A Rainy Day in the Kitchen!

With all the nasty weather that was here today, I decided it was a good day to try this new recipe one of my pre-k parents gave me. It was called "Cake Balls"!! Here is how it goes:

1. You pick any cake of your choice. You can do one out of a box, but I figured with my spare time...what the heck?!?! I'll make it all from scratch...so I picked a chocolate cake. Here is the recipe:

1 cup and 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1/8 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup shortening
1 eggs
1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

You mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the rest. Beat on low 1 minute, then on medium 2 minutes. Then you bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. This recipe has been cut in half, so it is only for 12 servings. (It still makes a lot!!) I used a 9x9 pan so it would not burn.

2. You can use 1/2 tub of icing of your choice, or make it from scratch. Here was the recipe I used for my chocolate icing:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine

1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/6 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. I also had cut this recipe in half so it would only make about 1 cup instead of 2 cups.

3. After all this is made and somewhat cooled off, tear the cake into crumbs and mix the icing together.

I realize it looks kind of gross, but it tasted wonderful!! From here, I just rolled it into balls and placed it on a baking sheet. Once you do that, you want to freeze them for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

4. Once they are frozen, melt almond bark, dip them in, let them cool and ENJOY!! They are wonderful (we also used the extra almond and threw some candy canes in to make peppermint bark!!) YUM!!

It was a fun day of trying new things!! Hope you had a wonderful rainy day as well!

My First Valentine's as Mrs. Basham

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
— Dr. Seuss

This was my first Valentine's as Mrs. Basham! This is a picture of Kyle and me in St. Louis in 2007! He got me tickets to see Anberlin...one of my favorite bands, for Valentine's Day 3 years ago! It was also on this Valentine's Day 3 years ago that he told me he loved me for the first time...and it's been bliss every since....

For this Valentine's Day....we spent the majority of the day just relaxing and enjoying some quiet time! We went to church this morning and heard a great sermon and I worked in Little Life Nursery for the second service. After that, we went to Furniture Row. We are on a hunt for a new dining room table and we have our eye on one! I'll update you if it comes true!! =)

We watched movies and napped all afternoon, and then got ready to go to my surprise dinner! While getting ready, I found this hidden in my bedroom....

It was a beautiful teardrop pearl necklace! It looks just like me and I absolutely loved it....and of course had to wear it that night!!

Here we are getting ready to head out to our dinner! Kyle took me to Brave New Restaurant. It was wonderful!! They had amazing food and it was very elegant! We had so much fun just enjoying good food and good company!!

My Valentine's Day was wonderful and I love that boy so much! It has been the most wonderful 3 years since our first Valentine's and a wonderful 1st one as

Mrs. Basham!!

Snow Day....for 4 days now!!

I have officially been out of school for 4 days because of snow and ice in Cabot, and I will be out tomorrow because we already had that day cancelled! It has been a lot of fun....but I am getting over it quickly! I am a person of routine and schedule, so this begins to stress me out!

On Monday, Kyle and I went out to assess all of the snowfall from overnight....

This was the front of our house. It was still pouring snow while we were out there!

You can see how deep the snow was from where I was walking! We were not expecting this at all.

Here is creek behind our house...it was beautiful snow!

So far this week, I have hung around the house cleaning and working on Valentine's for my kids! Kyle has spent all this time studying while I have gone and hung out with Chelsea, Susan and Hanna! It has definitely been nice to get to spend some time with these girls and be on my own schedule. However, I am definitely ready to see my kids at school again!

I hope you all have a blessed week and enjoy the days off! They are peaceful times to spend together!!

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home." ~Edith Sitwell

Organize Now!!!

Ok....so I am attempting to become even more organized in my life. I like to think of myself as a very organized person anyways, but I saw this book for sale at a book sale at our lounge at school. It breaks your life down into 7 different areas: yourself, papers, things, high-traffic areas, personal spaces, storage areas, and special events. I am super pumped to start reading it and finding out new ways to organize my life.

One of the ways in the "yourself" section to get better organized was to make a calendar of daily, weekly, biweekly and monthly chores and pick days to do them. So that is just what I did...I mark out days this month it would be impossible to do anything at home and worked around them! I am excited to see what else it does to help me lead a more organized life and not put everything off to the weekend!

The book is called "Organize Now!" by Jennifer Ford Berry!!