Jumbo Dog Pillow

After surgery

With Sadie's surgery looming, I wanted to get her a big dog pillow. However, none of the pillows in the store met my size requirements and I didn't like the color options. So I decided to take it on myself. As flipped through ideas on Pinterest, I formulated a design in my head and got to work.

Needed items:
2 jumbo pillows
1 twin flat sheet

I sewed the 2 jumbo pillows together the long way and about every 5 inches did reverse stitching to make sure it held together. Then it was onto the pillowcase. I started by folding the sheet in half, the shorter way (hamburger fold for all you Greene Elementarians). The laid the 2 jumbo pillows stitched together in the middle so I could pin all the edges together. On the backside I made sure it had a pillowcase type opening in the middle to allow me to take the cover off to wash.

The whole project took about an hour & Sadie loved it after surgery. Now she just visits it on occasion.

Needed items

Finished front side

Pillowcase opening in back

Finished back side

Occasional usage

Craving Granola

In undergrad I always loved throwing granola on my yogurt, but now it's not conveniently located in the cafeteria or my kitchen. However, I figured I could find a quick recipe to make & have it conveniently located in my kitchen. Thanks for Google, I was able to do that and the first recipe I tried was simple & tasty. Here you go:

Simple Granola
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
4 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Combine brown sugar, honey and canola oil in a small sauce pan over medium heat.
3. Cook, stirring often until sugar is dissolved.
4. Pour brown sugar mixture over oats and add cinnamon and salt. Stir until oats are evenly coated.
5. Spread granola mixture over a cookie sheet (sprayed with pam) and press mixture down.
6. Place in oven and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15-20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before breaking apart and into pieces.
8. Store in a ziplock bag or other air tight container.

Using the Vegetables

Greg's grandparents Marge & Neal have filled us up with loads of vegetables from their garden when we've been home and when we moved, which meant we had a lot of cooking learning to do. We did find some good zucchini bread and stir fry recipe that made for great and tasty vegetable usage. Definitely worth sharing.

Zucchini Bread
(Makes 2 loaves)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking power
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini

Directions
1. Grease & flour 2 8x4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. Stir flour, salt, baking powder, soda & cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla & sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to creamed mixture & beat well. Stir in zucchini until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Back 40-60 minutes. Cool in pan for about 20 minutes & remove bread from pan to cool completely.

Eggplant & Green Bean Stir-Fry with Coconut Rice
Prepare the coconut rice:
1 1/4 cups jasmine rice
1 can coconut milk
1 cup water

Add to pan, bring to a boil & reduce heat to steam the rice for 15 minutes. Remove from heat & keep covered for 5 more minutes.

Stir-Fry
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 large eggplant, peeled, seeded & sliced into bite-size pieces
1 pound of green beans
3-4 tbsp minced, pealed ginger (we didn't have this so we put in peppers!)
3-4 small cloves of garlic (we used minced garlic)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 cup basil
2 large chicken breast sliced (this was our addition)

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the eggplant and green beans, chicken, ginger & garlic. Saute for 5-6 minutes until the green beans start to turn bright green and are still crisp. Add soy sauce & basil & continue to saute for another 1-2 minutes. Serve over rice.

Iced Coffee

Yep, another recipe. This is for you, but maybe it's more just so I have a quick place to look for recipes I like. Either way, this is worth trying if you like coffee.

When it's warm outside, I'm not a big fan of drinking hot coffee. I'd rather have something cold, but still need my coffee. So I went out searching and found this recipe. It has been approved by my co-workers on the eMarketing team and also by my mom, yes my mom who doesn't like coffee!

Ingredients:
2/3 cups of course ground coffee
3 cups cold water
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a jar or pitcher, stir, cover & place in the fridge and let set overnight. In the morning, you'll need to strain out the grounds, I typically put the filter in the regular coffee pot and dump it straight into the filter and let it go through (note: don't turn on the coffee pot), it's a slow process but not that bad. You could use a french press if you have it as well.

After straining it, I usually put in back into a pitcher and add milk, add as much milk or cream as you desire for taste. Enjoy!

