A Beloved Mother-In-Law

A mother-in-law is a powerful person. She (hopefully) is not the one calling the shots in a marriage, but it is within her power to bless it or to burden it. She can bless it by being supportive, loving, discrete, and wise. She can also burden it by being a source of contention between husband and wife.
“You hate my mother!”
“Only because she’s detestable!”
The above exchange never took place in my home. My mother-in-law was a jewel, a rarity in the species. The biblical book of Proverbs says of a godly woman, “her children rise up and bless her.” I think her children-in-law rise up to bless her as well!
I remember Jan sitting with me and teaching me to sew on her old sewing machine. In one whirlwind weekend session she taught me how to read a pattern, to mark it, to cut it, to piece and pin and sew, to stay-stitch and insert zippers. I was a newly-wed. It was only my third time to see her. I was a bit nervous, but Jan was very talented at putting people at ease, even brand-new daughters-in-law. Neither of us realized that weekend that another lesson was taking place – a course in how to be a mother-in-law. Jan may have been picking it up on the fly, but over the years she taught me by example how to be a good mother-in-law.
Only weeks into our marriage, Nate and I had a disagreement over ground beef. I had a five pound package of it that I believed was spoiled. I was going to throw it out, but the frugal Scottish part of Nate’s being was appalled. We argued. Since it was our first argument, my emotions were running high – way too high. It wasn’t about the meat for me, it was about how Nate saw me. Did he think I was wasteful or unintelligent? Incapable of managing a home? Unknowing of my thoughts, Nate committed one of the biggest no-no’s a husband can do in a fight. He called his mom. A rookie mistake!
He described the meat to his mom and asked her opinion. As he talked, Jan gathered that we had different opinions, and Nate was hoping for her to settle it. She asked to talk to me. I went to the phone with a faint heart. Was this going to be a pattern in my life now? Would Nate call his mom every time we disagreed? Would the two of them always be a team against me? I will never forget what Jan said to me, and the sweet tones she said it in. “I’m sure you know best, dear.” With that she both graciously bowed out of the situation, and cemented my affection for her. She later told Nate he wasn’t to call her in such situations, but we needed to work it out ourselves. It was a lesson we both took to heart. Now, no matter what silly disagreements we have, we are a team. Even if it’s the two of us against the world!
Jan took that occasion to be a blessing to me personally, and to us as a couple. She could have, if she was a bad mother-in-law, sowed seeds of further discord. She could have taken a trivial disagreement and made it into a traumatic incident. She could have berated me or have spoken of me to Nate in a disparaging way. She could have swam right in and taken charge, barking orders like a marine. Any of those would have had a negative impact on my relationship with Nate, and with my relationship with Jan, which would then have further negative impact on my relationship with Nate! She was very wise. Proverbs 31:26 “She opens her mouth in wisdom, And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”
It’s a silly little thing to make a big deal over– a blob of greenish ground beef in a tiny apartment sink. But think of the damage that would have occurred if Jan had been of the bad variety of mother-in-law who immediately sided with her son over the interloper who married her darling. No doubt (since I wasn’t any wiser or more mature than Nate) I’d have called my mom (probably crying) to even up the sides. And that, my friends, would have resulted in a war of attrition, with me and my mom against him and his mom, lasting for years. Such a situation would have seriously impaired Nate and me from “leaving and cleaving.” I can’t say if Jan knew all this at the moment, but her simple affirmation meant the world to me.
I lost this precious mother-in-law on July 18, 2010. It was a deep loss for our family. Since then, Nate and I have busied ourselves with raising her legacy. Suzy will surely carry Jan into the next generation. She has her big luminous eyes, and like her grandmother she is quick to tears and laughter - the result of a tender heart, close to the surface. They lack a shell, both of shyness and cynicism. We are diligent to tell Suzy stories of Jan, to show her pictures, to talk about her memories of her Mimi. We've noticed Suzy has a much better memory than we supposed. It's so sweet when she shares a memory of her Mimi, and so sad when her grief wells up.
Jan blessed Suzy for four and a half years. Many of these blessings Suzy is aware of right now. She remembers well how Mimi showered her with love and joy, how Mimi delighted to see her, and the many giddy phone conversations they shared (though I know Jan didn't always understand what baby Suzy was talking about, she never let on.) Jan blessed Suzy in many of the characteristics she has passed on to her - her joie de vivre, her intelligence, her affinity for books, her sociability, her compassionate nature.
One blessing Suzy is too young to appreciate now, but will value in it's time, is that Mimi modeled how to be a godly mother-in-law to me. Her lessons have not been forgotten. I hope to put this knowledge into use one day when a newly-wed Suzannah calls me after (or during!) her first marital argument. Jan, I rise and call you blessed!

