Mmm. Granola

We are granola freaks around here.  Well, I am actually.  The kids put up with it when there's nothing else around.  I eat it with yogurt, kefir, milk, ice cream, as trail mix, whatever!  Love it, love it, love it.  And it's so easy to make, I don't know why people would want to buy it.  Hmmm, maybe I should start SELLING mine!  Anyway, sidetracked.  I've tried out different recipes over the years, tweaking them until I've found my favorite.  And I may still tweak it again.  And, of course, sometimes it's just nice to have a different flavor or variety.  As with so many other recipes, I like a basic formula that I can adjust to my mood.  You can easily use a different nut, type of oil, or use maple flavor instead of vanilla extract. Today, I'll share the recipe I  made this morning.


Excuse me while I rescue my 16 month old daughter from the bunk bed.  She literally climbed the ladder herself and then, when she saw me, she climbed back down.  This is just plain scary! But look how pleased she is with herself!

Anyway, here's the recipe.

Granola

Preheat oven to 275F

Combine in a large bowl:

6 cups old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup wheat germ

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup pecans

2/3 cup coconut

2 Tbsp ground flax, optional

In a medium saucepan combine and heat to a simmer:

2-3 Tbsp real maple syrup

2 Tbsp molasses

3 Tbsp coconut oil

1 Tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Drizzle the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and stir well to combine.  Place on two large ungreased baking sheets and bake for 20 minutes.  Stir then bake an additional 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and stir in 2/3 cup raisins.  I just put mine back into the bowl I used earlier.  Allow to cool completely then store in airtight container. 

Mmmm.  If you want to make this a trail mix, add in some dried bananas, sunflower seeds, coated chocolate candies, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and/or peanuts.  So good!  We took it with us on our camp out with some peanuts and chocolate covered raisins mixed in. :D


Last chance for my giveaway!

My weekend away

My darling husband knows me very well. Some days he's fairly clueless, like many men we love, but when it came to celebrating 6 years together, he did remarkable.  His plan was to surprise me with a weekend away at the beach, camping.  It didn't come out exactly that way, but it was pretty close.  He arranged for my parents to watch our 3 girls ages 16 months to almost 5 years and then took me deep into the quiet Mark Twain National Forest.  We camped at this camping "resort," which basically means it's slightly pampered camping.  You could pay for the cabins, which we don't consider camping, or you could camp in the field with a fire pit, picnic table, and free firewood.  A quick walk away is a covered pavilion with washing sink, next to the bathroom and shower house.  Another quick walk brings you to the trading post, stocked with such necessities as sunglasses, bug spray, lighters, water shoes, and medicines.  They even have small packages of cornmeal, oil, and flour if you forgot food. And of course ice and candy bars. ;)  It was a true vacation for us, since we usually camp as primitively as possible: digging latrines, searching for firewood, and eating whatever camp-worthy food we could manage.

Our "pampered campsite"

Do you like our tent?  We were so geeked-out over finding a canvas tent with attached floors, zippered windows, and a true double door at a yard sale.  We got it for a STEAL of only $15!  These things retail at over a thousand.  It needs a little love, but it's still excellent and huge. It sleeps 8 and is tall enough for my 6'1" Boy Scout to stand up and can still reach his arms up.  We hate changing clothes in a 4' tall tent!

We loved just sitting in those chairs and listening to nothing but birds, watching squirrels going through the woods, and taking in all of God's beauty.

The view from our tent door

Don't you love that sweet trail there?  There were so many squirrels, birds, and lizards making use of the area and we just had to explore. And this picnic table was great.  We're excited about bringing our kids on another day to enjoy the fun here. There was also a playground, volleyball net, and horseshoes game set up, but I neglected to take pictures.

My Boy Scout carving a "chicken stick."

On a previous camping trip, the Boy Scout brought a cornish hen to rotisserie.  It was EPIC, apparently, and he wanted to share his joy with me. We started with a hike to find just the right sticks: two for the stand and one to hold the chickens.  Then he had to shave off the bark.

In your best imitation of Crocodile Dundee, say "Now, THAT's a knife."

