Mmmmm Fall!

Today I made a wonderful baked oatmeal for breadfast.  I know that the Amish recipe is a little heavier than what I made but I altered the recipe to make it a little more healthy, less fattening and still delicious!  It takes all of 6 minutes to prepare and 40 minutes to bake.  I keep my blueberries and cranberries in the freezer and that makes them easier to chop up and throw into things like this great breakfast.

3 cups old fashioned oats
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 TBS ground Flax seed or Salba
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
2 Eggs (Optional)
1 Cup Milk (Soy, 2% or Whole)
1/4 Cup warm water
1/4 Cup unsalted Butter
1/3 Cup Honey
1 Cup chopped Apple, Cranberry, Blueberry

Mix all together really well and pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake @ 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until center in firmed up.  Refrigerates well, too.  Hope you try it!

Friends

I live now in a place that is the most permanent place I have ever lived.  It is a place I feel comfortable and safe.  I don't wait for a knock on the door every month telling me to leave and have no fear of being asked to leave because love has been replaced with discontentment.  Yet this is the loneliest place I have ever lived.  A place that was never my "hometown" is the place I feel most welcomed and the place my heart longs to be.  A place that, when I get the chance to visit, is somewhat constant and predictable.  A place full of real embraces, honest smiles and generational faith.  This place loved me for who I was once they got over the initial adjustment and who loved my unborn child as much as family should.  They are the people who come the distance to fill my home with laughter and give my arms friends to hug back with hugs that are real and that say "I'm so glad to see you! So glad you are here.". 

Today I will wear a jacket that a bride remembered to bring for me on her wedding day.  A jacket that was thoughtfully purchased by the most unsuspecting friend.  A considerate and warm gesture by the new wife of one of my best friends who has no need for my friendship but embraces me anyway.  With tears I will dress today for a job at a place where no one cares to really know me and if tomorrow I disappeared, would never know I was ever there and I will wear a jacket that will keep me as warm as the thoughts I have of an afternnoon spent at "home" with some of my most special friends.

Countdown til Spring!!!!