Homemade Granola Bars

Here is a recipe that I made off off the internet  that tastes amazing....super healthy & easy to make! BONUS! Thought I'd share it with you...

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Gather your ingredients:

2 cups oats

3/4 cup wheat germ

3/4 cup sunflower seeds (instead of sunflower seeds I chop almonds instead...way better)

1 cup peanuts, crushed

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

4 Tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

approximately 8 oz. dried fruit (for those who want to be even more healthy, but I usually add chocolate chips instead)

Then, mix the peanuts, oats, wheat germ, and sunflower seeds or almonds in a baking dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so that they don’t get burned.

Meanwhile, prepare a glass baking dish (about 11 x 13 inches) for your granola by lining it with waxed paper lightly sprayed with a nonstick spray. (I've also used aluminum foil) 

Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.) By now, your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. The grains, the liquid “glue,” and the dried fruit or chocolate chips. Oh, and turn off your oven, because you’re finished with it now. Mix everything REALLY WELL because you want to make sure the “glue” gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your prepared baking dish.

Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Now fold over the sides of the waxed paper or add a sheet on top, and PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compact it together so that your bars won’t fall apart when you cut them.

Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled.

Living our lives as we know it....

Throughout this week I have constantly been reminded of how much work there is to be done in this world and how we as Americans live out our every day lives ignoring the fact. 

Have you ever wondered why you are here on this earth? or what the purpose of life is?  Do you think we were created to be happy, successful people who get everything we ever wanted? When's the last time you heard something in the news that just sounded horrible and instead of saying that's horrible...those poor people, but actually did something about it?  

How many times in the last week, me included, have we thought about someone besides ourselves, done something besides our regular routine life, researched what is going on in the world outside of our bubble, or actually stopped to help someone in need?

Here are a few pictures with captions to help explain my point...

The type of houses we live in in America. Built brand new to our expectations because the millions of homes that are sitting empty waiting to be sold aren't good enough, built complete with a bedroom for everyone in the house, a garage for every car we own, an extra bedroom for guests who may happen to come into town a couple times a year.  Homes that are full of the latest gadgets, movies, video games, televisions, to keep us happy and prevent us from becoming bored. 

The type of Village people in Uganda live in.  Their families often share a living space with other families.  Their homes are often invaded by spiders, ants, and geckos.  

How we in America get to the grocury store that is 2 blocks away. 

How people in Africa get to the market that is 10 miles away. 

A nice variety of clothing and shoes. We in America make sure we have a matching pair of shoes for every outfit, and a new purse for every season of the year, so we can be up with the newest trends and only have to do laundry a couple times per month.  Over half the clothes in this closet haven't ever even been worn. 

No shoes here.  The people of Africa can't afford them. They often wear the same clothes every day of the week, and have to wash their laundry by hand.  

Enough food for everyone to have seconds or thirds and then we end up throwing the leftovers out because they aren't as good the next day.  We in America often spend hours working out to burn off the extra calories that we didn't actually need. 

People in Africa sometimes go days without eating.  They have to wait in line for hours to get a half scoop of beans.  They will eat anything they get, they aren't picky.  They are desperate enough that they will go look in the dumpsters and eat food that may have been in there for several days. 

A few more points...

~Did you know that over 750,ooo people in the United States are living without a home? 

Yet we complain that our home is "Just not big enough!" 

~Did you know that more than 15 million children die per year from starvation? 

Yet we allow our children to pick and choose what types of food they will eat, leave restaurants with half of our food still on the plate, and the same restaurant will throw away a whole meal because it wasn't made to it's customers expectations.  

~ Did you know that there are over 132 million orphans in this world today waiting to find someone to love them and care for them who have to fight with hundreds of other children to get attention? 

Yet, we insist on having all our own children, and allow the smallest of fights to separate us from ever seeing our parents. 

These are just a minute amount of the problems in this world...not mentioning all the women victim to sex trafficking on a daily basis, children victims to abuse in their homes.  We act like there's nothing we could possibly do about it, that in order to actually help with something you would have to put tons of money into traveling across the world.  These issues are not just limited to third world countries, but are happening in your neighborhood, and in our city.  It doesn't require much, even 1 hour per week of your time will help.  Not only would you be helping someone else, which is incredible, you will feel more purpose in life which can uplift your day tremendously.  Please don't let life pass you by and ignore the world around you.  There's so much to be done, and you my friend could make a huge impact!! If anything, please be content with what you have and realize how blessed you are!! 

