Early morning thought processes...

Waking up at 4am was not on my list of things to do today. In any case, here I am, awake, since 4am, with my not-so-partner-in-crime, Maddi.

This isn't her right this minute...but this is what she looks like after waking up at 4am. I, however, do not. So you won't see a picture of me here.

Maddi and I aren't necessarily on speaking terms at the moment...since, you know, she woke me up at 4am without any intention of going back to sleep. So, what have we done since 4am? Well, we started out back in her bed, because trying to get her back to sleep isn't a bad idea, right? Sure. Whatever. Instead of going back to sleep I taught her about lightning. And thunder. Because that's what was going on outside her window. Every .03 seconds there would be a flash and she would gasp, "Who's dare?!" and then every 8 seconds the rumble of thunder would rattle her window and she'd exclaim, "Whassthasound?!" And that's how I found myself explaining the process of lightning and thunder to a two year old at 4am. It's also how I stumbled upon an unsettling question and the purpose of this post.

I'm sure I could google this, but what's the fun in that? I'd rather just share my 4am ramblings with you on blogger/facebook/twitter (wherever it is your finding me). So, while explaining to Maddi about Benny Franklin and his kite in the lightning storm I had an errant thought (because they come from every direction when I've only had four hours of sleep). While the lightning flashed, so did my memories about all the West Texas thunderstorms I'd experienced the majority of my life. Thunderstorm season usually correlates with softball season out there and numerous times, from the age of seven to twenty-four, I can recall having to clear the metal bleachers of fans because why? Well, no one wants their butt to fry by a freakish bolt of lightning. Why does this matter?

Well, remember it was 4am, and I'm laying in my kid's bed which is surrounded by rails. You know the kind? Their initial purpose is to keep one's child from rolling out of their bed at night because children never stop moving, even when sleeping. And they're metal-like (I don't know my alloys so I don't know what kind it is) and I had a moment--thinking back to the softball bleachers--and wondered if it's safe to be laying in my kids bed that is surrounded by metal rails when there is a lightning storm raging outside.

My face was similar to this.

Sure, this isn't one of those things I should really be worrying about. I'm sure all are completely safe from the lightning and that these measly, metal bars aren't sending out signals to the bolts of electricity surrounding the house. But, again, it was 4 am. 

And now you've been included to my morning thus far.

Super Heroic Friends

My little miss Jaxon is growing up, and yeah, it breaks my heart in a good way. A few months ago she started going to Mother's Day Out and I can hardly keep up with all the changes. She can go to the bathroom completely by herself, she picks out her own clothes to wear (mostly), and is the biggest help with her sister.

She even opens up all the contents of her lunch by herself, which is pretty amazing considering I can't open up a Lunchable without spraying crackers all over the place...or even a juice box without it coming out of the other side of the straw. Big. Stuff.

So, the other night she told me she needed to wear her Captain America t-shirt to school. When I asked why she told me that the boys would let her play if she wore it. Well, since I don't do laundry on a daily basis Captain America shirt wasn't clean. I had to do the "mommy advice" thing that sometimes doesn't make sense but it mostly does. I had said something along the lines of "well, honey, if they value your friendship, they won't care if you don't have that shirt on."

Then today happened. I was walking down the hallway on the way to chapel behind her class and Jaxon was squeezed in between a couple boys. One broke the ranks and ran up to her asking, "Hey Jaxon! When we go outside do you want to be Spiderman?!" She beamed, "YES OF COURSE!" and they continued on their merry little way.

I had a proud mom face for the rest of the day because not only did she get to play superheroes,
but she got to be her favorite one.

My granola...it's good.

Okay. I promise not to make this a cooking blog, not that anyone ever complains about a cooking blog, it's just that my last post was about my magical meatloaf and this next post is also about something edible as well. I should warn you, my husband loves this...and the ladies at work enjoyed it as well. So this is my life. They say, "yumm," and I blog about it.

So there are rules--guidelines really--to reading a recipe of mine. You must remember that I use measuring cups as a simple suggestion. When I say something like "3 cups of oatmeal," you should know that the oats are flowing over the side of said measuring cup and I'm having to use another hand to keep the extra mound of grains from falling to the ground. And if you choose to go down this path of using extra, keep in mind the rest of the ingredients need to be generous as well. Okay, we cool? We're cool.

My example of a "cup" of oatmeal. 

Ingredients.

3 cups (and then some) of large flake rolled oats
1 cup raw sliced almonds
1 cup of walnut pieces
1 cup of pecan halves
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 tsp ginger (or nutmeg...I've been using that lately. It's kind of either or around here.)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tbsp vanilla
1ish cup of Craisins (I prefer the pomegranite flavored kind. It's delightful.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250.

1. Combine all the dry ingredients EXCEPT the Craisins. And mix that around.
2. In another smaller bowl combine honey, oil, and vanilla. You can stir that if you want, but it's kind of pointless. You'll see what I mean when you make your own.
3. Drizzle the honey mix over the granola and just mix like crazy. 
4. Spray your cookie sheet so it doesn't stick and spread it into one even layer. You can lick your finger and enjoy a taste of what is to come.

5. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour while stirring, or nudging (because you don't want it to spill over) every         

    fifteen minutes or so. The longer you leave it in the crunchier it will be. I like mine a little soft so I'm good   

    at 50 minutes. 

6. Once you take it out add the Craisins and mix that as well. Let it cool or don't, whichever. 

You can store this in just about anything. If you choose to refrigerate it, it will get hard. I hope you love it. I tend to use this in my yogurt because I don't like yogurt plain. ENJOY!!

P.S. If you noticed my alignment was off during this post, there is a simple explanation...and I'm going to just blame blogger instead of owning up to my inability to work this site.