Recipe for "Healthy Cookies"

Their real name is Fruit Cookies, but since they are just about the only healthy snack I make for my kids these days (pretty much everything else they eat are chips, crackers, fruit snacks, candy ect) I refer to them in public as healthy cookies and to my kids as "breakfast cookies" (because yes, when I'm feeling lazy, Evan thinks it's cool to have cookies for breakfast). I got this recipe from "What to Expect: the Toddler Years" and have been making it for Evan since he was a year old. He still likes the cookies, but they are definitely Justin's favorite now. The first few times you make them, they might feel a bit labor intensive. After all, I use a mini food processor and a blender among other things to make them. (If your blender isn't a thousand years old like mine and has good blades, you might be able to skip the food processor). But once you get the hang of it, I can make them pretty easily now. Good luck and sorry, I was too worn out from baking them to take a pic! haha! But if you come over soon, you can try one of mine :)

1 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup golden raisins (or regular brown raisins)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped apricots (I used dried apricots)
1 cup apple juice concentrate (100% juice)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

1. mix the flour, wheat germ, oats, baking powder and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl

2. chop the raisins and apricots together in a blender or food processor; add the juice concentrate, oil, and egg, and blend. add the mixture to the flour mixture and gently stir together. place the dough in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, about 1 hour.

3. preheat the oven to 375 degrees. spray two baking sheets

4. with slightly wet hands, shape the dough into 1 inch balls. place the balls on the baking sheets and flatten them with the back of wet fork. bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.


this makes a lot of cookies, so after a few days, i put them in the freezer. they thaw well (you can microwave them for a few seconds if you need them fast).

Proof My Brain Cells Have Left the Head!

We all have brain dead moments, they are natural and occur more frequently depending on the number of children you have and the older you get. Things like putting the peanut butter in the fridge (ok, maybe some of you do this one for real, i don't know), accidentally grabbing the wrong toothbrush, making an appointment then forgetting completely about it, stuff like that. Well, I have those moments too, but lately it has been one after the other. It started on Sunday when I went to make stew in the crockpot. It's a pretty simple recipe: potatoes, carrots, meat, onion, soup and some spices. Nothing complex, right? So, why, for the 2nd time in a row did I forget the onion??? And the worst part was, since I knew I had forgotten it the last time I made this recipe, I kept thinking, get the onion out, get the onion out, and well, yeah, I still forgot. Poor Steve, had to be disappointed by my cooking yet again!
So, on Monday, I need to go to the grocery store to get toilet paper because we seriously have like one roll left in the entire house. I decide, while I'm there, to get a few groceries. So, I get the groceries, load them in the car and realize--I didn't buy the TP! Luckily, thanks to a very nice sis who was watching my children, I'm able to quickly run back in and buy the needed item.
Now today, this one REALLY scared me. Justin had a BAD morning. Like, he cried and cried no matter what was going on, so not like my happy baby. So, later, after Steve leaves for work, he calls me to see how things are going, and asks me if I put Justin down for a nap because he can't hear him crying. He's like, you must have gotten sick of his crying and laid him down. And I'm like, oh yeah, I thought if I laid him down now I could have him take a short nap then make him take another nap while it's quiet and Evan is at preschool. And I just go on about my reasoning for like another minute or two, then I hear it: a noise from a baby toy downstairs. I look down the steps from the hallway, and oh yeah, there's Justin, playing with a toy. I did NOT lay him down, I had only THOUGHT about laying him down, but then decided against it. Hmm. I told Steve about my mistake, and he's like, uhhhhh, ok....Like, I was a crazy person who made things up, which is truly what I felt like at that moment! Wah! I'm loosing it people. Please say you'll come feed me pudding when they put me away...

The Story of My Life Part 8: The House on Main St.

We only lived in the mobile home court for 2 years. My parents tend to get restless in the same place, so we ended up moving to the other end of town into a 100 year old brick house on Main St. It was a really great house that had a main floor that wrapped around to make a complete circle, lots of old marble fireplaces that didn't work anymore, and even wooden sliding doors you could open and close to separate rooms. The top floor had a really tiny bedroom, a medium sized bedroom and a big bedroom with a walk-in closet that had a window in it! Can you guess which room the little princess of the family got to live in? Yep! I got the bigger room with the walk in closet with the window. Hahaha! There was also a door to the attic up there, that when opened, had the steepest set of stairs ever to climb to get to the spooky attic. We also had a seriously creepy basement that had a cystern, a coal bin, and a gigantic furnace with another set of steep, creaky wooden stairs to go down. Off the kitchen we had a utility room that off of that had an extra room with a half bathroom. The room was newer but was always freezing!! We only had one bathroom and it didn't have a shower. Yes, I only took baths for 6 years, can you imagine? We also didn't have a dishwasher. Sigh. But, we had the best yard! It had an iron trellis or two, a wooden shed, patches of grass divided by cemented borders which my dad quickly turned into gardens and lots of little stone pathways all over the place. (I will dig up some pics one of these days, I promise!) Oh! And it had a wraparound porch! It was huge!!! I really liked the house, and I will tell you about some of my adventures there later.