Put the chickens on the stick and rotate, as needed, about every 15 minutes.  We seasoned these with salt and pepper and played various games while waiting for them to finish cooking.  Remember: you shouldn't walk away from your fire, even if it's in a fire pit. Just before they were done, we poured some buffalo wing marinade over one.  It was awesome.  I'd post a picture of the completed chickens, but it was rather dark and they were so amazingly tasty that I couldn't bring myself to take a picture.  Suffice it to say, they lived up to the legend and we will TOTALLY bring hens on every camp out our family does.

Rotisserie chickens

The next morning, we got our adventure on!  We went for a walk down to the "Bat Cave," then since the owners gave us permission to go off trail wherever we liked, we went on an adventure.  We climbed up passed the cave and explored.  It didn't take long before we were going nearly vertical so we decided to travel back down.  We found some fun rocks to pose on and then took a little stroll back to our campsite.

Our morning hike/adventure

Next, we went to play in the river and discovered we had floated passed this very place the last few years.  Don't let that calm-looking water fool you.  This river has some strong current!  We couldn't walk upstream, so we tried different paths and ended walking through the woods to explore other parts of the water.  When we got to the "island" in the middle of the river, we found deer tracks in the stream running through there.  So very cool.  And so was the WATER!  It was COLD!  After a little while we got used to it, or maybe our legs went numb.  It's a hard choice, but it was still nice to hear the bubbling stream and listen to the bird calls.  There was one in particular who was quite loud, but I couldn't get a good shot of him.

Showing off at the river.

If you're looking for a little getaway, whether you enjoy "roughing it" or prefer cabin camping, we highly recommend "Lost Cabins Resort."  They also rent canoes and tubes for float trips.  They have some that only take a couple hours to float, or you can go for a few days. We weren't in the mood for a float trip, so we passed this time, but maybe next time we'll rent the family sized one!

Playing around with CollageItPro.

Don't forget about our giveaway. It ends tomorrow night at midnight!

My CollageItPro Review

I had a good time putting together these collages with  my new CollageItPro software. It's really simple to drop in a bunch of pictures and allow the randomizer to place them around the collage.  I'm AWFUL at making collages, by the way.  Once things are where you like them, you can easily crop/adjust photos, switch out position, and customize frame and background. It's a pretty simple program.  The free edition is good to get an idea of whether it will work for you, but you quickly realize you'll need to upgrade or find a different program.  With the Pro, it really opens up the possibilities.  There are several layout options. You can adjust the number of pictures to add.  It has easy sharing capability to social media.  One thing I think is missing is an ability to add text, but I suppose you could export and use a web-based program like PicMonkey to do that.  One advantage of this program over PicMonkey, by the way, is that you have more options for picture lay out and cropping without having to save each individual edited picture.

So, do I like it?  Yes!  Will I continue using this program in the future?  Of course.  Would I pay $19.90 for the upgrade?  Probably not.  But the good news is, you can still get one of 20 (12 windows, 8 mac) codes for a FREE upgrade.  Enter here: a Rafflecopter giveaway.  The giveaway is ending soon!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Flats Challenge Day 7: What did I learn?

Day 7: What did I learn/How did it go?

Final day in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.

Here's what I've learned so far, in no particular order.

