mom's granola

My mom makes the best granola in the entire world.  Every time we go home, for as long as I can remember, she makes it for us just because she loves us.  It only took me about 6 years to figure out that I could make it myself.  Since then, it has become a familiar friend at our home.  You can add flax seed, wheat germ, raisins, almonds, dried fruit, anything you like.  As my mom was making (a second batch) this weekend, we decided it would be fun to add craisins.  Next time I'll try it... Yum!

Mom's Granola
5 cups uncooked oats
1 cup coconut
1 cup cashews
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Spread oats on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Heat 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Combine oats, coconut, cashews, salt, and brown sugar in a large bowl.  Stir in honey, oil, and vanilla.  Mix thoroughly with a spoon until dry ingredients are well coated.  Spoon onto cookie sheet, bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees, stirring every 10 minutes.  It cools as a solid mass, but comes apart easily.  Store it in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

beautiful people

For some reason Memorial Day this year, more so than others, finds me reflecting on the people that I love that I have lost in my life.  I've been thinking specifically lately about memories made, lessons learned, and opportunities missed.

I have lost way too many dear people in my life than seems fair, but I have lately been thinking of three specific losses that have really touched me and changed my life in different ways.  

My Grandma passed away several years ago.  I miss her so much! She is one of the number one joyful memories that I have of my childhood.  Because we lived next to them, she is a part of most of the memories that I have growing up.  I spent day after day with her, listening to her, playing with her, creating with her, singing with her.  I even ate bread and milk with her.  It was the most horrible tasting stuff ever, but I wanted to be like her!  She was always smiling, always glad to see us, always looking for opportunities to teach us.  We played with her cats, ran and played in their irrigation water, climbed her weeping willow trees, smelled and picked her lilacs, put on puppet shows, and played house with her dishes made from jar lids and medicine cups.  My favorite thing to do was to sleep over at her house.  On those special occasions, we played games, wrote and illustrated stories, made paper dolls, ate popcorn and played dress-ups. She never seemed to be too busy for us. When Our Princess was born, she sent me a letter filled with the songs that she used to sing to us when we were small.  When My Angel was born, she sent me another letter that was filled with her favorite inspiring hymns to give me strength in hard times.  These letters are still some of my most cherished possessions.  I think about her so much more than I would have even thought, and often feel like she is close, giving me strength and pushing me through when I need it.  She'll be one of the first people I hope to see on the other side.

Around the same time that my grandma died, we lost a very close friend to pancreatic cancer.  He and Count Studley had been best friends growing up and he married one of my best friends in the whole world. The boys proposed to my friend and I at the same time. (in different places!) We had the most out-of-control dreams and aspirations of where our lives were going to end up.  We beat them by a month in marriage and in first-born. We got girls, they got boys. We laughed and teased and spent all of our spare time together, even when it was hard to fit in.  Just as he finished PT school and he and his wife had two gorgeous small boys, he was diagnosed.  He fought hard, it was an ugly and difficult battle, and yet through it all he stayed so strong.  It didn't even seem right, yet through the whole battle, he and his little family were sharing strength with us and everyone else around.  They were so close to God, and they helped us to feel that closeness as well.  We wanted to be with them whenever we could, just to feel that strength.  The meager help we tried to give was nothing compared to the lessons we were taught from experiencing what we did of that with them.  He was an incredible man, and I've never doubted that he was needed to serve on the other side and that he has been doing amazing things there.  But I can't help but feel sadness for the loss that his family and friends have suffered since his death. I still absolutely love and admire his great wife, my friend, who reminds me still to laugh and be crazy even when I don't feel like it. Our relationship with them has been one of the greatest life lessons that we have ever experienced and I will always be grateful for them.

Last year,  I lost a friend very unexpectedly from an infection that went bad.  I had known her for several years and had admired her since we'd first met.  We had a lot in common and had several opportunities to work together in church responsibilities. She was creative and intelligent and fun to talk to and I thought all the time that I'd love to spend more time with her.  We were even the same age! For some reason, she touched me. But life is crazy and I am the ultimate procrastinator.  Not kidding, as I drove past her work every single day, I thought about her and made a mental note to stop in to see her, but I didn't often take the time.  When I found out she was in the hospital, I rushed down to visit her, but she didn't even know I was there.  Within two weeks she went from healthy to gone.  I was devastated.  Her funeral was beautiful, but broke my heart, because it came out that she had been so lonely and sad for a long time.  She had never married, and had tried so hard to put everything she had into life, but it's challenging, and it's lonely, and good friends make all the difference. Count Studley couldn't figure out why I couldn't stop crying for weeks, but I knew that I had missed an opportunity that had been mine to touch her life and to let her touch mine in return.