Lessons from ACL Reconstruction

As the basketball season rolled on at NB and girls started to tear their ACLs, I thought to myself what words of encouragement could I give? What did I learn from the experience? What advice could I give? Now that my sister has joined the group, I feel I need to get my thoughts down.

I didn't have the what's wrong factor some people go through after doing something to their knee. I knew it was the ACL and Kurt, my PT, and Dr. Jones, my surgeon, fully agreed. And then it was time for the pain and work to get back.

One of the first thing Kurt told me was that if I came in with a negative attitude, he would not work with me. That was blunt, but he told me it was going to be tough and that I needed to be positive if I was going to get back. There lies the 1st lesson: Optimism

During reconstruction and rebuilding your strength, you work with a lot of different people each wants to get you back to your full ability in the quickest timeframe, but they know you have to be back at a reasonable strength level and with a low chance of re-injury. However, at times you feel they aren't doing enough because you are feeling good, but this is what they went to school for and it's their reputation on the line based on your success. Which brings us to the 2nd & 3rd lessons: Listen & Trust

ACL reconstruction can take months, 6 months is the typical statement. It may be more it may be less, but it will take time and you will feel it at other times in the future as well. That's a lot of time to stay focused, keep working and having patience that you will get back. After surgery the muscle in your surgery leg seems to disappear, it is crazy. You want that leg muscle back and it's painful, but you can't rush and you have to work through some of the pain, you've got to take the necessary time to get back and make sure it heals properly and is strong enough. This is a time to learn proper form, learn the game you are going back for more throughly, it will make you better as a whole. The next lesson is three-fold: Perseverance, Hard Work & Mental Toughness

As an athlete, you are a member of a team, most likely an active member if you got hurt. You have a role you filled and now it's changed. You can't just jump out and play, you've become a the injured reserve. This can be incredibly hard, but you've got to find a way to be positive and encouraging to your team, you can't sit and sulk and feel sorry for yourself. This is your chance to express how much you can support your team, learn the game further, offer advice to a teammate, but remember to be active. WANT to be a part of the team, injured or not. Final lesson: Be a Team Player

Through the rehab process you'll meet people who are going to support you and drive you to get better. You'll have to take rehab on head on and commit your efforts and focus into improving each day. Celebrate the small things like bending your knee a few more degrees, getting to full rotations on the bike or adding weight to your squats. No 2 rehabs are the same, so don't compare your progress to someone else going through the same process, you've got to go at the pace you can handle based on your PT's advice. Frustrations will come, as will tears, but how you react will determine your success. But remember, that knee has to get you through the rest of your life, take care of it!

Things I've Learned This School Year

**Please note that these learnings are not academic.

• In my sixth year of higher-ed, I have discovered I have nearly mastered the art of procrastination when it comes to academics. 
• In the past week, I have completed my grandpa's slideshow, baked cookies (twice) and cleaned anything and everything, but still have a lot of homework to do.
• Undergrads now-a-days do not know what citing sources is.
• Evidently, citing sources has been eliminated from HS curriculum. After teaching this past year, I have had to deal with arguments that copy and pasting a website at the end of the paper is citing. NO! If facts or quotes are used they probably came from somewhere, so cite it, otherwise it's plagiarism!
• The straightest distance between two points in straight line, therefore crosswalks take too long.
• I'm from small town Iowa, went to a small college and crosswalks were never used. I find them to be out of the way and to take too long, so yes I jaywalk 9 out of 10 times, because I don't like to wait.
• I'm getting older.
• Therefore, I need more sleep than I used to get and midnight is too late. Also my body doesn't bounce back as quickly from playing too much volleyball or stupid little nagging injuries, seriously! Also I like my coffee black...old I'm telling you!
• My brother has better fashion sense than me...evidently I got Jeff's genes there.
• Every once and awhile I check my oil when I get gas.
• This is to appease Greg and my grandpa (cause I would guess he is watching me). However, I have no idea what I would do if it read it was low on oil...probably call Mark.
• Patience & Faith.
• I'm not always good with these, but my Grandpa Mouw reminds me of this whenever I talk to him. Thank goodness I have this reminder.

Well that's what I have for now, but everyday is a learning day.