Carrot Raisin Quick Bread - Bread Baking Challenge Week 3

The Last 10 days have been pretty busy. Between my brother's 21st birthday, my sister visiting from Las Vegas, multiple family gatherings, a bachelorette party, visiting with my good friend Michelle while she was in town for the weekend and getting a little much needed hair cut I unsurprisingly ran out of time to bake until today. With the whirlwind week I had a quick bread was definitely in order.

This weeks bread: Carrot Raisin Quick Bread. I found the carrot raisin bread recipe I decided to make at cookingbread.com.


Although it is called carrot bread the predominate flavors in this bread are the cinnamon, raisins and nuts. Which is not a bad thing in my book. The orange of the shredded carrots looks so pretty against the light brown of the bread.

The longest part of this recipe was peeling and shredding the carrots. Other than that it took less than 15 minutes to get the batter ready and have it in the oven to bake. It took about 60 minutes for our loaf to bake and the recipe said it would take 50-55 minutes.

This recipe is written very short and to the point. I like recipes that give me a little background information about the recipe. This one did not include anything extra, but the recipe itself is written well and is pretty easy to understand. I am not always very good about following recipes ingredient for ingredient. I did manage to follow this recipe ingredient for ingredient but I can see many ways that I can add or substitute ingredients.

The batter can be made into loaves or muffins. Quick bread by nature aren't always the most versatile of breads because the number of ways to serve them are limited. Carrot Raisin Muffin? Yum. Carrot Raisin Bread grilled cheese? No thanks! Either way Luke, Madeline and I all give this bread a thumbs up I plan to make this recipe again with the addition of some of my normal additions and substitutions.

Flavor: 4
Hands on time: 5
Total time: 4
Recipe: 3
Versatility: 3
Make it again: 5
Mommy Score: 1
Daddy Score: 1
Maddy Score: 1
Total Score: 27

Coming up next week: Pita Bread

5 Little Things - The Week in review

The last 10 days has been crazy around the Evolving Mommy house. Here are 5 little things that kept me so busy in the last 10 days in 12 words or less.

1. My sister visited and we spent every second possible with her.

2. Kyle is 21! Don't worry Kyle I drank too much too.


3. Family gatherings galore. Which means lots of cooking and lots of eating.

4. Michelle came to Colorado. Yea for girl time!
5. Andrea, the bachelorette, got a night out on the town.

So there are a few of the things that kept me moving the week. I'm tired. Now that we spent the entire day getting caught up on regular life (i.e. cleaning, laundry, cooking, groceries and the gym) I plan to return back to my natural hermit like state in the week to come. Although I like productive days I think I like my Sunday's a bit more lazy.

How was your week? Busy? Slow? Just right?

Alright Moms, How Do You Pamper Yourself?

Don't be too jealous but I'm also a lucky lady because I got to spend an evening with the ladies of Mile High Mama's and Mom it Forward Colorado for some pampering last week at Sephora in Boulder. Yay for #gnopamper! Yay for Haircuts! Yay for getting out of the house and feeling pretty!

Okay now it's your turn...spill the beans!

Potato Bread - Bread Baking Challenge Week 2

When Luke and I met he was a big time potato bread fan and it was pretty much his go to bread of choice. I have always been a wheat bread fan. Over time my bread preferences won out and Luke's love of potato bread was replaced by his love of wheat bread.

For the second week of the bread challenge decided it was about time that I made my first loaf of potato bread. This was actually my first go round with straight white bread. Despite my urges to substitute some whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour I followed my rules and stuck to my chosen potato bread recipe. The recipe this week is King Arthur Flour's Potato Bread.Our thoughts:

Coming out of the oven these loaves were beautiful and they smelled amazing. The house was filled with a sweet doughy scent. The tops of my loaves browned a bit too much so I had to cover the loaves for the last 10-15 minutes they were in the oven. When I first cut into our first loaf I was very pleased at how easy it was to slice into perfect slices. Luke and I both agree that this bread was a little too sweet but it was nicely balanced between dense and light and fluffy.

This recipe some time to make and took about 45 minutes of hands on time. The recipe called for a double rise. The first rise took place in the refrigerator over night, for about 16 hours. The second rise was supposed to take about 4 hours but ended up taking the better part of a day. After the final rise the bread baked for 45 minutes. From start to finish, this potato bread took more than 24 hours to make, due to the length of both the first and second rises.

