a troubling day in school

This morning Peanut and I  were reading about the Bedouins in the Arabian desert.  I was reading to her out of her history book, and this is the sentence I came to:

The Bedouin are Arabs who wander across the Arabian desert, herding camels, goats and sheep.

Peanut exclaimed, "That's terrible!"  I didn't see anything wrong with what we just read, so I asked her what she meant.  "They kill their animals!  That's so mean!"  Then I realized the source of her confusion.  I read "herding camels, goats and sheep," but Peanut heard "hurting camels, goats and sheep."  I guess pronunciation is extremely important!  :)

Later we finished reading Charlotte's Web.  Peanut has enjoyed the book during the past couple of weeks, but she was terribly disappointed in the ending.  "What?  Charlotte dies and that's the end?  How can they do that?  Who would make a book with such a sad ending?"  I guess she is learning books don't always have a "happily ever after."  But at least I know she's paying attention in school today.  :)

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Chocolate Fix

Lately I've been needing chocolate.  Unfortunately, I'm down to 1/2 square of Ghirardelli chocolate... and I hesitate to eat the rest of it, because once it's gone, it's gone.  So tonight I got online and did a search for "single serving brownie recipe."  A few weeks ago I tried making a chocolate cake in a mug, and that was a disaster.  It turned out rubbery and tasteless.  But I knew there had to be a way of making one serving of some sort of cake or muffin... I've had those little single serving chocolate cakes you can buy in the grocery store... you just add water to the mix, stir, and microwave.  I really like those, but don't want to pay for them.  So tonight I was on the prowl for something I could easily make at home, using the ingredients I already have on hand.

I ran across this recipe.  After my last attempt (and failure) I was a bit hesitant to try this one... but one thing I liked about the ingredients was that eggs were not on the list.  Since there are no eggs, I figured this would be easy to scale down to a half serving.  But since this was my first shot at it, I decided to make it as it's listed.  Well, I mostly followed the instructions.  The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons sugar, and I cut it back to 2 1/2.  That was plenty, it could even do with a little less.  Although I prefer my chocolate dark, so if you like the sweetness of milk chocolate, you may want to add in all 3 tablespoons.

I mixed everything up in a 2 cup measuring cup, since I was a bit leery of using my good coffee cup.  :)  But to my surprise, it turned out pretty well!  I heated it for 60 seconds, and according to the recipe 60 seconds is supposed to give you a molten chocolate texture.  Mine was cooked all the way through, but that could be because I used the 2 cup measuring cup.  Next time I think I'll half the recipe, and use a small 6-ounce cup, and see if that works.  The consistency was very soft, almost like a bread pudding, but not quite.  This could have been because I devoured it as soon as it came out of the microwave.  If I had let it cool for a few minutes it might have firmed up a bit.  Oh, and as I didn't have any vanilla ice cream, I enjoyed this with a nice cold glass of whole milk.

Now that my chocolate fix has been satisfied, I think I can get on with the rest of my evening.  The girls aren't home tonight, so it's just me and the cat.  I'm ready for a quiet evening.  :)

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Week 1

We have almost completed week one of our new year of school!  Our school days have taken longer than I anticipated, but we are reading some great books.  Soon I'm hoping to make a list over in the right column of our favorite books we are reading. 

So far Peanut's favorite subject is poetry and her favorite book is Favorite Poems of Childhood.  Butternut's favorite is math, although her favorite book so far is By the Great Horn Spoon.

It looks like this is going to be an exciting year!  :-)

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All Creatures Great and Small

I am not a spider person.  If there was some sort of plague that destroyed all the world's spiders, I'd count that as a good thing.  In fact, if something wiped out all the creepy crawlies, bugs and insects from this planet, that would be just fine and dandy.  However, I know there are animals that count on the bugs to survive, and plants also need certain bugs to pollinate and grow.  So it's a good thing God hasn't put me in charge of the earth's insect population, or we'd all be in a heap of trouble.

However, I have recently come to the conclusion that if the spider is outside and not in my direct path - for example, sunning itself on a flower, making a web in the bushes, or climbing a tree - I don't mind it.  I've actually begun to enjoy watching them - from a distance.  However - and this is an important issue that all spiders must understand - if any spider crosses the threshold and enters my home, he is as good as dead.  The critter will either find itself in a watery grave, or on the bottom of my shoe.  Or better yet, on the bottom of my husband's shoe.  That way I don't have to worry about my shoe getting all icky on the bottom.  That, and his shoes are bigger, so it just makes sense that I'd use his in exterminating said spider.

