The Earth has music for those who listen

Dear hearts,

I was looking at my phone and lately I have been capturing 2 types of pictures: progress inside the new house (from before to after moments, painting, taking off the floor, setting together the furniture...) or pictures of nature (be it sunsets, a sunrise stolen away from a moment off work, a rush to get to the bus-station and looking up I would see the branches of the trees towering up to reach the sky... you name it!). I think of how time passes us by and we feel the world rushing quicker and quicker... to what we do not know. I sometimes wonder how many people still stop to look at a flower or smile to a child?...

I wonder how life would be if we would learn each day to fall in love again and again to the small little things that we do not even pay attention. Some days ago I woke up and barely got out of bed. It was around 6 and I fell in love with the warm water in the shower, as it helped me wake up and open my eyes more to the things surrounding me. I went out to the place where my friend was supposed to pick me to work and I looked at the crossroad, in the intersection, at a lonely tree across the dark-blue sky... then I looked around and I saw all the trees, with their branches reaching toward the sky, like in a prayer. Then I thought... what are they if not the cities lungs, the lungs that give our lungs air, that help us breathe, that help us live. And I was thankful...

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, "This is what it is to be happy.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

“We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence.” ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

Have you stopped today and fell in love with a small thing? What was it? I would love to hear your little love story :) And if you havent, then why did you not? did you stop yourself from feeling and thrown yourself into a world of sorrow and repetitive work? are we so close to transforming ourself into little robots? Find the things that make you fall in love and do it again and again :)

Yours truly,

A LadyBug that tries to fall in love daily :)

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Who doesnt love a good oatmeal cookie

Whenever I make cookies they are always the classic chocolate chip cookies and never made from scratch. Ive never really challenged myself enough to make something other than that. But, this time I thought I would try something different. As I searched through my cook book, Nestle Toll House Three Books In One, ignoring the chocolate chip cookie recipes, I stumbled across an Oatmeal Sotchies recipe. They have a fairly large amount of ingredients compared to the chocolate chip cookies, such as 1 teaspoon grated peel of 1 orange, 3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats, 1 2/3 cups TOLL HOUSE butterscotch flavored morsels (109).

Another difference I saw with making cookies that were not just chocolate chip and werent from a box is that they also called for mixing things a certain way. For example, you have to "beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixing bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture" (109). As you can tell, unlike box cookies, you have to separately mix everything.

One last thing I noticed that was different from box cookies is that the directions for the Oatmeal Scotchies even told you how big to make each cookie "drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets" (109). With this, I was able to successfully make a cookie that isnt too small, which I had normally ended up doing before this.

What I learned with making cookies that were home-made and not just traditional chocolate chip, is patience. While making the cookies, it took a surprising amount of time. I had to separately mix and beat everything separate than at the very end mix it altogether. But after words it was worth it because I noticed the cookies tasted better putting in that extra effort.

Question: Do you normally home-make your cookies or just use box mix?

Citation: Nestle. Toll House 3 Books In 1. N.p.: Nestle USA, inc, 2010. Print

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