Baked Oatmeal

I’ve been meaning to blog this recipe for a while.  1) I LOVE it!  2) The kids LOVE it and shout for joy when I serve it for breakfast 3) I keep losing my recipe and if I blog it I will always know where to find it.  I don’t have great pictures but I promise, it’s FANTASTIC!  It’s like the cross between an oatmeal cookie and oatmeal cake.  *happy sigh*

I warn you, however, that making this recipe could lead to overeating. 

Baked Oatmeal

2 eggs

1 cup sugar or honey

1/2 cup oil

3 cups oatmeal (uncooked)

1 cup milk or milk alternative (I use oat milk)

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of sea salt (or other salt if that’s all you have)

spices (I use about a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of ginger, nutmeg and clove)

raisins or chopped apple (optional)

Don’t even worry about using a mixing bowl, just grab a 2-quart baking dish and mix it right in that.  Mix eggs, oil and sugar.  Add baking powder.  Stir in the rest of ingredients until well mixed.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or microwave on high for about 8-10 minutes.  Serve with cinnamon and sugar and/or milk (which I’ve never bothered doing because it’s just so good on its own).

I got this recipe from a friend and, as I’ve mentioned, love it so much as it is but I do plan to play with it someday to make it a little more healthy.  If I do that and it turns out well I’ve blog that too (I’ll need to be able to find my recipe, right).

Michigan

At the beginning of January Rob, Gabe and I took the chance to visit family in Michigan, namely Bill.  By that time we knew things were moving much faster than expected and that we many not have another chance to visit.  Zion, Gideon, and Elias got to stay with their “Tantie” while we were gone. 
The first day is all flying.  One of our layovers (yes, I said one of) is in San Francisco and we found this cute kids area that had interact science displays.  My favorite was the Aeolian wind tub, using the handle you can change the direction of the fan and watch how it effects the sand.  I want one of these in my house!

Eventually we land in Cleveland where we have a hotel for the night.  In the morning we start the 3 1/2 hour drive to Rob’s hometown.  On the way we see a trucker driving his semi with his knees so he can eat a sub sandwich.  A wee bit frightening.

The first day is all visiting with family but in the morning Rob and I go for a walk.  I wish we’d had more time because I’m in love with old barns, especially red ones, and you can find them in abundance around there.  Sometimes red sheds too.

Bill and Gabe play that game where they try to slap each others’ hands.  Goofballs.

Later we take a drive and even later than that we play games.
The next day is Sunday and we are invited to attend church.  The kids looked so nice I couldn’t resist a few pictures.  Codi, Tristan and Brook:

Then we wanted to show Gabe the local park where all the bridges are made out of cement.  It’s really interesting.

At lunch Tristan convinces me to try the meatball sub at Subway.  Mmmm, it’s been a long time.  Yum.
After that break we visit with Freda who was a grandmother figure to Rob when he was young.  She’s a firecracker!

Our last event of the day is to follow Codi to go visit her mom, Shelley, we were greeted by coyote howls and spooky trees – loved it!

Our last day, boy it went fast!  A few pics before we leave.  Rob and his brother, Carl:
Carl, Rob and Bill:

Bill’s wife, Joyce:

*sigh*  Too short, it was good to see family and especially Bill.  The only thing that’s left is another long day of travel home.  But God treats me with a gorgeous sunset on the way home.  It sure does last a long time when you’re flying west.

Bill

Rob’s flight left at 6AM this morning.  At about 10AM I got the call that Bill had passed.  Rob called from a layover and we chatted, he’s doing OK.  Actually feeling the stress of feeling rushed lifted.  So we’re OK.  As OK as we can be.  Bill was wonderful to me from the moment we met, treated me like a daughter, always remembered my birthday, he never failed to call AND send a card.  As happens with these sorts of events it does not seem real, I feel as though I could call tomorrow and chat with him.

Well, you know what to do, pray for us.  Thanks!

Bill and Gabe goof off, January 6, 2012.

Sorry

About the disappearing act that is.  First the holidays, which were great.  We had an awesome Christmas.  But January was a wash.  At the beginning we learned that my father-in-law, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer, was not doing well so we planned a short notice trip to Michigan.  Rob, Gabe and I fly out while the other three stayed with my sister, Jamie. 

We had a great visit in Michigan.  Bill perked up a bit with us there though it was clear that the cancer was marching on.  Then the state of Washington got blasted with snow and ice.  Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Ever.  We lost electricity in addition to many limbs from all of our trees (major sadness).  We were out for three days others were out for a week or more.  We did fine at home though.  It was cold but we have a gas hot water heater so we had hot water and a gas stove so we could cook hot food.

Then just as I thought things would settle and normalize (ha!) we got the call just hours ago that Bill may not make it through the night.  Rob already had a ticket to fly out tomorrow night but he’s found an earlier flight out in the morning.  We’re hoping Bill holds on until he can get there.

On a happier note, this morning before we knew that Bill’s health had deteriorated so drastically, I had a mini-photo shoot with my boy Gideon.  He is so, so funny and enjoyed giving me some faces for the camera.  His only fee?  Getting to see the back of the camera.  He reacts like he won the lottery every time “LOOK!  There I am!”

