She thinks my tractor's......delicious

Can you image working in this tractor all day?

How cute are these John Deere themed cookies. The little birthday boy that these cookies are for is a tractor nut.....and he turned 2. What a fun age 2 is. I remember when both of the boys were 2. I was pregnant with Tucker when Trenton was 2 and let me tell you they are fast little boogers!

This is our third order for tractors so we finally ordered one off Amazon. I think we could make these into any John Deere, International or Kubota tractor. (hey ya'll I just showed my country side)

I think they are almost too cute to eat.....almost!

Until next time.....I'll just go preheat the oven!

Welcome to the Island of Sodor!

If you have any boys in your house, know little boys, talked to little boys or have ever been to Toys R Us....you have heard of Thomas the Tank Engine.

I remember when Trenton was small, he loved Thomas. We had the wooden tracks, the plastic tracks, wooden trains, plastic trains....we had them all.

I say had, but what I really mean is we still have them....in the attic somewhere. Somewhere in the great abyss that I call the attic, I am hoping that it is a Toy Story scenario going on and all of the toys and trains are going along their day just like Woody and Buzz....back to my cookie story.

We had the pleasure of doing a little guys birthday that wanted Percy cookies. His mom said Percy was his favorite, but liked them all. So....we gave him Percy, Thomas, Annie and Clarabell and a coal truck. You cannot have the Island of Sodor without a coal truck....hello that is the islands must do!

I think these turned out super cute. I think he really enjoyed them!

Well hey ya'll!!

Oh my goodness! I feel like a horrible blogger! It has been a whole week since I have been on here! Please forgive me, my faithful followers (haha).

We have still been whipping (whip it real good) out our cookies. It has kind of slowed down this week, but I am sure that is only because of the Labor Day weekend.

Since football season FINALLY started this past weekend, there will be lots of tailgating, eating and socializing. What goes better with a cold one than one of these precious cookies?

Of course, MTSU lost to Georgia Tech, but we cannot win every game....right? It had nothing to do with these cookies...right?

We also had a first anniversary cookie that we did for one of the ladies I work with. Her and her husband had a reception and wanted the cookies to look like the little chapel they were married in. They were married in Gatlinburg and I think they turned out pretty well. She said they were a big hit and did not even get one.

These look like something that would be on Sponge-bob's house, but I think they are super cute. We had an employee that retired after 18 years at the clinic where I work. The first set of cookies did not turn out so well, as they stuck together...they loved each other too much. These were a last minute replacement, but I think they are sweet, just like Ms. Kathy :)

Busy busy busy!

What a week this has been! Here on the Patch we have been busy making the Batch! This was out first week of full on cookies. We have made baseballs, softballs, Star Wars, Tutti Frutti and Panties....yes you read that right. Although it has been fun, I am glad to be caught up on all the cookies. Tomorrow we will be able to take a shower and not be covered in Royal Icing. Like Stella, I need to find my groove. (How Stella Got Her Groove Back) I thought this week I had it going on, but as I write this blog with purple fingernails and make back hurting....I was incorrect. Next week will be better. Here are a few cookies that we DID get done....

Baseballs for a Little Slugger baby shower. How cute are these scalloped baseballs??

Although Trenton thinks these look like Toothless off of How to train a Dragon.....these little flyers are precious!

Here is the starting of the magic. It kind of looks like someone walked across the counter....but this is the sweet man that I married helping his tired wife and her crazy idea. I love him and I do love all these Batches!

Total Eclipse of the Heart

This line has been overused today, but I could not help it. Who does not know this song by Heart? I mean, if you were born in the 1970's or before you should know this song. You had to have slow danced to it at a middle or high school dance, era 1983ish. Big hair, wings sprayed to look like like a gust of wind will pick you up and land you somewhere over the rainbow, don't stand too close to an open flame or your hair will catch on fire....anyone?

I took a longer lunch today and went home to watch the eclipse with the boys, who by the way, were not into it until it was almost over. At least they did show some type of enjoyment.

Here on the patch, it did not get real dark, more like dusk or sunset. It was a very odd feeling, the temperature dropped, it got very quiet and still.

It was an experience that was one to remember.

As we are watching this awesome event, these are the pictures that I get from my parents. They actually made me laugh until I wet myself! This one of my dad:

He looks like some type of H.G. Wells character.....and my favorite:

My Granny and what I am calling the original Iron Man Suit.

Again....a memory to remember!

I hope everyone that was in the path of the eclipse got to enjoy it. If any of you northerners would like to purchase my eclipse glasses, I have them real cheap for you!

Tootles~
AG

Baking is a dirty duty...