Suzy and Avery

I transcribed a conversation my four year old had with her friend and made a movie of it. Suzy's using her advanced manipulation skills to get her way. I think it's a cute idea to take the little funny stories and cute sayings of our children that we love so much and save them by making a cartoon of it. If I ever get a faster computer, I will make more of these. Right now it takes a shameful amount of time. My poor old iBook just can't handle it!

Poppy Headbands

This summer I saw a tutorial on Ruffles And Stuff for this headband and was inspired. I thought it was a brilliant use of resources! And it was so cute. I finally got around to making some in the early fall. I decided to sacrifice my only red purse for the project. It was too small anyway, so now it lives on in a more useful capacity. I like to think it's happier that way. :o)
I changed it up from the tutorial a little. I made poppies instead of bows, and I added some beads for the flower centers. I also did decorative stitching. And I didn't glue anything, I sewed the flowers on. So really I just took the idea of killing a purse to make mother-daughter headbands! Disney at Ruffles And Stuff is great for inspiration like that. She has a craft budget of 0.0001% of the household budget, same as me. So her projects are very do-able.
I love how ours turned out. I love poppies! I think we'll wear them often, since they'll go with most of our winter clothes. Well, most of my winter clothes. Suzy's wardrobe is still mainly pink and purple, whatever the season. :o)

A close-up of my pretty girl:

This is really blurry. I had to zoom in to crop out my face. Don't judge! Anyway, I think you get a vague idea of what it's supposed to look like:

And just because she wanted her picture with Daddy too:

First Week of Homeschool!

We finished our first week of homeschool last Thursday. We go Monday through Thursday, and then take Friday off since that's Nate's day off.
It went so well! We do Bible, Math, Reading, and Drawing. Suzy is really doing well. We're using Phonics Museum by Veritas Press. It combines art with reading and writing. I've already seen Suzy expanding her appreciation of art, and we're only a week in!
She came to me one day dressed in a tutu and a yellow tank top. She handed me a red hair scarf and said, "Will you put in my pretty peach ribbon?" I tied back her hair, and she struck a pose. She clasped her hands behind her back, and tilted her head back. "Look!" she said, "I'm Degas' Little Dancer!" It was so cute!
This Friday we took a family field trip to the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis. Suzy was so excited to go! She chattered about it the entire one and a half hour drive. She loved looking at paintings of people, especially of queens and kings. She liked the jewelry! She's already asking when we can go back.
Tomorrow we start our second week, and I hope things continue as well as they have been!

The Penland Academy for Young Ladies

Yesterday we received our home school curriculum. As Nate was pulling loads and loads of books out of the box, he was getting more and more excited, and I was getting less so. I began to have simultaneous feelings of happiness, self-doubt, and buyer's remorse!
I was happy because I love teaching Suzy, and I've been intentionally teaching her since she was 10 months old. I made little lesson plans, and had a checklist of developmental goals. I know, I know! But she’s my only one, so why not?
So, last year, she met all the preschool developmental goals. At that point, I had no idea what further to do with her. I had taught preschool for years, and poured all my training and experience into Suzy, and I flat-out hit a wall. I had no idea how to begin teaching reading beyond letter recognition. We decided that instead of the both Suzy and Momma languishing a whole year not knowing what to do, that we would start kindergarten early, with a complete, made-by-someone-else curriculum.
We went with Veritas Press. It’s a classical education, with a heavy emphasis on the arts and languages. We got the kindegarten-1st grade combo (so she’ll do it for two years) of their reading program, The Phonics Museum. It combines art history with reading. It seems like something we’ll like.
Also, since it’s a pretty good bet (given her parents) that she’ll be more artistically than mathematically gifted, we got “Drawing With Children”, a book to help parents teach their children the basics of drawing. I was dismayed to find that it was over an inch thick, with nearly a third being prepatory work for the teacher. This brought in the self-doubt. However, since Suzy already spends hours contentedly drawing, I think she’ll love it so much that it will be well worth it.
My one big area of doubt was the math curriculum. We bought Saxon K, even though Veritas Press recommends skipping it and doing Saxon 1 for kindergarten. But since she’s only four, we went with the K. Looking it over last night, I think about a half of it are concepts she already knows well. This brought the buyer’s remorse. I decided to just go ahead with it and skip the lessons that would be too boring. And it’s all based around a calendar workbook that starts in September. It’s October, so it makes it awkward. We may just skip to the September lessons all together.
Anyway, these are my first impressions of the curriculum. Tomorrow is my Teacher Work Day. Nate will keep Suzy, and I will haul all this stuff to the library and plan my lessons. I’m actually really looking forward to that! I am excellent at planning. Not so good on follow through, but excellent at the planning!

