Yummy apple muffins

We brought home eight pounds of apples and a jug of fresh-pressed cider on Thursday after going apple-picking with a bunch of our friends. It was the most gorgeous day -- despite the forecaster's threats of rain, the sky was bright blue with puffy white clouds, and the temperature was perfect for long sleeves and a morning spent in the sun. The kids had a blast playing tag around the farm where we bought the cider, and then at a nearby park, where we picnicked, played, and nibbled on our apples and goodies.

Now today is baking day! I wanted to make apple muffins for my grandmother who celebrated her birthday this week, but it had to be nut-free and not too high in fiber or sugar. So I made one up. Puffer's compliment to me was, "They taste like you used a recipe even though you didn't!" Hee hee.

Yummy Apple Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 Tbs oil
1 egg
1 cup soymilk (or whatever you have)
1/2 cup apple cider
1 tsp vanilla
1 apple, peeled, cored and shredded

Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients. Mix sugar with butter and oil, then egg. Blend in the other wet ingredients, including apple. Add dry ingredients slowly and mix until just blended. Don't overmix. Pour into a greased or papered muffin tin. Bake for 15 minutes 350. Makes 18 muffins. (Six for us, a dozen for Gramma. :)

Socks don't suck.

I will not let iPhoto raise my blood pressure any further. Thanks, John. Just knowing that you, my dear, kind-hearted, soft-spoken friend, could have used the "F" word in regards to that hateful program makes me feel better. Especially since that's what I was yelling when I woke up the baby.

Now, then, what I really wanted to post about was the fact that I finally finished my first pair of knitted socks!



Aren't they cute? My mom brought me home some hand-dyed wool sockyarn (Sockenwolle handgefarbt) from Germany this summer. I don't know if you can tell, but the yarn's in variations of apple green, seafoam, and khaki. They're very campy, and I love them. I didn't make the ankle quite as long as I'd like, but they still work under jeans. (My jeans are hiked up a bit so you can see the cuff. They cover the cuff normally.)

I've also finally finished my cousin's baby gift -- woohoo! Well, okay, I still have to block it, but hopefully I can get to that after my nephew's birthday party tomorrow. Now I have to hurry up and get it in mail, and then start on my other cousin's baby's gift, since her shower's in four weeks.

Darn iPhoto. Again.

Yes, I know it's horribly unfair of me to nag the boys about not being too loud when the baby's sleeping, and then go throw a tantrum myself about this stupid iPhoto program on our new Mac, but I have to tell you, I am SO FRUSTRATED!!! All I want to do is crop a photo, save it where I can find it, and upload it to Blogger. Doesn't sound too hard, does it? Well, I can't figure out how to save the darn thing. iPhoto lets me crop it, but it doesn't have a "save" option anywhere I can see. (I've looked in File, Edit, all over the iPhoto window, done "apple-S, etc.) And it just puts the photo right back to where it started when I click on "done."

Anyone know how to fix this? I'd call Brad, but it's getting late and I know I'll get too loud on the phone and wake up Baby Fish again. Brad? Are you reading?

I'm getting old. That's the problem. I knew how to use Macs way back in the dark ages when the screens were 6 inches wide and in black and white. I even knew how to use them when the screens became big enough for people over 25 to read, but before you could get them in your favorite color. In fact, other reporters used to come ask me for help when they couldn't figure out how to do something. Don't ask me how I knew.

Now. I want things to do what I want them to do. And I don't want to have to relearn how to do things. I'm getting old, stubborn, and crotchety.

Somebody want to trade me their new PC for a new iMac?

The moment you've all been waiting for...

Honestly, I know I overthink things. And take forever to make decisions. But this was really more about the fact that my 15-month-old suddenly needs my attention every waking moment. (Because when I'm NOT paying attention, he unplugs the computer. And that's bad. Very very bad.) He's rather advanced, you know. He doesn't play with toys anymore. He prefers to experiment with knives pulled out of the dishwasher, and containers made of glass. But I'm getting off topic...



SO. Ahem. (Please excuse me, this cold is dragging on forever.) I am excited to present the following Rockin' Girl Blogger Awards to...

Jen at Mama's Magic -- for her commitment to her children and her creative life, and for her efforts to support other creative mamas through weekly profiles on her blog.

Cathryn at Pondering Parenting (formerly Lollymom) -- because she's a fabulous writer, as neurotic about her parenting as I am, and because she REALLY needs something nice to happen after going through THIS.

Girls, you are ROCKIN'!

My first blogging award ever!

I've been named a Rockin' Girl Blogger! I'm so excited! Thanks, bliss -- I'm honored to share the title with you! You TOTALLY rock!

Thanks to Roberta of Blogging Made Devilishly Simple for creating this award! I'll be stopping by her site as I work on some changes around here. (Nothing like positive feedback to inspire reflection and improvement!)

Now I must decide where to share the love...

Snots R Us

Standing up is bad. I tried it. Made my head feel all woozy and faintish. I'm just going to sit here for a few more minutes.