 But back to a more friendly note (after all, these are God's creatures, so I should respect them as such), I have begun to make friends with a little spider in our back yard.  My husband first noticed the little guy at the end of March.  He was hiding in the grill cover.  My husband looked this little guy up online and found it's called a crab spider.  They eat other insects, so this little fact helped me decide to tolerate the little guy.  He was a bit creepy looking, so as long as he kept his distance from me, he could stay.  :)


Now let's fast forward to a couple days ago.  Butternut had been playing outside for a while when she excitedly came in and said she'd found a big spider on the flowers.  I decided to go investigate, and sure enough, it was our little friend.  Only now he's not so little!

Isn't he pretty?  I see how they get their name of crab spider.  He was a little upset with my husband right then.  I don't think he wanted his picture taken.  Come on now, little guy, don't be shy!  :)

My husband went back out later to take some more pictures, and when we loaded them up on the computer we had a bit of a surprise.  Our little friend was enjoying an afternoon snack.  I guess they really do eat other insects!  In this picture he is feasting on a small bee.  So now it's official.  As long as he stays in the flowers, the little guy can stay.  Who'd have ever thought I'd be interested in something creepy crawly like a spider?  I went outside to check on him this morning, and he's still in the flowers.  I guess that's his new home.  He sits on the flower and waits for an unsuspecting bee to come along, then whamo!  He's got lunch!  I'd like to see him actually stun the bee, but I don't know if he'll do it in front of an audience.  I guess I'll just have to keep my eye out.  And please, pretty little spider, stay outside so I don't have to put an end to our beautiful friendship.

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expect changes :-)

For our anniversary my husband took me out for a drive into the country.  I love looking at farms and barns!  My dream is to someday have a small acreage out in the country with a barn.  I don't necessarily want any animals, I just love barns!  I've got fond memories of playing in the hay loft of my grandparents' barn, and I'd love for my girls to be able to experience the same thing someday.  So anyway, we drove around out in the country and looked at barns.  What a relaxing way to spend an afternoon!  We took some pictures, so I think I'll use one at some point as my header, instead of the mountains.  That's what I've been planning since I revamped the blog.  I took a few pictures, but most of mine are grainy and out of focus.  I'm not that great at picture taking.  :-)  However, my hubby took several pictures, and his are beautiful!  So I'm sure I'll be able to find a good picture for the blog.  


Well it's time to get the girls up and get ready for church.  I love going to church!  It's like walking into a family reunion every Sunday morning.  :-)  Have a wonderful day!

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A Nutty Week

This week started out great! It was VBS week at our church. Our girls have been so excited, looking forward to this all summer. We got there Monday, and my husband helped with the games, and I helped to corral the preschoolers. I think we had 23 preschoolers on Monday, and when we got home I was exhausted! I came home and took an hour and a half nap. :-) Tuesday was another fun day with 26 preschoolers. But at the closing ceremony I could tell my oldest (Butternut) wasn’t feeling so well. She came home after VBS and took a nap. Which is pretty unusual for either of my girls. Wednesday morning both girls were sick, so I stayed home while my hubby went to VBS. By Wednesday evening my throat was getting a bit sore, but nothing major.

Also on Wednesday, my computer died. That was a bit sad, but strangely enough, it really didn’t seem to bother me. I figured a few days without a computer wouldn’t hurt me. Then Thursday morning the coffee pot died. That was tragic. A computer, I can do without. Coffee… not gonna happen. So I boiled a pot of water on the stove, poured the grinds into the coffee filter inside the filter basket, and slowly poured the water from the tea kettle into the filter basket, while holding it over my mug. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do! I declared to my husband that I wasn’t touching anything electronic for the rest of the week.

