~Sunday Afternoon Sweetness~

What do you do on a Sunday afternoon when the whole 

family is quietly napping and some much, much, much needed

rain is falling on the roof?

Bake some soft sugar cookies of course! :-)

Soft Sugar Cookies

makes about 3 dozen

3/4 butter, softened

3 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375°.

Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugars.

Add egg and extract.

Blend flour, baking powder and salt.

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and combine until soft dough forms.

Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutter.

Bake at 375° for 10 minutes on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Frosting

for 3 dozen cookies

1/6 cup butter, softened

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1/8 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

food coloring

Combine all ingredients and mix until smooth.

I often like to sandwich the delicious frosting in between the cookies.

This makes it easy to package up some cookies to give to friends.

Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop

Share Your Cup

~bull calf~

Well, we have a calf at our house. 

It's the baby calf we saw at my in law's ranch last month.

Rosie, the momma, didn't make it and my in laws found the little baby this past weekend

without it's momma and not doing very well at all.

It doesn't look much bigger than it did a month ago.

My in laws do not live full time at the ranch

so they asked us if we would keep it at our place,

bottle feed it and try to help him survive.

They brought him over to our house on Tuesday

and I fully didn't expect it to live until we got home 

from our vacation last night.

But, so far so good.

He's alert, standing, eating some, drinking

and pooping. :-)

We're going to do our best,

and I hope he makes it.

Because, of course, I am already totally in love.

Linked to Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop #117 

Back from the Beach!

We're home from a trip to 

one of the most beautiful beaches in the world!

Can you guess?

We were in Destin, on Florida's Emerald Coast! :-)

I'm a beach lovin' girl and I've been to lots of beautiful beaches -

Waikiki, Malibu, South Padre, and Miami to name a few,

but Miramar Beach at Destin has become my favorite.

The only beach I've been to that tops it is Cancun.

But as far as beaches in the United States go, I officially love Destin the most! :-) 

It was SO beautiful and we had perfect weather.

The water was swimming pool clear and just the right temperature.

The sugar sand was so white and pretty, and amazingly cool.

There was very little seaweed and NO jellyfish! ;-)

My kiddos both love the water and have declared Destin 

one of their top favorite vacations we've ever taken as well!

We got to spend three whole days at the beach and that was just about right

for Mr. H. and my son, but my daughter and I could have easily stayed a week. :-)

We stayed in a little house that was just a short walk to the beach.

It had wood floors, a screened in porch, and lots of wicker furniture.

I thought it was so charming! 

Wish I could have stayed forever! :-)

Linked to Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop #117

Ice Cream in a Bag!

This one's all over pinterest. 

And it really works!

First, take a sandwich sized baggie.

Place inside -

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup half and half

Seal tightly.

Next, take a gallon sized baggie.

Place inside -

ice cubes until about halfway filled

1/2 cup rock salt

Place your small baggie inside your large baggie.

Seal tightly.

Then you, 

Shake!

Shake!

Shake!

And shake some more.

For five minutes.

Then take your small bag out and rinse it under cold 

water to get the salt water off.

Open your bag, pour your ice cream in a bowl

and dig in!

Tasty summertime fun!

Linked to From the Farm Blog Hop #41 

Farmgirl Friday #116 

Flubber!

My niece and nephew are staying with us this week 

and we've been having lots of fun.

Today we made some homemade flubber.

I had never made it before so as we were stirring it up

I kept telling them if it was a flop, 

we'd just make some homemade play dough. ;-)

But it wasn't a flop!

It was so easy and really cool.

This is what you need -

3/4 cup cold water

1 cup of glue

(I emptied several partly used bottles in our craft closet, 

plus some craft glue I had on hand.  We had just enough to make a cup!)

food coloring

1/2 cup hot water

1 teaspoon borax

In one bowl combine the glue, cold water and food coloring.

In another bowl combine the hot water and the borax until the borax is dissolved.

Then add the hot water mixture

to the cold water mixture.

Stir!

It will immediately start coming together.

There will be some liquid left over and that's okay.

My niece, 9 1/2 years old, played with it for about 30 minutes. 

My nephew, 6 years old, was fascinated for almost an hour 

before he left the table and he's kept coming back to it throughout the day.

Even the bigger kids at my house have had some fun with it. ;-)

Linked to Share Your Cup Thursday #64 

From the Farm Blog Hop #41 

Farm Girl Friday #116 

{TH} read :-)

I'm linking up this week with the all new

at The Simple Woman -

where we share what we are reading 

and what we are crafting.

This week I am reading, Thinking in Pictures - My Life with Autism

by Temple Grandin

I'm crafting a knitted cowl

to match a knitted cap.

Link up what your reading and crafting at {TH} read! 

Menu Plan

Supper Menus

July 7th-13th

Sunday

homemade pizza

Monday
mexican frito salad 

Tuesday
fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, dinner rolls

Wednesday

tacos, spanish rice, refried beans, tortilla chips, picante sauce, guacamole

Thursday

hamburgers, french fries, baked beans

Friday

leftovers

Saturday

out of town

Linked to Menu Plan Monday