• I was surprised to know that I had PLENTY of flat diapers for daily hand washing: 28 diapers, 6 covers, and 3 pockets!  I'm going to make a bundle of flats, covers, soap, and a camp washer for emergencies and when we go camping.  It's one less thing I'll have to gather for those occasions and it's so low-stress knowing I can totally do this with 2 covers and 8 or so flats.
• Flats are way more absorbent than they look.  Just because it's only one layer of fabric doesn't mean you only have that one layer between baby's bottom and the world.  Depending on the fold you could have 8-12 layers of fabric just in one flat.  Then you can add a pad-folded flat as a doubler and that's even more!
• Washing by hand took a lot less work and time than I thought it would, but experimenting with the right amount of soap and soaking times was a little frustrating.
• You can't trust the weather!  I had expected to line dry everything all week long, with few exceptions.  But I had to learn to roll with the punches and let things dry overnight hanging from curtain rods, hangers, and chairs since it stormed half the week.
• If you over stuff a pocket diaper, it's much more likely to leak.
• There are DOZENS of ways to fold a flat and each is good in it's own way.  There is no one RIGHT way to fold it and very few wrong ways.  So long as all the cloth is stuffed into the cover (or you're a really observant parent) it's probably a fine way to do flats.
• I actually like flats. More than some of my other diapers.
• Once you've used flat diapers for a week, you start evaluating all the cloth in your house for diaper potential.  I look at my towels, dish cloths, and clothing differently now.  During this challenge, I added two blankets and a t-shirt to my stash. This has put my husband on alert!
• My daughter is a diaper escape artist.  Snappis were not a barrier to her curiosity.  Covers were, however.
• When hand washing, a "wet bucket" was almost indispensable.  You probably could get away without using it if you washed as soon as a "dirty" happened, but if you've got diaper laundry, you probably also have children who need watched and sometimes it's just not convenient to wash right then.  Especially not for as long as is needed without soaking.  So I change my stance on the dry vs wet bucket controversy from "absolutely not" to a "yes with cautions."  I put my laundry right into the wash bucket which stays in the bath tub, except when people are bathing. While it's possible someone could still get in there and cause mischief or drown, I also keep the lid on the bucket that is nearly adult-proof and that helps me feel safer about it.  I still don't let kids play in the bathroom, and I'm in there washing diapers at least twice a day, so I know it's not always full of water.  I'm cautious about it.  When I go back to using my washing machine and dryer I will stop using a "wet bucket."
• When hand washing in a camp washer, less really is more.  Wipes, 2-4 diapers, and a cover wash just fine.  Don't even try to do 5+ diapers because you'll be rinsing FOREVER.  They don't get as clean in your usual cycle, so you'll end up washing them again.  And again.  It's way better to plan on washing twice a day.  That way it takes 10 minutes from first rinse to hanging up.  And it's a good excuse to visit the sunshine. ;)
• If I didn't have a washing machine, I could totally wash my diapers every day in my camp washer.  But I'd rather spend all day at the laundrymat than try to hand wash and dry the mountains of clothes these kids wear!
• Every time I turn on the water to wash diapers, my littlest daughter chases me down asking for a "tubby."  Every time I go outside to hang up or take down diapers, my bigger girls chase me down and want to play outside.  Maybe we need to play outside more often.  (That was several things I learned, but they're a bit connected, you know.)

The important point, here, is that this is POSSIBLE.  It's not roses and I MUCH prefer using my washing machine.  But if I had an emergency, I am confident I could hand wash and line dry as long as I had to.  If I was in extreme economic trouble or without a washing machine, I would be content knowing that I was doing what I could and that I didn't have to worry about buying more diapers.  I would probably be looking around to "evaluate things for diaper potential" when I got behind on washing.  And that's okay.  Because so many things can be used as a flat.  You could probably get your entire stash at a yard sale or thrift store (minus the covers unless you're super lucky!) for $10.  If you knew what to look for.  We need to spread the word that this is a viable solution!

So, what did you learn?

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge
Day 2: How did I prepare?
Day 3: Dealing with Overnights
Day 4: How am I doing with hand washing?
Day 5: What's working? What's not?
Day 6: Babysitter/Outings

Flats Challenge Day 6: Babysitters and Outings

Day 6: Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry

This challenge could have brought some interesting issues for babysitters and outings, so I wanted to share my experience planning for and adapting to them.

Babysitters

I'm blessed to have some great flexible babysitters and to only need a sitter once or twice a week.  During this challenge, I had to be away from my girls for a prenatal visit with a client.  This sitter is great.  My kids adore her and her kids.  They always have a great time.  Plus, she's cloth diapered her kids in the past and has been following me on this challenge and knew to expect this.  Even still, I wanted things set up and easy, so I stuffed pad-folded flats in my pocket diapers and was ready to go. My little lady woke up wet from a nap just before my friend was expected to arrive, so I changed her to a clean diaper and gave a tour of the bathroom and a quick overview of my diapering routine.  I showed her where the diapers were kept and where to put the wet/dirty diapers. No problem.  Then I found I wasn't actually gone long enough for a diaper change to be needed, so that was even better.  :) The kids had a great time and knowing everyone was safe and happy meant I could focus my attention on my client.

