Granola

I never thought I'd be a person who makes my own yogurt and bakes my own bread and hangs my laundry on a line to dry. I never imagined that 'pizza night' would mean rolling out my own pizza dough and making my own sauce and shredding my own fresh mozarella. But here I am. And I feel like I've actually become quite adept at those things. I can handle it: the pizza tastes decent, the yogurt doesn't flop more than 50% of the time, my bread actually rises and I really do like the feel of clothes that have dried in the sun. But for all the things that I have learned over our last two years living at Omo, there is one thing I haven't mastered. And I don't think I ever will. My granola struggles. REALLY struggles. Just ask Caleb, he'll tell you. It's terrible. Somehow I take oatmeal, butter, and sugar and turn it into something that tastes burnt and undercooked at the same time. Really, it's like burned dry oats. Tasty.

But. Elsa loves it. My sweet child eats it like it's Lucky Charms. And says, 'Mom, this granola is delicious.' I always used to just say 'Oh, baby, you don't know what you're talking about. Just wait until we go back to America and I buy you some Life. Or Honey Nut Cheerios. Or Special K Red Berries.' So I really thought that after 5 months in the US, I'd be force-feeding the homemade granola to my children whose taste buds had matured and spoiled. But today Elsa spotted a container on top of Leah's fridge that looks like the one we keep our granola in and she about somersaulted with excitement--'Mama! Is that granola up there? Can I have some?' I had to let her down gently--no, that's just the container that Leah keeps her coffee in, but yes, it does look like the container we keep our granola in. Disappointed for a minute (you can't keep Elsa down for long), she just told me, "Okay, Mama, but can we please just go home now? I really really want to eat granola again."

So I guess 5 months in the US can't change everything. My granola will still be terrible. Apparently that is okay with Elsa. She just wants to go home.