IN MY KITCHEN

qoop and (finally) the recipe

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In an email today, Melissa asked me if I had used QOOP to get prints of my digital pictures, and it reminded me that I had never written on here about my experience using their service.
I found them through flickr. If you click on the "order prints" link above one of your pictures, there at the very bottom is a link to qoop’s services. It is easy to get an account and start using their print service.
The nice thing is that you can upload a few pictures at a time, upload any of your sets, or upload all of your flickr photos. Because my sets are so disorganized, I went in to flickr and made a "qoop processing" set.
I like the fact that you qoop lets you add a white or black border to your prints, which I love. And their website is very easy to use.
Their prices per print are cheaper than other services, if I remember correctly. But I thought qoop shipping was pretty expensive. I’m not sure how it compares with other online print companies, so maybe you make up those per print savings there. However, the pictures got to me super fast–two days, maybe?! Fast.
The quality is fantastic.

I did to go back and re-upload the pictures I wanted to print because I learned that "Flickr Uploader" resizes your photos automatically to a low print quality. If you don’t know about that, or aren’t sure how to change it let me know, and I’ll tell you about it. But I know that made a difference in the clarity of my pictures.
All in all, I thought it was super-easy and super-fast. And it is nice to finally have some prints in hand. I forget how nice that is. They also offer other services like stickers and prints on canvas–both of which I’d love to try. They sound fun.

P1010008

So, here’s my grandmother’s granola recipe. But before I give it to you, I have to tell you that my grandmother had fifteen children and this recipe probably is enough for fifteen children! She usually makes a batch each for Christmas and gives it out as gifts to some of her children who love it (hi, Dad!). When I make it, I cut it in half, but really you could probably cut it in half again. She has two GIANT stainless steel bowls (like commercial kitchen sized) that she makes it in. So just be ready….I’m giving you the full-sized recipe. You can cut it as you please:

Mix together:
5 pounds oats
A scant 2 cups of each:
  oil
  brown sugar
  honey
  wheat germ

She also adds whatever kinds of nuts she has on hand. Usually cashews, almonds, walnuts, peanuts. Add these before baking.

heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread granola onto shallow baking pans. Reduce to 225 degrees and place in oven.  Bake  for 1-2 hours, depending on the depth of your pan, stirring every 15 minutes. You are only baking until the oats turn golden brown. Turn off the oven and let it stay in the oven for several hours, until cool.

My favorite way to eat the granola this summer is over vanilla yogurt and berries or over vanilla ice cream–after all my children are quietly tucked in their beds. Doesn’t everything taste better then?!
Hope you enjoy the recipe!

P1010005

In an email today, Melissa asked me if I had used QOOP to get prints of my digital pictures, and it reminded me that I had never written on here about my experience using their service.
I found them through flickr. If you click on the "order prints" link above one of your pictures, there at the very bottom is a link to qoop’s services. It is easy to get an account and start using their print service.
The nice thing is that you can upload a few pictures at a time, upload any of your sets, or upload all of your flickr photos. Because my sets are so disorganized, I went in to flickr and made a "qoop processing" set.
I like the fact that you qoop lets you add a white or black border to your prints, which I love. And their website is very easy to use.
Their prices per print are cheaper than other services, if I remember correctly. But I thought qoop shipping was pretty expensive. I’m not sure how it compares with other online print companies, so maybe you make up those per print savings there. However, the pictures got to me super fast–two days, maybe?! Fast.
The quality is fantastic.

I did to go back and re-upload the pictures I wanted to print because I learned that "Flickr Uploader" resizes your photos automatically to a low print quality. If you don’t know about that, or aren’t sure how to change it let me know, and I’ll tell you about it. But I know that made a difference in the clarity of my pictures.
All in all, I thought it was super-easy and super-fast. And it is nice to finally have some prints in hand. I forget how nice that is. They also offer other services like stickers and prints on canvas–both of which I’d love to try. They sound fun.