The ingredients are very simple, inexpensive and most likely in an average kitchen. The instructions were easy to follow. The recipe said it would make 3 loaves but the amount of dough was better suited to making two larger loaves than three.

Knowing that potato bread was going to be this weeks bread I planned grilled cheese and soup for one of our dinners. The potato bread grilled up beautifully. For sandwiches the bread sliced very nicely. And this potato bread made for great breakfast toast as well. I think this recipe is pretty versatile.

So will we make it again? Maybe. Although this bread was very tasty and sliced so great it did take quite a bit of time to prepare. I was a little put off by the amount of time this loaf took but once the smell of the bread baking filled the house my feelings started to change.This recipe is not complicated at all and the only downside I can come up with is the length of time it took to make from start to finish.

Flavor: 5
Hands on time: 3
Total time: 1
Recipe: 5
Versatility: 4
Make it again: 3
Mommy Score: 0
Daddy Score: 1
Maddy Score: 1
Total: 23
(*How a recipe is scored)

No Matter How Old He Gets, He's Still the Baby.

This is my little brother, Kyle. What a cute little clown he was. Well this adorable little clown grew into

this adorable little boy. I used to tell him that when he grew up all the girls would love him because he was so cute. He definitely did not grow out of that cuteness. Actually, he grew into it...

Kyle is the third, the youngest, the baby. He is a good brother, son, uncle, grandson, nephew and friend. My brother is smart. His love for his family is felt completely. I love having a brother that doesn't shy away from hugging me and is most often the one to initiate a hug. Somehow Kyle has managed to survive two crazy older sisters. Sometimes by standing back acting normal and watching the crazy unfold,

and sometimes by joining in.


I know I don't say it enough but I love my brother and I am thankful for him. I am so grateful that Maddy has Kyle to call uncle because he is an example of "one of the good guys," a good guy that is willing to help his family and friends in any way he can, a good guy that works hard and lives honestly and a good guy that feels and shows love freely.

I hope that even when I tease him relentlessly, like big sisters sometimes do, he knows that he is loved and appreciated. Because honestly I have one seriously cool little brother.

Happy 21st birthday Kyle James!
We love you!

Now enough of all the freaking mushy crap, tomorrow we parrr-tay! And by parrr-tay I mean I plan to get your reasonably* drunk and make you shake your groove thang** with your sisters at some random*** bar or club.

*Puking sucks and I would rather not have you throw up on my carpets later in the night.
**Photographic evidence of such booty shaking may be collected for future use.
***Yes, we have no idea where we are going yet, but we.are.going.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Pancakes - Monday Yumday

Oh my goodness I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Oh my goodness I love pancakes.

Hmmm. Peanut Butter and Jelly Pancakes. Brrr-illiant!

These little delights are fluffy, with the perfect amount of peanut buttery goodness. Add a little strawberry goodness on top and you have a dead-on match for peanut butter and jelly. Try it, your kids will thank you.


Peanut Butter and Jelly Pancakes
makes about 12 4-inch pancakes

Ingredients

Strawberry "jelly" sauce
2 1/2 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/4 water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Peanut Butter Pancake Mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 cup peanut butter

In medium sauce pan stir together strawberries, water, 2 tablespoons sugar and lemon juice. Heat over medium-high heat stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes or until strawberries are very soft and liquid is thickened.

While strawberry sauce cooks mix flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

In a large bowl mix egg, milk, oil and peanut butter until smooth. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture and whisk just until flour is incorporated.

Heat griddle to medium high heat. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup scoop and pour pancake batter onto heated griddle. Pancakes are ready to flip when the edges begin to set and the bottoms begin to turn a light golden brown.


Serve pancakes warm topped with warm strawberry sauce. Enjoy!

Other Evolving Mommy recipes you might enjoy:

• Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes
• Baked Apple Cranberry Pancakes
  
• Whole Wheat Waffles and Blueberry Compote
  

5 little Things I Love About Lazy Sundays

1. Sleeping in.

2. Getting to leave the pile of diapers to be washed tomorrow, and taking the day off from laundry. I know that pile will be there for me tomorrow morning, but for today I'm laundry free.

