It's Real and It's Spectacular!

Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I noticed a huge red zit forming smack dab in the middle of my forehead.  I am 34 years-old, why do I still get zits now and then?  As I stared at the mountain growing on my face, I did what you are not supposed to do, and I tried to pop it.  The zit would not pop, instead it just kept swelling, and before I knew it my entire forehead was puffy.  I gave up, slathered on a ton of zit cream and went to bed.  When I woke up this morning I knew I'd have a trophy on my forehead.  I looked in the mirror and fortunately all of the swelling had gone down, but what was left was a perfectly round, puffy spot the size of a penny!  My husband looked at me and said, "Wow, I hadn't realized you'd made a recent stop in India."  This is the same man who has told me that my face is perfect for radio.

Now this isn't the first time I've had this happen.  About a year ago, I had a zit on my chin that looked like another human being was trying to sprout off my face.  One evening as I was getting ready to play in a women's volleyball league my husband looked at me and said, "Honey, I'm afraid your team might be disqualified tonight for having one too many players on the court."  Isn't he hilarious!  I admit that zit was the worst, in fact when I showed up at volleyball one of my friends was like, "Hi, how are you...whoa, what is that on your face?"  I replied, "It's Sally our Sub."  Needless to say, zits are not something we are proud of, we don't walk around accentuating and showing off our zits.  You never hear someone say, "Did you see her zit?  It's beautiful, I wish I had a zit like that."  or "Why couldn't I have been blessed with such a magnificent zit?  She is so lucky."  I want people speculating whether zits are real or not...can't you hear the gossip? "Nobody has a zit that perfect.  I think she's had hers done."  When it comes to my zit, I am proud to say, it is real and it's spectacular!

Zits are the pits, but unfortunately they are a part of life.  I don't want my random zit to hold me back because I'm embarrassed or mortified really that I'm still having skin problems in my thirties.  I will hold my head high, cover that zit with as much cover-up as I can and continue to live my life.  I realized a long time ago that everyone has a "zit" they are self-conscious of.  As the mother of a pre-adolescent daughter I want to teach her that a "zit" doesn't define who you are as a person.  We aren't perfect inside or out, and we have to learn to accept ourselves and each other for who we are.  Greatness comes from within and people won't remember you for the zit you had back in 2012, they'll remember you for the person that you are.

"Hope was a pathological part of puberty, like acne and surging hormones. You might sound cynical to the world, but that was just a defense mechanism, cover-up coating a zit, because it was too embarrassing to admit that in spite of the bum deals you kept getting, you hadn't completely given up."

~ Jodi Picoult

Stay tuned for my next posts: One on Blueberry Cream Cheese Tarts & another on Super Easy Cinnamon Rolls. Also next week is Lemon Week. All of my recipes will have lemon in them. Spring is near and I love lemon, slightly obsessed in fact, for a while all of my pinned recipes on Pintrest were lemon based.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been baking chocolate chip cookies ever since I can remember.  The recipe I use creates a light fluffy dough and a delicious soft cookie.   These cookies have become every one's favorite.  This is my most requested recipe and I bake these at least a few times each month.  The recipe should make five dozen cookies, but if you have little fingers in the house that tend to be drawn to cookie dough you may only end up with four and a half dozen or so.

My four-year-old helped me bake these cookies tonight and did fairly well.  He didn't insist on breaking the eggs and he didn't want to lick the batter before it was done either.  Instead he spent time making tunnels in the flour with his hand.  Yes, he was in my flour container up to his elbow.  I'm sure the baking process kills the germs, right?

He did, however, insist on assisting in the baking process.  My oven is in the wall and when I wasn't looking he turned the dial to 450 degrees!!!  The cookies were supposed to be baked at 375 for 8-10 minutes.  Needless to say my first batch turned a little brown.  Here is a picture of his brown cookies, they actually don't look too bad.  They just turned out a little hard.  The picture of my less brown cookies is below, after the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe:
1 stick softened butter
1 cup butter flavored Crisco
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
Mix well, then add
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp good vanilla
3/4 tsp water
Mix again, then add
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 1/3 cup flour
Mix well and then either add one 12 oz bag of chocolate chips or a combination of chips.  I like to mix things up since I bake them so often, so I might do half chocolate, half butterscotch or half peanut butter, half chocolate or a mixture of chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch and white.  Play with it a little.   This is how they turned out.  Enjoy!

Grab Some Inspiration From Spanx!

In an era where many women are trying to carve a niche for themselves in the business world, Sara Blakely created Spanx.  She created the empire in 2000 with $5,000 in savings, and today the business is valued at $1 billion dollars.  Why did Sara create Spanx?  Because she didn't like the way her butt looked in white pants!  I'm being serious here, she cut the bottoms off of her control top pantyhose, and found that it worked great so the idea for Spanx was born.  She started the company out of her apartment, and with a lot of hard work in spreading the world Spanx has become a fashion phenomena.  Celebrities as well as women all over the world are wearing Spanx.  Sara has even created swimwear, active wear and Spanx for men!  This woman has been inspired to design comfortable clothes for everyone and really hopes Spanx will become a lifestyle brand.  At age 41, Sara Blakely is the world's youngest self-made female billionaire.  See her in the most recent issue of Forbes Magazine or read her story at www.spanx.com.