P1010008

So, here’s my grandmother’s granola recipe. But before I give it to you, I have to tell you that my grandmother had fifteen children and this recipe probably is enough for fifteen children! She usually makes a batch each for Christmas and gives it out as gifts to some of her children who love it (hi, Dad!). When I make it, I cut it in half, but really you could probably cut it in half again. She has two GIANT stainless steel bowls (like commercial kitchen sized) that she makes it in. So just be ready….I’m giving you the full-sized recipe. You can cut it as you please:

Mix together:
5 pounds oats
A scant 2 cups of each:
  oil
  brown sugar
  honey
  wheat germ

She also adds whatever kinds of nuts she has on hand. Usually cashews, almonds, walnuts, peanuts. Add these before baking.

heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread granola onto shallow baking pans. Reduce to 225 degrees and place in oven.  Bake  for 1-2 hours, depending on the depth of your pan, stirring every 15 minutes. You are only baking until the oats turn golden brown. Turn off the oven and let it stay in the oven for several hours, until cool.

My favorite way to eat the granola this summer is over vanilla yogurt and berries or over vanilla ice cream–after all my children are quietly tucked in their beds. Doesn’t everything taste better then?!
Hope you enjoy the recipe!

15 Comments
IN MY KITCHEN / MOTHERHOOD / sewing projects

practical sewing, bedtime drama and the recipe

P1010002
My creative life lately has been filled with very practical things–like sewing up a gaping and quite revealing hole in my husband’s work-as in saturday outside, hard labor-pants, replacing buttons, and appliqued washcloths.  Which obviously means that my sewing machine is working now. Thank you for all your suggestions. I did almost all of them, so I really have no idea what worked. But new bobbin, new needle, rethreaded, screws tightened, dust vacuumed…it’s working.

But back to the washcloth….it’s a small part of Dan’s and my attempt to work through some bedtime battles. The girls share a room now, and the struggles have been escalating since Elizabeth was born. It’s call you in a million times, get all settled and tucked into bed then remember you have to go the bathroom, grumbling because your sister is talking, whining because your "tummy hurts", bad attitude, hyper-active, over-tired–you name it, we’re experiencing it at bedtime.

When we first put them in the same room it was heaven. Dan and I would be dumb-struck, sitting in the living room waiting for the little voices to call out to us, but they never did. It was like they were so happy to be together, they didn’t need us anymore. I guess the charm has worn off.

And really there’s nothing worse than ending your day with them with these struggles and anger and frustration, especially for Dan, who’s time with them when he gets home from work is already limited.

SO, we’re making some changes around here. (how many times have I said that on this blog?) Starting with adopting my grandmother’s (mother of 15, granola recipe to follow) strict bedtime philosophy. Many times since we’ve lived here on the farm with her, I’ve heard her mention how they would call the children in from playing at 7:30, even in the summer when there was still plenty of light for playing, and all the other neighbor children were still awake and available.
Granted, I don’t have quite so many children to get ready for bed but we’d been letting bedtime slip later and later this summer and the kids were so tired…ugh. it was just horrible. So we’ve established a "time to come in" time–a tiny bit later than my grandmother’s but still early by previous standards. And we’ve established a bedtime routine.

Part 1:
after dinner before before you can go outside, play, swim, etc, the girls must have three things on their pillow:
–pajamas
–a book
–whatever stuffed they are sleeping with

Then, once we come in, we have a bedtime routine:
1. Get on pajamas
2. Brush teeth
3. Wash hands, face (usually legs, feet and arms in the summer)
4. Go to the bathroom
5. Get a cup of water for beside your bed
6. Get in bed
7. Story
8. Pray
9. SLEEP

It seems like a lot of steps, but really all those bathroom steps flow together. I mean, we’ve tried everything but a real routine, so I’m hoping this helps. And we took down their bunk beds until further notice. (It seems to help mary to be able to see emma. She doesn’t call us in as much.) And as I write this many of you are probably thinking, "Duh, molly, we all already have a bedtime routine, this is nothing new…", but I’m pretty sure we all still have a few bedtime battles that we fight each night. Ours has just grown quite a bit, lately.

So what does this have to do with a washcloth? Well, the day I introduced the new routine, we sat at the kitchen table and drew little pictures of all the steps–I never thought I’d spend so much time trying to teach emma how to draw a toilet…and then I gave each of them their own appliqued washcloth to hang on the hooks by the sink. Just trying to drum up some enthusiasm for the new routine, you know?!

It’s day three of "Project Bedtime Routine" and it seems to be helping. Things seem calmer at bedtime. And I do believe that children like a little routine and structure and regularity in their lives. I do, too. I’ll keep you posted on how this works. Parenting is contstant evaluation and adjusting, isn’t it?!

