Ability to

There are few things we love more then the freedom that owning our own businesses give us. Casey has a large block of open time before us, and my work schedule is light through the week. Which brought us to the past Monday morning, sitting around the breakfast table, I wanted to go for a ride, Casey has always wanted to go to Shiner. So we packed a lunch, gased the car, loaded the iPod and cameras and DS into the backseat with the kiddo.

And we just went.

We drove through some of the most beautiful country I have ever laid eyes on. Country that makes me lust for land, for the ability to grow and raise what we want on that land. Lust for space and small towns and simple life.

With all this vast open range in front of us, the idea of subdivisions and crammed cities and metros just left a bad taste in my mouth. But for the day, this one day, we were out. We arrived in Shiner Mecca, set out our picnic, took pictures and talked and toured the perfect example of a small business keeping all its employees and making money in the current economy.

As we drove home through farmland listening to the Ting Tings I happily thought,

Life is Really Good.

SlumberDay

Last night we were all up late. Late airport trip, late night TV, late dinner for Casey, late to bed when it is closer to morning then night.

Late in Bed, time together, tangled sheets and pillows, fans blowing, night vision... but then a sharp headache, that worried me, so I stood by ready to help if needed. Worried.

Enter a lazy morning, where the time on the clock is minutes from a double digit. Time in Pj's with soft light, closed curtains, small bird cheeps from the nest outside our window. We rise, wake Alex with belly rubs and back scratches. Make breakfast and biscuits. Explain comedy that is not quite low enough for him to get.

Then we return to bed because the pups want to snuggle in the sheets. The flannel and cotton promise cool coverage. He slumbers. I rise. Putter around, but keep returning to the bed to rest and doze and touch an elbow or side. Bury my face into Archie's fur, roll into Casey arms, laugh with Alex over his comedy.

Rise again, while he sleeps wrapped in green, and the boy stands next to me asking me how to make his armpit fart. Our SlumberDay.

Wild Archie

We DVR'd all the new Discovery Channels Wild Pacific shows. It's not just Alex and I who like to watch them.



He will sit for the entire hour watching the TV like this.

Just slap it on your ass and say Dessert is served.

I made you something today my friends. It is moist and airy and creamy and yummy and soft. And it is an original Nicole recipe.

Banana Cake with Sex Frosting

Be prepared to love this, and eat it, and frost your body with the icing for your someone special to lick. Seriously, who knew banana cake could be so sexy? Okay here goes with the how to:

Banana Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 stick room temperature butter, REAL butter
• 1 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3 medium bananas that are REALLY ripe, mushed
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla ( I use vanilla paste, which is fantabulous!)*
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt

The Making:

1. Cream together the room temperature butter and the sugars. Mine came out crumbly, but very soft to the touch.
2. Add in the eggs, banana mush and vanilla. Beat until well incorporated.
3. Combine in a separate bowl the flour, baking soda and salt.
4. Add to the wet mix in small batches, beating till combined in between. ( I personally, just dumped it all in at once, but that was only because I did it on accident).
5. Poor into a 13x9 cake pan that is sprayed with Non stick bake spray.
6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Really you need to test it to see if a tooth pick comes out clean. So your time may vary.
7. Cool completely before frosting, I know this is the hard part, but you don't want this frosting to melt. Trust me on this step.

The Sex Frosting**

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. room temperature Cream Cheese. MUST be room temp!
• 1 stick room temperature butter, once again real butter.
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar ( I just eyeballed half a bag, if not a little less)
• 1 TBSP Vanilla
• 1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream ( Milk is not a substitute in this recipe, because you want this to WHIP up).

The Making:

1. Cream together the Cream Cheese and Butter.
2. Add the Vanilla, beat together.
3. Add the powdered sugar, beat till incorporated, scrapping the sides of the bowl every once in a while. You don't want to end up with caked on walls of sugar. Ewww.
4. While beating on high speed, add the Heavy Whipping cream in small batches, till you have the consistency you want. I let mine whip away on high speed for a minute or two. You want lots of air in the icing. But don't over whip or else it will start to firm up.
5. Apply to cool cake or body parts.

Seriously folks, my goal with the icing was to make a Cream Cheese Whipped Cream. And this is IT! The icing is amazingly light with a subtle taste. I wanted to avoid the standard Cream Cheese icing that you could spackle a wall with. Just a small warning, you will have HUGE amounts of icing, meaning you could easily ice a two layer cake and still be able to lick the bowl.

Enjoy!

* I buy my Vanilla Bean Paste from William Sonoma. And then I add it to everything I can.

** Okay, so I didn't set out to make a sex filled recipe, but ummm, licking this icing off my fingers and my cake fork was great. Plus any icing that can make Cream Cheese sexy is on my top 10 list. This is probably in my top 3.

I do declare it's a no Zombie Toy Day.

The beginnings of dinner: carrots, zucchini, crock neck squash, asparagus, and snap peas.

Yesterday at 5:05pm, I declared it a No Zombie toy 24 hour period, meaning we were not allowed to watch TV ( zombie inducing), play any video games ( including the DS and Wii), or play on the computer( except for an hour this morning for me to get work done, and a couple of 5 minute snatches to check emails) till 5:05pm tonight.

All tossed in a tablespoon of olive oil and herbs de Provence.

It went over surprisingly well, there were no tears or angry words or pouts, just a question of what shall we ever do?

Our veggies were paired with a small brisket sandwich and an hour of cajoling for him to finish.

So we made a very yummy and filling dinner, set up the ipod to fill our ears, we started laundry that had been languishing, cleaned up rooms, ordered the kitchen and watched the thunderstorm as it rolled in and brought some much needed rain.

The bowl of melon was huge, the boy was cute and the game was oh so fun.

After dinner and the rain, we headed to the library because it was open late last night. We filled our bag with books, came home and challenged each other to Guess Who while we ate up some watermelon.

This mornings fill, Bolthouse farms Mocha Cappuccino and Ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread.

I find myself up early this morning because I had to fill the pool before the pool guys come to repair a leak we have. But I wouldn't have been up if not for a small bout of insomnia last night, which luckily had me up when the power went out in the entire subdivision. I climbed out of bed at 1am, peered down the dark street that was flooded with full moon light, fetched my cell, set an alarm, and drifted off to the sleep while listening for the fan to come back on, a sure sign that power had returned. But instead I woke before my alarm, dragged the trash to the curb, made something to fill my belly, and find myself here while waiting for Alex to wake.