My love affair with granola (the food. Not the lifestyle).

I am not someone who grew up eating granola. That's kind of weird, considering I'm from Seattle and the entire west coast is probably more "granola" than the east coast. But I just never ate it. I'm not sure if this was because my Mom didn't buy it or because she bought it and I chose not to eat it. Either scenario is entirely possible. I remember having a granola bar once or twice and not liking it unless there were chocolate chips in it. And even then, I figured I would rather just lick the chocolate off that crunchy stuff and then throw it away. So what was the point?

I also have a vivid memory of a favorite high school teacher of mine telling us the story of an extended camping-and-whitewater-rafting trip he went on when he was in college in which the only food provided turned out to be granola. And the first day, it accidentally got dumped in the river during the whitewater rafting. So they spent the entire time surviving on soggy-- and then moldy-- granola. He hated granola more passionately than you can probably imagine. Students would frequently slip granola bars into his desk as a joke, and although he was a super fun teacher, that was the only joke he never found funny.

I can't eat granola without thinking of him. And laughing.



So those are pretty much the sum of my experiences with granola. I don't love it and my teacher hated it. End of story. Until. The day my friend Emily offered me some homemade granola. I was reluctant. But I knew very well that Emily is a fabulous chef. She's one of those people who whips up homemade soups and desserts and things without even thinking about it and they're always amazing and usually not that hard to make (or at least, she says they're easy-- they always sound on the complicated side to me). Most of my favorite recipes are ones I stole from her. So I already knew to eat whatever Emily offered me from her kitchen. Which was why I tried the granola.

And it was no exception to her standard excellence. Who would have guessed that granola could taste like this???

This would be worth making, I thought. I asked for the recipe.

But then I couldn't find some of the ingredients (dry milk, I think? Where is that in a grocery story???) and the ones I could find were expensive (who knew that wheat germ was so pricey???), so I never got around to making it. Which is what happens to about 83% of all fabulous recipes that I collect, unfortunately. (Sorry, Pinterest, but you know it's true.)

So that was that, until a year and a bit ago, when I invited sisters and family-friends-the-Hogans to spend Thanksgiving with us. (And by "spend Thanksgiving with us" what I actually meant was, "Come stay at my house and my mother-in-law will cook a feast for you! And then I'll have a baby three days later! Fun!") To help out with the food a bit, Kat brought homemade granola with her. She'd made an enormous bowl of it and it disappeared so quickly. We ate it with milk for breakfast. We snacked on it. And it was delicious. When she left the last little bit with us, I was thrilled because I wouldn't have said it out loud but I really wanted that granola.

So when we started trying to eat healthier, I decided it was finally time to buckle down and make granola. And it turns out it's not that hard and it really is so good! I make it every few weeks now. And even though the recipe makes a TON, it's always gone in a few days. We love it. You should try it. But you'll have to make your own, because ours will be gone by the time you get here.

So here is Kat's recipe! Whenever I find Emily's (or have her send me a new copy), I'll post that one, too, because they're pretty different and both really great. Happy, healthy crunching!



Kat's Granola
8 cups oats, no instant
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups wheat germ (optional)
8 oz. almonds
8 oz. cashews
8 oz. coconut, unsweetened, large ribbon
3 oz. sunflower seeds
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter (<---- Since Craig is allergic to peanuts, I just use almond butter instead)
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup raisins

Mix oats, sugar, nuts, coconut, and sunflower seeds in a large bowl. Heat water, oil, honey, and peanut butter until it begins to bubble. Add vanilla and pour over dry ingredients. Mix well and spread on two large cookie sheets. Bake in 200 degree oven for about two hours or until coconut is golden. Stir occasionally while baking. Add raisins when cool. Store in an airtight container.
(From Bed and Breakfast Inns of Utah)

Material Girl. Sort of. Not Really.

Every time someone posts something on facebook about how they "just love using cloth diapers (squee!)," I suspect that they're lying to me. It must be one of those "misery loves company" things, and they're trying to coerce me into joining them in cloth diaper hell. Right?

