An ordinary, wonderful spring day

I couldn't have predicted that today would be one that I would especially want to remember. We had an extra three-year-old hanging out with us all day, we just moved into a new house and things are still quite chaotic, and I had a dentist appointment scheduled in the afternoon. A hum-drum day, at best.

I woke up and, suspecting that I would not have a lot of time to myself throughout the day, I immediately treated myself to a shower, complete with hair-washing. I put on makeup and got dressed before going downstairs.

I made coffee, and as I sat sipping it and reading, I heard Anne wake up. I heard her pad into my bedroom where Eleanor was still sleeping. Anne knows to check and see if Eleanor's head is popped up before talking to her - if her head is still down, she silently creeps back out of the room. She must have been awake, because Anne greeted her in the sing-song voice she saves for her baby sister, then sang the song I sing to them every morning as soon as everyone's awake:

Good morning to you!

Good morning to you!

We're all in our places with bright shining faces

and this is the way we start out our day!

Unable to resist seeing their sweet faces at that point, I joined them upstairs, and then we all came downstairs for breakfast and read-aloud time. Soon after that, our 3-year-old buddy Evan (son of some of our dearest friends from college) arrived, and he and Anne ran off to play.

I nursed Eleanor, put her peacefully in her pack and play, and she went to sleep for 2 hours. 

Anne and Evan quickly took up residence in the back yard. For almost 3 hours. As aforementioned, we just moved in, so we don't have a lot of outside toys. I found a plastic tub, a funnel, some plastic cups and bowls, and our sand toys, filled the tub with the hose, and let them have at it. I left the door open and listened as that tub of water morphed from a stew to a "mixture" to a mud puddle (after they dug up some dirt from under our fence and mixed it all together).

In the middle of this, a huge delivery truck pulled up in our alley and a delivery man maneuvered a pallet full of closet organizing hardware into our garage while the two kids stood transfixed. Their outdoor time ended with them happy, tired, and muddy from head to toe. I carried them inside one by one and plopped them in the shower to hose them down, got them into clean, dry clothes, and made lunch.

My sister in law stopped by to see the new place, and we had lunch together. The kiddos had chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and the strawberry-coconut water popsicles we had made in the morning.

After lunch, I set the kids up with a movie and I cleaned up and unpacked a bit. Eleanor went down without protest for another hour-long nap. This may not seem amazing, but she has pretty much exclusively napped in a baby carrier of some kind for her entire life, so I'm not sure how she knows how to sleep alone. I take no responsibility. She's a magic baby.

Soon after that, another delivery truck! Another crew of guys unloading and carrying and assembling,  and poof! A couch!!

Then, I enlisted the help of my small cohorts in baking a lemon meringue pie, requested by Anne after several readings of Amelia Bedelia. It turned out just right! So beautiful! So GOLDEN, as Anne will tell you. (Recipe here!)

Jamie got home and as I started to make my way out the door to my dentist appointment, Anne begged to go with me. I told her it would be very boring, but she insisted. As we walked out the door to the car she grabbed my hand, looked up at me and said, "Mamma! We're going on a date!"

Arrived at the dentist, and it occurred to me that as long as Anne was there, and Eleanor wasn't, she might as well get her teeth cleaned too!



2.5 hours later, all teeth shiny and clean, and me with half my mouth numb from a new filling (thanks to our awesome dentist for the triple dose of novocain. I love you.), Anne and I waltzed back out to the car, called in an order for takeout sushi, picked it up on our way home, and ate our miso soup, edamame, and sushi in the kitchen together, followed by a piece of lemon meringue pie.

It was just an awesome day. Not for any one specific reason. I think my expectations were appropriately low. I think I said "yes" whenever I could. I think I ate good food and drank enough water, and that I'm a better mom when I'm not hungry or craving sugar. Thank you, Jesus, for days like this. With nothing terribly remarkable in them, but somehow adding up to something spectacular. May my life be the same. A series of good days, where I did my best, enjoyed the people around me, loved, laughed, baked, played outside. Nothing flashy or ostentatious, just a life LIVED.

