I'm feeling very domestic today.  So far....

I painted as much as I can of the girls' room without Tim's help.  He needs to move the bed and dresser for me to do more.  Oh, and he has to do the trim work.  I cannot cut straight lines nor can I hold a paintbrush steady enough to do the trim.  In an impatient moment, I tried to do the trim on one wall of the girls' room, just so it would be done, and Tim could be proud....but not only is he going to have to finish it for me, he's also going to have to fix several smudges on the baseboards and two big "oopsies" on the ceiling.  A pretty pinkish-lavender does not look swell on a white ceiling. 

The kids, who regularly dig huges holes from the riverbank, discovered "treasures" today. I was so hoping that they'd find something from the Civil War era. The Yankees walked up our river to meet up with the Rebs.  But I think the treasure is just a bunch of useless junk that someone must have tossed into the river at some point, or perhaps it came to our yard via a flood.  Either way, I don't need an old roller skate, a few bones, and pieces of glass.

In the oven as I write, is a Whole Wheat Banana Bread, sweetened with Sucanat (cane juice).  I haven't tried a wheat banana bread, nor have I tried one with Sucanat, but I'm going on the recommendation of the always-right Crystal Miller, who says it is great.  

Sharing the oven with the banana bread is my homemade granola.  I make this quite often, all year-round.  Here's the receipt (as Tasha Tudor would say - I love her recipe book):

• Pour 4 cups old-fashioned oatmeal into a 9x13 pan
• Heat oats in 350 F oven for 5 minutes.
  
• Remove from oven, stir, and heat 5 minutes more.
• Heat together:  1/3 cup maple syrup and 1/4 cup olive oil (I microwave this)
• Combine together: 1-2 cups chopped nuts (I use pecans, sunflower seeds, almonds) and 1 cup flaked coconut
• Add to heated oats and mix thoroughly.  Pour honey-oil mixture over oat mixture.  Mix thoroughly.
• Sprinkle 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon nutmeg over the oat mixture.
• Return to oven, bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes for even browning.

by Lori Seaborg 2006

Posted by momma2aejsk

I bet your house smells wonderful! Good luck w/ the painting, I've never been able to do the trim either. My girls are getting a face lift on their room also right now. Let me know how it turns out.
Samantha

Posted by Jimmie

What a cute little blog you have over here! :-) I sure hope your RSS is on because I want to add you to my Bloglines subs. :-) I love to be crafty. And cooking from scratch is a NECESSITY for me. (Come to my blog and you'll see why -- I don't live in USA.) I made some granola last week. I put of all things dried tomatoes in it! Where I live I can buy these dried cherry tomatoes. They are unbelieveably SWEET -- almost like dried cherries (which I can't find and probably couldn't afford anyway). It turned out great and was great with my homemade yogurt. Yeah, I make that too! see you around.

Posted by AngelBee

Oh....I think I will try this today. Thank you for posting your recipe.
God bless....Angela