I've already become too granola: I'm eating a lot less meat and dairy. I'm a fan of natural birth (preferably at home!) and breastfeeding. I'm seriously considering getting special shoes that would enable me to "run barefoot." I actually-- literally-- make granola and eat it as often as I can afford to. And worse yet, the rest of the family loves it, too, so we go through a huge batch in a matter of days.

If I switched to cloth diapers, I'd have officially left mainstream America as I know it. So in order to preserve my own idea of who I am, I will not ever try cloth diapers.

Never.

So stop trying to convince me.

So True.

This blog Momastery has been printing a series of "best of" posts and they are awesome. I first learned about it when a bunch of my friends linked her post on facebook about the awful thing old ladies like to say to young mothers-- "Enjoy every minute of your kids being little!" This woman's response was so spot-on to how I feel that I immediately became a follower. And now she posts this message about the choice to stay home or work, and I find myself wishing she lived here in Manassas so I could look her up and we could be best friends. Read them! Read them both! Then read all the posts in between, because they really are that good.

Why can't I write like her? No matter, I'm just glad that she can and is willing to take the time to share her talents with the likes of me!

Happy Saturday to all!

Conversations with My Children

Bentley and Kendra were supposed to be getting dressed in their room while I was checking on Ryder. I went back upstairs to find them both fully clothed, laying on their beds, trying to suppress giggles. I took the bait and asked, "What's going on, guys?"

And they responded gleefully, "We're pretending to be dead!"

"Oh... Um, why?"

"So that way if the evil decepticons show up, they'll think we're dead! And then when they leave, we can rise up and shoot them!"

That may be the weirdest answer I have ever heard. To anything.



A few minutes later they announced that they had the magical power to turn anyone into a transformer. So it won't be long before I give up my humdrum life as a stay-at-home mom and resume it as Sentinel Prime. Bentley is already Bumblebee, Kendra is Optimus Prime, and Ryder is Megatron (he likes to roar, so that qualifies him as a bad guy, apparently), so I should fit right in.



Life. It's such an adventure!

A (very short and not in-depth at all) Political Rant

Every time I see these bumper stickers

I get angry.

Are these people paying attention to what's going on in this country at all? To the economy? Our abysmal foreign policy? The horrendous health care we'll be saddled with in just a couple years? The war in Afghanistan? The fact that gitmo still is open? The extravagant vacations and golf and weird hushed-up White House parties while most of the country is struggling to find work? Who is it, exactly, who still likes Obama? I would think that there are things in the above list that would make both conservatives and liberals angry.

Now, once the Republican Party has chosen its nominee, if you would prefer Obama to that person, then that is your right and privilege. I may disagree with you, but it is still a free country.

But to be rooting for him when you don't even know the alternative?

Really???

This'n'That

I have so many little things I need to write down before I can forget them, so that means it's time for another hodgepodge post!

-Ryder is getting closer to walking. After seeing his cousins (who are just a few months older) strolling around, he finally caught the vision that this was something he could do, too. So now he'll walk holding my fingers, and occasionally he'll let go of things and just stand without any help. It's a work in progress!

-He also likes to brush his hands back and forth against each other, sort of like the action for the song "Do As I'm Doing," but more up and down and less circular. He gets a huge grin on his face as he does it, too. He knows he's hot stuff!

-Bentley has finally transitioned into being a generally pleasant little boy! Not that he doesn't still have his Mr Hyde moments, but on average he's a really good kid for me. It's been so delightful! There were a few months there where I seriously considered shipping him off to Yemen.

-Kendra has decided that the best way to express her love is through food. She is constantly pretending to make cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and muffins for me and anyone else who stops by the house. This is making my diet even crappier, as she's constantly reminding me about the yummy things I can't eat. But I appreciate that she is so kind and loving! She is also going to primary now, which she loves. I think it helps that Bentley was already there-- she's always excited to be near her big brother.

