Hello friends,

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and sadly, it is the least of my priorities.  It feels terrible to say that, because as you know, I LOVE celebrating every little thing to the max!  Let me explain….

Our family has been dealing with some big challenges over the last week.  Bullying, self-esteem issues, hormonal changes, and missed homework assignments have been some of the hurdles that we’ve been facing around here.  Truthfully, I kind of feel like taking a knee on mommy-hood for a minute or two, just to collect myself.  You guys, I had to get the school guidance counselor to come out to my car to help encourage one of my children to just go into the school this week.  Whew.  We’ll get through this!

Needless to say, until today I really hadn’t done much Valentine’s Day prep at all.  In fact, today I went to Target, and the seasonal section looked like a FEMA response zone.  While I was hoping for some snazzy cards and fun goodies, all I saw were a few other moms with the same stressed out stare in their eyes, and a bunch of bags of coffee-flavored Ferrero Rocher balls.  Those aren’t going to fly at the pre-school!

The one Valentine’s activity that we did do however, was bake our easiest cut-out cookie recipe ever, CHECK IT OUT HERE.  We have perfected this recipe to make it simple, quick, and delicious.  No fuss, very little mess, and the cookies hold their shapes very well.  Once the cookies were baked, I gave all the decorations to the kids and snuck away to catch an episode of Doctor Foster on Netflix, (might as well have been sitting on the beach if Fiji).  Oh, and incase your were wondering about the mess, I always have my kids decorate on cookie sheets so I can pour (most of) the mess right into the trash. Woohoo! In the end, I think the little ones did a super fancy job decorating the cookies.  Perfectly imperfect is definitely our vibe!

And as I sit here tonight, knowing full-and-well that tomorrow could be a little messy and sparse, part of me thinks this may be the best Valentine’s Day, yet.  Given all of the challenges we’ve faced this week, I really can’t think of a better time to remind my children that no matter what happens in their sweet little lives, they are truly loved more than they could ever know.

We hope your Valentine’s Day is full of love and sweetness.

The post My Messy Valentines appeared first on Pie Crust and Pixie Dust.

Since we are in the season of all things spooky, the kids and I took on a baking project this week with the theme of facing your fears.

Anxiety is something I know well.  Despite having a wonderful childhood, I remember having anxious thoughts as a little girl, and not understanding where they came from, or more importantly how to overcome them and move forward.  Now, as a mother of three, I can only hope my children don’t face the same anxious tendencies that plagued me for so long.  Either way, our children are growing up in a crazy world, and I want my kids to know a few tricks that took me decades to learn for overcoming anxious thinking and stress.  Had I learned these tactics as a child, it would have helped me maneuver through the stressful times in life with much more efficiency and ease.

While the idea of teaching my kids these little tactics seemed like a good idea,  I had to think of a meaningful and appropriate way to talk to them about this fairly serious topic.   So as usual, I faced the challenge in the only way I really knew how, IN THE KITCHEN.

I decided to have the kids help me make Halloween-themed vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  We used our favorite no-fail cake recipe, a frosting recipe from Martha Stewart, and tons of Wilton Halloween sprinkles for decorating.  The cake recipe we use is excellent because it is easy and versatile enough for big layered cakes, sheet cakes, trifles and of course, cupcakes.  The frosting was a breeze to make and tasted like something I would sneak to the kitchen and eat with a spoon at midnight.

As the kids were decorating their spooky cupcakes, I asked them to share with me the things they are afraid of, in hopes that it would help me passively share my tips on overcoming fear.  Their answers threw me for a bit.  Here’s how it went!

Me: “Since were are baking scary Halloween cupcakes, y’all tell me what you are afraid of?”

Molly: “Broken dolls.  Definitely broken dolls.”

Madison:  “Killer clowns, Mom.”

Brianna (friend): “I saw a zombie dog in my room one time, so I would say, zombie dog for sure.”

Me:  “Um, who needs sprinkles?”

Then I shared the the five tips to facing your fears and overcoming anxiety:

1. Take a deep breath and slow down.
2. Turn toward your worry, not away.  Often times we try to turn our minds away from the things that worry us, but that can make the looming thoughts worse.  Take just a minute to think about that worry.
3. Logical thinking.  Use your smart little minds to apply logic to the situation.  For example.  “Kids, don’t you think that if zombie dogs did exist, that we would know about them by now?  Wouldn’t we see them on tv, and find zombie dog bones in the forest?  Also, don’t you think your mom would know if you had a zombie dog living in your house, or any dog for that matter?     Wouldn’t that zombie dog go potty in your house ;)?”  See, your logical thinking can untangle your worries.
4. Get busy.  You have given yourself a few minutes to process that fear, and now it won’t bother you the same way in the future.  You faced it, you beat it, now go get busy!
5. Don’t forget that if something serious is worrying you, you should always talk openly with your parents.  

I then asked the girls what they would think of the next time they worried that there was a zombie dog living in the closet?  Their response, “zombie dog poop.”  Funny, girls.  I suppose that’s better than being afraid!

I think our conversation as a whole was memorable, and that was good enough for me.  If anything, our cupcakes were totally memorable!  The cake recipe turned out incredible, and the cream cheese frosting was perfection.  We hope you enjoy your fall baking, and beware of zombie dogs on Halloween!

Print

Easy Pound Cake Recipe

Basic Pound Cake

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 5 eggs
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions

Cake

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
• Combine sugar and butter
• Slowly beat in eggs
• Add vanilla
• Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add once combined
• Beat mixture until smooth
• Pour batter into pan
• Bake until slightly golden on top and there is "no jiggle" on top! 20-25 minutes.

Decorating

• Wait for the cakes to cool all the way down before removing them from their pans. Once removed, you can decorate and serve, or slice the rounded tops and stack the layers with your favorite frosting!

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