My husband is so wonderful. After lunch we got online and looked at stores in a nearby town to see what they had for coffee pots. We found one that would work into our budget, and he set out to buy it. And just a few days ago he’d received a coupon for the store, for 20% off. The coffee pot was already on sale, plus it had a mail in rebate. And because he’s so wonderful, he upgraded a bit and got the one with the stainless steel carafe, as my anniversary gift. As it turned out, once he got home and opened it up he saw it had been used. Ick. So back in to town he went… but they made up for it. They gave him some money back, so it ended up costing the same as the original one he was going to get. :-)

Well, Thursday evening I started to get sick. I felt worse than I’ve felt in a very long time. Turns out I have a nasty sinus infection. So I’ve done a lot of sleeping the past couple of days. I guess I really didn’t end up missing my computer. And after a bit of trial and error (and reformatting the hard drive back to factory settings), it’s back to working again.

So that’s been my week in a nutshell. Oh, and speaking of nuts, I’ve got our family profile over there on my side bar. I think I’ll use those nicknames when I’m talking about our kids, just because I’m paranoid about putting their real names here on the internet. That’s probably a bit crazy for someone who met her husband online, but what can I say? I guess I’m a nut that way. :-)

Edit: Ok, now somehow my formatting is not coming through correctly, and all my paragraph breaks disappear when I try to publish my post. Don't tell me I've now broken Blogger... That's gonna drive me crazy if I can't get that figured out. Hopefully it will work for me the next time I try to post... Grrr....

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Granola Bars! :-)

Well, I believe the verdict is in. Although the previous recipe was a bit sweet for my tastes, it does seem to be the one I will go with. When I tried cutting back on the honey the bars were very crumbly. So I guess I'm ready to post the recipe. :-)

A couple of weeks ago I ran across a wonderful find that I included in the bars... mini marshmallows. And not just any mini marshmallows... these were truly miniature! They remind me of the kind you get in packets of hot cocoa mix. I included them in the last batch of granola bars, and although I really liked them, the kids said they couldn't really taste the marshmallows. I suppose that's true... but I really like marshmallows. I'd be happy eating a bowl of these for breakfast. :-) In any case, I probably won't use these too often because the store that sells them is pretty far away. I will include them in this recipe, but if you want to either omit them or use something else (nuts or dried fruit) that would be delicious, as well.


And now, for the recipe! Here is the cast of ingredients. It's all pretty basic, and mostly what I use for our regular granola. And as you can see we go through a lot of oats! :-)

• 3 cups oats
• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup plus 3 Tablespoons honey
• 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 12 teaspoons mini marshmallows
• 6 teaspoons mini chocolate chips

This starts out the same as the other granola. Mix oats and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Add 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup honey, and vanilla, and mix well. Pour into a non-stick baking pan and bake at 300 for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. If you stop at this point you can store in an air tight container and have very simple granola.

To make the bars, let the mixture cool for a few minutes, then pour back into the mixing bowl. While it's cooling, lightly grease a muffin pan.

Measure out 1/4 cup of the granola into a small bowl, and add 1 teaspoon of mini marshmallows, and 1/2 teaspoon mini chocolate chips. Mix well and pour it into a muffin cup.





Repeat this with the remaining granola. You'll probably have a bit of granola left over when all the muffin cups are full, so just put a little extra in each of the muffin cups.





When all the muffin cups are full, firmly pack the granola down into the cups. I've found using a plastic 1/2 cup measuring cup works well for this. I just place the measuring cup on the top of the granola, and press down with as much preasure as I can. When all the granola is packed down, bake at 300 for a final 10 minutes, then allow to completely cool. I usually let mine cool around 3 hours.


When the bars are completely cool, carefully remove them from the muffin cups. I've found an easy way of doing this is to carefully slide a plastic knife down along the side of the bars. This applies just the right amount of pressure to free the bar from the pan. When I first took mine out of the pan they were very sticky. Almost too sticky. So I put them all on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet and left them in the (cool) oven overnight. This allowed the air to circulate around the bars and really helped with the stickiness.

My family loves these granola bars! And even though they are a bit on the sweet side for my tastes, I do admit they go great with coffee! :-) We all thought they taste very close to the S'mores granola bars you can buy in the grocery store. And although they do have more honey than I'd like, at least they don't have the high fructose corn syrup or preservatives of the store bought ones. I also like the fact that they are round, rather than rectangular. It makes them a bit unique. I also think it helps them hold their shape a bit better, as there are no corners to easily break off.

I store these in an air tight container, but they could also be individually wrapped in plastic wrap. I've also decided I need to get a second cupcake pan so I can make more than 12 at a time. Otherwise I'm making a new batch every 3 days. :-)

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