A Hit!

I just LOVE when you make something that turns out to be a huge hit. I made this granola for valentines day and gave it to a few people, it has fast become my most requested recipes. This makes me laugh since i made it up in my head! My very own head! I have never made it the same way twice but it goes a little somethin like this:

I ALWAYS add:

8 cups rolled oats, not instant
3 cups roughly chopped whole almonds. I really like these chopped the old fashioned way with a knife, it is not quite a delicious if you use a food processor. I like the almonds in big pieces.
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup oil I have been using coconut oil and holy moly, it is perfect not to mention really good for you.
1/3 cup honey
some cinnamon (probably like 2 or 3 teaspoons)
a splash of vanilla

I SOMETIMES add:

craisons *these are good but I actually think these would be better just thrown in when you eat it.
Coconut creme spread * this is SO good added in. It is a spread I found a Costco it is Walls berry farm coconut creme spread, I searched high and low on the Internet to find a link for this stuff and had zero luck. It is all natural and has no corn sweeteners, it is amazeballs. I fear it is going to be one of those Costco treasures you only find once. You can eat it on anything and it is SO GOOD! Anyway...
Toasted coconut

I am GOING to add next time I make it:

Toasted coconut cashews * I got these at Costco today and what the hell, I was probably better off never knowing these existed. BUT how good will these be chopped up added to the granola?

How to bake:

Add all ingredients together in a huge bowl (this makes a ton!) except any craisons or toasted coconut. DO add the coconut creme spread. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, stir and then bake for 20 more minutes. If you want it to be crunchier bake longer. The longer you bake the crunchier it is. I love that is makes a lot, it is a fun recipe to make and share.


How to eat your granola:

By the handful, delicious.
In a sandwich baggie on the go, Deacons favorite way.
In a bowl with coconut milk, my favorite. I add every fresh berry I can think of and a banana. SO GOOD.
On top of ice cream or yogurt.

I will say:

It is absolutely easier and much cheaper to buy granola at the store. This is absolutely more delicious and I love knowing exactly what is in the granola. I hope you make this and your life is forever changed.

Some things to remember.

I have some thoughts rolling around in my head, thought I would put them somewhere. I think that is what a blog is for, right?

I heard it is supposed to snow in the next day or so, I panicked and made Deacon walk to the library 4 miles round trip so we could enjoy the "nice weather". It was actually so fun. He did not complain one time and was so proud of himself when we got the library. I thought about my sister who walks all over the place in Scotland and made a mental note to do more walking with my kids. It also made me feel connected to her and that makes me happy.

I was talking to my friend about accents last night. My Scottish nieces have the cutest accents. I talked to them on Sunday and my older niece, Miriam chatted and chatted about the flat she is going to live in with her friend Julia when she gets older. They decided they might adopt a baby but will definitely have a cat.

Sometimes I let Deacon crawl into Gwennies crib and entertain her for a minute, he loves this. Today he was in there and I heard him say "Introducing the ammmmmmmaaaaaazzzzzzing Gwenyth!!" And then I saw her flash the hugest smile at him. I loved every second of that.

In Deacons last report card his teacher wrote "Deacon is a good friend who shows kindness everyday" I can not even say how happy that makes me.

Sometimes I need to remember that just because the baby slept for 9 hours 7 days in a row, she can still stay awake from 12 am to 4 am the very next day, just for fun!

Somehow I became the kind of person who eats zone bars and luna bars and loves it. I wholeheartedly blame my friend Jenny.

I am dreaming of warm weather and outside running. I decided today that a good run would be just long enough that you kinda want to die the last 10 minutes. I have a case of spring fever in the worst way.

And there you have it ladies and gentleman, a brain dump at its finest!

New babies and T.V.

The thing about new babies is that they wake up in the night, obviously. With both of my babies I spent lots of time rocking them and singing to them (I have a whole list of my favorite songs to sing, that's a whole other post) but dude, sometimes you have to keep your ass awake, and that is where t.v. comes into play.

With Deacon I got hooked on The Office, I watched endless episodes. I watched Jim and Pam fall in love and laughed myself silly (back when Micheal Scott was still fun to watch) I always associate that show with baby Deacon. That feels like a million years ago and yesterday all at once.

Baby Gwen was no exception, I needed a show, and something with a lot of episodes on Netflix. You guys, I hit a low. I swear I had already watched anything worth watching! Parks and Rec. check! Mad Men, check! Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, check! I hit a new low, I have watched 7 seasons of Greys Anatomy. In two months.