Ribbon Dresses

I made these two dresses at different times. I made Suzy's* dress last year, which is why it's a little short. I made Sydney's dress during her visit to us this spring.
These are super easy dresses. I simply took a length of fabric from selvage to selvage, and sewed the selvages together, leaving a couple inches at the top unsewed. Then I gathered the top, and attached it to ribbon for a bodice. I sewed the ribbon onto the wrong side, then flipped it and sewed it again to make a quick lining. At least, I did for Sydney's. Suzy's was just scratchy, poor thing!
I added some ribbon straps, a button and button hole in the back of the ribbon, hemmed it and added trim on the hemline, and I was done! The girls loved having matching dresses.
I made a couple of these dresses for Suzy last summer. I think I may try one in a heavier fabric to make a jumper for fall!
*Please excuse her wild fluff of hair. This was before I discovered curl creme!

My Unfortunate Grandchildren...

Yesterday Suzy told me when she grows up, she will get married, and then have babies. I asked her what she'd name them.
"Lisa,Eric, Erin, Ruben, Lisa..."
"You already said Lisa."
*Gives me a disparaging look* "I have lots of children." So many, they apparently don't get individual names.
"Any others?"
"Candeefra, Tanna, Hannah, Lisa..."
"Another Lisa!"
"Momma!"
"Rick, Ruben..."
"You said Ruben already."
"...and the baby - Lisa."

Mother-Daughter Aprons from a Shirt Jacket

I found this jacket at the dig store in Corinth:

It seemed like something a sweet old lady would wear to church. But I loved the fabric, and my friend Gabi encouraged my to make an apron out of it. Gabi is very bad about encouraging me to make aprons out of things. We went thrift shopping this weekend, and she set me up with an 80's dress and a muumuu. For aprons, I mean.

Anyway, back to this jacket. I cut it up, and played around with the pieces to see how it'd all fit together.

At this point I felt very guilty, thinking of the sweet silver-haired old lady that could have proudly worn this to a Wednesday night Bible study but for my butchery. I didn't know what I was going to do with it. And I must have sneezed or something while cutting the right sleeve, because I took out a huge chunk out of it. Then I remembered an old tablecloth that I thought would coordinate with the fabric. I got it out and chopped it up too. I found using it I could make one apron for me and a little bitty one for Suzy. I felt much less guilty and got to work.



She's feeling a little camera-shy in that last one!
I used the body of the jacket for the skirt of my apron, and a sleeve for the bodice. The sleeve had a notched cuff that I turned up to get a little extra length. I used the edging of the table cloth to make the ties.
For Suzy's apron, I made the skirt out of the other sleeve. I folded the cuff down for a cute waist detail. I made the bodice out of a piece of the table cloth. I used the last of the table cloth edging to make her ties and edge the skirt. Then I used the collar to make the neck tie for Suzy. It opens and closes with the collar button, and I added a button on the other side for symmetry.
I love how they turned out. Suzy is thrilled to have a big girl apron to match mine when she helps me in the kitchen. I'm so inspired, I think the muumuu and '80's dress will be turned into mother-daughter aprons as well!

The Sounds of Silence...

I am musically unskilled in every way. I can't play an instrument. I can't even clap in rhythm. I most certainly cannot sing.
But I love it. So I do it anyway, when no one is around to suffer. No one except my daughter, that is. And she does suffer.
She went through a phase of wanting to take her Hello Kitty "earmuffins" with her whenever I drove anywhere. In the summer. I just thought she liked them, until the day she asked from the back seat, "Are you done singing now?" When I said I was, she said, "Good, now I can take off these ear muffins."
Yesterday I was belting out "I Need Thee Every Hour" (or the house-cleaning song) as we cleaned up her room. Suzy said she thought it was too loud. So I sang a verse more softly. She said that was still too loud. I sang a line very softly, and asked her if that was better. She said, "It is, but how about you sing like this?" at which point she began to silently mouth the words.
I burst out laughing, and then I was moved to pity. I passed the rest of the time listening to podcasts, and Suzy's audial suffering came to an end.

