Back to the Grind

I've had the last week off.  They call it Mid-Winter Break and while I would rather get out of school earlier at the end of the year, I needed the week off.  I kept busy doing some cleaning and sewing and watching Curling at the Olympics.  I still don't know exactly how curling works, but I want some of those Norewegian men's curling pants.

Photo from msnbc

My Valentine- My Daddy

Every year for Valentine's Day my Daddy sends me flowers.  This year he sent me an orchid.  It's really beautiful.  I hope I can keep it alive.  Thanks Daddy for remembering me at Valentine's Day.

Valentine Cookies

Today I was home from work, I'm calling it a mental health day.  So I made Valentine Cookies.
This is my Mom's favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe:
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 Cup butter
1 Cup of Oil
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla

5 Cups Flour

1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Soda
1 tsp Cream of Tartar


Cream the first column of ingredients until fluffy, then mix in the flour, salt, soda, and cream of tartar. Chill the dough for 1-2 hours. Roll out and cut out shapes of your choice. Bake for 6-7 minutes at 350. The cookies will not brown, so don’t over bake!

I usually make my favorite frosting, but I needed the frosting to set enough to be packaged for my primary kids - so I decided to try an icing.  I've never really iced before, so it was a little messy but it was okay.  I got the recipe for the icing here: http://www.ourbestbites.com/

To disguize my messyness I decided to drizzle some icing across the hearts and then some sprinkles. 

While I was baking, icing, watching some NASCAR, the doorbell rang.  The UPS guy left me a package.  Inside was this:

An orchid, sent to me by the Millers!  Thanks!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I started this book yesterday morning before church and finished it last night before I went to bed.  I don't remember where I got the recommendation, but I loved it.  The book is told through letters and paints a portrait of post-WWII life in Britain, particularly in the Channel Islands which were occupied by Germany during most of the war.  While the story is fictional the historian in me loved the accurate picture of life during and after WWII.  I was drawn into the story through the letters - I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it any other way.  I highly recommend this book!

What I'm watching today - My Favorite Movie

My favoritest movie in the entire world is The Third Man.  It was released in 1949 and it's about post-WWII Vienna.  Joseph Cotton and Orson Wells are in the movie and it was written by Graham Greene.  It's a classic Film Noir and has zither music in it.  I owe my love of Classic movies to lots of people, but probably the one person who influenced my interest in spy novels, non Nancy Drew mysteries, Beowulf, and classic and foreign films the most was my favorite high school English Teacher Mr. Robert Reuss.  I had Mr. Reuss for two semesters and one summer school session.  We had to read three outside books in order to qualify for an A.  We couldn't just read any book, we had to read books written by an author on the approved list.  The range was wide - I read Les Miserable, Murder on the Orient Express, the Winds of War, lots of John LeCarre, Graham Greene, and many many more!  Mr. Reuss opened my literature world in an entirely different way than anyone before.  He showed the Third Man in class and I was hooked.  I loved seeing it each time I had his class and every time I could catch it on the classic movie channels.  Thanks Mr. Royce!

What I'm looking forward to this week

Watching my favorite NASCAR driver - WIN!!!!

Go Kyle!