Megan's Granola

In my attempt to save money and do more domestic things in the kitchen, granola has become a weekly ritual. This recipe is continually evolving but taste yummy and is very healthy.

INGREDIENTS:

8 c rolled oats

1.5 c wheat germ

1.5 c oat bran

(I'll also had some flax seed if I have any- about 1 cup)

1 c sunflower seeds

1 c chopped almonds

1 c chopped pecans and/or walnuts

1.5 tsp salt

.5 c brown sugar

.25 c maple syrup OR agave

.75 c honey

.75 c veg oil

1 tbsp cinnamon (or any spice(pumpkin/nutmeg))

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 cups raisins or cranberries

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 325 and line 2 baking sheets with foil or parchment

2. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together salt, brown sugar, syrup, honey, oil cinnamon and vanilla in med. saucepan. Bring to a boil (over med. heat) and pour over dry ingredients to coat.

3. Spread mixture evenly onto baking sheets

4. Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Let cool and stir in raisins.

I store mine in an airtight cereal container and it lasts about one week.

Hope you likey!

Courtesy costs so little...

We feel like we're in a dream with the beautiful weather we have and could live outside. Especially since this place doesn't seem to have any bugs. We went on an excursion to nowhere yesterday and found a tag sale, apparently in New England, that's what they call 'yard sales'. I found some amazing vintage things for art projects and I left with a smile on my face. Cony found a Nazi pin from the early 30's that took your breath away but someone else had just bought it. Is it bad that we would have bought it? It would have just been for the history and beauty.

Don't you love these match cases?? I particularly like the words of advise. Also, look closely. Can you see the stamps of Stone Mountain?? I thought I was happy when I left the tag sale but finding these in the box of vintage stamps I bought threw me over the edge. It's the little things in life.

Beautiful church that is part of a boarding school in Pomfret, CT (where Renee Zellweger lives). I can't fathom putting my children in a boarding school: 1.) because I'm not rich 2.) because I'm not famous and 3.) well I believe in actually being a parent to my own kids. But if I had to... this would be the school.

Mom, I know you sincerely care but I made pear butter and it was my first time canning anything. If you ever make it up here I might save you some.

We spent last evening with that couple from Georgia (that knew my bro and parents AND he's in Cony's department) and we fell in love with them. We didn't get home until 1:00 and are so happy we found a couple we have lots in common with; even if they do have kids.

Life is happy in Connecticut.

Our obsession with Trader Joe's

It's true. We love Trader Joe's! When we lived in ATL we had one 1/2 mile from us and it became our one stop shop. I will say this though, it took a while to get the hang of shopping there because it doesn't carry everything that Kroger or Publix carries (or now- Stop & Shop or the Big Y).

However, after watching the documentary 'Food, Inc.' last year we were determined to change the way we ate and determined not to support certain companies. Everything we buy at TJ's we can pronounce all the ingredients and we know what we are eating. If you haven't seen the documentary I highly recommend it. My uncle owned chicken houses growing up and we would help him "dump" the baby chicks and he always advised us to never get in the poultry business. I never understood why until I watched 'Food, Inc.'. And I like to think you'll change the way you buy your meat too.

Where was I?

Oh yes, Trader Joe's. Now that we live in the Eastern part of Connecticut, the closest TJ's is about 45 minutes away. And yes, we make the drive.. but only once a month. One thing that we stock up on...Sunflower Butter. It's so much easier on my tummy than peanut butter and it goes great on most anything. I'm getting ready to share some recipes that friends have requested, so I'll share more TJ's essentials as time goes on.

And I'm missing my nieces and nephews so badly it hurts.

1 down & 1825 to go (days that is)

Cony's first day of Graduate School started today and I might be more excited than he is! He had a meeting with his department the other day and he was informed he was 1 of 2 students ever to be accepted straight into the PhD program without a Master's degree. We aren't sure if it was his smarts that made it happen or the schools budget cuts. We don't really care, we're just happy it happened.

