Springtime sunshine

Bright sunshine, blue skies.

Walking with friends.

Stopping to climb trees, roll down the hill in the spring grass.
(How would my kids survive without friends?  who would teach them how to climb trees?)

Sharing snacks and hugs as we say goodbye.

Kids napping after the exertion.

Pretty much the perfect way to spend a day.

yogurt cheese, anyone?

This is a bit of a convoluted story.  Sorry.  :)

I wanted to make sugar cookies.  Hubby's really only likes sugar cookies if they are frosted and he really likes cream cheese frosting the best.  I had no cream cheese.  I had just seen a recipe for making yogurt cheese that turns out the consistency of cream cheese, yet with the benefits of the probiotics.  So, I began.  I was sold.

You start with regular, plain yogurt.  This is the tutorial I used. And here is the final result.

So, instead of taking 20 minutes to run to the store for a brick of cream cheese, I waited for 3 hours while the whey dripped out of my yogurt to make yogurt cheese.......so that I could make frosting.  Yes, slightly backwards thinking, I admit.

You know what, though?  I couldn't even tell that the frosting for my deliciously sugary sugar cookies was made with yogurt.  (Hubby said he could, but he came back for more cookies, so it must not have been too bad.)  And, we all got some healthy stuff in our gut for my venture.  Too fun!

Now, to use this whey that I have sitting here, begging for some grains to sprout.......

And this is what I'm going to make for Bible study in the morning to use up the rest of that yummy yogurt cheese.  Goodness, I love fruit.

On the mend

The lovely flu is what it was.  Each of the big girls had fevers off an on for 4-5 days.  Not Fun!  Fortunately, the youngest had it for a day and moved right on.  The plus side to all of this?  We got lots of snuggles!  One great thing about breastfeeding a toddler is that you don't have to worry about them so much when they are sick.  Since E still nurses, the bulk of the day of fever was spent curled up on me nursing off and on when she wanted.  It is so very cozy and so very reassuring to feel like I can do something tangible when she is sick. Poor thing!

We are still recovering.  Amazing how much it takes out of you. 

We have done a couple fun projects around here that I will be showing ASAP!