Baking With the Measners

I grew up baking. In fact, I believe that I (and most of my siblings) could bake a batch of cookies by scratch by the age of 7. (At least that's what we claim.) We used to triple, or maybe even quadruple our recipes to produce enough cookies for our family and my mom's babysitting kids. In recent years, my love of baking has grown. I could read cookbooks for fun, and I swear that after Lucy was born I went through what I call "reverse nesting" when Isabelle and I baked something nearly every day. Needless to say, I was also eating many of those tasty treats myself (so much for shedding the baby weight!). Afterall, Mom can have as many as she wants, as long as no one else catches her at it! Since then, we've tried to cut back on how many we make, but the kids still really enjoy baking and eating. And baking and eating at the same time. They have this habit of licking their fingers in between putting on sprinkles, which causes all the sprinkles to stick to their fingers, which means they need to lick their fingers again, then back into the sprinkles, and look! they all stuck to the fingers again, so they need to be licked again! (I know, now none of you will ever want to eat cookies at our house again!)

I've slowly learned that baking with kids means NEVER turning your back, even for a second, or you could end up with a cup of salt in your granola bars or a couple tablespoons of baking soda in your brownies or water in your cookies. The mess is always huge -- flour on every surface and more bowls and spoons than necessary dirty. However, we always love the tasty treats, and making them is almost as fun as eating them! Hopefully some day my kids will love to cook on their own and will be calling me for advice just as often as I call my mom!


Henry excited about baking and licking his sprinkle-covered fingers.

Isabelle sporting pjs while baking (No, this picture wasn't taken right away in the morning, and yes, sometimes we do leave our pjs on all day!)

Unfinished Business

Today was just a crazy day. The sort of day where it was 5:00 P.M. and I felt like I had started about 20 different things, but never finished any of them!
Henry has decided this week that he doesn't like naps, and well, I'm just the nap nazi around our house, so I MAKE him take a nap. Today there was going to be no "making" him take a nap. After a nearly 2 hour struggle, he won. His nap . . . unfinished.

Isabelle just likes to be into everything and to have constant attention. If I have to do something at the computer (real work, not blogging!), she sneaks up under my arms and uses her small--but powerful--arms to yank mine off the keyboard. We did play Barbies, which was fun, except she always calls me "girl" when we're playing like that and she gets a little bossy. I think it's her way of making sure we're in make-believe land. We also started a batch of cookies, which are sitting in the fridge . . . unfinished.

Lucy balked at bedtime, which is really nothing new. She, at least, finished about four feedings before succumbing to her droopy eyes.

Now, I'm off to finish the laundry, the dishes, the cleaning of the kitchen counter, the bills, and the cleaning of our very messy TV area. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll follow Lucy's lead and actually finish something!

A Perfect Day for Some Winter Fun

Finally, this weekend it was warm enough to have some good old fashioned winter fun. On Saturday, we trekked out to the hunting shack to go sliding with the kids. This is only the second time this year that we've gone sliding, and the kids just love it. After several times down the hill with us, they were ready to go whizzing down by themselves. Henry loved to say "Yee haw!" as he was going down the hill. He had to go ALL the way to the VERY bottom--over the little hill at the bottom of the big hill. Isabelle loved that the snow was wet enough to go down without getting whitewashed (I'm not going to lie; I definitely like it better this way too!) They both walked up a few times, but also enjoyed getting pulled while giving Mom and Dad a workout. Hey, we know we need the workout, so we'll take it!

Did I mention that the hunting "shack", aka The Ugly Buck Inn, has a woodstove, cooking stove, TV (during the season), satellite, couches, cabinets (with their Ugly Buck logo woodburned on them) and even a mural? Yup, that shack is very well-loved by my uncles, dad, brothers, and lone female hunter Ann (who painted the mural and even made camoflauge curtains!) It's the perfect place to warm up, nurse a baby, and enjoy some hot cocoa (that would be hot cho-co to Isabelle, and arguably the best part of going sliding!)

Inside and outside the shack

Ann's mural on the inside of the shack

So, even though my dad was disappointed that we didn't make the record books for being below freezing the whole month of January, I'll take this forty degree day and all the fun that came with it!

Go Green Bay!

Yesterday we decided at the last minute to go to Green Bay to watch my brother Michael play against the #11 team in the country, Butler. We weren't the only Schachtner fans there . . . Of course Mom and Dad went and their friends Randy and Mary came too. Donnie and Tracy had watched the game Saturday with their kids and decided to stay another night and catch another game. Then Laura and Brant and kids (who had already gone to and from GB with my parents on Saturday) thought, "What the heck . . . might as well go see one last game." Once we were on the bandwagon, Kristin and Darren and kids quickly got someone to milk those cows and made the trip too! We knew it was a good sign when all 3 mini-vans stopped at the same gas station at the same time without even planning it.

The crowd was huge at the game, almost a sell-out. And, the student section had multiplied from the few loyal fans in December to a whole rowdy, boisterous section. The fans were feeling it and the players were too. Although Green Bay didn't shoot very well, they made up for it with tenacious defense and nearly perfect free throw shooting. At half-time they had a 2 point lead, and quickly built it to 13 points in the second half. It was so exciting to see them remain confident and thoroughly beat Butler. At the sound of the buzzer, the whole student section swarmed the floor and celebrated with Michael and his teammates.

Green Bay has never beaten such a highly ranked opponent, and it was such a thrill to be there to watch it all unfold. In the end, we had to agree with the students that Butler indeed was "Over-rate-d. Over-rate-d." What then, to say of Green Bay? How about "hardest working", "biggest hearts", or simply "worth the 9 hour drive."

Uncle Mike with our nephew James (check out his hair!)