Lavender Cookies

For Christmas one of my coworkers gifted me with a lovely bag of dried lavender buds.  I have always wanted to make Lavender Cookies, but around here, we've got to have more manly cookies.  There are three boys here after all.  I'm totally and completely outnumbered (though now that I have the 6 ladies peeping in the brooder, things are evening out just a little bit!).  Lavender cookies do sound a little bit girly after all, but I just loved the thought of using something that smells so wonderful in a cookie. 

This bag of dried buds offered me the opportunity to try them!  I thought a spring cookie with lavender would be a nice idea to share with my coworkers.  We are an office of all women.  I only work in the office one day a week, but thought it would be a nice treat for all of us on my next day on location.

They smelled utterly delicioso baking.  One of my coworkers has a sensitivity to vanilla extract, so I thought a nice spring flavor would be lemon, so I added lemon juice in place of the vanilla extract.  They are very light and airy, not too sweet and a really delightful touch of spring.  I had one with a nice glass of ice tea, and plan on having another with my hot tea at work tomorrow.  If you're looking for a light and airy tea cookie, give this recipe a try.  They taste like lavender smells!  Enjoy!

(oh, and for the record, all three guys gobbled them up with an OH, these are AWESOME!...not so girly after all!)

Lavender Tea Cookie

1/2 cup butter (use the real deal, this cookie deserves it)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or lemon juice which make a great flavor addition)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried lavender flowers, crushed
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  In medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3.  Beat in eggs, vanilla or lemon juice and lavender and mix well.
4.  Combine flour and baking powder and add to lavender mixture, stirring until well blended
5.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet
6.  Bake 7-9 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges.
7.  Cook on baking sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to cooling rack.
8.  When cool, glaze with mixture of powdered sugar and milk, mixed until smooth or sprinkle with colored sugar or lavender sugar.

Makes about 3 dozen

Spring is Springing!

Hello Everyone,

Thanks to everyone for the kind and encouraging words for us due to my hubby's yet again unemployed status.  I've finally got things in perspective...we were not hit by a tsunami or earthquake where our entire lives are leveled and family is gone.  Music Man was laid off again, yes, but he's an amazing and talented man and will find something else again.  There's a tremendous amount of age discrimination (though no one admits this) in the job hunting market right now, so it's not on his side, but he'll do it...he always does.  This month he celebrates his 50th birthday (Happy Birthday, Sweets!) and things in the job market become a whole lot harder when that's the case...I read it actually starts at 40 now.  Apparently, employers want "fresh" and "young" ideas.  Experience counts for something, but the college degree counts more (even if it's in something like Elizabethan poetry, as long as you've got that degree, mister).  He's currently working on his degree, but at 50, you can't exactly reinvent your entire career, so it's a struggle sometimes.  We're getting our bearings and reassessing our situation and seeing what the next step is. I'm trying very hard to talk myself out of any freaking out sessions I allow myself to delve into.  It's not helpful or useful to anyone to allow that, so I'm trying.  I'm not always successful, and they will usually pop me into wakefulness when I'm sleeping and then I'll lie awake trying to talk myself out of it, then become more and more tired as this happens night after night...you see the vicious cycle that begins, right?  It's very unproductive and stress inducing, so I'm working on this all the time.  Trying to just be and allow that it is what it is right now.

In the meantime, spring has sprung around our neck of the woods.  It was quite lovely here yesterday with temperatures in the 50's, and we've had so much snow melt in the last two weeks that...yes, I know you're all dying to know this...we did get water in the basement.  But, after one long, awake night of bailing with buckets and shop vac'ing continuously, we managed to discover what the problem areas were and how to solve a good bit of it.  Two sump pumps humming and we're doing fine now.  PHEW!  After last springs horror show of a literal river in the basement for 3 solid months in the old house,  we'll take one night of bailing and two sump pumps that actually solve most of the problem in a heartbeat.  Doable, definitely doable.

