Animal Crackers in My Soup

Over a year ago, I discovered that I was completely in love with animal crackers.

They're perfect!

1. Not too sweet.
2. Not too fattening.
3. Can double as toys when you're bored.
4. Fun to eat their body parts off.
5. Very dippable.

I've had them dipped in honey, peanut butter, melted chocolate, and icing....and I've had them plain. Every way is delicious.

They're also fun to share. When I was still in college, I would take them to classes and choir practice and distribute them to people around me. Really. Who doesn't like animal crackers?

And when you get to the bottom of the bag, you'll find all those little pieces to crunch. The feet, heads, and tails that've broken off, all waiting there for you.

Having trouble smiling? Go get yourself some animal crackers.

*Sniff*

I love my nose.

I have lots of different favorite smells. Usually they're my favorites because they remind me of something or someone. I have happy memories associated with smells.

So here's a list of some of my favorite smelly things:

1. Old books
2. Freshly mowed grass
3. Christmas trees
4. Chocolate chip cookies baking
5. Spring rain
6. Wood
7. Vanilla
8. Hand sanitizer
9. Babies' heads
10. Fresh bread
11. Laundry
12. Coffee brewing
13. Campfires
14. Strawberries
15. Lilacs
16. Basements

Hm...some of these are kind of strange. Others have definite memories associated with them. What're your favorite smells? Think about it...

Snackin' on Healthy Food is What We Like to Do...

(This blog title is from a Barney song. A song I think of practically every time I think about eating healthy.)

Eating something healthy does not cancel out eating something, um, not healthy. But it makes you feel a little bit better.

Eating healthy things is difficult in the winter, when all you may want to do is huddle under a blanket and eat comforting sorts of foods. Fruits and vegetables aren't as readily available as they are in the summer.

I've been finding lots of good recipes lately, though, that help make me a little more enthusiastic about eating things that are good for me. The trouble is, making good food from scratch with fresh ingredients takes more work and more time. Certainly more time than heating up macaroni and cheese or opening a box of Oreos...

But in the long run, it's worth it. What I put into my body now affects the rest of my life. I need good fuel, not a quick salty or sweet fix.

I found this delicious recipe from allrecipes.com and modified it slightly.

Banana Bran Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup buttermilk

1 ½ cups wheat bran

1 egg

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 ripe banana, mashed

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup whole wheat flour

½ cup oat bran

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ cup chopped walnuts

½ cup raisins

¼ cup coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with liners.

2. In medium bowl, mix buttermilk with wheat bran. In another bowl, beat together egg, sugar, applesauce, banana, and vanilla.

3. In a large bowl, stir together flour, oat bran, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir buttermilk mixture and egg mixture into flour mixture until flour is just moistened. Stir in walnuts, raisins, and coconut. Spoon batter into muffin cups.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, until toothpick used to test comes out clean.

Next time, I'm going to add less sugar and see how that goes. The original recipe called for blueberries, but I added raisins and coconut instead because I had a bad blueberry/bran muffin experience. Also, I always use 1 cup skim milk mixed with 1 tablespoon vinegar instead of buttermilk, because we never have any around.

Enjoy!

Bathtime for Neville

The title of this post reminds me of those children's books that try to take something scary and turn it into something fun. Like, Elmo Goes to the Dentist or Doctor. See, kids? Elmo takes a bath and doesn't drown. Elmo gets a shot and doesn't get hurt.

Well, Elmo was wrong. You don't suddenly realize that while you were busy worrying you got the shot and never even noticed. You do feel it. And it does hurt.

Anyways...

In the hopes of helping Neville to continue to grow, I've started giving him a bath in the sink every day. Watering him isn't enough, anymore. His leaves need to be splashed.

What would be useful in this case would be one of those sprayer things that are in grocery store produce sections. Every couple minutes - a fresh spray of mist. Unfortunately, there's no room on my desk for pretty much anything else. So I have to rinse Neville the old-fashioned way, like he was a head of broccoli.

The air in the library office is pretty dry, so he doesn't stay wet for while. But temporarily, he looks shiny and fresh, like he's in a tropical rainforest.

I think his leaves are getting longer. But that may just be because he's trying to reach into the drawer filled with chocolate that's right next to him. One false move, Neville...

100.

 

Well, this is a big day. This is my 100th post!
How in the world I have been able to come up with 99 other posts, I have no idea.

And my biggest fear about blogging is that I'm going to run out of ideas. What if nothing new happens? What if my library patrons keep saying the same things and doing the same things? What if I lose my creativity?

Now, to prove that I've still got it, I'm going to write out 100 witty comments that I just thought up:

Yeah, right.

We'll just have to see how it goes. Who knows? I may sit down to write one day and have nothing to say. I guess that's happened already, though. And that's what YouTube is for.

.

We're All In This Together, Spring

I feel like spring is holding back just a bit. Waiting for something.

So I feel like it's my duty to call it forth. Here are a couple ideas I came up with to usher spring in quickly:

1. Dress like it's 70 degrees instead of 30. If spring sees that you're ready, it will feel more ready.

2. Ignore the snow. Pretend it doesn't exist. In fact, only acknowledge the melting snow. When you see the water, exclaim, "Spring showers bring May flowers!" and gesture grandly with an umbrella.

3. If you should see a bud on a tree or in the ground, get up really close to it and whisper words of encouragement. Its bravery should be applauded.

4. Eat spring-ish things. Like ice cream cones. Or watermelon. And eat them outside so spring will notice that you are heating up with or without it.

5. Say "Spring has sprung!" loudly and often.

6. Organize a game of frisbee or tag outside. Happy feet running on top of the ground will stimulate grass growth.

7. Avoid "Negative Nancys" who spread cold and gloom everywhere they go. You don't need people around you who believe that spring will never come.

8. Each morning, do the dance of spring. This is different for everybody, but for me it involves mostly skipping.

9. Plant fake flowers outside in the snow. This will encourage real flowers to bloom.

10. Put on your sunglasses and prepare for spring!

Just Your Everyday Average Super Cool Librarian

Some people have the wrong idea about the library. And librarians.

I'm talking about stereotypes.

Sometimes people will come up to the desk and start talking very softly or even whispering to me. When patrons do this, I take a certain delight in speaking a little louder than normal, just to show that we are a cool, hip library where no one has to whisper!

I had one man tell me that I don't look like a typical librarian. Um, thank you, sir. I'll just take that as a compliment. I'm assuming he meant that:

1. I'm not old.
2. I don't wear glasses.
3. My hair isn't pulled back into a bun.
4. I don't wear cardigans. Very often.
5. I'm not grouchy.

It's kind of a shame that people still think that all librarians are cantankerous and like to shush people. It seems like whenever I read about a librarian in a fiction book, she (of course she's also a woman...) fits that mold.

I can't speak for every librarian, but I can tell you that I work in a library because I love books and I love helping people.

I certainly try and do my part to change people's ideas about the library and librarians. The library is pretty different from what it was fifty years ago. What isn't? But a lot of people who never use it don't get the chance to see how much we have to offer.