Procrasti-baking

These are too fun to be the product of Stress-Baking.  
Rice Krispie Cake Batter Treats – recipe found HERE
Maybe they’re Procrastination Treats? We leave for two weeks of vacation tomorrow –- a working vacation for me, since my revision is due at the end of the month – and I’m not packed. I haven’t packed for the boys yet either.
Every time I look around our house, I can’t help but feel like they twins need All The Things. And then I look at our car and panic.
Did I mention we’ll be spending about 20 hours in that car over the next few days?
*panics*
And my head is totally in the Revision Cave and doesn’t want to stop and think about whether or not we’ve packed the boys’ sound machine or laundry detergent.
It’s such a good thing I’m married to a saint. He not only remembers these things, but also that I have library books due before we get back, the boys’ vitamin prescriptions needs to be refilled, and the memory card on the camera needs to be emptied.
AND, he went and photocopied my line edits last night. Because, let’s face it, it’s me – things just happen, and a backup copy never hurt.
So, nope, I’m changing my mind again. They’re not Stress-Baking, or Procrastination Treats, they’re Gratitude Goodies. I am so grateful his head’s on straight when mine isn’t.
***Also, I’m noticing a decidedly sugar-y theme to my posts lately – I swear I eat vegetables, too. Pinky promise***

A SWEET Winner

The wonderful thing about being at a writing retreat set in a hunting lodge in the middle of the woods is… well, almost everything. There’s great company, time and space to write, conversations that fuel creativity, discussion that challenge and stretch, and beaucoup laughter.
The downside of being at a writing retreat set at a hunting lodge in the middle of the woods was missing the Schmidlets. And, that every time someone entered my SWEET Giveaway, I had a new candy craving and no way to satisfy it.
·      Whoppers & Bottle Caps! I hadn’t thought about them in years.
·      Twix! I used to try and convince my mother those weren’t candy, but a form of granola bar.
·      Milk Duds! Delicious and a handy way to tear out fillings.
·      Licorice! I always bite the ends off Twizzlers & use them as a straw. Tasty & functional.
·      M&M’s are clearly the chocolate version of Revision Skittles – Wasabi peas are the healthy version.
·      Peanut Butter Cups! I recently heard that these can be used to make S’mores – have any of you tried this? I need to ASAP.
·      Kit Kat, Almond Joy and Heath lovers – I challenge you to try S’mores with your candies of choice too – make sure to report back to me with your results.
·      And gummy-lovers (both sour and not), you people are my tribe. Let’s all get together and ruin our teeth with chewy deliciousness.
Initially I had big fancy-pants plans about how I would choose a winner – writing all the numbers on gumballs and then filming the winning one coming out of the gumball machine.
But we don’t have a gumball machine, I’m still in my pajamas, and am quite busy making up four days of Schmidtlet-snuggles. So, I defaulted to a random number generator.
Without further ado – the winner is: Loralie! 
Rock your Revision Skittle Boombox with pride – I highly encourage recreations of the scene from Say Anything.
Thanks, everyone, for entering and stay sweet!

A SWEET Giveaway

There are a few awesome things on my desk right now.
1)   My Edit Letter! I think this makes it official. Well, MORE official. It also makes my head spin in the very best of ways.
2)   A bag of Revision Skittles  – No, I’m not sharing. I NEED these.
3)   This fabulous Revision Skittle boombox
 
      And this could be yours. Well, not this one, it’s mine.  But there’s another one downstairs still in its box that could have your name on it.
Music plays a large part in Send Me A Sign, and Revision Skittles played a large part in my writing of it – it seems only fitting that I should pair the two and give one of these away.
The boombox is made by Terracycle  – and this is their description:
“Groove greener with this portable boombox made with up to 80% recycled materials. With its 3.5mm universal plug for you can play music from your iPod, iPhone, MP3 player, laptop, or computer. Batteries not required.”
To enter – leave a comment below where you list YOUR favorite candy.
I leave tomorrow at early o’clock for the Goldblatt Agency retreat – aka Camp Barry – and let’s just say that I’m having some major separation-from-Schmidtlet anxiety. Cheer me up by entering.
I’ll leave the contest open until I get back and will draw a winner on Monday.
Good luck and stay sweet!

Someone Please Hide My Ove-Glove

 I must not make muffins. I must not make muffins. NO MUFFINS, TIFFANY.
I’m meeting my stroller posse in about an hour for our 8:30 stroll, and I really, really, really want to mix up a batch of muffins. Maybe chocolate chip. Or apple cinnamon. Or, I know, blueberry using berries from the bushes in our backyard. They’d be delicious.
But I won’t.
*sigh*
Hi, my name is Tiffany, and I’m a stress-baker. * Give me some anxiety and I will feed you food made from sugar, love and angst. But mostly sugar.
In the past month, while waiting to announce, waiting on CP notes on my WIP, and now waiting on my edit letter I have made: 3 coffee cakes, 1 peanut butter pie, 1 angel food cake, 2 batches of cinnamon buns, and 2 types of cookies. ** Then I force fed everyone around me.***
Thank goodness for baby food. Steaming, pureeing, and packing up pint-sized portions of fruits and veggies is almost as good as mixing up a batch of snickerdoodles.  I spend so much time cutting and peeling and planning baby meals that I should probably add it as a hobby on Facebook. And, I’m not going to lie, I get an absurd amount of satisfaction out of opening up my fridge and freezer and admiring all the neat rows of colorful glass containers. If the zombie apocalypse happens tomorrow, the boys will still have an ample supply of organic peaches, carrots, zucchini, acorn squash, sweet potato, avocado, pears, apples, banana, spinach, beans and peas.****

Mmmmm, stress tastes like spinach. It’s delicious!
Which will come in handy when I begin revisions and naptime becomes Sacred Writing Time instead of What Shall We Cook Today? Time.
Until then I will (try to) resist the urge to make play with sugar and butter. I will hang up my apron, stopper my vanilla and have St. Matt hide my cookie sheets.
NO MUFFINS, TIFFANY.
What do YOU do when you’re waiting? No, seriously, leave me a comment and tell you what you do – I could use some alternatives since we’ve run out of freezer space for baby food.
*St. Matt suggests I amend this to impatient-baker, but I say NO. Impatient-baker doesn’t roll off the tongue nearly so well. Some people were just not designed to wait. If God decided to include a half-dose of patience when he created me, who am I to question that?

**And for some unknown reason, my baby weight hasn’t just melted right off

***I haven’t heard any complaints.

**** Please note that in my version of the apocalypse, we still have electricity. Also note that I am not asking for the apocalypse, I’d prefer that waits until AFTER I get to see SEND ME A SIGN in bookstores.