Outings

Normally, I reserve my AIOs for outings and babysitters because they're so simple and require no skill except the ability to snap the snaps.  For this challenge, I packed two diaper bag-folded flats and a cover and one pocket diaper with pad-folded flat insert into my diaper bag/wet bag.  This arrangement was fine, except that I didn't do a good enough job stacking the flats so they would keep their shape and ended up having to refold at a diaper change. Not a huge deal for me, but the Boy Scout (my husband) probably wouldn't have loved it if he were the one doing the change and dealing with the tangled flats. In the future I'll either clothespin the flats in place or only bring pad-folds. Also, I was warned that using flats in a pocket diaper might mean leaks, but this was not my experience.  I would think a heavier wetter would have a problem and we never did pockets overnight, so maybe that's the difference?

I still have two days to go (counting today), and it's important to realize we all learn as we go. So far I haven't had any poo diapers while on the go, but I do have a homemade double pocket wet bag for my clean and dirty diapers that works nicely.  I usually keep a disposable shopping bag in it, too, in case of extra smelly diapers that may have to wait a bit for a wash pail.

Some day I may give a tutorial on how I made this, but for now you'll have to be satisfied with inspiration to make your own and probably make it better. I've learned a few things since putting this one together. The white side is the PUL layer of this material I got from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.  That made it about $6.50 a yard and I used a bit less than that to make this bag!  The white-lined pocket is for the wet/dirty diapers and the white/flower-lined pocket is for the clean.  I despise sewing in zippers, so this just closes with hook and loop, but it works nicely for a usual day outing.  It has been used for an entire day out but that's when I augment with shopping bags for the poo diapers to keep a handle on the stink.  Since it's PUL, I wash it with my diapers as needed.

What about you?  Did you expect any special challenges you had to plan for?  Or did you come upon a challenge that you WISH you'd planned for?

Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge! I'll certainly keep flats in rotation with my diapers, but I won't be hand washing except in emergencies and while camping.

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge
Day 2: How did I prepare?
Day 3: Dealing with Overnights
Day 4: How am I doing with hand washing?
Day 5: What's working? What's not?

Day 7: What did I learn?

Flats Challenge Day 5: What's working for me?

Day 5 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry

To those of you who have starting following or reading along since the flats challenge, welcome! It's an honor to have you here and I'm so excited to share future posts with you.

So, let's talk about what's working for me, and what's not.  I'm still perfecting which folds work best with which diapers. I located a couple receiving blankets to add to my stash, so that makes for more things to play with!  The t-shirt flats work very well in the t-shirt fold and the pad fold. Most of the other folds simply don't work with them because of their shape.  They might work on newborns, though since they would fold down smaller.  The receiving blankets work with the kite fold, airplane fold, origami fold, and another fold I may have invented.  I'll have to research around to see for sure! What I do is take my square flat (or make my rectangle into a square) and fold corner to corner to make a triangle.  Then I do a sort of accordion fold across the crotch area, so it's like a combination of the origami and the triangle fold. Then fold up the tip a little to adjust the rise, or not.  Then fold into your diaper.  And bring in the wings.  I do better with pictures, so try to follow along here.

This fold is especially nice for those flats that are just not quite the right size for the other more complex folds.  In the picture above, I took a very large, but very thin, receiving blanket and folded into quarters to do this fold.  But I also have a flat that's too small to do anything but a pad fold, or this fold.  The absorbency is as good as most folds, but it doesn't form a "poop pocket," so beware of that. And because of the padding fold, it can't be just pinned on.  The waist would fall off.  So, there are drawbacks, but I like that it has padding where it's needed and I already use my covers all the time anyway.