IN GOD'S GARDEN

God looked around His garden 

and found an empty place.
He then looked down upon the earth 

and saw your tired face.
He put His arms around you 

and lifted you to rest.
God's garden must be beautiful. 

He only takes the best. 

He knew that you were suffering. 

He knew you were in pain.
He knew that you would never 
get well on earth again.
He saw the road getting rough 

and the hills were hard to climb.
So He closed your weary eyelids 

and whispered, "Peace be thine". 

It broke our hearts to lose you

but you did not go alone.

A part of us went with you

the day God took you home.

If tears could build a stairway

and heartaches make a lane,

we'd walk our way to heaven

and bring you back again.

In life we loved you dearly,

in death we love you still.

In our hearts you hold a place

that no one could ever fill.

-Author Unknown

Well that's a lot more reflective than I usually let myself get.  But I will always be grateful for the memories that I have and lessons that I've learned from people that I love who are gone.  Some of the lessons have been harder to learn than others, but they have definitely changed me and my perspective on this life that we're living. I'm grateful for the knowledge that I have that we will be able to be together with those we love for eternity after this life is through and to know that when someone I love is taken from this earth, they are in a beautiful place, with beautiful people, and that I'll be there with them someday, thanks to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who made it possible.



Keep Smiling!

for the love of birds

A couple of years ago, My Angel discovered a new interest. Birds.  She became fascinated with identifying them and feeding them and watching them.  We put a feeder outside her bedroom window and took photos as the birds came to eat so that she could identify them. She made a book cataloging their individual characteristics. She worked and studied really hard!

Since then, we've spent some time making some pretty 'creative' bird feeders. This is one for thistle seeds that Count Studley made from a garbaged (and emptied out!) power strip. I must admit that the birds (and the neighbors) never did figure out what it's purpose was...

We have also gotten some fun books with recipes to make treats for the birds and have tried several of them out. As time has gone on, My Angel  has become a little less obsessive, but we still try to keep the feeders full and we all have grown to love watching them come and feed outside our windows.
I've seen in all kinds of preschool activity ideas for years to spread peanut butter on pine cones and roll them in birdseed mix, and I saw these cute little wooden bird houses at the dollar store and wondered if they would be as effective.  Ya, they were, and look how cute they ended up being!

To begin with, I drilled a hole on each side of the roof to string some jute twine through after we finished. Next step; peanut butter.
I decided that these are even better than pine cones because the peanut butter spreads on so much easier. My Angel has a hard time using her hands but was able to do it pretty well.  She started out spreading the peanut butter on with a spoon, but then gave up and just used her hands. (Eeewwwwww!)

Then Our Princess and her friend smashed them into a pan of mixed birdseed, covering all of the peanut butter and pressing it down firmly to stay.

We cut up some dried fruit into small chunks and pressed it into the birdhouses, threaded the jute through with a large needle, knotted it, and they were finished!

These make really fun gifts, especially for grandparents. In fact, we gave one to a 'neighbor grandma' and have had to re-do it several times because it was such a hit with her birds. The birds eat everything right off to the bare wood, it's absolutely amazing!

I have thought it would be so fun to hang several of them from a tree, but the birds have cleaned them off so fast, I don't think we can keep up!

Happy Crafting!

peanut butter waffles

 I have discovered one of the most well-kept secrets of successful motherhood.  No kidding.  I really, truly have figured out how to make your kids not only eat, but love the food you cook.  And I'm so nice, I'll share it.  All you have to do is not cook anything real for 6 months or so, then slowly start re-introducing things again.  Really.  It works like you'd never believe. Cabbage-yup. Sweet potatoes-scarfed them down. Apple pancakes-asked for seconds. Peanut butter waffles-My Angel asked if there were enough left over to last the whole week. Oh yeah.
Peanut Butter Waffles?  Yup.  My sister introduced me to them when we were visiting her a couple of years ago.  They were totally tasty.  (I know my Aussie friends are retching about now, you'll have to disregard this post, or maybe try substituting VeggieMite for the peanut butter.  Hee Hee! Can you believe that these Aussie's are so uncivilized as to not understand the importance of peanut butter in every-day life??)  Well, anyway, I've cooked them up for my family a couple of times since then only to be met with all kinds of groaning and moaning and mocking and you know the usual sound effects...
So I made them again this week and to my utter astonishment, they were a hit.  Not just a hit, but a huge hit.  Like I said before, My Angel begged to have them every day of the week!  And the best part is still a secret- they are absolutely healthy!!

