Spring

It is Spring and of all things, I waited to start a big puzzle until about a week ago! It has been a great stress reliever for me. As usual, I'm enjoying my grandchildren and it's nice that they can go outside at times.

Sawyer can have fun with just about anything and can also trash the house very quickly.

Sawyer had a big hug for his brother, Brennan when he came home from preschool.

Signs of Spring!!

These pictures were taken with Wil's phone on his Sunday afternoon walk with Brennan

He got his mother to take a spin around the driveway.

About Granola.....

My sister Anna, said she made the granola recipe and she had to bake it longer, in order for it to brown. The difference is... It takes longer is you use a roaster, less time if you put it on a non-stick cookie sheet. Has anyone tried it? What do you use, Sue?

Granola Recipe

I am posting the Granola Recipe since many of you have asked for it. It was given to me by my sister-in-law, Sue. (Thanks again, Sue)

Granola

5 cups oatmeal
1 cup veg. oil
1 cup brown sugar (I used a scant 2/3 cup)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup coconut
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup cashews or almonds, chopped ( I added 1 cup raw cashews & almonds)
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup wheat bran
2 tsp. salt ( I used 1 tsp.-Sue thought the 2 tsp was too salty.

Mix together the oatmeal and oil. Add rest of ingredients. Bake at 300 degrees , for one hour or until lightly brown; stirring every 10 min. Store in air tight container.

Mine was almost too brown at 50 minutes. I will not bake it quite as long the next time. I also added dried craisins after it was baked. I plan to add dried blue berries the next time.


Matt and Wil decided we should make our own Yogurt. I told Wil that was his project. He used Sue's recipe for the 1st batch and our neighbor Velma's for the 2nd batch. I have a feeling he will come up with his own before he is totally satisfied.

Proof that I met most of my goals for the day

I tried the Martha Stewart granola recipe today. I prefer the Sue's recipe.


My granola bars taste almost too good. I want to cut back on the sugar and see if they are still as good.


Here is my at least 3 times a week job. My mother in-law sitting on her walker, while I comb her hair.

It's been a long time since I have accomplished so much in one day in my own house. The laundry room looks much better and there are two trash bags in the car for Goodwill.

In response to your question, Sarah.... Most of the clothes are items that we haven't worn in the last year. Some that I wish I could wear and others that I don't want to wear. I did keep some that I hope to get back into soon. You heard me right. I HOPE TO.

2 days off

Often on Wednesday, Brennan comes home with me to play the wii after Monica comes homes at noon. This week she had a meeting, so we only had a little time between preschool and Sawyer's nap time to play wii and make Granola.

Sawyer is starting to say, "cheese" just like Brennan, whenever he see's you are about to take a picture of him.
He had climbed into this basket, so after the last picture I took him out and gave him his cup of milk. He was a bit annoyed that I took him out and climbed right back in.

This was Brennan and my project as soon as he came home from school. I finally made my 1st granola using Sue's recipe with a few minor changes.

This is Thursday and since it's an extra day off, I have a ton of things on my "to do" list.

First on my list was to exercise. I get to check that off since I walked 5 miles on the Treadmill while I watched the Biggest Looser episode that I had recorded. We will not talk about how long it took me to walk those miles.

Clean up my horrendous laundry room.

Take lots of clothes to Goodwill.

Sweep the house.

Make more Granola, possibly granola bars.

Clean up my kitchen.

Oh, yes. And get Mom's hair combed and their house swept for their Beachy sibling night.

Fun at the basketball game

Wil and I had so much fun watching my nephews and their team play basketball. We felt like we had a workout just yelling for them. I enjoyed yelling and screaming with my family and many other people. I sat beside Lila who admitted to being one of my blog stalkers and she was fun! Ask almost anyone and they will tell you that inspite of Anna's screaming in the 1st game, she still had a voice. She was challenged and she took on the challenge.

It was a real good day for both Wil and myself. It was a good change in our daily routine.

Jesse with his PROUD Mom after the 1st win.