Guess what, it worked! I got hooked on a show and never once fell asleep while up with babe in the night!

Now my baby sleeps through the night, I know I am really lucky. My babies are good sleepers. I think Gwenyth started sleeping through the night because she did not want a mom who got hooked on Vampire Diares.

Here is that delightful baby at 2 months and 2 weeks:

Holy smokes, I you too Gwenners. Also, someday I will post a picture that is not directly from instagram, that someday is not today. Baby steps everyone.

Friend Time.

Sometimes Laura comes over and I make her dinner and then we talk about every single thing under the sun. I LOVE Laura. She is one of those friends I can be completely myself around. And we look like a couple in this picture which makes me laugh for days. (we made Curt take this pic. guess how excited he was about that??)

Tonight I made roasted carrot, sweet potato and red potato soup, SO easy and SO delish. Then we made Valentiney sugar cookies! Laura is so serious about decorating cookies that she brought tweezers! Tweezers that she only uses to decorate cookies, to pick up tiny sprinkles! I love it so much!

While she was here we talked about the 5 love languages (I just read the book for my book club) we talked about how our husbands or partners or whatev usually fulfill one of our love languages but how great it is to have girlfriends to fulfill your other love languages. For instance, words of affirmation, as girls we are really good at saying how great each other looks, how talented each other are, and how all around awesome we are. I am so happy to have so many great girlfriends to fulfill my love needs, ha!

I decided February is the worst with one awesome day- Valentines. Looking forward to my traditional family Valentines dinner, what foods can possibly be made heart shaped??

Who blogs anymore??

Well for starters, my mom does. EVERY DAY last year, can you handle that? If I had a diet coke for every time I wish I would have written something down on this blog......... Anyway, what I would like to say is that I intend to blog more. I intend to capture more of the funny, cute, annoying, silly amazing things my children (and husband) do. I intend to to write about all the things that make me happy. Because I agree with Lindsay I like to talk about the joys.

I also intend to write about some of my worries or hard times. I am sincerly thankful I wrote about my struggles in the last couple years on this blog. When I go back and read them I can remember exactly how I felt, it reminds me to feel more deeply the joy I am now feeling.

So who blogs anymore?? ME!

On  a side note: my new years resolution was to always have my nails nicely painted at all times and I am KILLING IT.

Gwen loves her mom

These are the things I accomplished ALL while wearing baby Gwen in the baby Bjorn:

1. Cleaned the kitchen top to bottom including mopping.
2. Made homemade pizza for dinner.
3. Helped Deacon brush his teeth and tucked him in bed.
4. Vacuumed
5. Moved along tons of loads of laundry.
6. Made chocolate chip cookies.
7. Loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, twice.
8. Took out the garbage and recycling.
9. Helped Deacon do math homework.
10. And most impressive: painted my nails.

I feel like a total granola,  a extremely productive hippie. I actually really love wearing her in the Bjorn or the sling, she snuggles right up. I am pretty sure she loves me, a lot. With that being said, my back freaking hurts.

p.s. special thanks to one of my besties Jenny for lending me the Bjorn, obviously I would get not much done without it.

p.p.s. you will be happy to know I took her off to clean the bathroom and change my sheets.

Bubbles.

Have you seen the movie knocked up? One of my most favorite parts is when Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen are sitting in the park watching the kids play with bubbles, Paul Rudd says something along the lines of: "kids love bubbles, I wish I loved anything as much as my kids love bubbles" Makes me laugh every time. Bubbles are fun.

Today I went fabric shopping with my mother in law (she is making the babes blessing dress, yay!) she offered up my father in law to watch Deacon while we went. Deacon was so excited to spend time with his Grandpa rather than in a fabric store (obviously). Curtis' dad is getting older. No way around that. It is hard to see the ones we love get older, especially when it seems to happen overnight. I feel sad when I realize that my kids will not get to know their grandparents as well as I wish they would.

When we pulled up to the house Deacon and Grandpa John were out in the driveway, I could see that Deacon looked to be running circles around John, when I got closer I saw that John was blowing bubbles and Deacon was chasing them.

It may not seem like much, but as I pulled up and saw the look on both their faces I tried to freeze that moment because I want Deacon to remember a Grandpa who spent time blowing bubbles for him because guess what? Kids love bubbles.