Also there is a member of the church in his program that was in my parents ward in Commerce(for all you "non-Mormon" folk, he was just in the same congregation). But any connection to Georgia works for me!

* Also I started my new job today as a tutor for an adorable 8 year old girl who has down syndrome. I'm really excited about this, because with every job I've had working with kids has taught me so much about myself. I'm looking forward to learning and growing with this experience.

I'm just really sad that our 2 month vacation has come to an end. We've had the time of our marriage this summer and I believe this is the first summer I haven't want to see go....

A Sunday Secret..

Today we are very thankful to have a fridge full of fresh fruit. The house where we go swimming in the beautiful pond, has the most amazing garden I've ever seen. They also have lots of fruit trees and we count ourselves very lucky to benefit from their hard work. A few weeks ago we were able to get a bag full of peaches that were to die for and today she asked us to come over after church to get some pears, tomatoes and potatoes and I'm going to attempt to make pear butter since we have so many. (please feel free to share any recipes you may have!)





I'm also grateful she picked some flowers from her garden and let us take them home. What is it about fresh flowers that make your home feel better?


Saturday nights I get our clothes ready for church the next morning, since we need to be there early. This morning as I was getting I had a "love moment" when Cony was wearing a tie to match what I was wearing. We do it every Sunday and some are more obvious than others, and today was an obvious day. It makes me happy, cause I really like to have my pajama's and work out clothing to match or at least coordinate. It's ridiculous I know, so I'm working on it by branching out with my home decor. So far I love the eclectic feel, more than anything I've done with a place. Who knows, maybe I'll branch out with my clothing next...

Look what I can do Mommy!

I've been chomping at the bit to re-finish some pieces of furniture that we have that were my grandparents. They all need some love but I started with this dresser that my dad inherited. My intention was to paint this a soft buttery color but when I sanded it down, I couldn't bring myself to cover the beautiful wood. So I went with a classic 'bring it back to it's original state' look. high-gloss and all.

Thankfully I was able to get those darn stickers off the top drawer and fix some other wood problems it had...





I like to stain wood with a piece of cloth or a sock, which ever one I have around. This go-around I used one of Cony's socks, and even had latex gloves on underneath so that this wouldn't happen... attractive uh?


Tah-dah!


Another project I tackled this week...dots! I thought this would be a great way to soften the edges in our apartment and add some warmth & color. I'm tickled with how it turned out and it cost less than $20. Plus I have lots of fabric left over for another project!


Close up. I just got a bunch of embroidery rings and had some clearance fabric cut and put it together with some fabric I already had.

Please someone explain...

Here's the preview: A few weeks ago, Cony was boss and surprised me with concert tickets to Lilith Fair. He knows how much I love Sarah McLachlan and knew it would cheer me up! (but secretly I think it was his way of saying Thank You for sticking with me up here). The concert was for August 1st, which was a Sunday and it shocked me that he even considered it much less bought the tickets. The Sunday before we had just received our callings in church and we decided last minute to take a trip to Chicago & Nauvoo since mom, Emily & Jordan would be there on their way home from Idaho. We left Nauvoo for my uncles home in Indianapolis and left much later on Saturday than we planned and made a HUGE detour home. I mean so big that we said hello to Canada and didn't get home until 5:30 in the mornin'.
Regardless of the length and mishaps of the trip we had a wonderful time. I guess we had such a great time, we. forgot. to. go. to. the. concert! We didn't realize this until 2 days later. I wanted to cry for a few reasons but most of all I HATE to waste money. It makes me sick to my stomach. Thankfully we were able to brush it off fairly easily because we realized that we were finally getting our priorities in order and if it was somewhere we needed to be, we would have remembered.

But don't ya wanna cry for me?


Until I go into our trip to the Midwest here's me and my little Jordan man that I'm missing pretty badly today...