Air-head Moments...

Today I was at Butterflies and Bumblebees, a children's boutique in Selmer. Most of the clothes were wildly out of my price range, but as I was leaving, a small sign that said "$5" caught my eye. It was attatched to a small rack of clothes. The clerk told me that the price was actually three dollars, as they had been displayed on an outdoor rack, and were a little dusty. Woo-hoo! I started going through the clothes, looking for Suzy's size. Most of the things I found were tops that faded from a dark color at the bottom to a lighter color at the top. Not exactly my style, but for $3, I was willing to comprimise.
For a grand total $13.11, I left with over $200 worth of designer clothes - 3 tops and a skirt.
I was feeling super proud of myself. In the car, I took them out of the bag to show my haul to Suzy. That was when I noticed the fading seemed to be uniformly along the shoulders and sides, even on tops by different designers. They were sun-bleached! I could just picture the clothes hanging there forlornly, days on end. Because, who, really, with a brain, is going to spend $54 on a pink size 4T tshirt? So they began to fade away...
So now, instead of my little darling prancing around in a very trendy outfit, she's prancing around in aged, sun-bleached rags. Ha ha, I guess it's all in your perception? So don't tell her, she likes them!

Little Bo Peep Skirt

A couple weeks ago, I found this mini-skirt at my favorite thrift store (Designer Bargain Outlet in Corinth, Mississippi. Hey, Amy!) and intended to make a peasant skirt for Suzy out of it.

It was so easy in my mind. Simply rip out the zipper, and sew up that seam:

Then cut off the existing waistband, which had some funky elastic on the hips:

I folded down 1/4 inch and pressed it, then folded another 1/2 inch and pressed. I stitched it up, leaving 1 inch open to thread elastic through. I sewed the elastic ends together, and there was my skirt. Easy, simple, no hemming, no messing with pins...except it looked like this:

Not very practical for a four year old. So I went back into my sewing closet. I divided the hem into sixths. Every six part, I stitched two parallel lines, set on the longest stitch setting and low tension:

I tied off the threads at the top of the seams, then gathered from the bottom and tied those off as well.

Then I added a little blue bow by hand.

This is how it turned out:

Much better! I love how whimsical it is, and it makes everything Suzy does look dainty. Here she's showing you how to look like a lady while preparing to chunk a rock.










The end result was one happy little girl!

Growing Up

Today was momentous. Well, for me, anyway!
This morning I was in the living room, and Nate was in the guest room/office/family room. I was reading, and everything was pretty quiet but I heard a girl's voice. I couldn't quite make out any words. I thought Nate might be watching an ESPN video, but as far as I know, they have no preschool-age sportscasters. I thought maybe the neighbor's children were getting an early start on their outdoor playtime. Because surely, it couldn't be...I went down the hall and listened at Suzy's door. She was singing softly to herself and obviously playing with her doll house.
I opened the door, and there she sat, in her little long john pajamas (because she's so skinny she gets cold even in summer) merrily playing with her doll family. She smiled at me and said hello.
You're probably waiting for the momentous part. That was it. It was the first time in her entire LIFE that immediately upon waking, she did not run and search for me. We always start our day together with a snuggle. This was the first day she woke up, and didn't think, "MOMMA!"
I was more than a little sad. I lose more of my baby everyday. I'm gaining a delightful little girl, but how I miss that baby!
The up side to the whole thing was when I held my arms out, she ran into them, and we had our usual snuggle. Yesterday, I read this post at Femina, about our children's love metabolism, and (to keep with the theme) it gave me food for thought this morning. Here is my favorite quote from it:
"...just like food nourishes the body, love and attention nourishes their little souls. And fat souls are what we want."

Playing with Suzy's Hair

Preschool Lesson Plan - The Ocean

This is a lesson plan I did with Suzy waaay back in September. I thought I might post one every now and then. If nothing else, I know at least Suzy's grandmothers are interested!

The Ocean

Monday- Family Day, Nate's day off (no school)

Tuesday
Bible- Bible story and catechism with Daddy in the evening

French - watching French cartoons about the ocean and beach, learning names of some ocean animals. (French is my least successful subject with her. It's embarrassing to even chronicle this in a blog. Please never ask her the name of something in French. She doesn't care. At all.)