The family that was able to be there for Jesse and Judson

JR and Fern rejoicing with their sons after they won the State Championship

A family photo after they calmed down a little.
Judson, sister-Vanessa, my brother-JR, Jesse, Fern

I wanted to add this video because most of my shots of the game didn't turn out. I wanted you to see them all. We go to church with several of the boys and some are patients at Middlebury Chiropractic. They should probably all be patients after that work out! We were proud of all of them.

Great News

For those of you who don't read our son Matt's blog........ they just got the news yesterday that their court date is the end of April. It was a real surprise. If all goes well, they could be traveling to Ethiopia, mid May!! Wil and I just bought tickets to go to AZ from May 2-8 to celebrate Isaiah's birthday. We will have Brennan and Sawyer while they are gone, so that was cutting it close.

Sawyer and Music

I have been wanting to get a video of Sawyer and his moves with music for a long time. I was getting him dressed this morning when Veggie Tales came on and he had to get up right away. He loves music like his Papaw.

Community

Our wonderful, fuel saving Jetta let us down yesterday. It had done so well all winter.

Since it was my birthday earlier in the week and I had the day off, we decided to go to South Bend to watch my nephews, Jesse and Judson play basketball. We also went on Hotwire and got a Motel for the night. Clinton won their first game, we chit chatted with some friends and family then did some shopping and had lunch. We were back by 2:45, ready for the next game at 3:00. My sister Anna and her husband Frank were able to come to the 2nd game. Anna and I did our share of screaming for Clinton. It was an exciting game and we apologized a few times to the guy sitting in front of us. He assured us that he could move if we got too loud. They won their game and now will be going to State next Saturday. We stayed to watch the boys cut down the nets and get their pictures taken, then we were off for some time for ourselves.

The Jetta however had a stubborn streak and refused to start. We saw Allen Eash was ready to leave so we asked if he could jump our car. No problem, he was quite willing. The Jetta wasn't quite as willing. By this time, Jim and Shirley drove over to see what was going on and soon Bob Yoder showed up as well. All their wisdom didn't convince the Jetta to start. I really wish I would have had my camera because the guys decided to push the car and have Wil pop the clutch to get it started. It was quite a sight. Still the Jetta was stubburn. After someone that was a mechanic looked at it, they decided that it was time to call AAA and have them haul it to a VW dealer. Bob and Joyce offered to drive us home and then we could drive all the way back with our other car and stay in the $50.00 deal that we got on Hotwire.

Allen then decided that he thinks he could pull our car to the dealer, which sounded great to me. Bob followed , so he could take us home. As we are leaving the parking lot, my brother JR and Fern saw us and so I called them to let them know what was going on. JR and Fern followed our caravan as well and decided to have Bob's take them home and gave us their car to use. That was so nice because I really don't think we would have felt like driving back.

Our day didn't go as planned but we definitely experienced Community. We give a BIG THANK YOU to everyone that looked out for us.

We ended up coming home early Sunday morning to help get Grandma ready for church so we wouldn't feel guilty if we end up going to watch the guys at State next Saturday. Besides we had a lot of caffeine so we could stay awake Saturday night but the caffeine didn't kick in until 4:15 Sunday morning!! After we got home, Grandma decided she wasn't good enough to go to church, so Sawyer and I stayed with Grandma so Daudy could go to church.

Sawyer-Almost 17 months

Sawyer is almost 17 months and really into climbing. He climbs on anything and everything. He also repeats almost everything and so you need to watch what you say around him. Today I discovered that his little temper is also showing up. He wanted to see pictures on my phone and when I called it quits, he let me know what he thought of that.



While I was at Matt and Monica's this morning I got a phone call from Daudy, letting me know that he was leaving for town and wouldn't be back until after lunch. Thanks for the advanced notice Dad. I promised that I'd come over after a while. I packed a Veggie Tale video, diaper and water bottle then Sawyer and I headed over to Daudy's house. Sawyer was up and down on this rocker through the entire video. I think even grandma enjoyed most of it. I was combing her hair but I had to stop and take this picture. Hopefully the grandchildren and great-grandchildren enjoy seeing updated pictures of her.


I really thought he would make it up which is why I took such a long video of him. I have seen him get up before. He was a bit sidetracked by the video.