-Speaking of the diet, I hit my first weight goal yesterday! I'm mostly thrilled by that, but a little worried, too. If I'm going to be honest, I think I may have lost too much too soon, and I'm afraid it isn't very healthy. I worry that I'll just bounce right back to my previous weight. So I'll be trying to ease off the super-strict diet at the end of the week without allowing myself to go completely crazy. Doing the yo-yo thing with my weight won't do me any good!

-After three trips to Costco (yes! 3!!!), and one week after I discovered that I had a flat tire, I finally have all new tires on my van. We've been talking about doing this since we bought the thing five years ago, so this was kind of exciting for me. Unfortunately, Costco was all out of the tires in the right size. My first trip I got no tires. The second trip I got one to replace the flat. And my third trip, I finally got the other three (and my $70 discount for buying four tires, thank you very much). All of this was done with Kendra and Ryder in tow. They were pretty good for me, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a huge pain in the you-know-where!

-Ryder is finally weaned! And around the same time that happened, he went back to sleeping through the night again. I don't know if there's a connection there, but either way, I'm enjoying it! All during Christmas break he kept waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning, and it was slowly killing me. I'm a wimp, but I really don't do well unless I get the full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep!

-We took the kids to the Museum of American History on Saturday. (We only even tried this because it was a 3-day weekend, so we knew we'd have Monday to recover.) Their favorite part was the Metro ride into the city. The rest of the trip was spent whining either because they were hungry or because they wanted to go home or (in Ryder's case) because he didn't want to be in the stroller any more (he did find three steps that he could climb up and down, and spent twenty minutes happily doing so). It was exhausting. And I think some of the major exhibits were closed, because people keep asking me what I thought of things that weren't there (like Julia Child's kitchen! And the sunstone from the Nauvoo temple! They weren't on display! And I wanted to see them!), so that's a little disappointing. But we managed to get out of the house with all three kids on a super cold day (requiring sweatshirts, coats, hats, and gloves for everyone) with no major catastrophes, so we counted the day as a great success. Craig says we need to do stuff like this now and then just to remind ourselves that we can. He's probably right about that.

-Monday was definitely my recovery day. Craig basically took care of me and the kids. I slept in late and then dashed out the door to yoga (leaving Ryder home, since he always climbs on me whenever we're doing sit-ups!). When I came home, I just hung out with some friends who dropped by and chatted on the phone with my Dad... I think the only things I actually did the whole day that could be counted as "work" were running to Costco for produce (but going to Costco without kids is hardly any work!) and making dinner. And then we all watched Monsters, Inc. together, which was great. I love that movie. And I really love three-day weekends!


That's probably enough for now. I have a bunch of opinions on things that I need to talk about, but that feels like it would be best if left for another blog post. And I still need to finish telling you about Christmas! But I think for now I should probably tackle the two loads of laundry that need folding...!

Catcha later!

Thoughts on Christmas, Post-Season

I'll admit it: I was one of those people who got annoyed when stores put up their Christmas decorations too early. I even complained once when I lived in Provo and I saw a J.C. Penny's putting up their trees in the middle of October. It didn't do any good, but I've never been one to sit quietly back when I don't like something! As far as I was concerned, if Thanksgiving was still on the horizon, then it was too soon. End of discussion. I even tried (with not much success) to tell Craig we couldn't listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving!

But then I read this blog post on Thinking Through Christianity (one of my favorite blogs, and it isn't even run by a Mormon!) and reconsidered. Stores kind of need to put up their decorations early, especially if they're selling these decorations to those of us who will decorate the day after Thanksgiving. Besides that, there really isn't any point to getting upset about the early decorations, so why bother? So I told myself that I was no longer allowed to be annoyed by the commercialization of Christmas.

And then today, Craig made another excellent point: even with the decorations up so early, the Christmas season still seems way too short. (Which is why I'm still working on sending out Christmas cards AND why we're still occasionally listening to Christmas music around here. That, and the snow today sort of demanded it, somehow.)