Whole-Wheat Peanut Butter Waffles

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 1/4 cups milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

Just mix and cook!  Can be mixed in an electric mixer with paddle attachments.  We loved them warm with homemade apple-cinnamon syrup. I must confess, though, that I have eaten them with vanilla ice-cream also which makes them a little less healthy... but super yum!

Enjoy!

time flies

The other day I noticed in the mirror one lone hair sticking straight up on the top of my head.  It looked a little funny, so I looked closer and Gasp! I realized I had my first. gray. hair. ever.  It was thick and coarse and kinky and (gray, of course!) And it was like 4 inches long!! Without even thinking, I plucked that baby out so fast. Then I thought to myself, "I can't keep doing that forever! If I pull out every single gray hair I find on my head, someday I'll be bald!!" I have been seriously thinking about this all week.  When I was a teenager, I couldn't imagine being as old as my mom and her friends, they were like almost 40!!  (That was back when 30 seemed ancient enough...) Now all of a sudden, I blinked and I'm there (the 30 part!) and I don't feel nearly as old as they seemed.  I'm not going to be (30) forever.  I mean, it was barely Christmas and now all of a sudden it's almost summer break! Life is screaming by and most days, I feel like I'm barely hanging on. I'm recognizing that life is not going to stop just because I find a happy place, I've got to keep finding happy places all along the way.  So somehow I've got to come to grips with gray hair and an emotional 13 year old and a daughter that drives (connection? hmmmmm) and a body that doesn't quite feel like it used to in a LOT of ways.

I found an article in the LDS Church news (Smile every day, Published Saturday May 23, 2009) that I thought was interesting.  It was pretty short so I just copied it all here:

The church's Young Women general presidency has issued a simple challenge to youths worldwide: Read the scriptures every day, pray every day and smile every day.
They promise that if a person does these things every day, 100 percent of the time, it will change the world. "From small and simple things great things will come to pass," said Sister Elaine S. Dalton, Young Women general president.
And while the youths may feel like reading the scriptures and praying every day are hard things to do, Sister Dalton says the most challenging part of the formula may also be simplest: smiling. (See Church News, "Forever Young — Leaders reunite," Nov. 22, 2008.)
Who knows if a smile can change the world, but research shows that it certainly can improve a person's life.
A recent study found that a habit of genuine smiling may contribute to happiness and better adjustment in life.
Researchers in the study looked through 141 photos in a Mills College (Oakland, Calif.) yearbook and separated out genuine smilers from inauthentic ones. The smilers were contacted at age 27, 43 and 52 and asked about the status of their marriage and life satisfaction.
The women with the genuine smiles were more likely to be married and stay married. They were also more likely to experience greater sense of personal well-being. These results were found to be consistent in a 30-year follow up ("A Genuine Smile Goes a 'Long Way,'" Vijai P. Sharma, www.mindpub.com).
For many years the conventional wisdom has been that people are happy because they are successful. But additional researchers, who analyzed 225 studies involving 275,000 people, found the truth might be just the opposite — that people are successful because they are happy.
Happy people are easier to work with, more highly motivated and more willing to tackle difficult projects. Thus they are more likely to be successful, found a 2005 study published by the American Psychological Association ("Smile For Success," Dec. 21, 2005, ABC News).
And a 2008 study shows that people who don't smile have a negative impact on their friends, and even people they don't know.
Each happy friend a person has boosts their chances of happiness by 9 percent. Having grumpy friends decreases it by about 7 percent, found researchers in a paper published last December in a British medical journal ("Smile! Study says being happy can be contagious," Deseret News, Dec. 5, 2008).
It might also be interesting to note that the researchers found that money cannot buy happiness. According to the research, extra money increased a person's odds of being happy only marginally — notably less than the odds of being happier if you have a happy friend.
So, during this time of economic doom and gloom, Church members should find things to smile about.
"Be happy," said President Gordon B. Hinckley in a 1978 Church Educational System fireside address. "Let that happiness shine through your face and speak through your testimonies."
President Hinckley noted that he met many people "who constantly complain about the burden of their responsibilities."
"Of course," he said, "the pressures are great. There is much, too much, to do. There are financial burdens to add to all of these pressures, and with all of this we are prone to complain, frequently at home, often in public. Turn your thinking around. The gospel is good news. Man is that he might have joy."
President Hinckley said he enjoyed the words of Jenkins Lloyd Jones written in a June 12, 1973, Deseret News column: "Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed.
"Most putts don't drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise.
"Life is like an old-time rail journey — delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."
Abraham Lincoln put it another way: "Most folks," he said, "are about as happy as they make their minds up to be" (www.quotesdaddy.com).
Church members, said Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve, "have so much to smile about, be happy about, yes, even to laugh about."
Yet, often, he said, many of us wait to show our smile. "Don't wait for tomorrow. Don't wait for the right job, the right house, the right salary, the right dress size. Be happy today. Be happy now. (Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Lessons Learned in the Journey of Life," Ensign, December 2000, 7).
So read your scriptures, and pray every day, 100 percent of the time. But in the process, don't forget to smile.
If you do, you might just change the world.