Yesterday, Music Man and I sat outside in the Adirondack chairs, feeling the sun warming our skin back to life.  We planned the future sites of the garden and chicken coop. We'll be getting our chickens sometime next month and so need to have the coop up and running soon.  I'm hoping to salvage a lot of the materials for this project at our local "still good" shed at the landfill.  I'm also keeping my eyes open for any construction dumpsters around to get what I can from those as well...waste not, want not.  Certainly my treasure will be someone else's trash, and that's okay by me.  My goal is to have the chickens be a not so costly adventure for us and salvaging is a great way to NOT make a dent in that chicken budget.  And, they'll be paying for themselves once they start laying for us in about 24 weeks or so.

So, spring planning is in full force around here. It's good for the soul.  I know we'll get more snow at some point, but watching Music Man and Maestro playing catch in our back field yesterday did my heart some good.  And hey, the boys are loving having Daddy home with them more again, they don't see the bad in this lay off at all.

Hoping Spring is springing for you, too, ~Peacemom

Laundry Time

I was hanging the clothes on the line in a wonderful breath of fresh air yesterday. I have been taking full advantage of our lovely 55 degree temps and breeze to save some energy and money by not using the dryer. I realize what I'm about to tell you is revealing something deeply disturbing to some people...but, that's okay with me.

I love hanging clothes on the line. In fact, when we signed our lease, I wrote in the stipulation that I wanted to put up a clothesline here (along with a garden, both of which the landlord approved...gotta love rural living!). At our condo, we were not allowed to have a clothesline, it was written in the bylaws...how stupid. And I love the scent that line dried clothes have- fresh, clean and sunny- and the stiffness and roughness that drying without chemical dryer sheets affords.

There are so many great things about the art of hanging clothes. First of all, the time it takes to perform this chore. It makes the pace of life automatically slower for that moment. Really, there's no way to rush through hanging clothes out. It takes as much time as it takes, and that's that. In this time, which invariably includes sunshine and warm weather to enjoy (not many household chores afford that luxury!)-- I think. I spend a lot of the household chore time thinking, pondering, working things out. Today, it prompted me to consider the sacredness of this chore. It gives me time to be alone, inside my thoughts-silence if you will. For a Quaker, there is divine in silence, and with the three men in my life that are constant chatter boxes, I don't get enough silent time. I crave and revere it, in fact. In silence, the opportunity to hear God's message for me is available, there isn't all that other noise to clutter up receiving it, and I am able to speak to Him without distractions.

I'm able to take a moment and just breathe, to listen to the birds (which I was thrilled to discover were around in full force!), to feel the sun on my skin and feel the refreshing thrill of spring. All the while, performing the methodical task of removing clothes from the basket, shaking the wrinkles out and pinning to the line. It's a tangible reward, this chore. To go from a full basket of wet clothes, to an empty basket and a full line, then when dry on a full line and empty basket back to a full basket and empty line when removed. Tangible feeling of accomplishment for me, and I do appreciate the reward of that.

I also feel the sacredness of caring for my family in that moment. It gives me a chance to really see the clothes. A loose button here, a rip in a seam there, I'm given the opportunity to see what repairs my family's clothes may need. When stuffing into the washer, to removing to dryer, I don't see the clothes as well, don't analyze their appearance the way the slower method of hanging to dry allows me. My hands are on each piece individually as I carefully pin them to the line, so my sense of responsibility to my family is right there in my cold, damp fingers.

I know, I'm in the crazy minority of people in our lovely country who would actually enjoy such things. I'm very aware that my desire to keep my life at a slower pace is in direct contrast to most Americans. I don't have any wish to cram as much as possible in my days to fall into bed exhausted and, what for me, would be unfulfilled at the end of my days. I'm always looking for ways to slow it down, to make it more sacred, to honor my time and job as a mother and homemaker. Yes, I make a home for my family, that's no small accomplishment. To be responsible for the health, cleanliness, nourishment and well being of three souls beyond myself every moment of every day. That is sacred, that is valuable, and that is where part of my heart lies. I feel good at the end of a day, like today, when I've cleaned the bathrooms, washed the clothes and come in from taking them off the line to the smell of bread baking that will nourish my family, and know that I made a difference to them today.

Wishing you your own moments of sacredness, ~Peacemom