So I am no longer simply not getting annoyed by all the early hype. Next year, I'm just going to embrace it. Because really, why wouldn't we want Christmas to last as long as possible?

Parenting Commandment

Thou shalt not buy black rain boots for thy son-- lo, even though they looketh to have the appearance of a perfect Batman costume accessory-- without first checking the soles of these thy boots to discern whether or not they shall leave streaky black marks all over thine hardwood floors. Otherwise thou shalt atone for thine stupidity by spending much time on thy hands and knees scrubbing these thy black marks away. Be thou forewarned.

Huh.

As I wandered around the house putting away coats, sweatshirts, hats, mittens, gloves, and scarves, I grumbled to myself that I couldn't wait for it to be summer so I wouldn't have so much of a mess to deal with. Then I remembered that in the summer, our house becomes littered with beach towels and swimsuits hanging to try.

Apparently a cluttered, messy house is to be my lot in life. It will still be more manageable in the summer time, though!

I Can Do Hard Things. Apparently.

So I'm learning about myself. And this particular lesson comes from all that running I've been doing. Because the truth is, I sort of hate running. But I keep doing it. And I finally noticed that my emotions about running swing through this whole gamut which is kind of interesting, and tells me a lot about myself. I start by looking forward to the run. The night before I go running, I'm even kind of excited about it. In the morning as I pull everything on and tie my shoes and clip on my shuffle, I'm genuinely happy to be going running.

But actually doing it?

Not nearly as much fun.

It's hard for me to even force myself to go out the front door. And as soon as I'm actually, honest-to-goodness running, mostly all I can think about is how much I'd like to stop. Even when I have those rare moments of thinking, "I'm doing great! My breathing is even, my legs aren't tired-- I could probably do this for quite a while," they're immediately followed by an intense desire to stop and just walk. This is why I have to run with Vangie. First of all, talking with her distracts me from these thoughts. Second, I feel totally lame when I force her to walk with me. The last time I tried running alone, I walked more than half of it. And that was right after my 5K! So I need a buddy for these things.

So, yes, I hate the actual running part.

But then when I'm done, I swing right back to loving it. I feel so good and alive after a run! It's wonderful starting out the day with such a feeling of accomplishment! And this is why I'm still going. This is why I plan to keep it up.

And this is where the whole "learning about me" thing comes in-- I'm finally understanding that this is how I do everything that falls into the hard-but-worth-it category. It's how I had Ryder-- full of excitement for a natural delivery, complaining about how much I hated it once the contractions got full-on difficult, and then so glad I did it after I had him in my arms. It's how I wrote my master's thesis. (Man, I hated writing that thing! But as soon as I was done, I announced that some day I wanted to get a PhD!) And this was how I felt last July when Craig and I embarked on our crazy diet-- excited to start, hated it for a good chunk of those difficult 6 weeks, and then loved walking around 17 lbs lighter.

Which brings me to my real point: it's time to diet again. I know I'll hate it. But my original goal was to lose 30 lbs, and I never finished off those final 6. I didn't even try during the holidays-- I'm not a complete killjoy!-- but now it's time. I'm going back to full-on Fuhrman plan (which basically means no dairy, meat, fats & oils, or highly refined carbs, but all the fruits, veggies and legumes you can handle) until those 6 lbs + the 3 that got tacked on during Christmas are gone. Then I'm allowing myself one splurge (Maggiano's, perhaps?) and then I'm recommitting until I lose 5 more as a safety cushion. If this sounds overly complicated, that's because it probably is. But I think I can do it. I've got Craig lined up as my support person to keep telling me it's worth it. And I know I'll hate it while I'm in the middle of it. But I also know how happy I'll be when I get there.

And hey, apparently this is how I roll!



P.S. Last night as a final meal before the diet began, I made Creamy Pesto Pasta. And it was heavenly. If you aren't trying to lose weight, I HIGHLY recommend it! "Yum" doesn't even begin to describe this dish. It might even be a "Wow"... This is what I'm making the next time I have family in town to cook for!