3. There is plenty of time to read the paper and drink my coffee.

4. Making a mess of my dinning room table with my painting supplies, and leaving the mess there all day to work on things as I feel like it.

5. Spending the entire day in my pajamas and slippers.

Hope your Sunday was just as nice!

Focaccia - Bread Baking Challenge Week 1

It is the first week of my 2010 Bread baking Challenge and I decided to kick everything off with Focaccia. There are a couple of reasons for this choice, 1) I had all of the ingredients on hand, 2) I had never made focaccia before and 3) I thought it would be a nice complement to the pasta dinner we had planned for this week.

What is Focaccia? For those of you that do not know focaccia is an Italian flat bread. A very tasty Italian flat bread. For the challenge I decided to use the Focaccia recipe from Betty Crocker's Cookbook.

Our thoughts:

The bread was very soft. The Parmesan on top gave the loaves a very pretty golden brown color. Initially I felt like the finished product could have used a little more salt, but Luke thought it was perfect as is. We served the bread in wedges with a small plate of olive oil, salt and pepper. In my opinion eating the bread with the olive oil salt and pepper took away the need to have more salt in the dough.


This recipe took less than 30 minutes of hands on time. The recipe called for a double rise that totaling about 1 hour, although I made it on a cool day so it may have taken a bit longer than the recipe called for based on the temperature in my kitchen. After the final rise the bread bakes for 15-20. Our loaves were in the oven for about 17 minutes. So all in all making this focaccia took about 2 hours from start to finish.

Each ingredient in the Betty Crocker Cookbook's Focaccia recipe was in my cupboards. I love it when I can make a recipe without having to run to the store. The instructions were very easy to follow, making this a friendly recipe for beginners. Baking your own focaccia does not require any special baking tools or pans, if you have a bowl, a couple cookie sheets or pizza pans and your hands you will do just fine.

Although we enjoyed eating focaccia I am not sure it is the most versatile of bread loaves, although the recipe states that it can also make bread sticks. It was a great addition to our pasta dinner and could potentially be made into a great sandwich by cutting the loaf in half, but I am having trouble thinking of many other ways to serve it besides as a side or a special sandwich.

So will we make it again? Definitely. Maddy ate almost a 1/3 of a loaf by herself, she loved it. Luke and I both spent half our meal talking about how much we like the bread and the next day Luke reported that he was very happy to have some focaccia in his lunch box to accompany his lunch of leftover pasta. The only downside is that the members of the Evolving Mommy household will still need sandwich bread for each week so focaccia will be more of a special treat than a weekly bread.

Flavor: 4
Hands on time: 4
Total time: 4
Recipe: 4
Versatility: 3
Make it again: 5
Mommy Score: 1
Daddy Score: 1
Maddy Score: 1
Total: 28
(*How a recipe is scored)

Next weeks challenge bread: Potato Bread

Focaccia - From Betty Crocker's Cookbook

2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary or 1 tablespoon dried rosemary leaves crumbled
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package regular or quick active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup very warm water (120 to 130 degrees)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup grates Parmesan cheese

Mix 1 cup of the flour, the rosemary, sugar, salt, and yeast in large bowl. Add tablespoons of oil and the warm water. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough remaining flour until dough is soft and leaves sides of bowl.

Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead 5-8 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy. Place dough in large bowl greased with shortening, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until almost double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.

Grease 2 cookie sheets or 12-inch pizza pans with small amount of oil.

Gently push fist into dough to deflate. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a flattened 10-inch round on cookie sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap lightly sprayed with cooking spray and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until double.

Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Gently make depressions about 2 inches apart in dough with fingers. Carefully brush dough with 2 tablespoons olive oil; sprinkle with cheese. bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cool.

Bread Baking Challenge, Rules and Scoring

Rules?

Scoring?

Yes, I am taking this seriously.

Because of my personality I need some structure, especially if I want to succeed at this little challenge I have given myself. The rules are fairly simple.

• I must follow my chosen recipe to the letter. This means no substitutions or changes.
• Each recipe that I report on must be a recipe I have never made before. This doesn't mean I can't make whole wheat sandwich loaves as part of the challenge, only that I try a new recipe instead of an old favorite.
• I must share my honest opinion of each recipe with you. I like successes but if or when there are failures, they will be shared too.
  

