Hiding

Lately hiding has been a fun thing for A to do. We regularly have to find her in places. This morning while I was doing dishes,  A unpacked and repacked the bag with herself. It is fun to see exactly how small of a space she can take up.

Rainy Saturday

What do you do when there is nothing but rain forecasted and no OU game on? Well, we packed up the car with raingear and set out for Biltmore. We wandered around the gardens and A actually seemed kind of upset to not visit the house. We will hopefully go back in a few weeks and see the house decorated for Halloween, or at least once fall sets in and we have some pretty leaves to see. Here are some pictures from our wet Saturday.

A was uncertain about the topiary not eating her. We couldn't convince her to get any closer than this!

I do my homework!

This is what we regularly get told when asking A what she's doing. We have no idea where she learned the phrase, but are kind of disturbed by it. I mean, what 2 year old needs to do homework? She basically just sits at a computer and pretends to type or something along those lines, and it is really cute, but disturbing. I know that my work has recently instituted a "homework" policy, which I attempt to do, but let me tell you, I missed out by doing homework in school! I didn't realize that if you didn't do homework then you had time to do other things, you know this may be why I went to school forever.

I think that we are finally getting over our cold/allergies/sinus infection throughout the house. We are thinking it is more allergies, but because we can't get the load of gunk out of our sinuses it is turning into a sinus infection for each of us. We had a rather wet summer and so apparently the mold and ragweed count is astronomical. Who knew!?

Overall besides for working and attempting to keep a household together we haven't done much this month. We've been too drained on weekends to go many places. We also haven't really had the need, so we attempt to catch up on sleep. A even seems to go along with this plan often. Our other weekend activity has been watching football. A is quite intent on watching football and will often ask to starting about 9. As an OU ex-pat we were able to watch the OU/TU game last weekend on the internet. We should be able to get most of the games so we are excited.

Anyway, it is about dinner time so I need to go help Chris get that together. Hope all is well by you.

Why my daughter is dangerous

A has been pretty intent on fixing stuff lately. Last weekend Chris scraped a computer and she handed him the parts in correct order and told him where they went as she wasn't exactly happy to not put the computer back together. Today I was working on the tablet and turn around to find this. She has opened up her puppy to expose the battery box. She has also retrieved a set of micro drivers that Chris uses to take stuff a part. She find the correct Philips head for the puppy and starts trying to open up the battery compartment. I don't know why she wants the batteries out, but she seems quite determined to make it happen.

In other news, we had a 2.9 earthquake last Sunday. It was shortly before 4 pm and it sounded like an explosion. We got the house shaking, explosion sound and the concussive wave almost all simultaneously. Apparently we were less than 3 miles from the epicenter, so it makes sense. We didn't immediately think earthquake, but tried to think of what else could do that. Later it was all over the news, so fun fun. I love moving to all these places that aren't supposed to have earthquakes but actually do.

We also finally got some sun. The plants in the garden that haven't drowned or been eaten by slugs are starting to thrive. If I can get enough basil to make some pesto I'll be happy.

Chris found out this past week that his co-manager of the stockroom is leaving in a few weeks, which means Chris gets to work close to 55 hours a week until they bring in someone else. He had kind of worked out a schedule of noon to nine on Mondays and Tuesdays, but now he'll get to go in at eight. He isn't super happy about this and I'm left wondering why he has to pick up the slack because the uni won't replace the guy immediately. We will have to see how A does with this too. This past week when he worked until late she was not a happy girl. They described her as a holy terror at school in fact Tuesday and Wednesday, so we will see what this does to her (and to me as I'm exhausted from work and all).

Well, we are moving on to sewing pins so I should go tame A before she makes a real mess.

Peanut Butter Scones

So peanut butter has been a big deal lately. A loves it and will eat spoonfuls of it these days. She has always had a thing for it. Since it isn't quite pumpkin season (that's next week as next week is September and September is when I get rid of last years frozen pumpkin if we have any left) and we wanted scones for this wonderfully cool mountain morning (it is about 50 outside), I made peanut butter-oatmeal-chocolate chip scones. I made a variety of scones actually all with a peanut butter-oat base.

Recipe:

2 c flour (I used 1 c sorghum, 1 c brown rice, 1/2 c oat, 1/2 c arrowroot powder + 1/2 tsp gelatin + 1 tsp gum)
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 c oats
1/4 c cold butter in cubes
3/4 c buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 c peanut butter
add ins: chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, whatever you want really

Pre-heat oven to 400F. Mix the first five ingredients well. Add in the butter bit by bit until you get a cornmeal consistency. To the buttermilk add the egg and whisk together. Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry mixture.  Add the peanut butter. As you shape the scones put your add-ins in and work them in well. The original recipe called for doing this all by hand, but I'm a lazy baker and used my kitchen aid. On a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, shape the dough into a circle that is about an inch thick. Cut the scones, but do not separate them. Bake until done (they bounce back, a toothpick comes out clean, however you can tell something baked is done) which for us was about 20 minutes. Should make around 8 scones.

As you can see, my math was a little off as I grabbed the wrong measuring cup for the flour. I used six half cups as opposed to six third cups. Thankfully I realized it and was able to adjust the mixture so that I really made a 1.5 recipe. I ended up with a lot of scones, so the freezer will get some. I did a few plain, a few with raisins, a few with raisins and chocolate chips, and some with just chocolate chips. Here is a picture of what they looked like when they went into the oven (and there is another wedge on a 2nd cookie sheet):

And one of what they looked like when they came out:

After they are done do let them cool and re-cut them.

I apparently need to get the recipe book they came from, Baked, so I added it to my Amazon wishlist.

Happy Baking! If you decide to try this recipe please let me know what you think!

Sandbox with Chris

This week we have had a few more dry days. I say dry, but it is still 94% humidity and overcast most of the time. I just mean it isn't raining. Here are some great A pictures that Chris took at the park this week. A and Chris love the park, and she never seems to go and play as much with me. They go several times a week if we get dinner done in time and there are several other families they have met and play with at the park. As you can see in the pictures -- A has decided that the sandbox rocks. We're working on building stuff with sand, but she seems to enjoy just shoveling and stomping it too. With it being so wet this summer it has been difficult to get in the sandbox to play, so these are some rare pictures.

Fingerpainting

A has decided she likes to paint. It is a fun evening activity that can take 15 minutes to an hour. Tonight it was about half an hour or so and we got some masterpieces. If you'd like one for your fridge please let me know and I will snail mail it to you.