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Life's Little Sweets

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Sand Tart Cookie Recipe

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Sand Tart Cookie Recipe

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Slow Cooker Crock-Pot Butter Corn

Homemade Coffee Creamer

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Homemade Coffee Creamer

Maple Cinnamon Butter

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Life’s Little Sweets celebrates seasonal cooking and local food pathways. Find inspiration from farms, CSAs, and home gardens with recipes that highlight fresh ingredients, community, and the joy of cooking through the seasons. Continue Reading

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Maple Shortbread Cookies

This recipe infuses the rich, distinct flavor of maple syrup into the classic buttery shortbread, offering a delightful twist on traditional shortbread cookies. Adjust the sweetness by varying the amount of maple syrup to suit your taste preferences.

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Best Dog Products

I want to share my favorite dog products. These are dog products that I have experience with and purchased myself, and used.

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Instant Pot Ham Vegetable Soup lifeslittlesweets.com

Fall Soup Recipes

When the weather gets cooler and those leaves start falling, you know it’s time to cozy up with a hot, delicious bowl of soup! We have a list of yummy, nutritious fall/autumn soups that you can make at home.

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Popular and Delicious Fall Seasonal Recipes

It’s time for some cranberry, pumpkin, apples, and everything spiced! Sweater season is here which means we’re hungrier than ever. Want to know what food to cook this Fall? Keep on reading!

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This Pumpkin Spice Bread yields 2 generous loaves and can be customized with your favorite toppings and Vanilla Coconut Icing! Bring this favorite to your next holiday gathering! Be sure to check out the other #FoodieMamas pumpkin recipes in the post! #pumpkin #bread #pumpkinspice

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    • Sand Tart Cookie Recipe
      Sand Tart Cookie Recipe
    • Slow Cooker Crock-Pot Butter Corn lifeslittlesweets.com
      Slow Cooker Crock-Pot Butter Corn
    • Homemade Coffee Creamer
      Homemade Coffee Creamer
    • Maple Cinnamon Butter
      Maple Cinnamon Butter
    • Maple Shortbread Cookies
    • DIY No-Sew Fleece Dog Bed Story Poster Image
      Best Dog Products
    • Instant Pot Ham Vegetable Soup lifeslittlesweets.com
      Fall Soup Recipes
    • cropped-IMG_5275-Pumpkin-Spice-Baked-Donuts-www.lifeslittlesweets.com-Sara-Maniez-680x1020-1.jpg
      Popular and Delicious Fall Seasonal Recipes
    • This Pumpkin Spice Bread yields 2 generous loaves and can be customized with your favorite toppings and Vanilla Coconut Icing! Bring this favorite to your next holiday gathering! Be sure to check out the other #FoodieMamas pumpkin recipes in the post! #pumpkin #bread #pumpkinspice
      Pumpkin Spice Bread
    • October Recipes
      October Recipes
    • Blueberry Syrup
    • Wineberry Recipes Collection lifeslittlesweets.com
      Wineberry Recipes Collection
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    This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy

    January 5, 2021

    January 2021 Coffee Time

    January 2021 Coffee Time - It’s Coffee Time and time for our monthly, life update check-in post.

    Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

    Sun rising in the Winter
    Sunrise at the end of December 2020

    January 2021 Coffee Time

    Hi Everyone, Happy New Year! It's the dawn of a new day, it's January 2021, and time to turn the page on 2020.

    I usually start every year pretty hopeful and reflective 🙂

    Did you see our last Coffee Time post?

    December 2020 Coffee Time

    Update 1/11/2021: I realize when I published this post, in the URL I wrote 2020 instead of 2021, oh well! I updated the post but the URL still has the old date. Sorry! It's just been "one of those months" already.

    What have you been thinking about and planning for in the New Year?

    For me, it's a time of cleaning and clearing out, getting organized for tax time, and making sure things are finished up.

    For example, I am eyeing up cleaning out my kitchen cabinet drawers, rethinking the kiddos toy and book storage situations and contemplating our upstairs renovation again (a huge project we had planned on doing pre-pandemic which didn't happen).

    Now that our normal is full-remote (for the time being) school for our 1st grader, I'm contemplating more yard projects to entertain the kiddos since we spend so much more time around the house and I anticipate for it to be like that for the long-term.

    One thing that I know for sure, I am spending more time (daylight hours) than usual in my pajamas but not so much time that I want to stop or at least not in the near future.

    CSA Box Share

    If you are looking for a CSA Box Share subscription and are local to NJ and PA, I recommend the Roots to River Farm box share. It runs from June to October and you can choose different sizes and customize your box share. I've been getting their CSA share for food for blog recipes for years now and I love their produce!