Since I also want to help take some of the scariness out of bread baking I think there should be a little more to my reports about each recipe than "It was good. We liked it" or "Nope we aren't big fans of this." So in each weeks bread report will be a recipe report card or sorts.

The hope for the recipe report card is to help keep track of all the recipes we will be trying this year and to, more importantly, keep track of how worthy each recipe is of making again. I will be scoring each recipe based on several different categories and assigning a total score to each new bread we make.

Here are the categories and each categories scoring break down:


Senses: (1 point for each)

• flavor and taste
  
• texture
  
• smell
• look
• size

This category will be scored based solely on our opinions of the flavor, texture, small, look and size of each loaf. If a loaf has a nice flavor, texture, smell and look to it as well as a size fit for serving my family at least a meal than the recipe will score a 5 in this category.

Required hands on time: (5 points)

• 0-15 minutes (5 points)
  
• 15-30 minutes (4 points)
  
• 30-45 minutes (3 points)
  
• 45 minutes-1 hour (2 points)
  
• 1 hour or more (1 points)
  

The less hands on time a recipe requires the more points it receives in this.

Total time from start to finish: (5 points)

• 1 hour or less (5 points)
  
• 1 hour- 2 hours (4 points)
  
• 2 hours- 3 hours (3 points)
  
• 3 hours-4hours (2 points)
  
• 4 or more hours (1 points)

The less time a recipe takes from start to finish the more points it receives in this category.

Recipe: (1 point for each)

• Instructions are clearly written
  
• Recipe is easy to follow
  
• Recipe uses common household ingredients
• Gives additional information about the bread in question
• Recipe could be modified if needed.
  

Versatility: (5 points)

• Is the loaf a one-trick-pony or can the recipe be used or served in different ways.
  

Likelihood of making it again: (5 points)

• How likely are we to make the recipe again on scale of 1-5 (5 is definitely, 3 is maybe, 1 is no)

Individual Seals of Approval: (3 points total)

• Each Family member can give, or withhold, 1 point to the recipe based solely on their opinion.
  

Total Possible Score For Each Weeks Recipe: 33

Let the baking, eating, and scoring begin!

My Darling Demon, *cough*, I Mean Daughter

I am livid.

Positively fuming.


Let me set the scene for you.

Picture a Mother and her toddler daughter getting home from a morning out and about. After asking what the toddler would like for lunch the mother sets out to prepare the toddlers requested meal, strawberries and cottage cheese. When the lunch is fully prepared and placed on the child's tray the girl informs her mother that she doesn't want to eat.

So the stupid mother leaves tray sitting on the counter to give her daughter a few more minutes to play and runs to the restroom. After being absent from the kitchen for less than a minute the mother returns to find that her darling demon child has taken the tray of food off the counter, dumped all the food off the tray, dumped the cottage cheese onto the floor and then spread the cottage cheese with her hands around the floor like finger paint.

For those of you who are thinking spilling the food all over the floor was an accident I would like to take this opportunity to say, there is no freaking way this is an accident. No.Freaking.Way.

Here is how I know. Last night she asked for a snack while I was making dinner. So I handed her a banana and turned back to the stove to give the meat sauce a stir and when I turned back to her half the banana had been pulverized and thrown to the floor at my darling daughter's feet.

Two Days ago her cereal bowl mysteriously ended up upside down on the kitchen floor. Actually it isn't a mystery at all since I watched her take the bowl in her hands and toss it over the side of her tray.

Or how about last week when instead of eating her corn bread muffin she smashed it into a gazillion crumbs and then tried to brush them from her tray onto the floor.

Or...

Are you beginning to see where I am coming from?

We have tried timeouts.

We've tried reasoning with her.

Ignoring it, didn't work.

Telling her how sad or angry it made us made no difference to her.

Taking her food away can only work for so long because eventually I have to feed the kid.

She even got moved from the dinning table with us back into the kitchen so she isn't sitting directly over the dining room carpet, which although she hates has not done a thing to curb the behavior.

We have praised her good behavior, but positively reinforcing her behavior after meals without freak-outs has done very little.