When you go into a bakery, you see all of the pretty cakes, cookies, pies and sweetness. What you do not see is the stacks of dishes on the sink, the flour on the floor, hair and ALL OVER your counter top. See the proof below:

Yes, that is a skeleton oven met, you can never start Halloween to early!

It is like  flour skating rink in the kitchen. You know on Fantasia when the hippos and crocodiles are dancing and they are trying to hold up the hippos, that is what I felt like....my legs were not going to held me up. But they did without any type of leg splits.

I baked 19 dozen cookies this weekend. I still need 3 dozen, which I will do tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, unless you are living under a rock, you know that the eclipse is coming right over Patch of Heaven. The boys are out of school for it, so I am taking a long lunch to come home and watch it with them.
To celebrate this first total eclipse that has been seen in 500 years, we made these cute little cookies

7 dozen of these little beauties will be delivered in the morning. I am really excited to see something that has not been seen in 500 years, like a smaller pants size for me. I will report for all your northerners that may not have gotten the best seat in the house.....until tomorrow!

One thing that happened this weekend, is Mr. G got our Facebook page up and running. You can order cookies on there, send us an IM or email us at rattghar@att.net.

Just a reminder.....DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY IN THE SUN,,,,you do not want to burn your eyes do eye? How will you ever see badge of heavens GLORIOUS cookies?

Camping and Glamping

Sorry I have not written since Wednesday, for my big zero blog readers! I must stay vigilant though, I am like Batman....or Batgirl or CookieGirl, that is better!

So Thursday night was a night of camping, fishing and hiding in the trees....cookie wise. We got an order for camping cookies on Wednesday afternoon, and because I am an eager beaver, I said yes of course! Then later that afternoon, I was asked about doing bridal shower cookies....and what did I say yes! It really is fun, so I do not mind.

When you think of camping what do you think of? Tents, campfires, s'mores and dirty bathrooms....umm... I mean family time. We did not have a camper cookie cutter, so we spread all of our cutters out and let our imagination run. Did you know if you turn a tall pumpkin cutter on its side, it looks like a cute pull behind camper? Well it does, take my word for it! We also made fish and then trees. The fish needed a little bit more of "batch of heaveness" but they were cute, what do you think?

Once these were finished, we moved on to the bridal shower. We were going to do rings, but they looked so pretty white with the scallop edge, I could not put a gray ring on it! I need to work on a gold color or something like that. These turned out cute, but I needed to have a thinner line for my writing, but it was late (7:30 I mean hello I should have been in bed watching The Great British Bake-Off on Netflix).

Since it is the weekend, I have 19 dozen cookies to bake! I feel so blessed that people actual want our cookies! I plan on baking a few extra cookies, in case the I need cookies by Thursday night calls come in for Friday morning. I almost think those cookies are the cutest, we work hard under pressure!

Have a safe and heavenly weekend!
AG

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

Well I delivered my first batch of heaven this morning....it was an odd feeling to give someone something that you hope they like. It was like Christmas, but giving it to someone you really do not know that well.

Enough of the Anxiety Amber....so here is the finished product. The box was a little big, but I wanted to make a statement. Those boxes are not for the blonde. They make the creases for you to be able to fold easier, but then what do you do? At 6:01 on a Wednesday morning, was not the best time to wrestle with it.

The apples turned out better than I originally thought. I will not lie, getting a red color is not as easy as you would think. It took the whole bottle of red, some pink and a little bit of yellow. The frosting was a little bitter, if that is possible after using all that powdered sugar. We were freaking out about the taste, but we sprinkled the tops with white sugar and red sugar crystals. They actually did not taste that bad. Thank God, because by the time I tasted the red frosting, half the cookies were decorated. They are super cute....makes me want to bite into a crisp Honey-crisp apple. Those are my favorite!

Since she ordered a Back to School theme, we decided to do chalkboards. I am sure the black frosting will leave everyone with a dark lips and blue teeth. But they are super cute!

Kinda makes me want to do some type of school work.....kinda....but not really.

I am so excited that after posting on Facebook, I got 4 new orders! Batch of Heaven is happening!

This is not a drill!

Even though I have not had one person comment, look or browse the blog~ I am not giving up! Of course it is the first day....no one knows about it....and I have not told anyone. That all changes tomorrow! My first batch of goodness goes out to someone other than a family member. (oh my)

You never know who may want a cookie or two, so I decided to make business cards. I am on hold with insurance companies ALOT, so I doodle....ALOT. This is what I thought if Patch of Heaven had business cards, it would look like.

I am literally the most boring person alive, so I went with just a brown card-stock and black ink... yawn....but I love the way it turned out!

These will be attached to all my deliveries to pass out, share, throw away or litter....don't do that, just give it back to me and I will throw it away. 

