Ah, you know those weeks where everything goes super smoothly? This has not been one of them. It’s only Wednesday and I’ve had several mishaps. Let’s start with Sunday…
Well, let’s go back several weeks. I was rushing through Target one day and I grabbed this cute Christmas shirt:
I love how cheerful it looks, so I’ve been wearing it even though the shape is a little boxy. On Sunday I wore it to the store, to the mall, and then at night we had a work meeting (I know, work on Sunday night??? It’s the only time that we’re closed and everyone can attend.)
I decided to wear my Joyful shirt, because meetings after-hours are very casual. As soon as I walked in, one of my coworkers said, “Oh, I have that same top! My entire family is wearing them for our “Christmas pajamas” picture this year.”
Wait. What? Where EXACTLY in Target did I get this shirt? I cast my mind back… yes, it was right in the front, with the… pajamas. When I got home I looked at the tag to confirm, and yep- it says “Women’s sleepwear.” I especially love how I was AT WORK when I realized I was wearing a pajama top. Oops.
Moving right along! On Monday, the tire pressure light in my car was on. My husband usually puts air in my tires, but he’s been extremely busy lately so I didn’t want to bother him. I don’t do it often, so I’m a little insecure about this task, but once I got started it all came back to me. Just as I was finishing, a woman asked for my help.
She was trying to put air in her tires using another machine and it wasn’t working. I have to admit I felt a little smug- not only did I get the air in my tires but someone was actually asking me for advice! I suggested that she use my machine instead, as I was done. I got in my car and started to pull away… when I realized I had forgotten to put all the caps back on the tire stems. I was slightly less smug as I went back to retrieve them and put them on, while the other woman was now waiting impatiently to use my air machine.
Ha ha, wouldn’t it have been funny if I forgot all about them? I asked my husband how long it would take for all the air to run out of my tires, and he said it doesn’t work like that. They’re not actually holding the air in, they’re just there to protect the stem. Well, darn. That’s not quite as dramatic as me coming out of work to find four completely flat tires.
Anyway, the next mishap involves cookie baking, and I want to make it clear that this was my fault, and not the fault of the recipe- because I don’t want to throw anyone’s grandmother under the bus. Earlier this week, Nicole shared her recipe for Grandma’s Gingersnap Cookies. They sounded so delicious that I had to make some!
I followed the recipe, making my usual substitutions to make them vegan. The recipe calls for two eggs, which made me hesitate a little. I usually have a “one egg limit” on recipes, because it gets a little iffy if you’re trying to substitute for too many eggs. But I forged ahead, using a flax egg substitute (one tablespoon ground flaxseed and three tablespoons water per egg) and refrigerated the dough as directed.
When it was time to bake, the batter seemed a little soft…. but I decided to try one batch. The cookies smelled DELICIOUS, but came out very, very flat.
ARG! I must have gotten too much water in the batter… so I added more flour. The second batch was better but still too flat, so I added a little more flour, and voila! The last batch came out “chewy, addictive and magical” as promised.
In case you’re wondering what’s going to happen to all the flat cookies… don’t worry. My daughter and husband see nothing wrong with them and are eating them happily. But I’m glad I got one batch that taste AND look good, in case I want to give some as gifts. Thank you, Nicole!
Am I going to have one of those weeks with one snafu after another? Or will I be able to turn it around? More importantly, now that I’ve been wearing pajamas in public, will I just say “screw it!” and continue to wear the Joyful shirt? It’s possible. Very, very possible.
28 Responses
Please keep wearing the Joyful shirt! Don’t we all want to be festive AND comfortable? Exercise gear is fair game to be worn around the clock now, why can’t we do the same with sleepwear? Also if it was THAT ambiguous that it was a sleep shirt, I doubt anyone else would have realized unless they had bought them as a sleepwear set specifically.
I haven’t made Nicole’s grandmother’s ginger cookies yet. I have a go-to (small batch) recipe I love. I made them over the weekend when life looked hopeless (Day 10 or so of being homebound with kids) and I needed a) sugar and b) a dose of Christmas cheer. In my exhausted mental state, I didn’t want to risk messing up a new recipe. BUT…I HAVE to make these cookies, so it is still on my radar to do this ASAP. And both kids are slowly improving so I feel like I have the bandwidth to be creative in the kitchen again.
It’s settled- I’m definitely wearing that shirt all over the place from now on! Nicole’s ginger cookies really are good- you definitely need to try them!
I’m so glad you made and liked the cookies! They are pretty special to me, and I love that so many other people have loved them over the years.
I mean, a pajama shirt is still a shirt! It’s not like you’re walking around in a negligee or something. I mean, if negligees are your jam, go for it. I’m not going to negligee-shame anyone. But, readers, if you are walking around in negligees you should definitely coordinate with those feathery mules. I guess what I’m saying is if you like that top you should wear it! People walk around all the time in sweatpants, and is there a real difference between that and pajamas? NOT REALLY.
Okay, I’m laughing so hard right now at the thought of walking around in a negligee. Hee hee! I guess my shirt isn’t so bad after all.
You can’t really tell it’s a pajama top and she only knew because she had bought it, too! I say keep wearing it and enjoying it.
I know exactly how you feel about things just not going right this week. I was meeting someone for coffee and I intended to pay for both of us, but I just left my purse at home and she ended up having to pay for me! And there’s this thing happening with me trying to wrangle signatures for a card for people I volunteer with and I just don’t have everyone’s contact information, so it’s harder than it should be. It’s just not putting me in the holiday spirit! LOL. Oh, well. I’m going to go sit in front of the Christmas tree and get spirited.
