That title is a doozy, right? Like you probably read it and rolled your eyes a little? I roll my eyes at myself all the time. I’m always baking and thinking and oversharing. So here I am as usual!

I’ll alternate a baked good with a thought. So you aren’t totally bored with one or the other. Let’s start with the cupcakes I mentioned in this post. They were for my niece’s Ghost Spider-themed birthday party. I made strabwerry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream. And just like for Mordecai’s most recent party, I made ridiculous cupcake toppers.

Thought #1: Coffee filters make a difference. I know. Deep thought. We typically use Melitta brown coffee filters and love ’em. We ran out and I went to the store to grab more but couldn’t find them. So, I grabbed white cone filters that fit our coffee maker. For like a week straight, I kept telling Jimmy that something was off with the coffee each morning. It just wasn’t good. We finally figured out it was the filters! We switched back to brown and our coffee tastes good again.

I made Jimmy an American flag cake for his birthday. He loves watching this one YouTube channel and the logo is an American flag, so Sadie voted we had that as a “theme” for his birthday. She is very into everyone having a themed birthday and it’s so cute. I told her I want a book birthday party where everyone goes to the book store and picks out a book and reads quietly. Swoon. Anyways, for the cake, I did vanilla with vanilla buttercream and berries on top. Simple pimple!

Thought #2: I sometimes get a bug called get-my-life-in-order-itis. It’s true. It happens every few months. I suddenly remember I’m an adult and then I try and do things adults do. This week I swapped out my summer and winter clothes and went through what I no longer wore so it can be donated. I also ordered a fire blanket and LifeVac. Next I need to go to the DMV to get my drivers licenese photo updated and order Niva her flea and heartworm preventative.

American Flag pies for Memorial Day weekend! I love making these. I use my favorite pie crust recipe found here.

Thought #3: Jimmy and I don’t wear wedding rings. Is this weird? We didn’t think about it until a visitor was at our church and asked if we were married. He was confused because we didn’t have rings on and had two kids together, lol. We explained that we’ve been married almost ten years and that Sadie lost Jimmy’s ring a few years ago and I bake too often to keep mine on. We’ve talked about wearing silicone ones or even getting a band tattooed on our fingers. I should probably do something!

I had some leftover crust and pie filling after making the American Flag pies, so I made little pop-tarts!

Thought #4: We found a seasonal allergy supplement that works. Jimmy struggles with allergies each spring. Like bad! He doesn’t love taking Flonase/Claritin/Zyrtec and how it makes him feel, so I did some research and found a natural supplement that he feels really works for him. We’ve bought it twice now and he’s feeling pretty good this allergy season!

Hello blueberry muffins! Blueberries were on sale this week so I had to make some muffins.

Thought #5: I go back and forth between reading physical books and my kindle. I go through spurts where I’ll use my kindle and then I’ll get sick of it and miss the feel of a book in my hands. I think I’ll always prefer physical books, but it’s always nice to have the kindle on hand. I just finished The Love Hypothesis and it was cute! I wouldn’t have picked it up on my own, but my neighbor gave it to me so I gave it a shot and liked it!

Challah! I made this on Memorial Day and it was so hot outside that I let the bread rise outside. It came out really well so I’m going to attribute it to the warm weather 😊

Thought #6: 10/10 don’t recommend taking three beings you are responsible for to the vet. Niva was due for her vaccines this afternoon so I brought the kids with me to her appointment and we walked there. The walk was fine (but the picture below is kinda funny) but being in the office with a bunch of other dogs and managing two kids and my own dog was wild haha. I was wiped out after that!

Strawberry rhubarb pie. I’ve been seeing rhubarb at the grocery store lately soo this had to happen. With a cute little lattice crust!

Thought #7: I’m enjoying studying the book of Esther. I’m reading Esther in my Bible and doing a study by Daily Grace Co. Some things that popped up for me this time (I learn something new every time I study the Bible, no matter how many times I’ve read it before):

–>Esther is the only person in the book of Esther to have two names. Esther was her Persian name and Hadassah was her Jewish name. She had to decide which identity to embrace: the one of the empire or the one of God’s Kingdom. Was she going to trust the King of Persia with her life or the God of Isreal?

–>Esther was remarkably brave and her bravery is an imperfect example of another who approached the King on behalf of God’s covenant people: Jesus. The difference? Esther was reluctant but Jesus was willing, even to the point of death on a cross.

–>We should consider where God has placed us and with courage, stand up for what is right. In that same vein, even our refusal to participate can’t stop God’s plans.

I am surprisingly out of pictures of things I’ve baked lately, so here are my last few thoughts!

Thought #8: Mordecai is sick again. Our little buddy has been struggling with a 103 fever for the past couple of days and it is so hard to get medicine in his system. He’s at the age where he has had enough ear infections to know what a medicine syringe looks like and knows he doesn’t like it. Right now, he just has a fever so we’re only trying to give him ibuprofen, not antibiotics… but how do you explain that to an 18 month old? You don’t. You come up with weird ways to get them to take medicine at 1:00 am. Like taking a little medicine dosage cup and putting a kids straw in it 🤣

Thought #9: I kind of like steak? I grew up not liking steak. Or beef. Or most meat, really. I’ve even said I prefer a grilled mushroom to a steak. Now I’d say I’ll have a grilled mushroom and a grilled steak. It wasn’t until the past few months that I got into it and whoa… I get it! I like steak! This is good because my hemoglobin (and all the things the go along with it like hematocrit, MCHC, etc.) is low again. Womp womp. I went to the doctor for something totally unrelated to my iron levels and she ran blood work and was like whoa girl.. you’re anemic as all get out. I was totally thinking I wouldn’t be because I’m not pregnant and I’ve been eating steak weekly for the past few months. So we’re looking into that. I don’t know where the iron in my body goes 🤷🏼‍♀️

Those are all my thoughts and what I’ve been baking. Felt good to get that all out! If you’ve stuck with me this whole post, you deserve some baked goods 😜

Tell me things you’ve been thinking about lately!