The Easy Chef bakes.

These are the only chocolate chip cookies I can bake successfully.

They are the Neiman Marcus cookies.  I've told you this before...but they turned our especially nice and pretty yesterday so I thought I would take pictures and share them with you again.

Now you are really part of the family....getting to hear my stories over and over.

******

Neiman Marcus Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder, slightly crushed (I use 1 teaspoon of instant coffee instead)
8 ounces chocolate chips (I use less)

Directions

1. Cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy.
2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract.
3. Combine the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Drop by large spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.
10 to 12 minutes for a crispier cookie. Makes 12 to 15 large cookies. 

I skipped the expresso powder.  They are still delicious.  

I am nothing if not loyal....these cookies are on the first page of my recipe blog...from 2004 :o)

http://mizbooshay.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_archive.html

Try them!  You'll like them!

Donna Elsie

be swift to love

When we visited Paris in 2007 my camera was about a month old.  I only had a 50mm lens on it.

I learned that with this lens...I could not get a whole lot in the picture.   We were up all night flying and arrived at our hotel at about noon.  We put our luggage away and took a bus immediately to the Eiffel Tower.  

None of us wore gym shoes.

Our biggest fear was that we would be snickered at for wearing gym shoes in the most elegant city of lights.

The fear is incredibly different now.

But I know, without a doubt, that

Paris will overcome the fears and terrors of this terrible week.

“He who contemplates the depths of Paris is seized with vertigo.

Nothing is more fantastic. Nothing is more tragic.

Nothing is more sublime.”  

~Victor Hugo

My friends, life is short, and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts

 of those who travel with us, so be swift to love and make haste to be kind.

And my the blessing of the One who made us, 

and the One who loves us, 

and the One who travels with us, 

be with you and those you love this day and always.

Amen.

~ Adapted from Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881)

Encourage one another,

Donna

bird brain

SOMETHING TOLD THE WILD GEESE

By Rachel Field



Something told the wild geese
It was time to go,
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered, "snow."


Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,
But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned, "frost."


All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice,
But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.


Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly,
Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.

My favorite :o)

Both Patrick and I have noticed the geese don't seem to be flying over and heading south yet this year.  

Do you think they know about El Nino?  Do you think they know it will be mild enough to find open water?  I'm not sure how much a bird brain ;op can know.

But it's interesting that they are hanging around.

Not my picture.

Found on Shuttur via google.

XO

Donna

Always get up.

Today is a tough day for me...because our Katie has had a big disappointment.
As of today, she is not on a club team.
Her team of three years closed down,
so she tried out for a small team that a few of her school friends played with.
(We try out for the smaller clubs because they cost 1/2 as much.)

The emails go out on Sunday night and Katie did not get an email with an offer.
Her friends got offers.

We do not know how many newcomers they had room for on the team. Maybe only two or three.

But what I do know is my girl is sad.

And I can't stand it.

She reassures me that it's going to be fine but I worry so.

I know it's important to face disappointments in life.
It builds character.

But that does not help me sleep.

Emma told me to make Katie pancakes for breakfast.
And so I did.

I think it helped both of us.





Life is tough.
But so are you.
~Kid President



First rule:  Always get up.
~Derek



Encourage one another,
Donna


UPDATE:
I just opened my mail and Katie did get an offer...it was sent yesterday at 4:05 but we did not receive it due to a email mixup!
Oh my goodness.
So happy.

surprise smooches

Here are some twinkle lights to brighten your fall afternoon :o)





This silly picture is my favorite.




Emma is the Queen of goofy faces.  Did you know that?




Surprise momma kissing is the best.


I hope you have a sweet Friday filled with laughs and light and kisses.

Love
Donna Elsie

Crooked little picture

I took this picture a while ago.  I tried to straighten it but wasn't crazy about how it looked so I promptly forgot about it.

The other day I came across it and decided to try again.

I made it with poster edges in Photoshop.

The whole composition works best for me before crop. 

Here it is cropped and straightened.