We are all home sick from church this morning. We seem to be making a habit of this. Have too much fun during the week, wake up sick Saturday morning, miss church on Sunday. The Sunday school coordinator is going to think I didn't really want to sign up for the toddler room if we keep this up.

Grouper's nose has been running across his face nonstop since Friday afternoon. His nose and left cheek are a brilliant shade of pink, and he has a lovely cough to go with it. Puffer had a fever yesterday and has the gravely voice, but he seems to be doing the best of all of us today. He tends to fight things off hard and fast.

At least they're in decent moods. Baby Fish looks like Grouper, sounds like Puffer, and has been rather grumpy.

Yesterday the kids finished off a bottle of homeopathic anti-cold pills, and drank nearly half a gallon of orange juice. UberDad and I are taking Zicam and some fancy herbal "Wellness Shots." I'm thinking maybe we should start downing that nasty-looking green juice my friend Sarah used to drink for breakfast every morning. (Do you still do that, Sarah?) Boost our immune systems.

We eat pretty well most of the time -- you know, whole grains, fresh fruit and veggies (okay, not as many as we could). Geez, I didn't even bake cookies on Friday! So, I'm thinking we'd have to do something pretty extreme (read: weird) to make a significant difference in our health.

If I can stand up for longer than it takes to get from the computer to the couch, I'm going to start by disinfecting all the door knobs. That's got to be easier than overhauling our diet. Definitely easier than giving up sugar. (It couldn't possibly be the sugar, could it?!)

Back from camp

Some day I'll learn to say no to seconds on dessert. And thirds and fourths. Actually, it probably shouldn't take another lesson. I should know by now.

I'm finally leveling out again after a major blood sugar crash on the way home from our blissful weekend in the mountains. We spent three days with some of our best friends at our church's family camp near Sequoia National Forest.

The boys spent every minute outside, learning archery, hiking to the nearby creek, swimming, playing pingpong, tetherball and basketball, collecting sticks, climbing rocks and making up games with their friends. UberDad and I followed them around half the time, and hung out with our grown-up friends the other half, playing cards (him), knitting (me), chatting, and eating too much.

Too much dessert, mostly. We made s'mores by the campfire every night. Freshly baked chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies were set out every afternoon. Saturday we celebrated our friend Mary's 8th birthday with vegan chocolate cake. Then there was cherry cobbler and chocolate pudding after dinner.

I think I'm going to be sick just thinking about it again. But, boy, was it good while we were there.

Thirty minutes from home I started feeling myself crash. Stuffing graham crackers in my face didn't help much. The cranks were coming, and I couldn't stop them. I managed to make dinner for us and my parents, but afterwards I was a mess, getting frustrated at iPhoto for being impossible to use and blowing up at Scott as though it was his fault. (Well, he did buy the Mac. And he doesn't know how to use iPhoto either.)

I really just needed to sleep it off.

Anyhoo...

My friend Catherine called right after we got home to share the news of her fourth baby, Ethan Michael, who was born that morning. Hooray! He is beautiful, looks like his sister Eloise, who turns 3 this month.

Tuesday I dragged myself out of bed to go grocery shopping so I could make dinner to take to Catherine's family in exchange for a chance to hold the new baby. When we got home from the store, I had a message from an old high school friend who lives in Seattle but was in the area and wanted to know if she could come by. It was already 1 p.m. by the time I got the baby down for a nap and heard her message, and I still had to bake chicken, make pasta and then take Puffer to kung fu at 3:30, so I asked if we could get together Wednesday instead.

Scott met us at kung fu so I could go home and eat quickly before going to see Catherine. Her hubby was taking their oldest to dance class, so she was home with the three littlest. As I stood on front porch, I could see her through the window -- tiny newborn on one arm, broom in the other, sweeping off the back patio.

Don't ever expect to see me holding a broom two days after giving birth! I'm much too prone to postpartum indulgences such as, oh, I don't know... sleep? But my dear friend now has three children under age 3, which doesn't leave much time for sleep anyhow. And a little bit of order can be an indulgence itself.

If only I'd indulge in housekeeping tasks instead of too many cookies, my kitchen would've looked a whole lot better when my friend Camille came to visit yesterday. Oh well. We took the kids to the park, and ignored the laundry on the couch and dishes in the sink.

After the jump from vacation to frenzied activity, I really needed a day of nothing but catching up. So, of course, this morning we left the house to go shopping for craft supplies.

The one thing Grouper didn't get to do at camp was paint rocks. We forgot to head up to the craft cabin until Monday morning, and by the time we thought of it they'd already locked it up. So, we went to Michael's to stock up on paint and other crafty things. Puffer, who is usually uninterested in crafts, really wanted some Floam, so we grabbed a 3-color pack. They messed around happily with that this afternoon before kung fu. It's basically tiny foam beads mixed into neon-colored flubber. I could probably make a version myself. Maybe I'll post the flubber recipe here when I find it.

I finally tackled dishes tonight. Tomorrow, maybe I'll finish the laundry. Or, maybe we'll go the park and find rocks to paint. And then we'll come home and bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies -- for Catherine, of course!