H is for... {Honey Muffins}

I've thought a lot about "survival mode." About those times in your life, like when you've just had a baby, when you have to get down to the most basic level of what absolutely needs to get done in your life for your family to stay alive. Nothing (or almost nothing) extra. Quick and easy meals. Instacart for groceries. Calling that walk to the park and back your "workout." Leaving clean laundry unfolded in a basket for weeks and calling it a win that it even got washed and dried.

Truth be told, I think it's the attempted re-entry to normal life that's hardest for me. I want to know what to expect. In survival mode, I don't expect anything, so anything at all feels like a victory. This in-between time, though? The baby is four months old, not a newborn any more by anyone's standards, but still needing me an awful lot. It seems like I have it together every other week. Every other week I'm able to get my house cleaned, make reasonably delicious, interesting, healthy meals, parent successfully (read: with minimal yelling), get to the gym, talk to friends, connect with my husband, get some reading time, drink enough water. On the in-between weeks, though, I feel like a complete and utter failure. I just did this last week, I think. Surely I can replicate what I just did last week!

But then I'm yelling at my 3-year-old, eating cookies one after the other like a crazed starving person, wondering how a family of four could possibly have worn this many clothes since I last did laundry, which couldn't have been more than 2 days ago... could it? It's like last week I was comfortably swimming in this lake, thinking how cool and wonderful the water felt, thinking that yes, I was getting tired, but this work was so worth doing, was even fun! And this week, nothing is perceptibly different, but I am half-drowning, wondering how I'm possibly going to get through another minute, let alone until bedtime.

This morning, I got back to basics. I listened to my girl instead of getting distracted by my phone. I sat down next to her on the floor and joined her in arranging and rearranging seashells. We read picture books for a good deal longer than I had planned on. We made cookies together, with sprinkles and yellow icing smiley faces. She went down for a nap, and I folded just one load of laundry. Put another one in. Did a few dishes. And just like that, I was swimming again. Because I decided to put love first. Put our relationship first. I put aside my sometimes-compulsive desire to get out the door and give my daughter enriching experiences, and reminded myself that sometimes the best thing for all of us is just to stay at home together, playing and reading and enjoying this fleeting time of life.



This week, we're focusing on the letter H. H is for...

How am I going to do this? How will I survive?
Help!!!
Hard. So hard.
Home.
Healthy choices making a real difference. Enough water. Enough sleep. Healthy food. Fresh air. Basics.
Happy. Dancing to happy music, making happy faces on our treats.
Heaven: the end goal of all of this striving. All of this worry, all of this work. So very worth it to bring glory to Him.



Honey Muffins
from Super Natural Every Day

These simple muffins are quick to mix together and contain no refined sugar! The addition of millet gives each bite a lovely pop! They are also fantastic on subsequent mornings split, buttered, and broiled until crispy.

2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup raw millet
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup honey
Grated zest of a lemon, plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.

Whisk together the flour, millet, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, butter, honey, and lemon zest and juice. Pour the wet into the dry, and mix together as gently as possible. The batter will be slightly puffy. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups, and bake for about 15 minutes, until the muffins are golden and beginning to crack on the top. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pans, remove to a cooling rack, and cool completely (or eat warm!).

Makes one dozen.

A is for...

This week, we started a really low-key, simple homeschool routine for Anne, who just turned 3. I was starting to feel like we all needed just a little more structure, because winter is coming, and if I don't have an alternative ready when someone asks to watch a movie, it's really hard to say no.



We're using "26 Letters to Heaven" by Sarah V. Park, which has tons of great ideas and a stellar book list for each week. It's a great jumping off point! Each week, we focus on a particular saint, and we memorize a Scripture verse that reflects that week's virtue. We have a little bulletin board where we keep track of what we're doing.



Here's what this week looked like:

Saturday: Trip to the library to check out as many of the books on this week's list as we could find.

