The Morris Family Garden

There is just no time! I think that somewhere deep inside once I thought that if I were a stay-at-home-mom I would have all this free time on my hands to pursue my crafts, to laze and to take wonderful hikes in the woods, etc. But NO! Spend my time cleaning up after the two beasties, keeping pace (and usually losing) with laundry and keeping everyone fed, clothed and happy. At best I think I do a marginal job on everything.
The flu bug lingered even though we used Tamiflu. We didn't use the full dose, I guess that's why - and my appetite still isn't right - no problem there, and no complaints. But here it is just a couple days before Thanksgiving!
We're travelling to Tidewater for the holidays; lunch with Andy's family and supper with mine. We plan to leave to come back on Saturday morning, and avoid (hopefully) the Sunday rush. We'll see how that goes. I have a tension headache thinking about the trip down there on Wednesday, the busiest travel day of the year. So it goes.
Today we made turkey handprints. As usual, as soon as my back was turned, Hannah smeared herself with paint up to her armpits. Sorry - no picture. I didn't even have to guess what she was doing when I heard her say, "oooooooh, PUR-ple!" The Sugar Baby looked like a scapled Indian with warpaint and a smear of peach paint up the back of her head. There was a faint misting of blue around her lips from where she was pensively mouthing a paintbrush. But we 'captured' several flocks of turkey for the grandparents and for the scrapbook. Very festive.

OH! Almost forgot. THank you Loretta, I went ahead and made a "healthy" oatmeal cookie for our take along snack. I forgot to mention that I have an abundance of cold cereal (I get it free or 75% off with coupons and sales), so I wanted to use that in the recipe. After tweaking one I found online, here it is (it has loads of ingredients, but the flavor is worth it):

"Healthier" Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup ww flour
1/2 cup ap flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves (optional)
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 tbs milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup nuts (peanuts), chopped fine
2 cups cereal (combination of cheerios, raisin bran or rice krispies or etc.)
3 tbs flax seeds (if you have 'em)
1/4 wheat bran
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup fried fruit (blueberries, coconut, raisins, apples or cranberries) or chocolate chips or butterscotch chips, etc., according to your prefernce for "healthy" cookies

Preheat oven to 350. Put flour, spices, salt, baking soda in bowl, mix and set aside. Cream butter and sugars. Add milk, vanilla and eggs, beating well after each addition. Add cereal, fiber, seeds, nuts and fruit. Mix well. (I use my stand mixer). Scoop dough into walnut-sized balls, flatten slightly and bake for 15-18 minutes until brown. Leave in towards the shorter time limit for chewier cookies, longer for crisper cookies.