James 5:1-6 says...

 ¹Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.²Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. ³Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. ⁴Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. ⁵You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.^[a] 6You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. 

Amelia Lida Klemme

Isn’t she cute:)

 She’s my favorite…..

 ~I gotta say, I never thought I’d enjoy being an aunt near as much as I do…it’s probably one of the coolest things in the world. 

 ~ I remember the day she was born…March 25….I was working evenings, my shift was almost over, and my brother called me at work and said, "I can’t talk, but just wanted to let you know you’ll be an aunt in like 10 minutes….come if you want!" I had my doubts going to the hospital at midnight, given the neighborhood it was in, and just the fact that those are not exactly hospital visiting hours, but I decided that I wanted to be there.  So, I raced home to change and made my way to the hospital.  I checked in with security and made my way up to the labor and delivery floor.  Things were pretty quiet up there, but I traveled through the hallways until I found the nursery.  There, I saw the little miracle.  My brother standing over the cutest baby in the world.  She wasn’t crying one bit,  just roaming her eyes about the room as happy as can be.  She held his hand tightly as my brother gazed over her with a proud daddy look.  I watched through the glass window in excitement, and later got to hold her just a few hours after coming into this world.  Never ever would I trade that night for anything.

 ~ Since then, I’ve appreciated living in the same city.  It’s pretty fun being a part of her life and knowing that she knows, trusts, loves, and has fun with you.  Hearing her voice as you walk through the door shouting “Te-Te’s here!!,” hearing & seeing her copy things you do and say, playing our own version of rock band with her horse on a stick as a guitar, taking her to story-time, and drawing fun things on the sidewalk together are just a few of the memories I will never forget.  

~It's amazing how something so unplanned is something SO planned in God's book.  Hanging out with a 2 year old once a week isn't something I ever planned to do at my age, but it's something I so want to do and has changed me in ways that I would have never imagined!! 

 ~Oh, and another sweet deal is that at the end of the day….you can always give em back...What an amazing life!! 

 

Give Me Your Eyes...

I truly have the utmost desire to lay down my life for God & do EXACTLY what He has for me to do.  I wish to be a servant to Him, and only Him.  I wish I had His eyes, His ears, His hands….His heart.  Unfortunately, because of my sin, I slip, and forget to really pay attention to what he places in front of me.

 This song by Brandon Heath called Give Me Your Eyes inspires me to pray for this….

 

Looked down from a broken sky

Traced out by the city lights

My world from a mile high

Best Seat in the house tonight

Touched down on the cold black top

Hold on for the sudden stop

Breathe in the familiar shock

Of confusion and chaos

All those people going somewhere, Why have I never cared?

 

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

 

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

Ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

 

Step out on a busy street

See a girl and our eyes meet

Does her best to smile at me

To hide what’s underneath

There’s a man just to her right

Black suit and a bright red tie

Too ashamed to tell his wife

He’s out of work He’s buying time

All those people going somewhere

Why have I never cared?

 

I’ve been there a million times

A couple of million eyes

Just moving past me I swear

I never thought that I was wrong

Well I want a second glance

So give me a second chance

To see the way you see the people all along

 When I hear this song play, I picture myself like Jesus walking down the street being able to see into people's souls.  Knowing without them speaking what it is they're going through.  I picture being able to hear their unspoken words, and feeling myself all the hurt they have inside. 

It hurts me to think..How many times have I just ignored someone who’s been deeply hurt and desperate to talk to someone because I was completely oblivious? How many times did I retaliate because someone “treated me wrong.” When there’s a story that goes along with why they “treated you wrong” in the first place, and they just need someone to respond to them in a loving way, How many times have I been so involved in my work that I failed to talk to a co-worker once throughout the day, How many times have I passed the person on the side of the road begging for money and didn’t even notice them?

 

One thing that I can say I didn’t always understand, but now FULLY understand is that people are who they are because of their past, what they’ve been through.  Someone isn’t just rude to you at the checkout counter because they want to be.  People aren’t homeless because they want to be.  People aren’t shy because they want to be.  We are all humans, we all have a story that brings us to who we are today.  Abuse, Neglect, Poverty, Divorce, Racism, Illness, War, Loss of Job, Death, When you find out someone’s story, you will be amazed at how COMPLETELY different you will view them. I hope and pray that I would be able to be still & get to know those stories.  I want to wake up from this fog that I've been in most of my life and be purposeful with every interaction that God places before me.  I am not guaranteed tomorrow, so why wait until it's too late? 