That is all.

Fa La La

Tis the season for holiday concerts fa la la la la la la la la!

Zion had her school concert and it was an honest to goodness holiday concert as in actual Christmas songs.  Zion had been looking forward to it for weeks.  A couple of days before I bought her the shiny shoes she’d be eyeing at the store for weeks.  She was SO excited she posed seriously for pictures (no tongue sticking out!) and left her hair band in (pretty much a life time first).

Gabe also had his school concert and, well, I’ll try not to speak too negatively.  Of course I loved seeing my son on stage singing with his classmates.  It makes me sad that, even though the school plans the concert for right before the holidays that they include no holiday music.  Winter themed songs yes (and one 1 or  out of all of them), holiday, no.  I remember the concerts I was in when I was a kid and it just makes me sad.  Still, we celebrated Gabe and his chance to perform and that’s what counts.  Here he is in one of his three songs (only three, the rest of the time, and it was a looooong time, we watched other people’s children perform – and most of that time we were sitting on the floor, oh wait, I’m being negative).

Did I mention that it was my birthday?  And I was sick.  Still it wasn’t an entirely bad day.  Rob got up and instead of leaving for work he made me yummy muffins for breakfast and he and the kids gave me a birthday present.

And the sunrise was gorgeous.

That’s our cat Eva.  She’s hunting birds.  I know it’s natural and stuff but I really wish she wouldn’t do it.  Naughty kitty.

Happy Holidays!

And busy holidays.  And kind of sick.  Off and on weird sick days have just made things kind of mellow. I think it took me two weeks just to decorate the house.  But it’s finally done!  Well, except for the decorations I didn’t get put up yet but there’s still time. 

We have a tree and it has lights and ornaments and the kids had a blast decorating.   I had a blast trying to keep them under control. Um, yeah.

We once again hit up a local tree farm, the service is great and it’s pretty quick and they give us candy canes and hot cocoa.  Then I take a bunch of pictures and realize you can either have Zion being silly…

…or Elias and Gabe. 

The next day we decorate, Elias was hilarious.  He kept stealing ornaments already on the tree the plunging his whole arm into the tree depositing the ornament on the thick branches in the middle.  We kept have to part the bushy branch ends to find the ornaments he’d squirreled away inside. 

After I force some posed pictures.  And yes, one of my children is missing.  I’m still playing catch up.

And the fun isn’t over.  At least not for me, because I love close-ups of ornaments.

I hope you are enjoying your holidays!  Tomorrow is our first should-be-in-school day of the holiday break.  I’m stoked!  (Though I still wish I had more time before Christmas!)

For The Birds

Quite a ways back an online friend of mine showed pictures of bird feeders she’d made out of orange peels.  They were adorable and I was smitten and have wanted to make one every since.  Today was finally the day.  So here you go, so you can make one too of course.

You’ll need an orange (surprise!), some twine or string, something with which to remove the orange’s edible bits without destroying the peel, and something pokey.  Oh yeah and probably a knife to cut the orange and scissors to cut the string.

I cut the orange off center of half so it would be a little cup.  Cut how you like.  If you’re like me you’ll cut a thin slice from one portion and aim your macro lens at it for a while before finishing the rest of the craft.  Like so:

Resume your craftiness by scooping out the innards.  If you have a daughter obsessed with juicing oranges give them to her along with the other portion of orange.  If not, well, you’re on your own.

Cut three portions of string about a foot long.

Use the pokey thing to poke three holes close to the edge of the orange from which to loop the string.  If your pokey thing has a blunt end like mine did (I used a bamboo skewer) you can use it to poke the string through the holes.

Once you tie the three strings to the orange gather them up and tie them together at the top.

Then you just need to find somewhere to hang it.  I hung the string on the tree and then attached it to the feeder because I found it easier but do whatever works for you.

Fill it up before or after you hang it, again, whatever is easier. 

Isn’t this an easy craft?  So easy.

Then sit back and wait for the birds.

And wait.  And realize the birds won’t come because the kids followed you outside and are making too much noise. 

Luckily it was cold enough that the kids didn’t stay outside long.  Then my only problem is the dirty window. 

While I watched a Dark-Eyed Junco started eye-balling the feeder but didn’t check it out closer.  Maybe it has something to do with this:

The cats moved outside right after the kids came in and Maisy seemed to think the orange peel feeder was made especially for her enjoyment. 

Ah well, I got some pictures of the birds hanging out higher up, maybe one of them will visit the orange peel feeder tomorrow.

I’m happy to see a new species at the feeder, this is a Black-Capped Chickadee.  Adorable but the Chestnut-Backed Chickadees are still my favorite.

The Juncos were very active on the ground tonight but didn’t think much of the dried squash seeds that I put out for them.  Hmph. Darn picky birds.

I got quite lucky with this one.  I believe it’s a Nuthatch and you can actually the seed he has just plucked from the suet.

So there ya go.  A super easy craft that’s very rewarding for you and the birds.  :)