Keep Smiling!

jelly roll quilt along

This week brought a little bit of spare time (finally!) for ketchup-quilting.  The first project I worked on was a quilt that a couple of friends and I made to give to a good friend who is getting married.  We threw her a shower this week and decided that it would be fun to give her a cute snuggle blanket as a shower gift.  It actually worked out really well to do it together.  We got together to cut it out and make the blocks, then one friend took it home to finish putting it together, the other friend quilted it, and I watched a whole lot of Larkrise to Candleford sewed the binding on.  I think I'm going to suggest that we do it again for someone that lives at my house who really needs a cute quilt and can't seem to get one all the way finished...  I wonder if they'd go for it...

We used a package of charm squares to make the blocks, the kit was "reunion" from Moda.  The blues and greens and reds together made it so bright and fun.  All it is is a simple nine patch block cut down the middle both directions and then those four pieces turned and re-connected.  I should have done a demo but I didn't. But I will if anybody cares!

 

Check out that awesome binding job!!

In other (just as important) news, I would like to say that I am now officially caught up on our family jelly roll quilt along.  In January, my mom and sisters and sister in law and even some cousins on the other side of the world (Hi Guys!) and I started this fun quilt along from moose on the porch.  Well actually, because life has been what it has for me for the last few months, as of yesterday I hadn't even started January yet. But I would like to announce that as of today, I am completely caught up, and even almost ready to sneak ahead and do #6, which is supposed to be for June. It looks super fun and I've already picked out the strips I'm using for it...It's on my cutting mat ready to go. (Shhhh! Don't tell!)  Each month we are supposed to do a block, and initially no one was allowed to move on until everyone had it done.  That was about hilarious, they all got so tired of waiting for me and my empty promises that they finally just moved on without me. I know, rude, huh.

I'm using a jelly roll from my stash called "freebird" from Moda.  It is absolutely darling.
Here's my evidence:

January

February (My favorite)

Did anybody else notice that I put it together wrong?  Where's Angie when I need her?  My un-professional quilter eye didn't notice until I saw the photo on here. I try to avoid my friend, Mr. Un-Picker The Stitcher at all costs, but he sure is there for me whenever I need him. Now we're all good.  And it still is my favorite block.

March (Not loving it- blah!)

April

May

This will be such a fun, cute quilt when it's finished.  I can't wait!

Happy Crafting!

stuffed red peppers

This post is in honor of Count Studley and all the "mom time" he's spent over the last couple of months.  He really is quite amazing at pretty much everything he does. He rarely messes anything up. In fact, I'm a wee bit ashamed to say that he probably in the end was a better mom in a lot of ways than I am... 
I still trump on the housekeeping, though!

These stuffed red peppers were totally and completely his creation.  Notice he even served them up with (a few) green beans on the side! Next time we have an over-abundance of red peppers, I'll definitely be turning dinner back over to him again, we all thought they were absolutely wonderful. 