I am nervous, scared and excited all at the same time, is that possible? 

A Batch of Heaven

Welcome to our new adventure here on Patch of Heaven....cookies....however you want them! If you know the Gharing's you know we love to bake. Christmas is a diabetic nightmare here on our patch, but baking is something we love. There's something sweet, no pun intended, about mixing up a batch of your favorite cookie, pulling it from the oven and dunking those babies in ice cold milk. Good grief, I am drooling.

I had a bridal shower at work last month, that was a "forest" theme. They were getting married in Glacier National Forest and then camping for their honeymoon. At the time, I thought, what an odd theme for a bridal shower.....but look how cute these cookies are!

Those bears were so sweet, especially when their little heads were in my mouth.....anyway at the shower one of the ladies said, "You know you could sell these. "Blank" bakery sells them for almost 3.00 a piece". After she picked me up off the floor, I said "really??" And then she said "really". And then I was like....oh my gawd Becky look at her....wait this is not a Sir mix-alot song. She said that one of the office managers in my building was looking to do a cookie for Breast Cancer Awareness, maybe I would want to reach out to her. Can you tell she is the marketing person at my work?

So I did. I sent that manager an email and she responded that she would love to see what I could do. I told her that I would make her a few samples and bring them in for her to see. Fast forward a few weekends and this is what we came up with.

I think they look pretty good. I used a different cookie recipe than I normally use. It was a good thick cookie, which is great for shape cookies.

Here is the recipe I used:

2 large eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
4 tsp vanilla

Sift your flour and set aside. In your mixer, beat your butter, sugar, salt, eggs and vanilla together. Add in flour slowly. Chill for 30 minutes, roll and cut into your favorite shape. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

You can add 1 1/2 cups of cocoa for chocolate. I bought unsweetened, so I added about another 1/2 cup sugar.

The dough was awesome, but once the cookies were pulled out they were not as sweet as this southerner would like. But once you get all that Royal Icing on there.....it was sweet enough.

I posted on Facebook if anyone was interested in cookies in the shape of your choice, just let me know. The magic of the Internet did its thing and I got 4 orders! Of course, I am going to use my own sugar cookie recipe, which I will share that at another time.

Tucker came up with the name, which I think is awesome, since Patch of Heaven has been our homestead name since seeing Disney's Home on the Range. (if you have not seen this movie, you need to~ it is great!)

We are really excited to start this new bakeventure, I just totally made that up.....

I wish I could....

If I could do one thing in my life, I would want to be in Trenton's mind for an hour. If you do not know, Trenton has Aspergers. He has a slight developmental delay, where he really is 17, but mentally he is about 12. This kid though does not care. He has his own way of doing things, he does not care what others think of him. He has a wicked sense of humor, an awesome imagination and I love him. He drives me nuts sometimes, but that is my own insecurities, like this picture. 

We went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Sunday night. After the movie he wanted to take this picture....in front of the concession stand....at 8:00 at night....at the movie theater. In my mind, I am thinking, Trenton these people are looking at you, get up and lets find a hole to hide in. But Trenton, did not care. As we were leaving I wished I could be like Trenton. Not caring what others thought of me or what I was doing. 

I love him for that!

Happy Memorial Day!

As I sit and write this post I think about how many people do not know what today really means. Yes it is a day off of work, for most with pay. Yes that means that this week will be a 4 day week for everyone. But what does today actually mean? To me it means that my grandpa, dad, father-in law, Rich's granddad and many more family members fought for our freedom in the Korean war, Vietnam or World War 2. Most of those men chose to be there, some may have been drafted. I could not imagine my 18 year old son, being told that he had to go to war. Leave everything he knows and go fight for your country. BUT men and women do this EVERY day. Today is a day of remembering those people, thanking them and praying for the ones that still do it everyday. THANK YOU and God Bless America!

Hello LONG weekend....

Praise the Lord, this week is over for us. Ahhhhh....Memorial Day, the kick off to summer. Of course if you live in Tennessee, summer has been here for a while. Although Mother Nature has a bit of a bi-polar issue, it still is nice to welcome summer.

Today was the first day of "official" summer break for the boys. Don't you wish you could go back in time and tell your younger self....hey enjoy summer. When you get old, there are no summer breaks in the daily grind. If you are lucky, you get 40 hours of precious PTO that you have saved over the last months to have a "vacation". I think back on summers on Princess Circle and wish for those simpler times. When you would wait until you heard Daddy whistle for you to come in when it got too dark. Where we would play hide and seek on bikes at night. Where my brother would play Godzilla as April and I played Barbies on rainy days. (He was such a butt) Now summer consists of making sure you have enough grub in the house for the boys to eat, making sure the house is not demolished by the time you come home and counting down to long awaited weekends, like this one coming.