But, Catherine, she's only two, blah blah blah, yada yada yada. Whether two or twelve this behavior doesn't fly in my house.

Someone please help me survive two, because if this lasts much longer I am going to need a trip to a psych ward. I don't like the mess but the thing I cannot handle is the waste. Wasting food and Catherine do not go well together and she is pushing me to my limits.

I need suggestions for dealing with this issue. Yes, she is a toddler and toddlers are tough but there must be a way to get her to stop destroying food and destroying my kitchen in the process instead of eating.

Quick and Easy Corn Bread Muffins - Monday Yumday

Corn bread muffins are a great way to add a yummy side dish to almost every meal. I love to make soups and stews and it is almost guaranteed that I'll make corn bread muffins as a hearty and delicious side dish. Luke is an eater and there is no way just a bowl of soup would fill him up or be considered a meal on its own, but the addition of a couple (or four) corn bread muffins to his bowl(s) of soup makes him a happy camper.

Besides the fact that this recipe is quick and easy it is very inexpensive and most likely won't require you to buy much, if anything, extra to make it because the ingredients are pretty basic. The addition of corn to the batter breaks up the mealy texture that some corn breads have and adds a great fresh corn flavor to each muffin.


Quick and Easy Corn Bread Muffins

1 cup Corn meal
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup frozen or canned corn
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

Mix corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium sized bowl. Add corn, milk, vegetable oil and egg to corn meal mixture and mix thoroughly.

Divide batter evenly between muffin all twelve muffin cups. Bake for about 15 minutes or until muffins are lightly golden on top.

Serve warm. Best served with a little butter and a drizzle of honey.

A Challenge

Are you hungry?

I hope so because there are some yummy things to look forward to from Evolving Mommy in 2010.

I like to cook. Am I a good cook? Well, mostly I would say that I am blessed to have a husband that gladly eats anything I put in front of him, but sometimes we hit recipe gold in the Evolving Mommy house and I love to share it with you.

Because really, what good is gold if you can't show it off? What does this have to do with the year to come? Well, you can definitely expect to continue to see Monday Yumday, in your readers, and inboxes.

On top of Monday Yumday, there is going to be a new recipe feature in town. Every week we, the Evolving Mommy Family, will be trying a new bread recipe each week. I have been making my family's bread for close to two years. In that time I have found my way into a bread baking rut. But why stay in that rut?

2010 is hopefully a year of forcing myself out of my comfort zones and this is no different. We are not picky, I have just become lazy making the same few bread over and over because of ingredients, time and previous knowledge of the recipe.


Why not flood our house with dozens of new recipes, techniques, flavors, and textures? Why not think of bread as more than part of a sandwich, toast, or as a side for a bowl of pasta? Why not challenge myself with bread?


Since these will be new recipes to us we'll be sharing our thoughts about the each one from the taste, to the amount of work it took to the things I learned while baking it. Not a typical bloggers approach to recipes or typical recipe posts I know. Yet I also know that baking bread can be pretty intimidating and I am hoping that watching me stumble my way through a wide variety of breads from quick breads and yeast breads, to flat breads and rolls, will help inspire you to get in the kitchen and bake up some bread of your own.


So are there any breads that you think I should take on in the next 51 weeks? I have been building a list but I would love to hear your suggestions too.


Let the baking begin!

Sometimes You Just Need a Little Dough

Cookie dough, that is.

And today, cookie dough was my lunch.


Actually there is more to it than that. I made cookie dough specifically to eat if for lunch. Somewhere my mom is frowning and my dad is feeling proud, but don't worry mom I left the raw egg out because I had no intention taking my dough anywhere near the oven. I am not sure Luke would be surprised by this behavior but I am also pretty sure that he would give me a big eye roll followed by the "raised eyebrow look," which around here means "Are you sure, Catherine, really?"

For me about 12 days of every month are spent feeling overly tired and zombie like and about 8 days of every month are spent obsessing over sweets, mostly of the chocolate and baked good categories. Thank goodness my 12 days of involuntary exhaustion and 8 days of irrepressible need for goodies overlap, otherwise I would be pretty much the worse person in the world to live with or even be around really. I also don't suffer from debilitating cramps, or overly crazy mood swings (I think), so I guess I don't fair any worse than anyone else.