He combined a couple of recipes he found and this is what he ended up with:

Stuffed Red Peppers

4 red peppers
¾ lb ground beef
2 cups cooked rice
1 cup cottage cheese
½ cup cheddar cheese
1 cup marinara sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp ground pepper
½ tsp Italian seasoning
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Scrape out the insides of the bell peppers and soak them in boiling water for few minutes to make them tender. Cook the ground beef with the chopped onion and garlic over high heat and continue stir frying them until the garlic browns and the onions become translucent. Meanwhile, blend the marinara sauce and cheese together in a bowl, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Put in the rice and hamburger mixture and mix thoroughly. Stuff the bell peppers completely with the filling. Arrange them on a baking dish. Top each of them with grated cheese. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the cheese melts. 

Enjoy!

my mother

I saw a card in the store the other day that said something like

they asked what we wanted to be when we grew up 
one said a teacher.
one said a doctor.
I said I want to be like my mother. 
they had no idea how wonderful that could be.

Trust me, they said it much better than I remember it, but Emotional Me got all teary right there in the grocery store thinking about how much I LOVE being like my mother.  Funny thing is, especially when I was growing up, she never would have guessed it, but I admire her more than any one else in the world.  My goal every day is to become more like her.  She is strong, she is righteous, she is wise, she never stops working and she has a heart full of charity.  She is crafty, she is an amazing cook, and has a pretty darn good sense of humor when it comes down to it.  She has faced challenges in her life that I could never dream of facing and come out on top, never backing down.  She could be bitter and resentful, but she keeps an eternal perspective and looks for the good in people, even when I don't think they deserve it. (I told you I'm still working on it...)   Maybe it's good that we don't live too close.  I'm pretty sure I would neglect my responsibilities as a mother and spend every moment I had sharing and creating fun projects that she finds.  She always creates opportunities to teach me, whether it's quilting or cooking or crocheting or something from the scriptures or even about being Christlike in my interactions with others.  She keeps my family motivated to study and learn and grow in the gospel with programs and activities.  A great majority of my favorite times are spent with her and she is one of my very best friends.

She'd better live to be a hundred and fifty, because I'm pretty sure I can't live without her.

Love you mom.

Keep Smiling!

organization of the travel kind...

Living out of a suitcase for any amount of time is hard. Before I left for Australia, I tried to come up with some ways to keep all my stuff organized during travel and was hoping as well that it would help while I was staying with family. Customs can open any suitcase and rifle through, (yup, they did, too) so things needed to be easy to search as well.  These bags were the perfect solution.  And they were so easy.  I had several made in just a couple of hours.  I used them for everything from make up to vitamins to underwear and socks. (You're welcome for not posting a picture of my underwear and socks!)
 I used the heavy clear vinyl which made it more durable.  But my sewing machine didn't like it very well...  I didn't take time to make a tutorial, which is a good thing because I just looked on pinterest and found one here that someone else had already taken the time to do. It's actually a great little tutorial-I wish I'd seen it sooner!

I thought for a long time about how to keep my jewelry organized during my trip.  Our Princess came up with some good ideas, but in the end, I decided to use individual small ziplock craft bags to keep necklaces from getting tangled and broken.  It worked perfectly! That is how I'll be storing them for travel from here on out.

 

They all just slid nicely into a little pouch.

Without fail, whenever it's time to leave, the straightener is still hot and I end up packing it around out of my case until it cools down enough to be put away.  I saw this novel idea for hot irons on Pinterest, I'm sure.  In fact, I probably pinned it, but it's one of those that you see and think, HA! I can do that!

All it takes is a hot pad.  Really!  Just fold it in half and sew around one short side and the long side.  I added a ribbon to tie the cord up in to make sure that it all, once again, stayed organized. The straightener slides right up inside and it's ok if it's still warm!

My curling iron has a handle that pokes up, so on this one, I left an opening at the bottom for it.

I am sad to say that my straightener blew up the first time I used it over there.  I was absolutely distraught because I totally loved that guy and it was really new, too!

This was a great idea that I got (once again from you-know-where) to put your shoes in cheap hair nets to keep them from getting everything around them dirty.  It also helped with organization, because both shoes in the pair are together and I didn't have to search for missing shoe-mates!

After I unpacked it all, all of it fit perfectly inside the largest pouch to slide into a cupboard to store.

And because sometimes I'm a little bit nuts-o, at the last minute I made these little luggage tags with the left over vinyl. The tutorial is from make it and love it.  They were super fun and super easy.  I should probably make some more sometime for my girls.

Happy Crafting!