Monday: Wrote the virtue ("Amiability") and its definition on a card. Had Anne repeat it. Did the same with this week's Scripture. Read a short biography of St. Anne, printed out her picture, and tacked all three things to the board. Read some books.

Tuesday: Reviewed saint, virtue, and Scripture. Made the letter "A" out of Elmer's glue, and let Anne cover it with almonds. Read some books. Later, made patterns with red and green apples, and then  glued them onto two apple trees I drew.



Wednesday: Review. Read. Started searching for things that start with "A" in magazines and cutting them out.

Thursday: Review. Read. Met friends at the nature museum. Later, finished cutting out pictures and made an "A" collage.

Friday: Review. Read.

That's approximately 20 minutes a day of "school," and for the rest of the time we did all the things we always do: play, go for walks, cook, read, color, paint, etc. There was still some TV time in every day, but so much less. And if you ask her, Anne can now recite this verse!

A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. -Proverbs 17:22

My life as a housewife and stay at home mom can feel so repetitive and never-ending. I clean the house. It gets dirty again. I nurse the baby constantly. My family is hungry (at least) 3 times a day. Laundry has to get done again and again. Toys dumped out and cleaned up a million times a day. And it feels really good, at the end of a tiring week, to have visual proof of having accomplished something real with my daughter.

Oh, and there's also THIS girl. Six weeks old and already smiling at us!

The Red Party {Anne is Three!}

Today is Anne's third birthday, but we celebrated this past weekend with a red birthday party. Anne loooooves red. And she loves cardinals. Ever since last winter when we watched a pair of cardinals visit our front yard feeder, they have had her heart. I had a lot of fun with the theme!

The cupcakes were red velvet, of course. A couple days before the party I showed Anne the recipe photo from my Martha Stewart Cupcakes book, complete with traditional cream cheese frosting. Her face fell and she said, very seriously, "I don't want white frosting. I want red frosting."

Man, am I glad I showed her that picture! Red velvet cupcakes with red velvet frosting, coming right up!



Waiting for guests to arrive in her... drumroll please... handmade (by my mom!) cardinal print dress! And hat!!

We asked the amazing and talented teacher from Anne's Music Together classes to come and provide entertainment. Best money I've ever spent. Anne was ecstatic, and her face as she jumped and laughed and danced and sang, as her beloved Miss Julie sang just for her... I could have watched her all day.









Happy birthday to you, sweet girl! My life is immeasurably better with you in it.

A New Creation

Eleanor Catherine was baptized in Christ last Saturday! Sacraments make me so happy to be Catholic. I love involving all my senses in the practice and celebration of my faith: tracing the sign of the cross on my tiny daughter's velvety head, hearing the beautiful words that claim her as a child of God, the delicious smell of holy Chrism that lingers for days.







{lots of tears as my mamma sang a beautiful arrangement of "Jesus Loves Me" after the baptism}



Eleanor is blessed to have a surplus of godparents to love and pray for her: my little sister and her husband (not Catholic, but committed Christians who are officially called "Christian witnesses"), and our dear friends Adam and Lauren from college, who are currently stationed in Japan with the Navy. Nolen and Ben looked so so sweet holding her. Even though they're only approaching their first anniversary now, I can't WAIT for them to have babies of their own! And they brought the loveliest, most thoughtful handmade gifts!







Ben made the cross out of Michigan cherry wood, with Eleanor's initials and baptism date, and my sister made this rosary with beautiful green beads she found at a local shop! It feels like a symbol of Eleanor's spiritual growth. Such special treasures for her.



{the whole gang}

Afterward, we hosted a luncheon to celebrate with family and a few friends. Hosting approximately 25 people at your home less than two weeks after having a baby calls for two very important things: help and shortcuts. We had lots and lots of amazing help! Here's what we served:

Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches (via A Spicy Perspective) <-- So good. Seriously. Make them.
Green Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Walnuts, and Dried Cranberries
Kettle Chips
Apple Slices with Caramel Dip (via Five Heart Home)
Veggies and Hummus
Cake! (from the grocery store!)



