Berry, Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

I’m not really sure what to call this coffee cake but we’ll go with it.

Yesterday I was on Pinterest and found this yummy recipe for some kind of an oatmeal, berry, chocolate chip granola bar/coffee cake thing. It looked and sounded so good. But silly me didn’t pin it and for the life of me this morning I could not find the recipe.

So, I got out my cookbook/notebook where I keep a ton of recipes and found my tried and true blueberry coffee cake recipe.

I then kind of came up with my own version of a mixture of what I remember seeing yesterday with this recipe I had.

I actually thought it turned out pretty good. Here it is:

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour                  

2 tsp. baking powder                                        

1/2 tsp. salt                                      

1 cup old fashioned oats

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1-2 cups frozen mixed berries

1 cup chocolate chips

1 handful chopped walnuts

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 9 inch baking pan.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in 1 cup oats. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, and egg. Stir in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing until incorporated.
4. Layer batter in bottom of greased pan.
5. Sprinkle top of batter with fruit, chocolate chips, and walnuts.
6. In a small bowl mix the streusel topping, and sprinkle on top of fruit. To make streusel topping, combine 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, and oats. Cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs.
7. Bake at 375 degrees for about 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool a few minutes and then enjoy.

It was super yummy. I hope you try it sometime.

Happy Wednesday, y’all!!!

It’s All Their Fault…

Look at ‘em…go on, take a good hard look at ‘em.

See those cute, adorable smiles? Their beautifully groomed hair, precious matching outfits, arms wrapped around each other in nothing but sweet love…

And those eyes…one pair of blue and one pair of brown…just like their Mama and their Daddy. Those eyes that you look into and just fall in love…

IT’S ALL THEIR FAULT!!!!

They’ve sucked it out of me….what you wonder???

MY BRAIN!!!!

That’s right, these cute, little, adorable, sweet-natured, crazy - want to make you laugh kids sucked out every bit of smart, or whatever that was in my brain.

There’s nothing left.

You see, before I had kids, I was a teacher. My classroom was so organized. You know all those super organized classrooms you see on Pinterest these days? Well, my friends, my classroom was one of those.

Everything was color coded: days, classes, lessons, groups, books…everything. Everything had a color and a place and a label, and a I knew what each thing meant and where it was. {I get my organization from my Daddy not my Mama. Bless her heart, you could never see the bottom of her desk, and she liked it that way…I digress}

Our house was basically the same. I cleaned on Sunday {like clockwork} and the house was picked up, neat, and organized. Ha. Don’t even get me started on the house.

Then, these sweet kiddos entered my life and over the past 6 years all of my brain has been sucked out of me.

I’ve been feeling something was missing, and I realized today what it is.

Hunter started camp this week at his new preschool. We were excited about it. He was excited to go make new friends and play games, and I was super excited to get a break. He’s been out of school since May and since then he’s been my barnacle. He’s always been my “hip-baby” and he still loves to be right up next to me. He touches me all.day.long. He calls me all.day.long. He needs me all.day.long.

It’s been getting a little tiresome, so I was looking forward for him to go to camp so I can get a few things done around the house. I have some organizational projects I want to do and can’t do them when their home…just doesn’t happen. There’s always juice to be made, a sword fight to play, and sometimes even a bottom to wipe.

Well, picture this…me, my Silhouette SD, some vinyl, and some organizing to be had. My Happy Place…

It’s the end of Tuesday, and want to know what I’ve done???

Nothing!!!!

No, I’m not napping, not talking on the phone, not completely running errands.

I find myself for hours aimlessly roaming around this house wondering, “What in the world do I do with myself???”

What do you mean, no one needs juice, no one’s hungry, and there’s not a sword fight to have. This must be some kind of a joke, right.

I feel like I’m playing some sort of hide-and-seek game with him and he’s hidden in a really good spot. I can’t find him. I can’t hear him call my name. Where is he?

So, I go look at my To-do list and wonder where to start. I go in my craft room to start organizing ribbons, fabrics, scrapbook paper, tulle…

It’s the end of Tuesday and it’s not done. In fact, I don’t even know where to start. What??? That’s not me. I thrive on organization. I thrive on labels and color codes. And I can’t figure out where to start with my labels. What kind of bins do I need? What shelves shall I get?

Mush….mush I tell you! It’s nothing but mush. The one thing I was always so good at and loved to do, I don’t know how to do it. Man, that really stinks. I feel empty.

Maybe one day it will come back. Until then I will have sword fights, and play American girl, and hope there will be a glimpse of my old friend, “Ms. Organization”, that will come for a visit soon. I miss her.

Daddy’s and Daughters

So, of course as usual I’m a day late and a dollar short, but our Father’s Day yesterday was filled with spending time with our Daddy of the house. I made all his favorite meals, and tried to make him feel as special as possible.