According the our local news station, this is one of the busiest travel weekends. Here at the Patch, we are waiting anxiously to do nothing, breath in the sweet smell of the honeysuckle and be together. Hopefully, in this spot...with a cold glass of sweet tea, a good book and the sound of the pond.

Enjoy your weekend, thank those that made Memorial Day a day to reflect on and for gosh sake RELAX!

It wont be like this for long...

Where has the time gone? I look at the above picture and think wow that was a long time ago....but has it really been that long? This picture was taken 8 years ago at Tucker's kindergarten graduation....KINDERGARTEN! If you think about how we have only had 8 Christmas' or 8 summers, it does not seem long ago. But I look at this picture and see real changes. For one I see my little 9 pound 12 ounce baby boy. The baby that snuck up on us. The baby that the whole 9 months, I wondered how I could love a baby as much as I loved Trenton. The baby that loved to cuddle, would want to be touching me at all times, who carried around (and chewed) on Ellie the Elephant and the last baby I would ever have. I see my Granny standing and smiling. I see Rich looking as handsome as ever. I see my mom or Nana, being so proud with a big grin on her face. Change is good right???

Fast forward 8 years.....

Here is my 120 pound baby with his brother, who is 6'4. My sister or Aunt B, my brother or Uncle Josh, my granny and Nana. Tucker is 6'3, 15 years old no longer wants to touch his mom (that sounds weird) but still likes to cuddle. Of course he would tell you that was lie if you asked him. Ellie is just something that sits on his bed or is tossed under the bed. My granny is sitting in a wheelchair, but the love that they have for my baby has not changed. My love for my baby has not changed. I love both of my boys, they are my world. I would walk through fire for them. But I know the change that is coming, will break my heart. The change to know that one day they will not be eating me out of house and home. They will not be hogging the TV in the loving room playing a video game. They will no longer be at home every night. These changes depress me. but I know that this is a healthy course of life. This is supposed to happen, but it sucks.

I hope that in 8 years, I will have another picture of my 23 year old and my 26 year old son. I hope my brother, sister, granny and Nana will be in that picture. But what I really hope is, I will still remember 16 years ago at Tucker's kindergarten graduation, how I thought time was going so slow, but in reality it was flying by.

Darius Rucker has a song "It wont be like this for long" No truer words have ever been stated. It does not last long, it goes by quick...too quick. I wish I could go back and tell myself not to worry about the yard, how messy the house is....because it wont be like this for long. Hug your babies, toddlers, young ones, teens and your adult children. You wont be very long.....

Hello.....it's me

If you are not an Adele fan, you will not get that post....but hello, it's me. I have been gone for a while, but I am back baby! How are things here at the Patch in Christiana? Well like most things, changing. The boys are older, we are older and life goes on. Trenton will be 18 in July....18! He will graduate from high school next year. Where has my sweet boy with baby acne gone to? He is now a full grown man, 6 foot 4 inches and probably 250 pounds. He is not driving, has no desire to drive. Tucker will start high school next year. He will be 15 in May. He cannot wait to get his driving permit, unlike his brother. He is also big man on campus, soccer star and a hip hairstyle. What is with boys and their hair? Every morning, Tucker stands looking at it, running his hands through it, making sure he has the right amount of gel on it and it is in place. "Don't touch it mom, its fine" is usually what I hear at least once a week. Trenton on the other hand, wont run a comb through his hair for anything, hence why we shaved it. Awww, Asperger's and sensory issues....sometimes you are not our friend. Rich is doing well at his job at Nissan. He loves it, just not his boss. She unfortunately is a hormone away from being a serial killer. Of course, she has no idea who she is messing with. I believe Rich missed his calling in being in the mob. He has moved from driving a little Juke to a full grown truck. I do not mind, as there is nothing prettier than a man in a truck. He calls her Lucille, as in Negan's ball bat from the Walking Dead. I am no longer in Pediatrics at MMC. My official title is safety extraordinaire and credentialing guru. Not really, but it makes my job seem so much more exciting. I miss the babies and the.....hummm that is about it. I love MMC, just not all MMC employees. Karley, the wonder dog is white, large and in charge. Just like her momma. She has some type of alien growing on her eyelid. I keep saying, I am going to take her to the vet, but am scared of what they will say it is. We had a few storms this week, and she decided that she was going to sit on our shoulders like a parrot. Our little Patch is getting prettier. We have been cleaning, throwing away and painting. It has been a few years since most of the trim has been painted and it shows!! I will post pictures later for you to see.....I just have to learn how to do that. We have some loved guests coming for Easter, so we are getting ready. Well, now that we are all caught up....until the next post! See ya!