I made the beef (a double batch), the caramel sauce, and roasted the squash the day before, so all I had to do on Saturday was get things out and heat them up. Easy peasy. It was an awesome day!

In Praise of My Postpartum Body

The world tells me that my postpartum body is something to be ashamed of and hidden away.

That I should do everything in my power to get "my body back."

Let me tell you something: my body never left.

My body is the miraculous, shapeshifting form of a woman. Always has been, always will be.

My body is still mine. It was mine in the fatigue and nausea of the first trimester. It was mine in the proud swelling and high energy of the second trimester. It was mine in the heartburn and stretch marks and exhaustion of the last few weeks.

My body built a baby. And then my body did humankind's hardest work to bring that baby into the world.



I don't want my pre-baby body "back." I bear the marks of a woman who has been on a journey, an adventure.

I'll keep this body, with its aches and scars. I've earned this body doing my life's work.

My body and I are good friends. If I listen, it tells me just what it needs. Rest. Water. Good food. Walks outside, a little longer every day. The embrace of my loved ones. Laughter.

My body is strong, capable. I will carry it with pride, because it is a great gift, and through its mysterious, miraculous transforming I have received the most precious gifts of my life: my beautiful daughters.

Baked Rhubarb Oatmeal

Long ago, motherhood -- womanhood -- was a community affair. Pregnancy, childbirth, nursing; these things were not so cloaked in mystique and taboos in past generations. There was support, practice, experience that came with being one of many women living in close quarters. Much of that is lost in our society, or at least it can be. Motherhood can be a time of tremendous isolation, since most of us live miles from our families and friends. I am so deeply grateful for the online communities I have found to give support and encouragement, answer crazy questions, and laugh and cry with me. I am grateful to be able to connect with women who completely understand when I talk about erratic sleep schedules, nursing marathons, and the fact that, to my dismay, my house looks nothing like what I see on Pinterest.



Motherhood is still a community, albeit more Jetsons than tribe. This morning I had coffee with my mom via videochat. We showed each other the progress our seedlings have made, watched my daughter wiggle and squeal, and lamented the caprices of late spring (Michigan got snow again!). Later we went to a bakery to spend time with several other moms and babies Anne's age, whom we met through Meetup.com. While we rocked to sleep at naptime this afternoon, I checked the moms' groups I'm a part of on Facebook, commiserating, praying, and sharing what little advice and experience I've gained in five short months. I checked Twitter for updates on a new baby in the NICU, offered encouragement and more prayers. This may look very different than it used to, but it is essentially the same. I'm grateful for all my little tribes of mammas, living the joy and struggle of raising these tiny people together.



This recipe is adapted from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day, a fabulous book full of unusual and inspiring vegetarian dishes. The original recipe calls for bananas and huckleberries (which, incidentally, I've never had!). I was craving rhubarb crisp, but looking for something a little more wholesome and substantial that could be eaten for breakfast, guilt-free. Rhubarb probably won't be at the local markets for another month or so, but I cheated last year and froze some. How wonderful it was to look in the back of my freezer and pull out the gift of spring a few weeks early! This would work with any fruit you have on hand; apples, pears, or berries would be lovely. Let me know what you try!

Baked Rhubarb Oatmeal

4 cups fresh or frozen rhubarb, chopped
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups milk
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and arrange a rack in the top third of the oven. Butter the inside of an 8-inch square baking dish (or equivalent). Mix together the oats, half the walnuts, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl whisk together the milk, honey, egg, vanilla, and butter.

Arrange the rhubarb in the dish and sprinkle the sugar over. Toss the rhubarb a little to evenly distribute the sugar, but not too much; you don't want all the sugar to go to the bottom. Spread the oat mixture evenly over the top. Slowly pour the milk mixture over the top, and thump the pan on the counter gently to evenly distribute the milk through the oats. Sprinkle the remaining walnuts on top.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until golden and set. Serve warm.