Physical- Dancing together

Art - making a paper plate fish

Reading/Cognitive - Reading ocean books (Everyday. She especially liked Dr. Seuss's Cetation Station. Go ahead and ask her what a cetation is. She cared about that!)
-Learning ocean songs. She loved this one, to the tune of The Wheels On the Bus:
"The sharks in the ocean go chomp chomp chomp,
Chomp chomp chomp, chomp chomp chomp,
All through the sea...
The crabs in the ocean go pinch pinch pinch, ect
The octopus in the ocean goes squirt squirt squirt, ect
The sea horse in the ocean rocks back and forth, back and forth, ect
The whales in the ocean go spout spout spout...
The fish in the ocean go swish swish swish..."
(She still asks to sing it sometimes. She likes to add things now that don't belong in the ocean, to see what I come up with. The car in the ocean goes glug glug glug, the bike in the ocean doesn't go far, doesn't go far...)
Math/Activities - Fish tanagram mats (she only did this for about 2 minutes, but I should try it again now that she's older)
-Sea animal die-cuts for sorting
-Examining shells
-Sand pudding ( A cute idea. You take vanilla pudding, and then put finely crushed vanilla wafers on top, so when you give it to the child, it looks like a cup of sand. Except Suzy doesn't like vanilla wafers, crushed or not, so she didn't eat it. I'm beginning to regret choosing this lesson plan to share. But I've typed too much now to change it!)

Wednesday
Bible- Bible story and catechism with Daddy in the evening

French - watching French cartoons about the ocean and beach, learning names of some ocean animals.

Physical - Running outside.

Art - wax paper fish. (Oh great, another educational failure. This project was way to teacher-driven for a preschooler. Actually, I did the whole thing, so it was pretty worthless. She just watched me, which was not the goal. I thought Suzy could shred the crayons, but she couldn't. If you have an older child, this is what it is: you take crayon shavings and place them on a piece of wax paper. Place another piece of waxpaper on top. Put an old towel on your ironing board, and put the paper on top of that. This is experience speaking. I have melted red crayon on my ironing board cover. With your iron hot, pass it over the paper, close, but not touching. Otherwise all your colors will swirl together and make brown. When the crayons have melted, let it cool, then draw fish shapes and cut out. You could also do flowers. I won't, but you could!)
Reading/Cognitive- Coloring an illustration to Rub-aDub-Dub rhyme, reading the rhyme.
-Ocean animal memory game

Math/Activities - Sink or Float game (This was fun. During Suzy's bath, I gave her a variety of items for her to drop in to see if they sink or float. Easy and educational!
- Octopus for lunch (I made an octopus out of a hotdog. Leaving about an inch and a half uncut, you cut it lengthwise so that it has eight little legs. Then you plop it in some boiling water until the legs curl up. Put it on a plate and add two little ketchup eyes.)

Thursday
Bible- Bible story and catechism with Daddy in the evening

French - watching French cartoons about the ocean and beach, learning names of some ocean animals.

Physical- Dancing together

Art - handprint octopus (This was a cute one. I painted her hand, except for her thumb, and then she made a print on blue paper. We did this several times. After they were dry, we added eyes with a marker, but gluing on google eyes would be cute too.

Reading/Cognitive - Rainbow Fish story re-telling. (We read Rainbow Fish, and then I gave Suzy some paper and crayons. I asked her to draw something she remembered from the story. We've done this with several books and even poems. She always enjoys it)

Math/Activities- Tuna sandwiches cut into a fish shape

Friday
*Story hour at the library* (Then we spend another hour getting books in the library.)

Suzy's Epic Song

Suzy just spent about ten minutes dancing around the coffee table to an epic song of her own invention. I was washing dishes, so I only remember these two parts.

Part I - "I am a sinner, Jesus is a sweater knitter." Where exactly does that girl get her theology?

Part II - This was her life, as she wishes it to be:
"I am a ballerina,
with long waaaavy hair,
and also an angel,
When I go to stores,
my momma never tells me noooooo!"

Dainty?

Suzy is a dainty flower. Mostly.
If you saw my facebook status, you know Suzy sneakily fed me a ladybug in a handful of sunflower seeds. It didn't bother *her* at all.
For herself though, she is much more squeamish. She loves jumbo strawberry marshmallows. She believes pink equals delicious. But she stopped eating them. She couldn't fit the whole thing in her mouth without gagging. She hates large bites of anything. She couldn't hold it in her hand and take bites out of it, because it would get gooey in her hand, which disgusted her. So I began giving her a party pick to pick up the marshmallows. So now she daintily holds the skewer and nibbles the strawberry marshmallow contendedly. With no threat of ladybug consumption.