    New Calendar

    I am waiting for my new Passion Planner that I have ordered for years now. which helps keep me organized and on track throughout the year.

    I also ordered their desk calendar to try out too.

    I do have a unique Passion Planner rewards referral link, in case you are interested, Here. (Terms of the referral link: "Give your friends $5 off their first purchase of $15 or more and get $5 in points for each successful referral")

    Winter moon rising on a cloudy evening in the woods
    January 2021 moonrise

    Refocus

    I had a conversation with another blogger friend recently, and they wondered how I had the time to do all that I do, the truth is, a lot of my projects have been tabled as I've had to address other things during the new, strange time.

    It "feels" like I drop a lot of the balls I am trying to juggle. This is really a time to refocus goals and expectations.

    A lot of my time, like many other parents during this time, is taken up by, having to be my kid's teacher (well, "like" a teacher, I don't do everything that the amazing teachers she has do!) part of the day and it's really a balancing act. My heart goes out to any mother or parent who is going through this because I know...I KNOW.

    I will add, even though it's hard, I find myself constantly digging deeper to find abilities that I didn't know I had as a parent and my family has bonded so much during this time, from ping-ponging from online video call to online video call to making meals around the clock, to really living in our house like never before...it sure is interesting and there's a lot of good that can come out of this too.

    I've also taken on other projects and focused more on what I'm passionate about.

    This time feels like, "the journey inward" and that's a positive thing to come out of this.

    Even if I am having any issues, I know that it pales in comparison to someone else who might be sick during this time and the frontline and healthcare workers face every day. I understand this because I know people and have family who is sick with the virus, I know people and have family who has died of the virus, and people and family who are healthcare workers (what they do is amazing).

    We can't be careful enough - that's what I have learned through observation and experience. Let's be kind and take care of each other.

    What's New

    I started (I mean, just started) making Google Web Stories for the blog.

    For the purposes of this blog, they are like little teasers for posts (they exist on their own like posts on the blog under a different URL) that give you a quick snapshot of a post, what to expect, and will link to the corresponding blog or recipe post.

    They are in a card format where you can page through them, like an Instagram (I am most active here for IG stories, you can follow my Instagram, Here) or Facebook story.

    They are very new at this point and I am sure there will be a lot that will change with them but I am excited about them, the possibilities for the future.

    What's Next?

    It is January now, so expect to see healthier recipes as I like to do #healthyjanuary posts every year.

    Don't be surprised to see some sweet recipes sprinkled in there because it is Winter now and Valentine's Day is next month, after all. 🙂

    I am posting many recipes that I batched before I had my daughter this past June, some of which I shot a couple of years ago, just in case I needed them or found myself not having much time to photograph recipes (which may or may not involve a set, backgrounds, lighting, etc. that takes more time to do).

    I went through a period of time where I really took the time to photograph all the food that I would make that I thought would be good for the blog, in some way.

    Some of the recipes that I am posting right now may not have my more recent photography style but I am brushing aside my perfectionism because whenever I've trusted my gut on sharing a recipe on here, even if it wasn't perfect, it usually is what people were looking for when they land here, so I will keep that in mind and share away, anyway.

    Latest Posts

    • Sand Tart Cookie Recipe
    • Slow Cooker Crock-Pot Butter Corn
    • Homemade Coffee Creamer
    • Maple Cinnamon Butter
    • Maple Shortbread Cookies

    Stay in Touch

    In case you don't already, make sure to sign up for my email list that I send regularly out weekly or bi-weekly; You can sign up for the email list on the "Home" page or any page on this blog.

    Stay safe everyone, thank you for your support of this blog, thank you for making my recipes and reading and following along!

    See All Our Coffee Time Posts

    • November 2020 Coffee Time
    • October 2020 Coffee Time
    • September 2020 Coffee Time

    Check out our Recipe & DIY indexes, visit our Home page to view our latest posts & categories, visit our Blog page to see our posts in consecutive order and, our Shop to see our favorite kitchen tools!

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    Sara Maniez
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    Sara Maniez
    Owner at Life's Little Sweets
    Life’s Little Sweets is a seasonal cooking and local food blog featuring farm-to-table recipes, CSA inspiration, and creative ways to enjoy what’s fresh and in season.
    Sara Maniez
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    Latest posts by Sara Maniez (see all)
    • Sand Tart Cookie Recipe - December 11, 2025
    • Slow Cooker Crock-Pot Butter Corn - November 23, 2025
    • Homemade Coffee Creamer - November 23, 2025

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