Yes, I’m sitting in front of the tree right now with a purring cat on my lap. Things are looking up!
Oh, gotta love (no) weeks like these!
The tidbit about the tire stem caps is useful to know — I panic every time they are off the stem, worrying that air is leaking out rapidly every second it takes me to fumble them into position. Here is my story about putting air in my tires: I discovered that all four of my tires were WAY too low, so I went to the gas station that has free air (not all of them do, which is… ridiculous). I had never done this before, so I was a little nervous. I put air in two of the tires, but realized that I had parked oddly, so that the air hose wouldn’t reach to the other side of the car. Fine, no one was behind me. I went to put the cap on the stem of the second tire, and dropped it behind the tire, so that it fell underneath the car. I could not reach it, for the life of me! Finally I decided I would just pull forward and retrieve it, then turn around and do the other two tires… but by the time I made this decision someone was waiting for me. So I had to go ask a complete stranger to roll down her window so I could ask her not to pull forward, so I could retrieve my stem cap. And then after I did that, I was too embarrassed to ask her to wait while I did the other two tires, so I pulled into a parking spot until she left. How can I get my husband to do this for me from now on???
I like your Joyful shirt, and don’t think it looks too pajama-y! And hooray for cookies that turned out eventually! They look beautiful and delicious!
Oh, that story definitely tops mine! I think we all need home tire inflators (now that I know such a thing exists.)
I’m loving your attitude about the Joyful top! Do wear it as a statement, now that you’ve been out with it in public anyway!
I’m very impressed with making vegan cookies and replacing eggs. I’m coeliac and very used to substitutions, but replacing flours and grains is easy once you’ve done some research. Replacing eggs seems just… impossible. Your “failed” cookies look delicious to me, chewy and nice.
That’s funny, because I think replacing flours and grains is really hard! I guess it’s all what you’re used to.
I’m here to root for Team Keep Wearing The JoyFul Shirt and it is AWESOME that you found that out at work. I’m also here to tell Santa to bring you a tire inflator for Christmas. This is something that I only know about because the hubs has one, and it’s so nice to just be able to fill our tires at home when we need to.
What??? There’s such a thing as inflating your tires at home???? I did not know this!
I would have not known that it’s sleep wear… keep wearing it. It’s a nice shirt!
I have never made ginger snaps, can you believe it?
Well, I’m glad you can’t tell- now that I know it’s pajamas I can’t “un-see” that.
I bought my daughter a slip once for a darling though see-through dress, and she started wearing the slip as a dress. In high school. To be fair, it was a thick enough slip, and she wore a sweater over it, but it always bothered me.
Parenting is hard.
Ha ha, that’s funny. Okay, if she can wear a slip to school I can wear a pajama shirt!
I do that too – when I have my first faux-pas of the week, I start to do mental accounting and add them all up. It’s amazing how many silly decisions I make in a week!
But with a good sense of humour, we will get through them all…
I bet that lady asking you for advice was still impressed by your auto-mechanic skills!
Yes, some weeks are just like that. I don’t know if that woman was impressed or not- I looked pretty stupid.
Ha I love there is a fine line between sleepwear and real clothes these days! I say forge on with the Joyful shirt it’s so cute. I wore my leggings backwards all day last week and had no idea until bedtime.
I used to have to wait for my husband to do the air in the tires as well (every time the seasons change my light goes on) and I just decided I could do it myself. I always feel so victorious as well.LOL on the screw tops 🙂
Yes, it’s true- it does feel good to do these things ourselves- it really isn’t that hard. Of course there are plenty or car jobs that I could never even think about doing.
I always ignore that tire [pressure light sine it happens at the change of seasons… eventually my hubby checks the tires.
Even funnier is my favorite sweater dress. I love it and bought it at Target… took me yeas to realize that it was a maternity dress. I still wear it.
Oh that IS FUNNY!!!! Now I want a picture of you in it. Obviously it doesn’t look like a maternity dress or you would have noticed it right away.
The last time my tire pressure light came on, I freaked out because I have never had to put air in my tires! (My other car was so old, it didn’t even have the tire pressure indicator!) I eventually just went to one of those drive-up oil change places and they did it for me for free, haha.
I love that your joyful shirt ended up being a pajama shirt! At least it’s comfy!
Yes, now I know why it’s so comfortable- it’s pajamas. That makes sense.
Putting air in the tires intimidated me at first, but it’s actually SO EASY. That’s probably why the oil-change place did it for free.
I remember in high school for a while it was very in to wear those old style shiny fabric, crazy patterns, PJ button tops from the second hand store (I was one of those alternative kids) – so I don’t take an issue with your PJ top at all. My daughter keeps wearing her regular sweaters as PJ tops so I think it’s just fair to do it the other way around. Do it! It’s joyful 😉
I can see myself being proud of myself for refilling the tires 😉
When you talked about how you changed the recipe to make the cookies vegan it reminded me I wanted to look for a vegan cookie recipe. I am not vegan but I know a couple of people who are and I always wanted to have at least one recipe handy that I can go back to if it’s needed. I always think that would come in handy
There’s a website called Nora Cooks that has great vegan recipes, and she has a bunch of Christmas cookies right now.
Thanks for the tip! I will check it out 🙂