Thankful for the ME God Made

I have a ton of stuff to do, but I am in a blogging mood.

This week I have reconnected by e-mail with some of my best friends from my youth. I thought a lot about the person I use to be. So unguided and rebellious. Oh, how I wish I could of done things differently. Now that I am wiser, I know how wrong I was. And now that I am a parent, I have more respect for the family name that my father wanted to protect so much. And I wish I would of been the daughter that I expect my girls to be.

The unguided ME of my youth. I was 17 in this picture. And look, I WAS SO SKINNY!!!!

And yes, the dress is so 80's because it was 1986!

I am thankful to my loving Father in heaven that he gave me a guided life that I so desperately needed. I am also thankful for the ME that God molded me to be. I like this ME of today so much more then the one 21 years ago. 21 years ago I was baptised and decided to follow a new, brightly lit path. Growing was not easy, but not the pain I experienced on that dark unguided path.



How wonderful it is that God gave me these precious gifts along the way of this brightly lit path. No other man would of had patience for my growing pains. No other man would of loved me as much as he loves me And I never have or never will love anyone as much as I love my husband. And our treasures from God are both of our girls. I want to give our girls the mother that I didn't have. I don't want them searching to fill in the pieces like I did growing up.


Thank you God!

Easy Skillet Granola

I love Granola! But I have burned it in the oven more then once. =( So I don't make it anymore, well I won't in the oven. I am also avoiding making it, because of the price of gluten free oats is expensive. For those that are not gluten free, regular oats are contaminated, from what I read. I haven't noticed a reaction and so only eat them when friends are nice enough to make us something safe for us. I love my friends. :) Back to granola, I buy the Gluten Free granola. It is expensive and very disappointing, because it is not the same from what I remember. :(

I found this recipe on a blog. It makes a lot. I just wanted a cup of granola to try it out and so I just eye balled the adjustments. It turned out great. I also cooked it without the honey on a higher heat for about 5 minutes and then added the honey at the end. So for me, that was almost instant. lol I love eating mine with yogurt, soy yogurt that is.

Easy Skillet Granola --to the table in less than 30 minutes
-1 cup oil
-1 cup honey
-12 cups of oats
-dash of cinnamon.
-3 cups dried fruit
Heat oil and honey together in skillet with oats -- stir in with dash of cinnamon, keep stirring at low-medium heat until well coated and lightly brown (15-20 min) Then add dried fruit. Serve with milk.

You can find this recipe along with some other breakfast recipes at http://www.aholyexperience.com/2009/01/you-were-asking.html Not all are gluten free.

Picture Tag

I have been tagged. Picture tagged by Jen. You can view her picture here. Very cute picture Jen. I see E in that one.

Picture Tag
A little photo meme.
Here are the rules:Find your 5th photo file folder,then the 5th photo in that file folder.
Post that picture on your blog.
Tag 5 others to do the same.

Here is mine. I used my childhood photo album (hard copy), because our pictures on the computer are mixed with business and most likely you would get a picture of someones home. So here is the real photo. This is me! I am not sure about the exact age. Nothing was written on it. I was the only child for 8 years and so there is no question about it. It is definitely me. My parents took lots of pictures of me all the way up to Fist grade, before they got a divorce.

Optional: I have a confession. The 6th picture on the page brought more emotion. This is my Grandma and Grandpa the first time they visited me. This is her worst photo in her younger years (under 50), but I have a lot of love for it, because it is the only one of us in my childhood. I have lots of memories of her, but she was a bit camera shy during these years due to her weight. This was the only period that she was over weight. She took off the weight after being diagnosed with Diabetes. She lived to be 87 and died of cancer in 2006. By the way - the poodles didn't like me! I think it had something to do with ear and tail pulling!?!

I tag... Liz , Christi, Susan, Charissa, and Kim (sorry Kim, take your time).

Bowling on Vicky's Birthday

Vicky after she got a spare!

The final score of the first game. The Birthday girl won!!!!

It was Vicky's Birthday yesterday. What did she pick out to do? To Go Bowling! She won the first game with an amazing ball that would travel 3 to 4 miles per hour. She also had the bumper bars up. And I needed those bumber bars, but I didn't have them. My sweet husband was making fun of my consistent gutter balls. This time I had a come back. "Compared to Brian, your terrible (or some other word like that)!" Thank you Wendy and CHIL Dad's! Now understand, my husband is the youngest of 2 very competitive older brothers. When he plays a game, he likes to win and rub it in! If he looses, he accuses the other of cheating. And so when we play a game, it is war!

Both games, I came in last and that made my kids feel very good! The girls both did good. Their scores were close to their Dad's. The second round, Liz came in second place, 20 points under her Dad's. I guess that just goes to show you that WE DESPERATELY NEED A WII! AND MORE PRACTICE ON THE FLOOR WEARING THOSE TERRIBLE SHOES!!!!!

And Brian is always more then welcome to call Pat to go bowling with him :)

Yes, humility for Pat's sportsmanship is good.

Menu for Feb 2nd - 8th

I posted my menu for this week on my other blog. You can view it here

Garden Therapy and Planning.

After I posted on Friday, I walked out into the yard and pruned the frustration right out of my head. My Roses got a hair cut, my skin absorbed the vitamin D and I got motivated for planning my garden.

I love to garden. My mind enjoys the peace, quiet and tranquility that I receive from these moments by myself. I have time to pray without interruptions, listen to His voice and think about improvements. I guess to me it is cheap therapy.

The weather was beautiful and teased me to start seeds and get things ready to plant. I went to the seed workshop and found out that I am way too early to think about seeds in any soil right now. But that is ok, I have so much to do now with moving plants, spraying trees, and preparing my soil with left over chicken manure.

Each sunny day is another day to walk out in the garden!