Daddy’s, especially ours, works so hard and I wanted him to have an extra special day.

Dads and sons always have a special bond…you know, they throw balls, go fishing, talk sports, have sword fights…all that rough and tumble boy stuff.

But, I have to say there’s something extra special about Daddy’s and their daughters.

I remember when my husband and I got married and I told him I always wanted to have a boy and a girl. I know you take what the good Lord gives you, but I was kind of putting my order in to the man who helps create us all.

Eric kind of looked at me like I had two heads… “A girl? What on earth would we do with a girl? I don’t know anything about girls.”

Well, I have to give him credit, because coming from a family who mostly produces boys, he was right. He grew up with girl cousins, but never had experience with baby girls. So, I could see how he would feel this way.

When Dallas was born, I will never forget the look on his face when he told me she was a girl. See, we didn’t find out her sex, and boy was she a surprise.

He was holding her and looks at me and says, “Boy she already has me wrapped.” She was only minutes old, but that bond was already formed.

They have this bond like no other…just like my daddy and me.

My daddy was always the one who knew how to calm me down. When I was having a bad teenage moment and ranting through the house yelling, arms a swinging, and no one seemed to understand what I was feeling, he would stop me in the hallway, wrap his arms around me and whisper, “Let it go, Baby.”

It was something about those arms and that warmth that I would just let it all go. Funny thing is, to this day he still does the same. If I’m having some kind of bad mommy day and I’m ranting and yelling, arms a swinging, just the sound of his voice can calm me down. He may be 8 hours away and can’t wrap his arms around me, he can calm me down.

It’s that Daddy/Daughter bond…

I see the same similarities with Eric and Dallas. She can be having some kind of 6 year old tantrum or she and I could be arguing. He seems to know how to calm her down…always. {To be honest this sometimes drives me a bit batty, but I know it’s just that bond thing again.}

None-the-less, he calms her down and that’s what daddy’s are for…to make everything better; to make all the hurt go away; to make the world right again.

One of my favorite things as a kid was at bedtime my daddy would carry me on his back down the hall and let me drop onto my bed. It was the greatest thrill. I think it’s so funny that Eric and Dallas do the same thing most nights. He carries her up on his back and lets her drop onto her bed. Hearing her squeal and giggle brings back so many memories of my childhood, I love watching them do this little ritual. It’s that special bond.

I am such a lucky girl to have a daddy who shares that extra special bond with me. He’s not perfect, but none of us are. However, I do know that there are arms that will wrap around me and make the world better, and even though I’m 33 there will always be a lap for me to curl up in…it’s that special bond. And I am so thankful that my daughter and her daddy share that same bond…

So, to all you daddy’s out there, Happy Father’s Day {a day late}!!

Laundry Room Reveal

Hey y’all!

I know I’ve been a bit incognito for almost a month now. It’s been very hectic around here, but I’m back and very excited to share with you my laundry room reveal.

It’s been finished for a while, but I wanted to share it with you before I share the other projects and rooms we’ve been re-doing lately.

So, here we go:

Remember this?

This was my laundry room up until about the first of the year. I started the transformation and posted about it Here and Here.

I began by painting the cabinets white.

We also added board and batten to the lower part of the walls. The upper part I painted yellow with a darker yellow stripe.

And I put a bench in the entry part of the room.

If all that wasn’t enough we got new flooring to get rid of that old “nineties” vinyl.

Much better, huh?

Well, then it was time to accessorize…one of my favorite parts. Here’s a ton of pictures to show the room now:

This is from the top of the cabinets. I picked up a few things here and there {mostly from Michael’s} and pieced them together with things I already had.

I love the UGA drawing and had to have him in there. Eric gave me that a long time ago. He bought it from a guy in the streets of downtown Athens, GA. He was drawing these pictures with his mouth seeing that he had no arms….just amazing to me.

My sweet Mama made my valance and I just LOVE how it fits the room perfectly.

I made the bench cover using a shower curtain I purchased from Target and THIS tutorial. It was so user friendly.

I love how it turned out.

I had a little material left over from the valance and made a small pillow for my bench.

The bulletin board I used in the old laundry room and thought it was great to hang kid’s art work and birthday invitations.

I cut out the “Be Kind, Be Happy” and “Be YOU” on black vinyl from my Silhouette and applied them to a couple of picture frames. I used textured scrapbook paper for those frames, and used a couple of pictures I had on hand of the kids.

Last was the door. I shared with you earlier how I painted it grey. It looks so great now and adds a bit of contrast.

Well, there you have it, my laundry room transformation.

And to think, all this started with a little inspiration…

…a little ironing board cover I received for Christmas. Thanks, Grammy!!! I love my new room!