The Story of My Life Part 7 1/2: The Stalker

Something different about the elementary class that I was in for 4th, 5th and 6th grade was that it was a split class, which meant, half of the class was 4th grade and the other half was 5th grade. We were split right down the middle of the room. Of course, that changed when I was in 6th grade, the other half was 5th grade, I guess they wanted to keep us all together. At any rate, in the younger class, my 5th grade year, there was a boy in the 4th grade class who took a "liking" to me. I use that term loosely, because for boys at that age, if they "like" you they show it by being obnoxious. This boy, let's call him John, was sneaky. He would take my things, I'd come back to my desk after recess and wonder what happened to all my pencils. He was gross: he'd take my retainer case and spit in them. He was rude: He cussed me out a couple of times at recess. He was mean: he'd throw balls at me on the playground. And in class, he'd watch me all of the time. Only, it didn't end after school was out: HE'D FOLLOW ME ON MY PAPER ROUTE! We lived on our Main st. house by this time, so it was a different paper route, but I can remember delivering papers and hearing something, turning around quickly, to see him hiding on his bike behind a parked car! This happened A LOT. This kid had a problem! I wish he'd just write me a note already saying check 1 if you like me, check 2 if you don't. So much simpler!
Well, the final straw was when he started to prank call me. A LOT. Then, one day he did a bigger prank, he had a pizza delivered to my house. Of course, he didn't pay for it, but he was dumb enough to leave his own name and number when he ordered it. So, his dad found out, and his dad was a cop. So his Dad took it pretty seriously, and I'll never forget the shock I felt the day John and his dad showed up at my door! His dad had made him come over to apologize. John would not look me in the eye and mumbled "sorry". After that, he left me alone. Thank goodness! I had enough other torture going on without dealing with his "attentions"!

The Story of My Life Part 7: 3rd thru 6th grade

So, life at home was great in our mobile home in the senior citizen trailer court, but school was another story. I started 3rd grade at my new school, Lincoln Elementary, with some excitement mixed with some trepidation. I didn't know anyone really, but was open to making new friends. I had a great teacher, Mrs. Roberts, who was very kind to me, but all that year I didn't really click with any of the other students. I didn't make any new school friends that year, but I did start concentrating on my studies. I discovered I loved to learn and was good at it. I didn't worry about the friends too much, but I could tell my teacher was worried, so I was put into a completely different class in 4th grade in hopes I'd make some friends in there.

The first week in my new class was great. The girls were very friendly to me even though they all seemed to already be in their own little group. One girl, in particular, let's call her Natalie, seemed to take a special liking to me. In fact, she wanted to be my friend so much she practically planned my birthday party for me (my birthday is Sept. 9th, so about 2 weeks after the start of school) and told me to invite all her friends. Sounded fine to me, so the day of my party at my house, all these girls come over and I remember I had pizza and I think some games planned, a pretty low key party, but I think everyone will have a good time. Well, I soon learn otherwise, these girls start to badmouth me and trash my party and in general be very rude and obnoxious. The worst part was that Natalie, who had up to that point, seemed like my new best friend suddenly starts acting like my worst enemy. She starts making fun of me and telling me she was only "friends" with me to get her and her friends over to my birthday party. I'm pretty stunned and not sure how to act about this turnaround, after the party is over, I'm hoping the worst is over too. Only, it's just begun. Suddenly, all these girls at school are pulling my hair, spitting on me, teasing me about my clothes, my good grades, anything they could think of. Natalie is the ring leader, trying every day to make my life miserable. 4th grade ends and 5th grade begins.

There's a new ringleader, let's call her Candy, Natalie has somehow lost favor with the crowd and gets treated just as badly as me. I actually try to be her friend, because I sympathize with her plight, but I remember she bitterly rejects my offers of friendship, and hates me almost more. Meanwhile, Candy, at recess approaches me with her little group and bullies and taunts me. I get teased after recess, the girls tell the boys to see if they can make me cry and then when I do they tease me even worse. At one point, the torture does let up some, I'm somewhat friends with a girl named Heather in the group and she defends me as best she can. She even invites me to her birthday party where the other girls seem to think I'm alright--for a time.

In 6th grade, it's pretty much more of the same. It was a tough time, but there were some bright spots, one was my teacher, Mrs. Gerschutz. She was my friend and my teacher for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. She tried to help me and encouraged me in my studies--which was another bright spot. I buried myself in learning. I'd read encyclopedias, devour books on anything that interested me, from Greek Mythology to Astronomy.

I know people say junior high was the worst, but honestly, I was looking forward to getting out of that elementary school. But we're not quite out yet, I have even more good and bad stories to tell, but that's for another time....to be continued...

My Belated New Years To-Do List

I'm better at to-do lists than resolutions, so I decided to go from that angle. So here are the things I hope to accomplish in 2009: (in no particular order, mind you, I just always number my to do lists)

1. Go from exercising 3 times a week to 5 times a week! (evan has preschool 3 days a week right now, that is when I exercise, no other time works, believe me I've tried. Evan will start kindergarten this year, so I will then be able to exercise 5 times a week! So, yeah, I'll get to check this one off, but not for awhile...)

2. Eat out once a month (this one will be super easy to check off, but then, well, I won't be able to go out again for another month. bummer. maybe i could plan on eating out on the 31st and 1st of each month...)

3. Relax (I continually stress myself out for usually no good reason, so maybe I should start yoga or deep breathing or something. Or maybe someone could volunteer to call me once a day and just say that one word then hang up!)

4. Go on a vacation (should our family really struggle with this one? so sad, but true)

5. Spend more time with friends (this is a warning to Melissa, Cassie, Krista, Mindi, Amy ect. that I will be coming over more this year! mwhahaha!)

6. Find something to clear my face up (yeah, I had to deal with the sad fact that being in my 20s didn't magically make my acne go away, but now that I'm in my 30s? Do I really have to keep having breakouts? Really???)

7. Get Evan to stop hitting me and use his words (I've been working on this one for years, but this year will be the year he finally quits! I just know it!)

8. Kiss Steve more (pretty mushy, I know, but I always seem to forget this one, poor guy)

9. Watch every episode of the Office as it airs (I keep missing it this season!)

10. Buy a new bra (Don't be scared, but um, I haven't bought a new bra in 3 years, so, anyone know a good place to bra shop? hehehehe)