+++++
So, this is really long. Thanks to those that stayed with me.
I think I"ll save the recipe for Monday. If you’re desperate for it, let me know and I’ll email it to you. I just finished up my jar of it and want to make some this weekend, too.

P1010002
My creative life lately has been filled with very practical things–like sewing up a gaping and quite revealing hole in my husband’s work-as in saturday outside, hard labor-pants, replacing buttons, and appliqued washcloths.  Which obviously means that my sewing machine is working now. I can make An Introductory Guide to Needlepoint for beginners, thank you for all your suggestions. I did almost all of them, so I really have no idea what worked. But new bobbin, new needle, rethreaded, screws tightened, dust vacuumed…it’s working.

But back to the washcloth….it’s a small part of Dan’s and my attempt to work through some bedtime battles. The girls share a room now, and the struggles have been escalating since Elizabeth was born. It’s call you in a million times, get all settled and tucked into bed then remember you have to go the bathroom, grumbling because your sister is talking, whining because your “tummy hurts”, bad attitude, hyper-active, over-tired–you name it, we’re experiencing it at bedtime.

When we first put them in the same room it was heaven. Dan and I would be dumb-struck, sitting in the living room waiting for the little voices to call out to us, but they never did. It was like they were so happy to be together, they didn’t need us anymore. I guess the charm has worn off.

And really there’s nothing worse than ending your day with them with these struggles and anger and frustration, especially for Dan, who’s time with them when he gets home from work is already limited.

SO, we’re making some changes around here. (how many times have I said that on this blog?) Starting with adopting my grandmother’s (mother of 15, granola recipe to follow) strict bedtime philosophy. Many times since we’ve lived here on the farm with her, I’ve heard her mention how they would call the children in from playing at 7:30, even in the summer when there was still plenty of light for playing, and all the other neighbor children were still awake and available.
Granted, I don’t have quite so many children to get ready for bed but we’d been letting bedtime slip later and later this summer and the kids were so tired…ugh. it was just horrible. So we’ve established a “time to come in” time–a tiny bit later than my grandmother’s but still early by previous standards. And we’ve established a bedtime routine.

Part 1:
after dinner before before you can go outside, play, swim, etc, the girls must have three things on their pillow:
–pajamas
–a book
–whatever stuffed they are sleeping with

Then, once we come in, we have a bedtime routine:
1. Get on pajamas
2. Brush teeth
3. Wash hands, face (usually legs, feet and arms in the summer)
4. Go to the bathroom
5. Get a cup of water for beside your bed
6. Get in bed
7. Story
8. Pray
9. SLEEP

It seems like a lot of steps, but really all those bathroom steps flow together. I mean, we’ve tried everything but a real routine, so I’m hoping this helps. And we took down their bunk beds until further notice. (It seems to help mary to be able to see emma. She doesn’t call us in as much.) And as I write this many of you are probably thinking, “Duh, molly, we all already have a bedtime routine, this is nothing new…”, but I’m pretty sure we all still have a few bedtime battles that we fight each night. Ours has just grown quite a bit, lately.

So what does this have to do with a washcloth? Well, the day I introduced the new routine, we sat at the kitchen table and drew little pictures of all the steps–I never thought I’d spend so much time trying to teach emma how to draw a toilet…and then I gave each of them their own appliqued washcloth to hang on the hooks by the sink. Just trying to drum up some enthusiasm for the new routine, you know?!

It’s day three of “Project Bedtime Routine” and it seems to be helping. Things seem calmer at bedtime. And I do believe that children like a little routine and structure and regularity in their lives. I do, too. I’ll keep you posted on how this works. Parenting is contstant evaluation and adjusting, isn’t it?!

+++++
So, this is really long. Thanks to those that stayed with me.
I think I”ll save the recipe for Monday. If you’re desperate for it, let me know and I’ll email it to you. I just finished up my jar of it and want to make some this weekend, too.

27 Comments
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living 3 :: what I love

P1010020

::last of the local berries with yogurt and my grandmother’s homemade granola recipe::

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::cool baths before naps with little girl undershirts and line dried towels in waiting::

P1010020

::last of the local berries with yogurt and my grandmother’s homemade granola recipe::

P1010025_2

::cool baths before naps with little girl undershirts and line dried towels in waiting::

8 Comments