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30 January 2008

A Girl Loves Chocolate



24 January 2008

Having Too Much Fun

Someone was having too much fun today...






I tried to use all the blocks to build a city, but finally Tristan convinced to stop so he could play more freely with it. I agreed, but only after I took a few pictures. I hope your day is filled with so much fun you just don't want to stop!

21 January 2008

Hurray!

For those of you who were unable to decipher my last post, we were having technical problems because water was spilled on the keyboard, rendering it nearly useless. (And we can't even blame it on the kids!) I did have use of some keys, though, and was able to use my mouse to point and click, copy/cut/paste, making it possible to communicate to a certain degree, but it has been an interesting last two weeks. But today is MLK day, and my husband is home, so everything is off its normal routine and I won't be posting anything brilliant. I just wanted to try out the new keyboard and at least make it public knowledge that we can now send and receive messages!

07 January 2008

DeklikalProplephs

Adefhijklopqrsuwy

We
Oddly
Hafe
Serdid
Keys
Worked
Kause
Wader
Was
Spilled
Od
Dhe
Keydoard
So
I
kaddod
Dype
e-dail
or
adydiik
Doday!

04 January 2008

Domestic Victory!

Thank you to all of you who posted comments and e-mailed me with your thoughts on doing household chores. This may be a subject I'll keep re-visiting with more specific topics; we'll see. It's not too late to add your thoughts; just leave a comment at this post, and I'll be able to read more. In case you've never left comments before, please select the option to register with Google beforehand, as they may end up being lost in cyberspace otherwise. I'm pretty sure registering doesn't open your in box to junk mail traffic; please let me know if there are any of you out there who know or have experienced otherwise.

Well, I was going to begin posting about new year's resolutions, and I may do so in the future, but the topic just doesn't excite me right now. What does have me a little excited is my new bright idea about how to use up leftover oatmeal from breakfast. I know many of my readers are well-experienced in the cooking and baking departments, so this may not be a "new idea" to you, but I'm so proud of it I thought I'd share.

We sometimes like to eat oatmeal for breakfast, especially during the cold weather, and I tend to make more than we all can eat. Without fail, there is usually one or two cups worth of leftover cooked oatmeal after breakfast is over. I always feel guilty throwing it out. Being a one-income family, we try to not waste food whenever possible. Enoch eats lots of leftovers for lunch, and I try to re-use reusable leftovers for re-invented meals.

I was thinking about how to use the leftover oatmeal, and was reminded of my teenage years working at Trout Creek Bible Camp over the summer. (Looking back now, I wish I had volunteered to be the cook's assistant instead of dish and biffy crew because of the loads of cooking experience I would have gained.) The cook who was there that summer (I never knew her real name) used to make a delicious hot breakfast cereal that was some kind of 12-grain combination of who-knows-what. With the leftovers, she would make wonderful whole-grain dinner rolls, and with those leftovers, she would cube and toast up to use for salad croutons! Talk about not wasting! She would also sometimes make cinnamon bread or cinnamon rolls, and with those leftovers she would make a delicious bread pudding for dessert!



So I took a little time to look for bread recipes online that would use cooked oatmeal, but decided it was a waste of time. Then, the idea came to me. Since most of my basic muffin recipes end with the proverbial "stir in a cup of your favorite fruit or nuts," I decided, "why not try a cup of cooked oatmeal?" I finally tried it a few weeks ago for the first time with great success. Today I did it again, and even took a couple of snapshots of the wonderful results.



For those of you who want the nitty-gritty details, here's what I did: I followed the recipe from Joy of Cooking for making "Basic Yogurt, Buttermilk, Or Sour Cream Muffins." (I used yogurt.) Since I had about 3 cups of cooked oatmeal (from two days of oatmeal for breakfast), I was going to triple the recipe. But I only had 5 eggs. So I doubled the recipe, which called for 4 eggs, and then decided to add the 5th one because I had no need for one egg hanging around causing trouble. I stirred all three cups of wet gooey oatmeal into the wet ingredients bowl before mixing the wet into the dried. I also added a generous handful of raisins, since there were already some in the oatmeal, and I wanted there to be enough to go around.



The results were wonderful. It yielded exactly three dozen muffins, which the kids and I enjoyed for breakfast today. Julien ate three (!) and I was showered with compliments. The nice thing is that I know we will have an easy breakfast option available for the next couple of days, and it feels good to have made good use of something that would have otherwise gone to waste. Someday I hope to find a good 12-grain hot cereal recipe that I can then convert into delicious dinner rolls and croutons. In the meantime, I'm celebrating this domestic victory!


01 January 2008

Happy New Year!

This is just going to be a short post to wish you all a hope-filled start to a new year. When Enoch and Julien go back to school and I have the use of my computer again (!) I hope to be able to post more regarding my reflections on 2007 and maybe even some plans or resolutions for the new year. My prayer for you all is that you would resolve to draw near to God and to grow in your love and knowledge of Him, as I hope to do.

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. Colossians 1: 9-12