August 2010 Archives

Nolan tells me that the best way to keep his brother Logan from eating all the snacks in the house is to have banana bread in the house. Logan loves banana bread (as does his mother), and it makes not only a fine breakfast food but a yummy snack throughout the day. We use Grandmother M.'s recipe, the same one my mom always made for me, the same one that I make for the boys, and the same one that Logan himself now loves to make.

I don't know whether Grandmother tweaked her recipe over the years, but we use the one that she contributed to a military cookbook long ago. I'm posting it here, because at some point the old cookbook is going to completely fall apart on me. I can't even give the name of the cookbook because the cover is gone, long ago disappearing before the cookbook was ever passed along to me.

Banana-Nut Bread

1/2 c. shortening
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
4 Tbsp. sour cream or milk
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. mashed bananas (about 2 ripe bananas
2 1/4 c. sifted flour
1 c. chopped nuts

Mix all ingredients in order given. Bake in greased loaf pan at 350 degrees until bread springs back when tested, about 45 minutes.

There's nothing fancy or complicated about this recipe -- just pure simple great taste.

We love you, Grandmother!

This has been an interesting year. The boys are getting older and bigger, and our life has become less chaotic, as the boys are more mature and more responsible around the house. Logan is now 13 and about 6-feet tall. We measured him the last day of age 12 to see if he broke the 6-foot mark, but he was about 5' 11 1/2 that day. Two months later, he's a little closer but still hasn't officially cross the line. I expect that to happen any day now. Logan definitely likes being the man of the house while dad's at work, though sometimes that crosses into bossing his brother around. And Logan has been an absolute wonder helping with the yard work and all of mom's crazy projects -- to top it off, he likes to cook, and sometimes he takes charge of making dinner. How great is that?

Nolan is now 81 pounds and ever the unique-ster. He's the social kid, so much so that he sometimes has trouble stopping making noise. I thought my Grandmother E. and my dad could talk a lot --  it's pretty clear that Nolan is a direct descendant! But Nolan is definitely noticing that he's growing, too -- he can reach things he used to have to stand on tiptoe to get. And he's starting to carry heavier things for me, like the giant dog food bag today. There is such a nice, nice thing about having boys, especially about having nice boys who help their mom.

All in all it's been a great summer so far. We had an absolute blast on vacation -- one of the best ever, in fact. I'll post our vacation journals soon, I hope -- along with pictures.

The boys are getting old enough to watch a bigger range of movies. This year we let Logan see a few of our favorite scary movies, like "Jaws" and "Alien." And Nolan gets to see some of the milder action films now. Basically it means we have a lot more options when it comes to watching movies, and that's really makes it fun for the whole family.

Lately we've been enjoying watching the "Jeeves and Wooster" series on DVD. We've rediscovered a love of ice cream. We love all the wildlife that comes to our house. And we're crossing house projects off the big list, bit by bit. Very nice summer indeed.