Rainy Days + Cream Cheese Danishes

Happy Friday, Y'all! I don't know about you but I am *definitely* ready for the weekend. Especially because I am headed to Nashville this evening to spend 48 hours with my big brother and his wife! 

This week, didn't get to do too many school lessons due to a LOT of illness (bronchitis + fevers, double boo!); but we enjoyed coloring hearts for Valentine's Day and the down time that we had together.  

In between the coloring and many books read, the kids were able to play together surprisingly well this week. Like, extreme laughter and silly inside jokes, going back and forth between their bedrooms playing with dolls and Legos. But A LOT of time also looked like this: 

Thursday night I was feeling ansy and as everyone in Kentucky is, VERY sick of the rain. I have a hard enough time finding inspiration and motivation in the winter months here, so 90% of the time my inspiration comes through baking. We made homemade Cream Cheese Danishes with Pillsbury crescent rolls and guys, they are SO good. 

And Thursday night we had some friends over from our new church and it was amazing to have some ADULT time. Ha! Asa made his homemade chicken tikka masala, we shared stories, and stayed up way past our bedtime. This week the kids have really struggled with staying asleep (more so than usual) which is to be expected with their terrible coughs and fevers, but I am feeling way more wiped than usual. Anyone else just REALLY ready for some down time this weekend!? 

PS: In Nashville, I am photographing the next gal for my Beloved Woman series and I am so excited!! Stay tuned! 

Fridays + Donuts

Since I've sat down to write this, I've seriously been up and down the stairs eleven times. And yes, I counted. Reese is having some sort of nap regression with me staying home; some say she's super excited about being with Mommy more, I think she just hates me. This last time I went up, it's because I heard a super loud THUD; don't worry, it wasn't her falling from the bed, it was her putting her new Bitty Baby cradle IN to her bed, so that it can take up half the room lying next to her. [I've told her since Santa brought it, she cannot sleep with the cradle IN the bed, it can lie on the floor NEXT to her bed.] Well, by opening our monitor on my phone, I see that she's finally ASLEEP with said cradle next to her head, and I am NOT opening that door to move it. 

Lord help me. 

Okay, so shew! It's FRIDAY! And I've had a whopping three days at home alone with the kids. Yesterday we got two inches of snow so that meant the schools were closed (laughing so hard), but I suppose it's for the best; there were 120 accidents in the morning during regular commute! This city and snow just don't mix. But that also meant a day off with my husband and we thoroughly enjoyed the day: sledding, hot chocolate, a trip to Target, watching the snow fall outside; I'll do a whole blog post soon but not now. I'd like to hurry up and finish this so that I can go shower and MAYBE lie down for a few minutes before the children are awake again! 

Browsing Instagram this week I quickly stopped scrolling when I came to a picture posted by Kristen (@oldjoy). She had a gorgeous photo of donuts and a link to her blog post. I had to check it out because 1. I love to bake and 2. donuts are my jam. 

Because today is Friday, and I wanted to celebrate surviving my first (half) week (more laughing) doing this whole stay at home mom thing; the kids and I made donuts. I asked their previous sitter [a dear friend of mine] and her 1-year old to join us, and that was really fun to spend some adult time while the kids semi-played together. 

I made the frosting for these first, and I literally just replicated Kristen's recipe: 

1. melt 2 TBS butter
2. mix 1.5c of powdered sugar and the melted butter
3. add milk slowly, 1TBS at at time (she used 4, I ended up using 5)
 
And for the donuts, I used a simple Pilsbury cake mix (strawberry) that literally just needs to be poured into a bowl and beat on medium speed with 3 eggs and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. 

The kids helped (oh yes, helped is such a kind word here) and were very anxious for the donuts to be done cooking and cooling so we could cover them with icing. (Once they're completely cooled, just flip the donut upside down and dip in the icing mixture.) We added sprinkles to ours and they turned out super cute. 

Next time I think I'll add vanilla or something to the icing mixture? It was good, but for my personal preference tasted a little too much like plain sugar. OH, and I should mention that I used a simple donut maker pan (purchased from Amazon) to make these cuties. Anyway, time to run! I'm super excited for this time I have with these rugrats (my friend's 1-year old Jadon is pictured above, he is the sweetest human ever); and I also so glad that it's FRIDAY and we all get a weekend with Daddy. Cheers, friends! Happy donut making and TGIF!