Face Feed...

Oops, I mean Faye's Feed.

My mom found this really good recipe for granola cereal and she started calling it "Faye's Feed" because it reminded her of bird feed. When I told Greg about it he said, "What? Face Feed?" So it's been kind of a joke since then.

Anyway, this stuff is really good. It takes a little bit to find all the ingredients, but you could alter some things if you can't find it and I'm sure it'd still be good. (We can't find rolled wheat, so we use a 5 or 7-grain cereal that includes rolled wheat.)

4 cups rolled oats
4 cups rolled wheat
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup unroasted sunflower seeds

3/4 cup thawed unsweetened apple juice concentrate
2 tsp vanilla (or more if you like)

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix apple juice concentrate and vanilla, then pour slowly over dry ingredients and mix well. Don't worry--it's impossible to evenly coat every piece wheat and oat.

Spread out granola on 9 by 13 baking pan or cookie sheet and bake at 275 degrees for an hour.

While granola is baking you can measure out and mix the following ingredients in a large bowl:

3/4 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup dried apples, cut into bite-size pieces (We haven't tried the apples yet.)
1-2 cups slivered almonds
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Cinnamon--a lot if you like it

I also added a cup of ground flaxseed to add more good-for-you stuff. Feel free to play with quantities, and/or add other things that sound good to you. I added twice as many dates because I love them, and half as many slivered almonds because I don't love them. Of course, you could probably add an extra bag or two of chocolate chips by that logic, but this is supposed to be a somewhat healthy breakfast.

Once your granola is done baking and COOLED, mix it all together in your large bowl with the dates and raisins...etc. This is very filling--not to mention it takes a long time to eat, so 3/4 cup is a good serving size for breakfast. (You will be sorry if you fill up your whole bowl.)

Hope you like it! I made a double batch because it keeps for a long time in the fridge in a sealed container, and it's sooo good! Thanks Mom for sharing!

Sound Equipment

Greg found this cool piece of sound equipment on Craig's List for an awesome price. It was cheap because a part was damaged, but of course Greg knew how to fix it! He's been spending a lot of time in the evenings playing with this and reading the manual to figure out how it works. When he figures out something new, we spend some time together so he can teach me what he learned. It's great! We make a good team because I like singing and playing the piano, and recording my music, and he likes editing my music and doing the technical stuff. I sure have come a long way from the days in middle school when I would sing into one tape recorder, then play it back while singing along into a second tape recorder. (The sound quality was significantly worse each time, so by the 3rd recording I had to stand across the room and sing so it would be the same volume as the tape that was playing...Hope that all made sense to you.)
Anyway, I'm glad we have a hobby that we can both enjoy and be a part of.



(Yeah, that's my sewing machine box that is being used as a table for the sound stuff. Greg plans on building a small table this week so I can actually use my sewing machine to sew.)

Other news is that I am thoroughly enjoying choir again. I like most of the music pretty well, and it's fun to sing now that I'm starting to get the hang of this soprano thing. (I prefer alto, but the director made me sing soprano. I wanted to rebel at first, but I think I just might be good at singing soprano after all....well, after a LOT of practice.)

Our first concert is in October, and then we'll have another one in December of course. Our choir recently changed its name to the Palouse Choral Society, so the daily news thought they would write an article about it Here. They took some close up pictures of my friend and one of the director.

Team iLuminate

This is a find on America's got Talent. They are so cooooool.

Unexpected Adventure

About 6 hours...and 32 miles...


Wendy came up from Texas to visit at Summer's house, so I met them and our parents so we could all visit together. On the last day of my visit Wendy and I decided to go on a bike ride...you know, quality Sister Time. Summer asked if we wanted to pack a picnic but we said no because we'd be back in time for lunch and to put little Heidi down for her nap. We left the house around 10:40am.

It felt good to be outside and get some exercise. We rode for about two hours until we had to stop for a potty break for Heidi. We talked about if we should turn back, but it seemed like the time had gone by fast, and it might not be that far if we just kept going and followed what seemed to be a big loop. It would be more fun to follow the loop than to go back the way we came. So we kept going.

Eventually we stopped at a house to see if we could get some more water. I was looking around to see if anybody was outside when a friendly looking guy pulled up on a dirt bike. He told us where we could get some water and then said, "You wouldn't happen to be Summer's sister would you?" The guy was a friend of Summer and Glen's that I met on a visit earlier this summer. Wendy thought it was so funny that way out on this dirt country road, someone would recognize me as Summer's sister.

Around 1pm we decided to call Summer for help. We were hungry and Heidi was being a good sport, but we felt bad having her ride in the bike trailer for so long. It looked like our loop was a lot bigger than we first thought, and we couldn't decide if it would be better to turn around or keep going forward. Summer brought us food and took Heidi home, and we kept riding. (There wasn't enough room in the car for everybody and the bikes and trailer.) She went home in the direction we were headed so she could call us back and say what was coming ahead. We followed the loop forward 12 miles back into the main part of La Grande.

We got home around 5pm, sweaty and exhausted. We had gone from one end of the valley to the other.


It was actually a nice ride and we got to see a lot of pretty country roads and fields...but maybe next time we'll plan a little better. I'd love to do it again with my own bike that fits me better, some food and maybe a little sunscreen.