Staff Emergency!!

At Fairview, the hospital of my employment, we have to carry around pagers.  I have a love/hate relationship with them.  They're informative and our job would be more difficult without them, but sometimes you just want to throw it against a wall and then stomp on it 50 times until it's unrecognizable OR throw it out the window into the Mississippi never to be found again.  Whenever a patient's call light goes off, the HUC (secretary)  will usually answer the light at the desk, find out what the patient wants, and then text page the Nurse or Nursing Assistant with what the patient needs.  We also get pages for phone calls, when the Dr's are ready for rounds, when a family member or random Dr is at the desk to speak to you, when the trays have arrived, and we even have a page to remind us to turn our pagers in at the end of the day.  If the page isn't answered within a certain amount of time, which does happen-if you're in the middle of a sterile dressing change, or just plain busy with a patient...but say you got stuck in one of those rooms, and one of your other pages isn't being answered after a certain amount of time your pager will just vibrate non-stop until it gets answered.  That's about the time when I envision myself pulling one of the above tricks on my beeper.  

Anyway, the root of all this nonsense, is located in the patients room.  They have a call light on their bed that they push to let someone know they need something.  When one goes to answer the light, there is a button on the wall to turn the call light off for that room.  There also lies another button right next to it that you would push if you came across an emergency situation.  In that case, everyone gets a page saying EMERGENCY RM. 510.  And you know how when there's a storm and one of those pages will come on over the radio saying "The National Weather Service has now issued a thunderstorm warning for the following counties..." A voice as such comes over the loudspeaker saying "STAFF EMERGENCY......STAFF EMERGENCY....STAFF EMERGENCY...." When I get a page as such, or hear that overhead, my reaction is my heart about drops to my stomach, my eyes become very wide open, and I get tense, and have thoughts racing in my brain.  Meanwhile, everyone comes running from multiple directions, nurses are peaking their head out of rooms to see if it's actually an emergency.....This happens at least once a shift....luckily not because there's actually an emergency, but because someone from housekeeping, or a patient or family member decided to push the wrong button.  The reaction I get to the above, I've realized has become a learned response.  Now, anytime I hear something remotely resembling the word staff, or a voice that sounds similar even when I'm not at work, my heart drops to my stomach, i become tense, and my eyes become wide open. Once I remind myself I'm not actually at work, I can breathe, but not a fun reaction to have when you're supposedly resting in Barnes & Noble reading a good book.  So, word to the wise, if you're ever visiting someone in the hospital...stay away from all buttons or you could create unnecessary strain or your poor nurses heart:)  

PDA in Church? Whaa??

So..you know those couples that are walking down the street and they can't keep their hands off eachother?? They either have their arms around eachother's waist, or one hand in the others back pocket...you know what i mean, it's like they're going to get lost if they aren't constantly attached to the other..well anywho, saw one of those the other day....although I didn't see them out in the streets....they were sitting in front of us in church.... I would guess they were maybe Freshman in high school.  The guy was constantly whispering in the girls ear, they were like groping eachothers arms, giving hand massages, holding both hands, and they even kissed once or twice....ok, so do whatever on your own time, but please, please don't do this in church...extremely distracting for one, and definitely not appropriate during church let alone anywhere else at that age.  What made the situation from annoying to funny however was the fact that there was a "grandma" sitting right next to the guy who kept doing double takes of their hands and by the looks on her eyes I know if she wasn't in church her jaw would have dropped to the floor.  She kept looking at the guys face too to try to get him to see her disapproval...but, he apparently didn't notice.  Just got me thinking about relationships and the importance of keeping them pure.  I'm not being judgmental at all because I know I'm not a perfect example, but just for discussion purposes I'll continue with my thoughts.  Do you really know what you want in a guy at that age, let alone really know yourself?? I know when I was that age even though I was a believer, I was more into what I was going to wear to school to make me look attractive, how much hair spray it was going to take to keep my hair perfectly curled, how many guys you could get to say hi to you in passing. I could've cared less whether they were a church-goer, or what their goals in life were or what they were passionate about. Having a niece in this day in age, or the thought of having a kid one day of my own knowing what went on in high school several years ago, and what it could be like when they go through those experiences is one big scary thought..especially with what society is like today..when we were growing up the popular shows were Saved by the Bell, and Full House....very family friendly shows...you don't really see that so much anymore, and all the songs on the radio now are horrendous!!!  Check this out...this is just one of the many songs on the "hit" station today that teenagers are being exposed to on a daily basis. 