The composition is not right here...I think because the shed is too much in the middle.  You lose the numbers on the red building on the right and the dramatic canopy of trees and the great tree on the left.

I love the dark outlines on the tree.

poster edges rock.

There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,

He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;

He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

XO

Donna Boo

Not a Bobby in the bunch.

Hi Friends!

Emma and I went to Omaha over the weekend to celebrate little Zeekies first birthday!
He is walking and getting into everything.  He has the bumps to prove it.
Malachi (2 1/2) is talking and says the very cutest things.
Asher is five and attends pre-school now.  He is so smart and a helpful little guy.

Smash that cake baby boy!





Breakfast with Spider-man.

Portrait of Asher

Hi honey.

No shoes.

No shirts.

Typical day.

Hope you had a fun weekend!

We sure did!!

Love and kisses,

Donna

fleeting light

“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.”

~Jim Bishop

I would be lost without the sunshine.

~donnaboucher

Encourage one another,

Donna

he. he.

I don't post a lot of things to my 'Funny' Pinterest board.
I don't know why.

I seem to love self depreciating humor the most...

This is absolutely true.

Um. This is absolutely true.

XO

Donna Elsie

The huggers.

I have always been so fond of Prince William and Prince Harry.  They are the same age as my boys and honestly Harry reminds me of my Matthew.

The little royal boys were both little soldiers.

And both became grown up military men.

William flies helicopters.

Harry has served in Afghanistan.

Now Harry's main interest is helping the veterans.

He walked with the 'Walking Wounded' group earlier in the year.

They met up again a few days ago.

Now. That a hug.  What a great hug!!!

Especially impressive since the Royals are generally hands off.

Hands clasped behind their back sorts.

Kristie Ennis gave Harry the dog tag he is holding....

I just love these pictures.

As Mr. Rogers says...

look for the helpers.

As I say...

look for the huggers.

Love

Donna

p.s.  I love Diana's outfit.  I'm sorry she can not see how wonderful her sons turned out.

Amazing group dance!!!

There hasn't been a whole lot to show about DWTS this year....the group dances are always  pretty lame.  But for some reason this team worked together perfectly and the choreography was amazing!!

I just loved it!

Happy Halloween!
Happy Harvest!
Happy Candy begging day!


*****


How I loved looking at this picture in the Chicago Tribune when I was little.

Thank you for the most wonderful comments about the photo sale.
I'm so fortunate to have such a sweet spirited, positive group of friends!!!

Love
Donna

Out of the blue.

Back in September I mentioned that I was approached by a woman representing J. Jill about one of my photos.  It was a photo that I took in 2011.  She attached the picture at the bottom of her email and asked, "Did you take this picture?"


I wrote back right away.  I was delighted that someone cared to ask if it was mine.
She must have just seen it as she was looking for images on the Internet.

The woman, let's call her Brooke so I don't have to keep writing 'the woman', said they were considering the picture for their winter catalog.  Would I be interested in licensing the image to them?  They would be putting it in roughly 2.5 million catalogs (full page) and using it on their website.

She then asked what I would charge for that.

I wrote her back and said I had no idea, that I would look check into it and get back to her.

I appreciated her professionalism.  She gave me the stats and that would help me know what to charge.

But I still didn't want to charge as much as I was seeing.  But I gave her a number I was comfortable asking.
She wrote back and said, Okay.  It's a deal.
A day later she said, what would your fee be in they made 96x40 posters of the image and put them in 250 stores.  I said.  Double it.  She said that sounds fair.

I'm not going to tell you how much.
You will say it is too little.

But as you may know....I am a terrible business woman.
I am a girl, asking a boy...
opps...
wrong script...

I am pleased with the compensation.

So, I had to fill out forms and send an invoice.  Brooke told me it would take a month before I would receive the check.

A week later she wrote and asked if I had a larger file.  Tiff or Raw.
(I know they need to a big file to create a giant enlargement)

Yikes.  No.  I shoot in Jpeg.
So I found a website that would convert from jpeg to Tiff.