Scented Finger Paint

We tried something new in Suzy's school time today. We're learning about the five senses, and I found an idea on a preschool website for scented finger paint.
I was excited to try it. I took a 25 cent bottle of white glue, and divided it between 3 small cups. To each cup I added a 12 cent packet of Kool-aid. I used cherry, grape, and lemonaide. The colors were awesome! So vibrant! It was really pretty, and smelled yum! I added a tiny bit of water to thin it, but if I am ever brave enouth to do it over again, I would substitute liquid soap for the water, because it STAINS! Suzy mixed all the colors of course, and her hands are now an ugly hodge-podge of the three colors.
She had an absolutely great time though, and was able to identify each scent with her eyes closed.
We also did a blind-folded taste test. She identified pickles, peanut butter, and sour cream. She didn't know what the vinegar was, but she loved it! She also tasted some baking chocolate today and learned that bitter = bad.

Thoughtfulness

Yesterday morning Nate went to the store to pick up a few things for me. When he came back, he had surprises for Suzy and I. For Suzy, he had a little doll - Blueberry Muffin from Strawberry Shortcake. Suzy's crazy about Strawberry Shortcake. all day long she totes around a little strawberry-shaped tin that holds her little dolls - Strawberry Shortcake, Raspberry Torte, Lemon Meringue, and Orange Blossom. If she's not doing that, she's asking to see the Strawberry Shortcake movie. The only two she didn't have were Blueberry Muffin and Plum Pudding. Those two seem to be rare - it's hard to ever find them in the store.
I thought this was such sweet gift. First, it was sweet that Nate wanted to give Suzy a surprise treat, and that he even thought to check the Strawberry Shortcake display, and then to recognize the rare find a Blueberry Muffin was, and then buying it for her. Suzy told me this morning, "I like Blueberry Muffin the best, because she comes from Daddy."
You know what my surprise was? Another can of red spray paint!

Suzy's new Jean Skirt

I love taking something old and turning it into something new, useful, and pretty. I love craft blogs with easy and clever ideas.
I made a skirt like this for Suzy using this tutorial:

Tea Rose Home Jean Skirt Tutorial
I thought it was a great idea. I had a pair of Levi's with huge holes in the knees, so I was really happy to give them new life.


Doing a little dance:

The only issue I had was that I did not have cute little flower cookie cutters to make appliques. And I looooved those flower appliques! After several failed attempts to freehand some flowers, I used a star and tried to make it look like a five petaled flower. Please tell me it looks like a flower!

The skirt turned out a lot cuter than you can tell from the pictures. I had a rather unwilling model:

Cranberry Oat Bars

My friend Elisabeth made these for us one evening, along with her cheesy manicotti. The manicotti merits a post of its own, so maybe that will be the next recipe. Elisabeth told me that her family's tradition was to have cranberry oat bars and hot chocolate as they decorated their Christmas tree. A lovely tradition, and we've started it ourselves! But it's too good for just once a year, so I made it just recently.
Step One:
Find a cute helper with a can-do attitude:


Step Two:
You have a choice here. The official recipe call for 2 cups of cranberries cooked with 3/4 water and 1/4 cup sugar until the berries pop.
Or, if you like it very tart, you can do it my way: 3 cups of cranberries and a generous cup of sugar with about 1/3 cup water.
Either way, let the cooked berries cool.

Step Three:
Mix 1 1/4 flour, 1 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt in a medium bowl.

Step Four:
In a large bowl, mix 3/4 cup softened butter, 1 cup sugar (1/4 cup at a time) 2 large eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add the oat mixture and mix well.

Step Five:
Reserve 1 cup of dough; spread the rest in a greased 9" or 8" pan. Cover with cranberries. Drop reserved dough in spoonfuls. If you've used a square pan, drop the dough in a checkerboard pattern. It will turn out very pretty. If you're using your blue deep-dish Emile Henry pie dish because it's beautiful and you love it, you'll find out that checkerboards don't work in the round. In that case, drop the dough as best you can:


Step Six:
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.


That's it. They're delicious, and they go very well with mugs of hot chocolate. After you're done making them, if you have an easily-pleased child, stuff the empty flour bag with notebook paper and tape it shut. Tell her it's a toy bag of flour for her play kitchen: