Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, 7 Months, and More!

Hello World

This month has been quite busy. Fall has finally come and while it is my favorite time of the year it is also an important time for preparation. From preparing for the incoming holidays to preparing for mother nature's worse, there is a lot to do. I have been able to make time to make some oatmeal raisin and some chocolate chip cookies. Plus my little one reached 7 months this month, and there is so much I have learned.

In the past almost 2 years of living where I live I've learned that being stocked on food, water, and wood; is the most important thing. We've lost power and the wood stove is all we had to keep warm. It

does the job sure, but imagine if we weren't prepared. Also when we lose power the water stops running, so bottles water is a good thing to have on hand as well. As for food we just need a lot of dried pasta, beans, and canned veggies. Obviously now I need to have baby food stocked as well. We get meat packs from the butcher and throw those in the freezer and if we lose power for too long we may pack the freezers with snow. Overall, we have pretty much mastered the whole surviving without power thing. We also have been decorating the house, the shelf over the sink is looking the best so far.

With all of the preparation, I didn't have as much of a chance to bake as I would have liked, but I did

[Left] Chocolate Chip [Right] Oatmeal Raisin

get to make a couple different types of cookies. I made oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip. Both came out fantastic. The oatmeal raisin cookies were chewy and delicious. They also didn't last longer than 48 hours. You can find the recipe here. While it doesn't call for it I added some pumpkin spice to them and it was amazing. Be ready for all of the pumpkin next month. I also made some fantastic chocolate chip cookies. They were some simple cookies and they came out really great. It was also nice that they didn't burn, which has been a common problem for me with chocolate chip cookies. Here is the recipe. My fiance really enjoyed them and he is a chocolate chip cookie connoisseur, so do with that information what you will.

A big thing that happened this month was that Cora reached 7 months. It's still insane to me that I'm a parent and I spend every second worrying if I'm making the right choices. My mom told me that a big

part of parenting is worrying and that is how you know you are a good parent. A big thing I was worried about was whether or not Cora was meeting the milestones that I was getting from the doctor's office. I had to take a step back and remind myself, and sometimes you may have to remind yourself, that every child is different. Not every child is going to meet every milestone at exactly the same time. I have seen parents drive themselves crazy because their child wasn't exactly at the point that all of their friends' kids were at that age. It's not worth it. I'm happy that at the moment Cora can hold herself up if you place her in a seated position, but she still struggles with getting there herself. She also has finally figured out how to get cheerios from her tray to her mouth, which is adorable to watch. I can't believe that she is over half a year old. It feels like only yesterday she was a tiny newborn in my arms.

My schedule is about to get very hectic. I'm going to be baking and cooking a lot. As well as shopping. A lot of shopping. I also have a few blog ideas bouncing around my head that I'm trying to figure out the best ways to do them. I hope everyone had a fantastic Mabon. I spent mine decorating for the fall and wishing I had a pumpkin to make pumpkin cookies. That is number one on my shopping list for next month, of course, it's October.

Thank you so much for reading!