Homemade Granola

When a blogger friend shared this granola recipe she saw on another blog, I decided to try it out – it sounded super yummy! Right away my family fell in love, and we started making variations on the original, sometimes making a batch every day! Through months of experimenting, we have come up with a version we love even more than the one we originally read. We make a double batch, and store it in a cereal container. Enjoy!

Homemade Granola

• 4 c. old fashioned oats
• 1 c. sliced almonds
• 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. dried fruit – usually raisins, but we have also used mixed fruit
• 1/4 c. coconut
• 1/3 c. vegetable oil
• 1/3 c. plus 1/2 c. agave nectar
• 2 Tbs. vanilla extract

In a large bowl, mix together the first five ingredients. Next, in a small saucepan, combine the oil and agave. Heat over medium heat until simmering. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the vanilla. Pour this mixture while still hot over the oats and stir well, making sure to coat all of the dry granola.

Spread the mixture on a large, greased cookie sheet. Bake at 300 for about 20 min. (or until light golden brown), stirring the mixture after the first 10 min.

Remove from oven and cool for several minutes before stirring again. Allow to cool completely then store in an airtight container. Thanks Kendra for the recipe! We are getting a lot of miles out of it!

Play time

There was a really interesting article in the New York Times this week about a movement to "restore" children's play time. Definitely worth sharing!

Bria's hair-do

I have been watching with anticipation as baby's hair gets longer and longer, because I can't wait to do fun things with it! I wanted to have a few fun things to do with it while we are on vacation, so I thought I'd try a few styles and see what we liked.

Two days ago we decided to try out this 'do from Curly Hairdo Ideas.

It didn't go perfectly, but I was pretty pleased for a first try! I did discover as the day went on that one side was FAR more secure than the other, so I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Today we made attempt number two. It's improving!

Washing lamby

Bria got a beautiful lambskin as a baby gift, and has slept on it since she was quite small. She loves it very much, and doesn't sleep with drinks or anything like that, so I have managed to put off cleaning it a lot longer than I probably should have! Yesterday I decided it was looking well past time to do something about it, so I did some searching around for the best practices for cleaning her beloved bedding (shh, I didn't understand the instructions on the label!).

After finding a few great sources for buying them in the states (I was pleased to discover that Lamby Baby Products is just down the road from my home town), I also found several sets of cleaning instructions, and set my mind on what I was going to try. I was admittedly very nervous to ruin it!

First, I put lamby in the washing machine on the gentle cycle, warm. It came out looking like a wet cat, and holding water like a bathroom sponge.

Next, I laid it out on a big, thirsty towel on the dining room table.

I rolled it up inside the towel and squeezed a bit to suck some of the water up, and instantly the towel was drenched! There was a lot of water there, and the table was soaked, as well.

I got out a dry towel and rolled it up again.

This time, the towel didn't soak through, so I left it rolled up for a few hours, periodically squeezing it a bit to soak up as much water as I could.

Next I took a skirt hanger (the kind with the two clips at the bottom) and hung lamby up in the laundry room to dry overnight.

Then in the morning -- voila! A clean, dry lamby! Hooray!

(I took photos, but they don't seem to be cooperating. So maybe I can get them to play nicely later!)