Our Showers

Okay, so I'm a little late...and I'm super lazy, so I'll make this brief. We had Dawn's baby shower and my bridal shower last weekend. Saturday evening, the baby shower was at Mom and Dad's and the weather was really nice. The next day, we were at the park for mine and it was hot and really humid. It was a lot of fun, though.

I used a vacation day, so I got a three-day weekend. Dan ended up working, so I made the five-hour trip alone. I'll admit, it was kind of nice leaving Mila here so I could get (lots of) shopping done last Monday in Fargo, on my way back. I spent last week working on decor and craft-type things for the wedding. I got a lot done, but I'm exhausted, and still have lots to do. I don't know if I'll even have the time (or, more accurately, the energy) for writing articles in the next few weeks.

Anyway, back to business. I doubt I'll be posting much in the next month, but I'll try to stop in and say hi at some point. If not, I'll be back after the wedding is over and at that point I should have a little more time for writing.

Thanks, everyone!

A Healthier Blueberry Muffin Recipe

We were finally able to go grocery shopping this weekend, so we'll be eating well this coming week. The only time I'm really motivated to cook or bake is when the fridge and cabinets are well-stocked. Then I get really lazy again... Anyway, I made blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning. And they didn't come from a box of muffin mix. Plus? They are super healthy. I found the recipe in the Thin Kitchen Recipe Book.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups wheat flour
3/4 cups flaxseed meal
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 apples, shredded
3/4 cup nonfat milk
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup blueberries
nonstick muffin tin

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients together, except the blueberries.
2. Combine the eggs, milk and vanilla and beat for 30 seconds.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients; stir and fold in the blueberries.
4. Fill each muffin tin cup 3/4 of the way full and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

This recipe makes approximately 15 servings.

**If you don't feel like shredding the apples, you can cut them up and put them in the blender with the milk. I used the "shred" setting. Don't blend for too long, though.

These muffins are so good, I could eat them all day. A serving size is one muffin; there are 140 calories, 2.5 grams fat, 0 grams saturated fat, 28 grams carbs, 4 grams fiber and 4 grams protein in a serving.

Hello, July

July rolled in with a wave of heat, as I'm sure most of you couldn't help but notice. We spent a three-day weekend at the lake and came home to 90-some-degree weather. This week, we feel very fortunate to have central air conditioning.

We accomplished a lot of wedding tasks last weekend in MN. So far, we have two more trips planned for this month, and two or three more for August. I have a feeling we won't be traveling much after next month...gas isn't cheap. Not even close.

Now, I just need to plan a trip to the hair salon in the next month or so and do LOTS of shopping (with very little money and time). After that, we really only need to plan the ceremony. I think...although, I'm sure I'll add a lot more to my checklist of things to do.

Anyway, what else have we been up to? Not a whole lot. We have both been working; on top of that, I've been trying to get as much writing done as possible. We had a paid holiday yesterday. Being a Wednesday, we couldn't do much, so I did some writing. We tried to play softball in the morning, but it got hot and humid pretty early.

We watched part of the fireworks last night.

Surprisingly, there are two sets of fireworks in town. We parked the car on a street somewhere in-between and were able to see part of both sets. However, they were nothing special. We probably would have enjoyed them much more if we had been able to see just one whole fireworks display, rather than bits and pieces of two.

Well, looks like its cooling off now. We're at 84 degrees, and potential rain and storms later today and tomorrow....