Running With Perseverance

Getting Org-anized

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Coco

You may or may not have noticed that my url has changed from got2run4me.wordpress.com to got2run4me.com — with the help of Ryan Sullivan at WP Site Care, the move from the free WordPress.com blogging platform to the self-hosted WordPress.org platform was pretty seamless. He worked his magic while I was sleeping, and the post I had pre-written and scheduled for the morning after sailed through cyberspace without a hitch.

The one thing that was lost in the transition is subscriptions via the WordPress.com “subscribe” feature. If that’s how you were following, you will need to subscribe by email or RSS to make sure you don’t miss any posts. Those subscribe boxes are still where they always were.

Now that this blog is self-hosted, there are tons of plug-in programs and features that I will be experimenting with–hopefully I can test things out without totally screwing everything up! The first thing that I will be toying with is the comment interface. (I promise I won’t use anything with captcha!) I will be trying new comment programs over the next few weeks and really would like your feed back–since I love every single one of your comments, I want to make it as easy as possible to comment and stay engaged.

This is the basic Jetpack comment interface–what do you think?

When I use it the “Enter your comment here …” text doesn’t disappear when I type my comment, and that annoys me!

Posted in Life | Tagged Blogging | 5 Comments

My Classic Christmas Cookie Recipes

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Coco

Last weekend I participated in my fourteenth annual Christmas cookie bake-a-thon. It was an unseasonably warm day, so I wore this cute t-shirt that I got from Cafe Press last year:

We mix up the cookie selection once in a while, but there are two recipes that I make year in and year out: Ginger Spice Cookies and Eggnog Spritz cookies. After I posted pictures last weekend, people have asked me for the recipes, so here you go!

Ginger Spice Cookies
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp stick margarine, softened
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground mace (this is the first year I actually bought and used mace!)

Beat sugar and margarine with a mixer until creamy, add molasses and egg and beat well.
Combine dry ingredients and blend by hand before gradually adding to batter and blending until thoroughly mixed.
Divide dough in half, wrap each half with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1/2 hour.
When you are ready to bake, preheat over to 350F.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls, roll in sugar, and place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 12 minutes, until the surface is crackled and the cookies are lightly browned.

I use my medium Pampered Chef scoop to make uniform cookies and Williams-Sonoma gold sanding sugar makes them look extra-special. (I used a whole jar on a double batch!)

I think this is an old Cooking Light recipe because I have nutrition information:
If you make 52 cookies, each cookie should have about 45 calories and 1.5 g fat.

Eggnog Spritz Cookies
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1/2 tp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour

Preheat over to 400F.
Beat sugar, egg, salt, nutmeg and vanilla with a mixer until creamy and slightly fluffy.
Add flour gradually, beating until well blended.
Fill cookie press with dough, cover remaining dough and store in refrigerator.
Using cookie press, form cookies 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet–do not use cooking spray–the dough won’t release from the press properly.
Decorate with colored sugar or other decorations.
Bake for 6-8 minutes until a light golden color.
Remove from baking sheets and cool on a cooling rack.

The hardest part about making these cookies is using the cookie press. The dough has to be just the right temperature for the cookies to form correctly. I have found that if I make them in a “cold” kitchen, it works easily, but if I already have been baking it can take some trial and error to get it right. If the cookies don’t form correctly, you can just pick the dough up off the cookie sheet and try again after letting the dough warm up or chill for a few minutes.

Here’s a collage with some of the other cookies we made: sugar cut-outs, chocolate pinwheels, frosted pumpkin ginger cookies, snickerdoodles, frosted lemon drops (with walnuts), and date pinwheels.

What is your favorite holiday cookie?

Posted in Food | Tagged Christmas, Cookies, Eggnog Spritz Cookie, Friends, Ginger Spice Cookie, Recipe | 13 Comments

Advent: Watching And Waiting

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Coco

Today is the second Sunday of Advent. In the Christian church calendar, Advent is the “season” when we get ready for Christmas. In most Christian traditions, Advent has a dual meaning: we remember the first Christmas when Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the three kings awaited and rejoiced at the birth of Christ, while we also await and prepare for Jesus’ promised return.

(source)

Last weekend our sermon focused on the waiting theme of Advent.

With my Type A personality, I am not very good at waiting. But with my iPhone, I don’t have to do much waiting. If I am stuck in a long line, if my flight is delayed, or if my friend is late, I can pass the time on email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. I can play games. I even read my books on my Kindle App. I don’t have to wait, I just do something else.

I generally think that this is a good thing, but the sermon made me wonder what I was missing out on by not waiting. These Bible words came to mind:

By keeping myself busy, I miss out on time that I might spend with my mind wandering, thinking, pondering and, yes, even praying.

I also realized that I am most guilty of being “busy” when I am worried. Staying busy helps me keep my mind off of my troubles, but by pushing things out of my mind, I also push them out of my prayers–or I forget to pray altogether.

During this Advent season, I am going to try to spend more time waiting, and watching and praying.

Prayer for the second week of Advent:

As we plan and make decisions, God be our way.
As we learn and ask questions, God be our truth.
As we grow and change, God be our life. Amen.

How do you pass the time when you are waiting?

Posted in My Faith | Tagged Advent, Christian, Christmas, Prayer | 1 Comment

Book Review: When It Happens To You By Molly Ringwald

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Coco

I should have written this book review in November to keep up with my book-review-a-month blogging schedule, but work, life and Thanksgiving got in the way. I have kept up with my goal of reading a book every month, and this is one that you might want to put on your holiday “wish” list.

I was surprised when I saw a novel by Molly Ringwald on Amazon, and even more surprised when I found the free preview to be well-written and engaging.

The synopsis from Amazon:

When it happens to you, you will be surprised. That thing they say about how you knew all the time, but just weren’t facing it? That might be the case, but nevertheless, there you will be.

Molly Ringwald mines the complexities of modern relationships in this gripping and nuanced collection of interlinked stories. Writing with a deep compassion for human imperfection, Ringwald follows a Los Angeles family and their friends and neighbors while they negotiate the hazardous terrain of everyday life—revealing the deceptions, heartbreak, and vulnerability familiar to us all.

I may have bought this book because I feel like I grew up with Molly Ringwald (Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club were my coming of age movies), but I kept reading because When It Happens To You tells a great story, and leaves you wondering how you would act if it did.

Have you finished your 2012 reading list?

What will you be reading in 2013?

Posted in Book Reviews, Life | Tagged Book Review | 6 Comments

Easy Holiday Card Garland Craft

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Coco

Our house doesn’t have a good place to display holiday cards. Our fireplace mantel is occupied by an antique sled and we don’t have very many flat surfaces that aren’t occupied by my piles of ~~crap~~ very important papers.

When I was looking through our old craft boxes for the knitting things to send my daughter (hopefully she put down the needles long enough to study for her finals!) I came across a bag of wooden clothespins. They gave me the idea to make this easy holiday card display. I hit up Michael’s for the few other things I would need:

silver spray paint
a holiday garland
small holiday stickers

First, I sprayed the clothespins with metallic silver spray paint. I followed the directions and sprayed, dried, and turned, until they had a nice even coat on all visible surfaces.