    I'll take you home if you don't leave me at the front door.

    Your body is cold but girl we're gettin warm

    And I was thinking of ways I could get inside.

    Tonight you're falling in love, let me go now. 

    This feeling is tearin me up, here we go now. 

    Now if she does it like this, will you do it like that? 

    If she touches you like this, will you touch her like that?

    If she moves like this, will you move it like that? 

    Come on shake, shake, shake-shake-it. 

    Your lips tremble but your eyes are in a straight stare, 

    We're on the bed, but your clothes are laying right there, 

    And i was thinking of places I could hide.

    Tonight you're falling in love, let me go now. 

    This feeling is tearin me up, here we go now. 

    I saw you dancing and couldn't get you off my mind.

    I could tell that you could tell that I was taking my time.

    But I was thinking of ways to get you staying the night.

    Your body's shaking, so tell me off so i can turn off the lights...

...and it goes on from there....Keep in mind I tried to find one of the least provocative of lyrics to share with you.  

And we wonder why the rate of teen pregnancies is sky-rocketing...hmmmm.....

As Christians, and even for non-Christians, I think it is important to be aware of what we are feeding our minds and spirits. While it's very easy to conform to the standards of the world, God's word should have authority in our lives. God does not give instruction to be cruel, but rather for protection of hurt and disappointment.  We have to remember that our bodies don't belong to us, but rather belong to God and we should protect his creation in order to be who he wants us to be.  I pray frequently for the future protection of our loved young ones, and for positive influences in their lives who will educate them on getting to know themselves & God before pursuing things or people that will only lead them astray.

Loving the 32 Hour Workweek LIfe!!

So as some of you may or may not know, I currently only work 32 hours per week.  This is ideal to me, however I've found that when I tell certain people this I feel as though there's a stigma that goes along with it....such as,  you're not a hard worker or you're lazy if you don't work the "standard 40 hour work-week plus a gillion hours of overtime" Here are some of my reasonings for going against the norm on this one. 

Reason 1: In the world of hospital nursing, if I worked any more than this I believe I would go insane.  Nursing as I have discovered as with most any job, is extremely stressful.  I go to work daily worrying whether because of the economy I'm somehow going to be expected to handle 6 or 7 patients instead of the 5 that on some days are already too many to handle,  or if my patients are going to be alive at the end of my shift, because 1 little mistake could turn something from bad to ugly, or if I'm going to get talked to for something that another nurse didn't take care of, or I didn't chart on one of the 6 flowsheets that seem to take away hours of valuable time you could be spending with your patients.  Don't get me wrong, I love nursing, but in this day in age I feel as though nursing has taken a turn in the wrong direction, and having an extra day a week away from that stress seems heavenly.  

Reason 2: Even though nursing may have been my calling, it is not my life, nor do I ever want it to be.  There is so much more to my life than my job, and it's not as though I spend that whole extra day off from work lounging on the couch eating potato chips.  I find that there is much more time to be able to commit to spending with my niece which I would never give up, or tutoring at People Serving People ( a Homeless Shelter in downtown Minneapolis), mentoring a 4th grader through Big Brother big Sister, having time to be in a bible study, i've recently taken up violin lessons which I lOVE, having more time to develop friendships, having a little extra time to spend at a coffee shop and ponder life, or simply go home for a couple days to enjoy the parents. I'd much rather be in tune to the world around me than the bubble of my job. I especially feel this way after living in the Ugandan culture for a period of time, and seeing how they value relationships much more than financial gain and career goals. They sure don't have a lot of money or material things, but for the most part they are happy people.

Granted nurses tend to make a little more money than some jobs and I currently have no children to support, but either way I would be willing to give up that extra amount of money & adjust how I make purchases, and stop buying "things" that just end up in the dumpster one day anyway, just to have more sanity in life.   I also realize this isn't possible for everyone as there is a tough economy out there, but if it is possible for you, I highly recommend it! 

Intro to Blogging....

Since most of my friends/family have now joined the world of blogging, I've decided to join the train and start a blog of my own.  I thought it'd be a good way of keeping those friends and family who I don't get to share my life with every day in touch with what I'm up to in the big city.   I however hope that this doesn't turn into a "what i've been up to" kind of blog, but more of a "what's been on my mind" kind of blog...inspired by a good friend Jessica and a lot of blogs of people i've met from my trip to Africa.  Looking forward to it....feel free to comment anytime:)