I sent it to her.
She said great.


But that was the last I heard.
And so I held my breath and hoped that I had not been 'catfished'.

(Catfished is when you are tricked into believing something or someone on the Internet)

On Monday the check from J. Jill came!! It was real.
I  made my first commercial sale.  I am so excited.

From what I understand they will be writing something on the picture and using it that way.
They have permission to use it from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31.

I can not wait to see it!

You will recognize the picture.  I even did a tutorial for The Pioneer Woman on how to take a picture like this.  Isn't that neat?

Here it is as I shot it out my back door.  

(If you ever go looking for your hearts desire....)

This is the edited picture I sent them.

It looks crooked because of the snow drift.  I will be interested to see what they do about that.

I just now saturated it...made it greener.  I think I like it this way.

Fake green.  ha.  

A few things that amuse me about this whole situation.

1. It's blurry.

2. I didn't have to leave the house.

3.  

I posted this on Pinterest in 2012 because at the time I was concerned with how easy Pinterest made it for people to steal images.  They have changed it.  I was yelled at by many young girls who disagreed with me.  They felt it was their right to take it.

I was mad at them.

Serendipitous

So that's how the story goes...

Out of the blue

I sold a picture.

And it really happened.

It's been fun!

Donna Elsie 

Fall.

halloween is coming

How about a Halloween/October Hakiu?

You are all so clever....

I'll meet you in the comments.

Donna Elsie Boo

Where did the red hair come from?

 1982.

Husband.

Gosh he was happy!

XOXO

Donna Elsie

Dinner's at Six

Lindsay Letters is one of my favorite calligraphers.
Her script  is lovely and enthusiastic.
Her pieces are modern and happy and cool.


She just added all of her Christmas things to her shop.
You really must go and see!!!

Lindsay Letters

Her pieces range from hymns and Bible verses to Buddy the Elf quotes.

I noticed a quote yesterday that I liked....and then I read more of the quote at the bottom of the page.

"Tell someone you love them, and dinner's at six."

I was intrigued....

Here is the rest from Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist;

"This is what I want you to do:  I want you to tell someone you love them, and dinner's at six.
I want you to throw open your front door and welcome the people you love into the inevitable mess with hugs and laughter.

Gather the people you love around your table and feed them with love and honesty and creativity,
because there will be a day when it all falls apart.

There are things I can't change.  Not one of them.  Can't fix. Can't heal, can't put the broken pieces
back together.  But what I can do is offer myself, wholehearted and present, to walk with the people
I love through the fear and the mess.  That's all any of us can do.  That's what we're here for."

Now if only I could figure out what to cook.

I pinned a few of my favorites!!

Enjoy looking around Lindsay's website!!!


****

Ginny Potter Harper Daisy Glyman Boucher

Our pretty girl.

I held the camera down by my knee and got pictures of Ginny that look very much like her.
I think it is because she is looking at my face.
She loves her family.

We love her too.


Encourage one another,
Donna Elsie

Party in your head.

I am a great worrier... a great fretter.

But with practice, thru prayer, or meditation or meditative prayer we can catch those thoughts
and convince ourselves in a way to think differently.

I find the need for this in the middle of the night most.

I talk to myself. 
I have to take my focus from one thought pattern and 
steer it in a different direction....and put the focus somewhere else.

The first thing tho...is catching yourself.  Some would call it mindfulness.
You be the boss of what you are thinking about.



“But it was in this moment, lying in bed late at night, that I first realized that the voice in my head—the running commentary that had dominated my field of consciousness since I could remember—was kind of an a**hole.” 
~Dan Harris, 10% Happier



God is our true Friend, who always gives us the counsel and comfort we need. Our danger lies in resisting Him; so it is essential that we acquire the habit of hearkening to His voice, or keeping silence within, and listening so as to lose nothing of what He says to us. We know well enough how to keep outward silence, and to hush our spoken words, but we know little of interior silence. It consists in hushing our idle, restless, wandering imagination, in quieting the promptings of our worldly minds, and in suppressing the crowd of unprofitable thoughts which excite and disturb the soul. 
... François Fénelon



Like a Boss
Donna Elsie.