Do you know anyone with the entrepreneurial spirit?  These are people I am fascinated by, people I seek inspiration from and people I wish I knew more about.  Their stories are amazing.  I do live in the same town as the founder of Tastefully Simple and she has quite a story as well!  Jill Blashack Strahan created Tastefully Simple with a shoestring budget in a shed!  She packed her gourmet foods on a pool table back in 1995, and today she operates a Fortune 500 company that has become a $100 million-plus enterprise with thousands of consultants nationwide.

There are many women in the world today that are truly inspirational.  I know a lot of us sit around and think, why didn't I invent that or why didn't I start that company?

If you are eager to be the next Forbes billionaire then here are some things to think about when creating your invention or idea.

1.  Think about necessity.  What are some things you wish you had or things that your life would be better if only it existed?

2.  Are there things you think others could benefit from?  Maybe it's not something you could use but you see other people struggling and you wish there was an item to make their life easier.

I really think that if you dream it and believe it, then you can achieve it!  You can't succeed if you never try!

New Blog

Please follow me on my new blog http://dessertmom.blogspot.com.  The Dessert Mom; take a delicious dive into my life as a wife, mother, entrepreneur, writer & baker.

Thank you so much!
Danae

You Can Have Your Cake & Eat It To

The word 'mother' in the dictionary is rather disappointing.  It means female parent.  Wow, that's it, really?  I think we could probably fill an entire dictionary with what it means to be a mother, but in a nutshell it means to have your heart walking around outside your body.  It also means to lay awake and wonder, why did I deserve this?  Those are the nights when your children have just completely lost their minds, and have done some of the most ridiculous things known to man.  You begin to wonder if they are possessed!  In fact you often ask, "What would possess you to draw all over the kitchen table?",  "What would possess you to cut your sister's hair?",  "What would possess you to flush an entire roll of toilet paper?" and  "What would possess you to take your dad's empty chew can to pre-school?"  Kids are messy and sticky and hilariously funny.  We have really gotten a kick out of the things that come out of their mouths and the things they have done.  And I'm sure if all of us thought about it for a moment, we'd realize that children are our own parent's revenge.  You see a grandparent gets all of the fun and none of the hassle, so that's what we have to look forward to, grand kids.

Now the word 'dessert' in the dictionary is also pretty disappointing.  I bet you wouldn't guess that the definition of dessert is cake, pie, fruit, pudding, ice cream etc. that is served after the final course of a meal.  For me dessert is more than just food, it's something you look forward to, it's something you cherish.  Dessert is a vacation, a dip in the lake, a much needed break, a massage, a stroll on the beach and a brand new magazine.  Dessert is your wedding day, your honeymoon, your precious babies and the love of your life.  I'm an ambitious, goal oriented person and I'm determined to have my cake and eat it too.  I want the guy, the house, the kids, the job, the vacation, the crazy life and the dessert.

Speaking of dessert in my next post I'll be giving out my favorite and most basic recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  My family and friends absolutely love this recipe.  My four-year-old will be helping me bake them this afternoon.  Wish me luck!  Usually, we end up with egg on the floor, flour in our hair and dough on our clothes. 

"My momma used to say, Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Forrest Gump

New Blog!

Today, I am launching my new blog, The Dessert Mom.  How did I come up with the name you ask?  I wanted to combine two of my favorite things, being a mom and baking, in one blog; so The Dessert Mom was born.  This blog will be filled with humorous stories about my life as a mom, entrepreneur, writer and baker, and it will be sprinkled with recipes for some of the tastiest treats I have found too.  Many of my fondest memories as a child were baking with my mother, aunt and grandmothers.  They always made the tastiest treats, and once I became a mom I knew I wanted my children to experience baking as well.  Baking with children is messy, it's sometimes not very sanitary and it can honestly turn into a disaster, but the fun memories are worth it all!  Now baking alone is therapy for the soul and it's very rewarding.  I love to let my creativity pour into my baking, now I'm not going to say my kids absolutely love my creative treats at times, but what do they know.  They eat candy off the ground.  Grab a cup of joe, sit back and relax and The Dessert Mom will 'try' to provide a few minutes of entertainment each week.  Thank you very much for stopping by!

I Want to be Uncomfortable

The one thing I've noticed about children is that they are resilient.  Most of them adapt easily to new situations, they try new things and they make friends very quickly.  You could drop me off at a meeting with a dozen people I've never met before and I'm going to be a bit shy.  Not kids, they will have made five friends by the end of the day, and I wouldn't have even spoken to one person. Okay that might not be entirely true, I would strike up a conversation with at least one person. 

As we age we get very comfortable with our lives, our jobs and our friends.  Which is not a bad thing, however, when we aren't challenging ourselves than we are no longer growing as individuals.  I'll be honest, I was not crazy about moving to a new state or having to make new friends.  I already had a home and I already had friends.  I was very comfortable where I was at.  Moving was hard at first but then I realized that I was just given the opportunity to learn and grow as person.  This was another adventure and I was going to make the most of it and I have.  I've only been here for less than six months, but I've meet some really great people, I've got an awesome freelance writing gig lined up for this summer and my business is growing.  I've met some very ambitious people who have inspired me to step outside of my comfort zone and live life.  I've got a lot of goals I want to accomplish in this lifetime and I'm not going to accomplish them by being comfortable.

Just for a day try something you normally wouldn't.  Talk to a new person, apply for a job you'd love to have but don't think you can get, try a crazy new recipe or chop off your hair.  It doesn't have to be big just something different, something that makes you a little bit uncomfortable.


"A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.”  Denis Waitley