PHFR - Vampire Bride edition

{pretty}

I posted this on instagram (scboyle, if you want to find me there).  Love this nude nail polish I found!  It's Revlon Gray Suede.  

The textbook is Writing With Ease, 6th grade.  Not pretty, and not my favorite, but a good exercise in narration.  We do learn some interesting things in reading the required passages.

{happy}
Mom's not really happy when there are donuts in the house, but the children are.  Somehow, don't ask, this babycakes donut maker ended up in my house.  I wanted to see if it worked, so I tried it out with the primal donuts on the right.  They're made with coconut flour, sweetened with maple syrup and very dense.  Oh, frosted with maple syrup glaze, too.  The sugar on top is what keeps us coming back for more, not the innards.
The ones on the left are Barbara's Cake Doughnuts (for her, I'll go ahead and spell doughnuts correctly.  Otherwise, it's just too long a word!)  Even though they're supposed to be deep fried, we abandoned all sense of rules and structure and baked them in the babycaker.  They cooked perfectly in, like, 3 minutes.  Buuuutttttt (but, not butt), they were dry on the outside because they weren't fried, so the cinnamon-sugar wouldn't stick.  We were forced to glaze them first, before adding more sugar!
Note to self:  Next time someone wants to make donuts, go to your room to read until they are finished, cleaned up, and put away.
Or, just say No to donut-making.
{funny}
She's funny here, but after a couple of hours of playing Vampire Bride, I was over it.  School was not getting done!
{real}

Summer might be really hot, but I've suddenly realized that it's the only time of the year when we don't have the sun constantly in our eyes!  Unless you're out only at high noon, the sun is low in the sky most of the day, and that makes lots of  blinding morning and afternoon commutes!

Hamburger Cupcakes

Meg, the Budding Blogger, has been dying to make these cupcakes disguised as hamburgers.  I finally told her she could do it as long as I didn't have to do any of the work.  She attempted to document all her steps, as any self-respecting food blogger would!

That missing cupcake is because someone went a little crazy with a sharp knife on my silicon muffin pan.  Grrrr.

Brownies that were made a day in advance, giving pickers opportunities to pick!  We had discussed making them in a 9x13 pan so there would be more, thinner, brownies, but she forgot.  Personally, I liked the thick brownie burger patty (because who doesn't like more chocolate?).

The lettuce is coconut flakes dyed green.  The ketchup and mustard are buttercream, dyed to match.  She did a great job pulling together pinks and purples to make the red.  It was a little easier, I think, to get the correct mustard color which was frighteningly accurate!

The taste was very sweet, but the textures was very much like a real, albeit slightly overcooked, crusty burger.  It was weird that it felt like a burger in your mouth, but didn't taste like one!

We all thought they were pretty awesome, but as with real hamburgers, one is usually enough.  ;-)  

Autumn Daybook

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...
Blue skies with a few puffy clouds.  It looks like a gorgeous fall day!  It was hard to get up this morning, thanks to DST.  The Sunday morning extra hour of sleep is awesome; the subsequent days not so much.

Candy Corn nails for Halloween

I am thinking...
Too much about my stupid thyroid.  My metabolism is grinding to a screeching halt; my temperature is really low, and it's really depressing.  Hair is falling out and really dry, too. Weight gain.  Ugh.  What's worse is the doctor who tested my TSH this summer and said my thyroid is functioning fine because TSH is normal.  Grrrr.  So that means there's no help without paying lots and lots of money to a doctor who does tests that are actually useful.  Call me frustrated.

I am thankful...
That our insurance hasn't changed dramatically compared with the horror stories I'm hearing and reading about.

From the school table...
It's Monday, and they're up and working hard.  Well, they're taking a break to eat pancakes right now....

In the kitchen...
Chili last night.  PW posted a chili recipe that sounded intriguing, so I combined some of her suggestions with my recipe, and managed to win the Chili Cook-off at the neighborhood Fall Festival!  Of course, the competition wasn't too stiff with only 3 entries, but still.

I used ground turkey which I almost never do, but her recipe called for chicken, and turkey is what I had.  Plus, if you're feeding the neighborhood, it's cheaper than beef.  I also added beer and 1 chipotle pepper per her suggestions, but I'd rather leave out the beer and use 2 peppers next time.  I used my regular spices in it.  Yum!

Mummy pizzas before Trick or Treating

I am wearing...
Workout clothes.  Color me Hopeful.

Not everyone can get away with this look!

What I’m doing with fiber...
Getting close to the end of Color Affection, but the rows are really long, and the main color ball is getting really little!

I am going...
Just to the dentist and after-school pickup today!  woot!

Pippo's 8.5 lbs. sorted

I am reading...
Finally finished Harry Potter last night.  I need to finish The Disappearing Spoon in the car for book club.

I am hoping and praying...
----for the souls of the faithful departed
----for Elizabeth DeHority
----for the continued recovery of Thomas Peters
----for family members

I am looking forward to...
There doesn't seem to be anything exciting on the calendar, so I'll be looking forward to those moments when I get to sit down and knit!

I am hearing on my ipod...
Since I don't have any books left on there, I can start catching up on podcasts!

Around the house...
Loads and loads of laundry since the last few days were busy.  Good thing there aren't 6 children at home anymore, or I'd be reaaaaalllly unhappy about that!

One of my favorite things...
Not.

Tracts in the Halloween candy

A few plans for the rest of the week...
I'm going to try to get a few blog posts out that have been fermenting.


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