Biking!

When the kids are getting too busy indoors, it is time to take them outside. The weather was great today.

And, finally, it was time for the next phase in Little Lady's life, or to say it better, her legs were long enough:

She can stand with her feet flat on the ground with Little Man's walking bicycle.











There she goes..... Tiny steps, trying to keep her
balance...

Little Man speeding along on his own bicycle, and Rover walking along with us.

They are growing up so fast, but this is going to be fun. Two kids on wheels!

Cats are a Mystery

Really, I absolutely do not understand them. They have been fighting three nights in a row, and yesterday evening they were laying on the couch like this. Mies has been with us for three months now, and well, it is getting a bit frustrating because she won't come downstairs on her own anymore, and some days she won't eat at all.

So this sight is a pleasant surprise. I really do hope that they will come to a point that they will tolerate eachother. I just do not know what the problem is. She is so afraid of him, she still growls and hisses at him. And he goes after her.

They are both lovely and cuddly cats, and I really really do hope that we will see this more often...

Lactosefree Cooking: Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies! I bought the real US creamy kind of peanut butter a while ago, but it stood in the cupboard unused. It was time to do something with it! I already found the recipe, and this is so easy to make! I am making this post to help out my fellow Europeans, since the original recipe gives all amounts in cups.

You'll need:
100 grams of sugar
110 grams of brown sugar
113 grams of plant based margarine
150 grams of flour
130 grams of peanut butter
1 egg
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Method

1 Beat the butter until creamy, 2 minutes. Add the sugars, beat for 2 more minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and egg. Mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the sugar butter mixture.
2 Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

3 Preheat oven to 375°F (or 190 degrees Celsius). Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls (or 3 cms). Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. Bake until light brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for a minute; transfer to rack to cool completely.

You can make the balls immediately, but I would recommend putting the dough into the refridgerator for a while. It is such a sticky mixture, and you need it to be cool to make the balls for the cookies.

Hmmmm. They are so delicious! Keep them stored in a box, and they will stay nice.
Have fun baking them!

Autumn and Cozy

The blankets are getting used again... They are so nice and comfy, warm and cuddly. I love them. The kids as well as you can see. They crawl underneath it, play ghost and hide-and-seek and just drop it to do something else. I really like it that they are loving the blankets.

I am still working on the practice pattern for the double crochet. I was able to go to the local fabric store and got a tiny piece of the stuff I needed. They are still waiting on an order, so I got a bit with a lot of discount. I am hoping to have it finished on Wednesday or Thursday!

Since it was raining and raining yesterday afternoon, I pulled the play tent out of the closet. The kids absolutely were thrilled and they amused themselves for quite a bit with crawling after eachother through and around the tent.

And the rain also made me decide it was the Best Time to bake cookies. Peanut butter cookies to be precise. They are absolutely delicious! I will post the recipe with metric amounts and a lactose free twist in a bit. *And here it is!*

Big Man has left the house for a week for a course abroad, so I gave him a box full of cookies to enjoy. This means also that I am home alone for a whole working week, which is a bit stressy, but hopefully it'll be going great. I also hope to sneak in some crafty time every evening. I need to finish stuff!

I "Own" A Day

This is "my" day.

A colleague of mine has started a photo project two years ago, taking daily pictures of sunrise and sunset. With this pictures she intended to raise money for the education of Tibetan refugee children and her goal is to get the funds needed to educate a full class (30 children) for a whole year.

I cannot explain it better than in her own words:

I’ve always been inspired by 365-days projects. I love the idea of performing a daily task. There’s something very appealing about the discipline it takes. A simple idea, but not so simple to execute. I also believe it’s even greater to combine such a daily project with fundraising, like Sheena Matheiken did with her awesome Uniform Project. I fell completely in love with the whole concept and it was very clear I wanted to start a similar fundraising photo project.
Since I have a thing for Tibet, the country, its people and its culture, and having seen with my own eyes what the Chinese repression means for the people who are still living in Tibet as well as for the refugees in different parts across the Himalaya, the cause was easily found. Being a teacher myself I also believe in the enormous power of education, so the cause was further defined into sending Tibetan refugee children in India to school. I found an organization in India called Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV) that does just that.

Last month, the project came online and we were invited to buy either photo's, donate or "own a day".
I really love these pictures, and I've seen her taking them, so it was a matter of time to decide either to buy pictures or own a day. I decided to own one day, my birthday, and maybe in the future order the pictures.

It is for a good cause, and all raised money goes to the Tibetan Children's Villages, and hopefully these kids get great education with this money.

If you want to see the project for yourself, please go to The Dawn & Dusk Project