The covers have been working fine since I bought them years ago.  I love that they are one size, so they can fit my newborns up to my potty-learners.  For other families with bigger potty-learners or smaller newborns, they may not work the whole diapering time, but they sure last a long time. The camp style washer works great to agitate.  The jury is still out on how the dish soap is working.  Other bloggers suggested using it exclusively and I'm just not sure how well it cleans the poop diapers.  I may try my regular detergent again on the next wash and report back to you.  Line drying is working beautifully.  Inside drying takes considerably longer unless there's a fan blowing right on them, but they still usually dry by morning.  Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised how much I really like flats.  They're so adaptable to needs, which, to me, is a major bonus.  A decent flat could be used as a blanket, nursing cover, burp rag, or diaper.  And that diaper could be adjusted to fit a newborn, toddler, or potty-learner, with or without a cover.  It could probably be used for other things I've not noticed yet.  I'm so glad I took this challenge!

Being on the computer most of the day everyday to edit photos, ask and answer questions on the facebook group, write blog posts, edit blog posts, comment on various blogs and so forth is NOT working well for me.  I did much better with posting a couple of times a week and sometimes even scheduling a posting ahead of time.  This meant I was able to spend more time with my kids and budget my internet time a little better.  The house is not in order, meals are barely getting cooked, school is a little behind.  But on the flip side, I've enjoyed seeing more people visit my blog, reading more comments, and I'm learning a lot, so I recognize this as a good thing. I need to learn to roll with what I get, I guess. ;)  Oh, and schedule better.  Maybe only write posts during nap time or set a timer for an hour while the kids play quietly or work on school work alone.

In other news, I feel like I've spent a lot of time looking at many of these views: wash bucket, line dry, change diaper, line dry, new fold, wash bucket, so I figured I take a moment to play with my new CollageItPro software.  Would you like to win a code for a free upgrade?  There are many different layouts, changeable options, you can crop pictures to fit, or just dump in and randomly re-order your pictures.  It's a nice, easy way to make a quick collage, if you want.  Or if you put a little more time into it, you can get a great customized collage, too.  Enter here:  a Rafflecopter giveaway .  There are low entries and TWENTY (12 windows, 8 mac) winners! Giveaway ends May 31 and winners will be selected June 1.

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge

Day 2: How did I prepare?

Day 3: Dealing with Overnights

Day 4: How am I doing with hand washing?

Day 6: Babysitter/Outings

Day 7: What did I learn?

Flats Challenge Day 4: How am I doing with Handwashing?

Day 4: How am I doing with handwashing?

 Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry

We're on to the fourth day of the challenge.  It's actually become just a touch boring.  Using flats is very simple.  It's very much like using prefolds, but in some ways it's way better.  I've been handwashing in my camp-style washer about twice a day.  I'm still working out the kinks on using soap, but so far it looks like poop diapers need to agitate immediately then soak in detergent and baking soda.  I haven't timed the soaking.  I just set them in the bucket to soak and go about my day.  After an hour or two, I may have another diaper to toss in, too.  Then I do my usual, agitate 1 minute and drain.  Add hot water and soap, then agitate 5-10 minutes and drain.  Then one or two more rinse cycles.  I twist the wet flats to  get out the excess moisture then hang in the sun, if I can, or in the laundry room if I have to.  Within 3 hours they're dry, sometimes faster if the wind and sun are just right.

Yesterday I had to get inventive since I had my regular clothes laundry drying in the beautiful day, too. They still dry, though it would be faster if they were hanging on the line.  Luckily, I have more than enough flats and covers clean and available.

And, bonus, I got my hubby to help out with washing when I was out one day. :D

A special note I will add is that I decided to handwash the AIOs and microfiber inserts that were stinking up my diaper pail and it was a LOT of work.  They smelled awful and I think it's the microfiber.  I washed them many times and when I thought I finally got them clean, I decided to just toss them in the dryer since they have so many extra layers and we've had some humidity.  When they came out, they STILL smelled.  That's a real puzzler for me!

Tune in tomorrow to find out what's working for me and what's not.

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge
Day 2: How did I prepare?
Day 3: Dealing with Overnights

Day 5: What's working? What's not?
Day 6: Babysitter/Outings
Day 7: What did I learn?