land.
But I would consider a burro (that's the Spanish word for donkey, but it sounds much better in Spanish don't you think?).
So I do cook occasionally, but it would be embarrassing if I told you what I make (I'm using the words "cook" and "make" very loosely in this context). But we do eat on our screened-in porch every night. It's awesome. It might get a bit cold in the winter, but kids are messy and at least one person spills their milk every night, so I think we'll just suffer through.
On an unrelated note, I tried yet another recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I tweaked it a bit and I think they're pretty delicious. I fell in love with coconut oil during my Whole30 and so I just applied that healthy oil to baking (I'm sure the creators of Whole30 would be thrilled with that). Don't skip the step of chilling the batter because your cookies will be puddles when you bake them. Just follow the directions and your life will go as planned.
Softest Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/4 cup melted coconut oil (measure the melted oil to equal 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup dark chocolate chips (Ghiradelli chips are the best)
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
Stir together the oil, butter & sugar until combined. Add the egg and vanilla and combine. Add the salt, soda, powder & flour with the chocolate chips and stir until just combined. Scoop into mounds (I use a cookie scoop) and chill for at least 3 hours. Bake on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for 7-8 minutes, until not quite done (they will set up as they cool).