Pre-Christmas

Sorry I've been missing-in-action these last couple weeks! My house has been flooded with family (and some plumbing problems, actually, but that's a story for another post) and there just hasn't been time to blog. But I've been having a wonderful Christmas vacation. Remember how Craig and I were hoping to get most of my family here to our home? Well, it worked about as well as I could have hoped for! We ended up with with three of my four sisters, including two husbands and two sons, plus my parents. So on Christmas morning, we had 14 people all opening presents together! The only thing that would have made it better would have been if my oldest sister and her family could have come, too. (But they had the happy Christmas news that they will be moving back to New York City, so hopefully we'll be seeing more of them in the near future!)

I have about 2.8 billion pictures of the week and a half of family, most of which were taken by everyone else, since I forgot to charge my camera battery (one of the advantages of hosting is that I just put everyone's pictures on my computer). And I will be posting many of them here on the blog, with whatever accompanying stories I can think of. Let the uploading begin!

Preparation

The nativity set I got off FreeCycle, carefully placed on the mantel that Craig built.
Some day I'll get the willow tree set, but until then, I really enjoy what I have!

It took me a while to write everyone's names on their stockings with glitter pens!

You better believe these were hung with care! And a ruler. Each was 7.1 inches away from the next one.

Craig decided he wanted to make gingerbread houses this year. He spent all day baking the gingerbread (from scratch!) while I ran around doing other stuff-- visiting teaching and jogging. Then he and the kids spent the next day and a half decorating.

Bentley makes me laugh here...

This isn't even the finished product. But it gives you a good look at Craig's artistry at work: he tiled the entire roof with Swedish fish and then added icicles. The next day he added a fence, complete with archway and igloo.

Arrivals

The first people to come were Natalie and her boys (Samuel and Caleb) and my parents. Tracy came the next day with an early present for my big kids: super hero capes! Samuel already had one, so now the three of them could run around being superheroes together. And they loved it!

Bentley and Samuel show their best Batman faces

Ready for anything!

Pure joy.

Even superheroes need breaks for apple slices every now and then...

The lawnmowers are always a favorite toy, but I especially love this picture of Natalie and Caleb!

Cute picture of Tracy and Caleb, despite the fact that they're standing in front of our garbage can...

Walking Bentley to school

A lazy morning with everyone

Caleb demonstrates his ability to stand on his head. Sort of. :)

Activities

Tracy had the brilliant idea that we should visit the Air & Space Museum. It was perfect: the drive wasn't too bad and the museum was empty enough for the kids to run around without annoying people. Bentley and Samuel loved seeing the space shuttle. And we all enjoyed paying our respects to the Enola Gay.

My Dad takes his hat off to the historical plane.

If you click on this picture to make it big, you can barely see Bentley at the top of the ramp, running away. This is his favorite place to run.

Dad at the Observation Tower

Returning home, and sleepy

The next day, Tracy braved making sugar cookies with the kids. I never would have tried this. But she did great!


Once those were finished, she took them all to the park. By herself. Such bravery! It turned out to be a very educational experience, too!

This is another of my favorites

Meanwhile, we were back at home working on wrapping presents...

Bentley took some time to read The Grinch to Samuel and Kendra

Craig worked on brining a turkey

Uncle Ian was, as ever, very popular!

Another trip to the park, Grandpa Rex pushed kids on the swings (all that time at the gym paid off!)

I'm not sure why she's hiding behind a lamp, but finally here's a picture of Rachael!
Rocking with Grandpa Rex

Counting down with the advent calendar

The Bentley Tradition: Christmas Eve dinner we eat pizza on paper plates. I love it!

And almost before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve night!


There is so much more to tell you about. And more pictures, too. And we haven't even gotten to Christmas Day yet. But I'm exhausted. I'll have to stop here and come back and post more later.