Maple Olive Oil Granola

This parenting thing, man, it's for real. I was so cavalier about it all through my pregnancy. I've been babysitting since I was, like, eleven years old, I thought, I've got this. Let me just say, I don't think there is anything that could have prepared me for the crazy balancing act of motherhood.



Most recently, I've learned that anything some doctor can think up to write in a book, they can find a study to back it up. Seriously. A great example: Kids should be left to cry vs. Kids shouldn't be left to cry. So you read those two articles (or two books corresponding to the respective parenting strategies), and then for weeks your brain whirrs nonstop, trying to figure out what is best for your baby and your family. You find yourself unable to think or talk about anything but the problem you're currently trying to solve. And then as soon as you think you've got it figured out... they grow out of it. WHAT. I've never been great at improvising or relinquishing control, but this takes "rolling with the punches" to a whole new level.



Things that have helped: Prayer. Google*. Tea and wine and chocolate. Getting outside every day. Hilarious mom friends, in real life and online. And a simple morning routine that involves, in no particular order, coffee, a shower, getting dressed in real clothes, minimal makeup, and a good breakfast. Good breakfasts are not to be missed, and that's what I'd like to share with you today. Homemade granola so delicious it (almost) makes you forget you were up every two hours last night. I like to sprinkle a few tablespoons of granola over a bowl of unsweetened cereal (like this one), top with sliced fruit and douse with whole milk. It's also fantastic with plain whole milk yogurt.

*Google is not always helpful. 

Maple Olive Oil Granola
adapted from Orangette

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 cup raw pecan halves
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes/chips (the big ones that look like shavings)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup Grade B real maple syrup
1/2 cup olive oil

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the oats, pumpkin seeds, pecans, sunflower seeds, coconut, salt, and brown sugar in a large bowl and stir to mix. Mix together the maple syrup and olive oil (I measured mine directly into a Pyrex measuring cup and mixed in there) and pour over the oat mixture, stirring to coat. Spread the mixture evenly on the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until evenly golden. Allow to cool completely before storing.

Radicchio Almond Carrot Cake with Orange Mascarpone Whipped Cream + Life Lessons from Childbirth

This weekend I was able to slip away for a couple of hours to take a spin class, my first real workout since Anne was born. As I settled into the bike seat and started pedaling, my brain started whining even louder than the deafening music in the studio. After about 20 minutes of "Ugh, this is terrible. It hurts. I forgot how uncomfortable these bike seats are. Ow, my legs! I hate this! It's only been TEN minutes? I'll never survive!" this thought finally occurred to me:

Lady, you had a BABY 10 weeks ago. Without drugs. This is NOTHING.

After that, I had a lot more fun.



A couple of months before Anne was due, we took a birth preparation class called Birthing From Within (I highly recommend it: if you're in the Chicago area, look up Holly. If not, the book is great, too!). Little did I know how much the lessons learned in that class, and from my own experience of birth, would come in so handy in other areas of my life.

Life Lesson #1: You can do anything for one minute (or one hour, or one day...).

Especially helpful during labor, when there are regularly spaced intervals of pain and rest, is the thought that each contraction will only last for 60-90 seconds, and that at the most, labor only lasts for one to two days. That's it! I have used this one so often, to help me when I had a difficult day of nursing, when I was completely exhausted, to get through 10 days away from home in December (not easy with a newborn!). When something is challenging or painful, the knowledge that it won't be that way forever is very freeing.

Life Lesson #2: Coping with pain through detached awareness + refocused energy.

Ow, it hurts! There's not much power in that, is there? What if you notice and try to describe it? Where is the center of the pain? Where are the edges? In our first week at home, I was exhausted, and it felt like I was on a never-ending hamster wheel of waking, sleeping, nursing, and changing diapers. When you can't count on a full night of sleep anymore, your day no longer starts at 6am and ends at 10pm. So where are the boundaries? It helped me so much to start thinking of my days as a 24-hour block that reset at 7am. That way, if it had been a rough night, we got to start over. And if it was a great night, I wasn't tempted to skip taking a nap while Anne did, because I was preparing for the unknown night ahead. It made a huge difference, and all I did was change how I thought about the day.