Today is one of those days where the exhaustion and cravings were strong so for most of the day I just tried to keep up with Maddy and Boo. When the girls went down for nap I gave into my raging hormone fueled craving and made a small batch of chocolate chip cookie dough with the soul intention of eating it straight from the mixing bowl. I sound like a pregnant woman don't I? I'm not, don't get any silly ideas in your head.

I just needed some sugary sweetness in my life. It really was a small batch and would have made about 8 cookies if cookies were the intention, and even then I only ate about a third of it and threw the rest out. A waste? Yes, but keeping the rest was asking for trouble. Although suddenly I am reminded of certain Sex and the City episode where Miranda eats chocolate cake from her trash can.

Don't worry I won't do anything like that. I think.

Someone better send a candy bar this way to get my mind off of cookie dough.

It Might Be a New Year but I Am Still The Evolving Mommy

It's 2010. Only just barely though, and I am already having trouble with trying to put too many zeros in 2010.

So happy 20010 or 2010, whichever you prefer.

I am not exactly sure what to ask for from this new year. I have put a lot of thought into what I would like this year to hold for me but my thoughts haven't really organized themselves around any certain sets of goals or priorities. Actually lately my brain can't seem to organize itself around anything more than sleeping, eating and reading, but that is beside the point.

It is interesting that the new year signifies a new start for so many people but so far just a few days in 2010 feels a lot like 2009. It's like birthdays, no one ever magically feels older or any different than they did the day before.

Am I way into new years resolutions? No, not really. But I do like to set goals to keep myself moving forward so it only seems fitting to set out some goals at the start of each year.

To help get my brain into gear I looked at my goals for 2009 and not to sound cocky, I did a pretty good job on them, although I couldn't remember what any of them where until after I pulled up last years post. So really, I think we are safe in saying that it was luck and safe goal choosing that helped me succeed and probably not total focus and dedication.

I like succeeding and I consider 3 out of 5 success. You may see that as only a 60% but I see it as a 60%! So I figure why not stick to that safe matrix while putting together my goals for the coming year?

I have been feeling pretty motivated when it comes to gym time lately and I am really hoping to keep that up. Luke, has already shared his opinion that I need to set a fitness goal to keep myself interested and working towards something. A fitness goal?!

Since "keep working out" is probably too broad I have been thinking about running. I'm not much of a runner but I think this year I want to try to run a race. Race is about as much detail as I want to go into because I'm not sure if that means a 5k, a half marathon, or racing a toddler around the block at this point.

I finished up 2009 getting to meet some fun women/bloggers and I would like to meet more of you this year. Maybe at a Mile High Mama's Night Out event, BlogHer '10 or maybe Bloggy Bootcamp. Maybe. Airfare may get in the way of most things but maybe if you all spread the word that I have ad space just waiting to be filled over to the right at very reasonable rates---> this goal could be fulfilled. If all else fails we could always meet up for coffee.

My third and most important goal is to remember that my evolution is not complete. 2009 gave me chances to learn and grow that I never expected and while I can't guess at what opportunities 2010 will hold I can try to focus on taking advantage of every one of them. I am not the same Evolving Mommy that I was a year ago but I am most definitely still a work in progress.

I still am, and always will be, The Evolving Mommy.

Are these goals doable? I hope so. What are you hoping to get out of 2010?

5 Little Things I learned in 2009

2009 taught me a lot of lessons. A lot. Some of them less glamorous than others, but before I can look forward to the year to come I think it is a good idea to take a quick look back.

5 little things I learned in 2009...

• Comfort zones are only good if you can force yourself out of them every now and again.
  
• Sometimes having a little fun needs to be a higher priority on my list even if it means taking an impromptu vacation or staying up way too late.
  
• Even a 2 year old has lessons to teach. Often times lessons of love but also patience.
• It is okay to want to be a hermit sometimes. I still love our friends but home is a wonderful place to be, especially with Maddy and Luke.
  
• On the other hand Me Time is a necessity, especially if I want to keep my sanity. Me Time is usually best spent in shoe stores, coffee shops, or book stores.

And as a little bonus...

• Negativity doesn't stand a chance when you bully it into submission.