****

Carol Sue is recovering and working so hard with all of her therapies. (is that a word?)
She is breathing on her own and eating and drinking!

It has been one month today since her car accident.   What a month for her and her family.
I'm sure the worst in her life.
She is alive and going to recover!

Thank God.
Thank you for praying.

sharing a few snaps

Here is the winning team from last weekend.

This team is really cool.  They have improved a ton this season.

Coach Morgan says that this has been his favorite year of coaching and that is really special!!!

Don't you think?

The girls made these shirts as a special tribute for a teammate's  daddy who passed away this week.

They were allowed to wear them for our final two games on Thursday night.

Katie's friends came to the games to cheer her on.  So sweet!!!

Cousin Wesley and his wife Stephanie come to the games also!!

Our setter served for 21 points straight and we were afraid Katie wouldn't get in...

but she finally did.  Oh man.  

Today is the Big 8 conference tournament for Varsity. It's at our school so Katie is already at school working and I am finishing up with the Italian beef that I am bringing for the hospitality room.

Can you believe I started the beef at 10:30 last night and it is still not ready?  Yikes.  What's with that?  I've put it in the oven for a few hours...hoping it decides to get tender!!!

Last night the news was about how warm our winter MIGHT be...

this morning it was 26º.

It's beautiful and sunny so I'm not complaining!!

Have a happy weekend dear friends!  

Lots of love,

Donna

Is it Friday yet?

Katie has not felt well all week.  Every day we grapple with should she go to school?
What will she miss?  Missing volleyball...missing a funeral...missing important classes...missing, missing, missing....
Tonight is the final volleyball tournament of the year.  I made Katie go to school.

She asked to go to the Dr. office yesterday. We went.  Doc says it's a cold.

Personally...I have a feeling we will have to go back three times...and then we will be told it's mono.

Remember last year we went three times before they said....pneumonia?

I asked her if the Dr. checked her lymph nodes.  Nope.
This morning Katie said she felt something sore when she applied deodorant.

Why didn't the Dr. check her lymph nodes?

Ugh.

Don't you remember that being the first thing they would check?
Neck, Chest, Back.

Do I have to do everything?

So...I hope she can tough it out today and be well enough to play....
all the while infecting every one she meets.

*eye roll*

Life is stressful, isn't it?

Say a little prayer for my baby.  Thanks.


****

It's Melinda's birthday today!



I know the last month has been a nightmare....
I hope today you can take a breath and celebrate just a little bit.

Love you.  Mean it.


*****

Carol Sue is continuing to recover.  Each day they attempt something new; Like sitting in a chair or trying to speak with trach.  It is all very challenging.  But she is young and has the sweetest spirit and lots to live well for.  I'm praying for courage and strength and peace as she tries new things.


*****

Beautiful!

Counting blessings in the midst of it all.

Donna Elsie

The tales that really mattered.

Emma sent this amazing quote to me this morning.

I FINALLY watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

It was on TV one Sunday and I started watching and thought I would give it a chance.

I didn't actually watch ALL of it.

I watched the good parts version.

I recorded all three/four movies and then I fast forwarded thru all the battles and creepy monsters.

I could not look at the Gollum.  He was too gross for me to look at.  

I would watch him for a minute to get the gist and then I would fast forward to Sam and Frodo talking or any of the hobbits or Aragorn.

I did love the storyline of friendship so very much.

Sam: I can't carry it for you.  But I can carry you.

Read this;

“I don’t like anything here at all.” said Frodo, “step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid.”

“Yes, that’s so,” said Sam, “And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo, adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and

looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on, and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same; like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?”

“I wonder,” said Frodo, “But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.” 

A great story of friendship and sacrificial love.

Beautiful wise words about life and circumstances.

No wonder The Lord of the Rings is beloved.

Encourage one another,

Donna Elsie