Life Lesson #3: A huge effort and a lot of pain yield great rewards.

This is not news, and needs no explaining, but I'll say it anyway: childbirth hurts. A lot. But after it's over you have a baby, and a crazy amount of happy hormones. Caring for a newborn is an immense effort, but you get to snuggle them (!), and after about 6 weeks, THEY SMILE AT YOU (!!). Breastfeeding can be a challenge, but it is an amazing, miraculous food for your baby, and helps you to lose baby weight! Spinning might be a little uncomfortable, but in taking care of my body, I get to provide an example to my baby of how to care for her body, and I stay healthy so that I'll be around for more of her life!

Life Lesson #4: When it's over, let it go. Savor moments of rest.

After each contraction, there is a rest. Time without pain, without work. During the rest, you can freak out ("I can't do this for much longer! That one hurt so much! What if the next one is worse?) or you can let it go. If you let it go, you take advantage of the rest, and you're better able to handle what comes next, whatever it is. If the last 10 weeks are any indicator, I'll probably never be able to predict what's next again, so I'm doing my best to just live in each moment fully. And this moment, right here? There's a lot to savor.



Radicchio Almond Carrot Cake with Orange Mascarpone Whipped Cream
adapted from Dolci, by Francine Segan

Slightly bitter radicchio in a sweet cake; an apt metaphor for motherhood.



For the cake:

3 large eggs
1 cup sugar + extra for sprinkling
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup almond flour (sometimes called almond meal)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground cinnamon
2 carrots, grated (about 1 cup)
1 small head radicchio, finely chopped (about 2 cups)

For the whipped cream:

8 ounces mascarpone
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
1 tablespoon orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and butter and flour a 9-inch round pan. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together until light yellow. Add flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, butter, carrots and radicchio and mix on low until well-combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden and crackly, and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

While the cake cools, combine mascarpone, cream, sugar, and orange zest and juice, and whip until well-combined and fluffy. Serve alongside the cooled cake, or spread decoratively over the top.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

There's a ceiling fan in our dining room, which connects to our kitchen. It is Anne's new best friend. I sit her in her little bouncy chair underneath it and she stares contentedly at it, smiling and cooing. Between that set-up and wearing her in the sling, I can get a fair amount of stuff done! As a new mom, it's amazing the tiny things that can make me feel like a rock star. "Not only did I just mix these cookies and get them in the oven, I cleaned up my kitchen before the baby needed me!" Totally worthy of high fives. Timing errands so that the baby goes in the car seat full and sleepy, takes a nap, wakes up happy and isn't hungry until you're back at home? Oh my gosh, that lady deserves some sort of medal.



I have had my eye on this cookbook for a long time, and I got it as a Christmas gift! It is already even better than I thought it would be! To tell you the truth, I really love the recipe that's on the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip bag - it has never failed me. These cookies are a complete departure from those. I love the nutty flavor of the whole-wheat flour, and the crumbly texture it gives the cookies. The kosher salt gives an extra crunch and a little extra sparkle. Adding an extra teaspoon of vanilla and dark instead of light brown sugar lends a sophisticated depth. The cookies really are best straight from the oven, or later that day (as Kim says in the book), so I would suggest you do as I did: bake a pan or two when you make the dough, and then refrigerate the rest of the dough (already formed into balls) to be baked throughout the week as you want them. They are fantastic with a cup of coffee for breakfast.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce



3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and toss together with a fork. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter and sugars, and mix on low until well-blended, about two minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl when needed. Add the vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until well-blended. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.

Scoop dough into balls about 3 tablespoons in size, roll slightly between your palms, and place about 3 inches apart on the prepared pan. Bake 16-20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time, until cookies are evenly browned. Slide the parchment and cookies onto the counter to cool.