Project Life 2/13- 2/26

Two more weeks of Project Life~ wow!  How time flies here!

First up: Valentine's Day!  At our house the guys go out of their way to bless the girls and I...  we feel very spoiled!  This year Tom completely surprised me with a new running shirt.  The boys combined money and purchased running jackets and shirts for Hannah and Abbie~ woo hoo!  Now for some warmer weather!

Not to be outdone, Hannah and Abbie made some of the most fabulous cupcakes for a special dessert that day~ they were super-delicious!

How 'bout a recipe, you say?  Sure!

Here's our favorite gluten-free chocolate cake recipe and a super-delicious chocolate icing recipe that Abbie recently found.  Hannah used a cake decorating bag to make huge chocolate icing swirls on each cupcake.  They were simply *begging* for some sprinkles, so we happily obliged!  Mmmmm, so good!

Very Yummiest Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake (or cupcake!) Recipe

2 c. sugar

2 c. brown rice flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. guar gum

1c. butter

3 Tbsp. cocoa

1 c. water

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine dry ingredients.  Place butter, cocoa and water in saucepan and melt, stirring over medium heat.  Bring to a rapid boil and pour over dry ingredients.  Stir to mix well.  Add eggs, buttermilk, baking soda and vanilla.

Pour into sprayed 9" x 13" pan (or lined muffin tins).  Bake cake at 350 degrees for 20-30 min.  I believe the cupcakes took about 10-15 min.  Remove cupcakes from muffin tins to cool on cooling racks before icing.

Super-Yummiest Chocolate Cupcake Icing

1 stick (1/2 c.) butter, softened

1/4 c. crystalline fructose or honey (we used fructose)

1 egg

1/4 c. carob power or cocoa (we used cocoa)

1 tsp. vanilla

Blend the butter and crystalline fructose until light and creamy.  Then blend in egg, cocoa powder (sift first to remove lumps) and vanilla.  Spread on cooled cake or cupcakes.

OK, back to Project Life!  Here's a close up of the left page from 2/13- 2/19. 

I added an adorable house drawing by Timmy to an 8 1/2" x 11" page protector:

And on the back of that, the journaling from this blog post, telling about my little trail-running accident.

 A close-up of that journaling:

The right side of that week's pages:
I *love* capturing photos that show relationships between siblings, like the one below of Josiah and Timmy.  Josiah was taking Timmy out to sled on a warm day.  It is so cool to me how loving and gentle he is with little Tim.  Also some great little "snippets" of life here~ Timmy reading to his bear, our Great Pyreneese Lance inviting me to play with him, a group photo of some of the younger boys posing with their favorite project this week: handmade darts!  I think the creativity that they invest in their play is really fun!

 And week 2, Feb. 20-26th:

Lots of fun here... I'm back on crutches with two fractures in my foot/leg, but the full/happy life goes on here, we're still working on school, etc.  Actually the children were thrilled to get Monday off school since I needed to go in to see my orthopedic doctor.

Here's a close-up of the right side of those pages.  I actually used a Verizon bag, just three-hole-punched it... more on that in a minute, and included a portion of my receipt from the urgent care visit on Sunday to have my ankle x-rayed.  I added a little journaling at the bottom and called it good.

When you flip that page/bag (!!) over, this is what you see:

OK, I'm about to reveal my deep, dark secret here~ ready?  I'm a total geek!  I have been enamored by iPhones since they first came out.  Alas and alack though, we have been faithful Verizon customers for many years (no coverage from other carriers at our house) and until recently Verizon did not carry the iPhone.  Now they do and my (very sweet) husband told me that I could get one this week!  Yay!  (Just between you and me, I think he felt sorry for poor me, on crutches *again*! sigh)

Here's a close-up of the back of the bag page (I left the handles on the bag~ thought that it was cute with them still attached), added a photo of my iPhone and the super-cool box that it came in, and some journaling.

And I *do* heart my iPhone!  

Here's the right side of the pages from this past week.  Can you tell that I *love* documenting our life this way?  I *really* do! It was fun to take some of the photos this week with my iPhone.  I really like using my Canon Rebel, but the small size and portability of my iPhone (especially while I'm on crutches) was wonderful!

That's about it from here (at least on the Project Life front!),

Hope it's warming up where you are!



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