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I came across this the other day and thought it was pretty neat.
I wanted to use it as a supplementary material for my Sunday Chinese Class, so I "hollowed" out the characters in there and made it into a "Fill in the Blank" exercise.
You might find it useful. Here is the resource online.
Super easy, super healthy, super yummy!
(Endorsed by Sophie & My husband)
超级简单，超级健康，超级美味！（代言人：嗒嗒，老公）
Request(by my husband): No butter, No oil, Minimum sugar & Yummy!.
(老公)要求：无黄油，无油，少糖，美味！
Ingredients: 3 cup Oatmeal; （麦片）
1 1/2 cup Flour; （面粉）
2 Eggs; （鸡蛋）
2 Yoplait Light Yogurt; （酸奶）
1 tsp Baking Soda; （苏打）
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon;
1/2 tsp Salt; （盐）
1/2 cup Brown Sugar; （红糖）
1 cup Raisins; （葡萄干）
1/2 cup Walnuts(optional) （核桃仁儿）
Preparation: 1. Heat Oven to 350 F.
2. Mix all the ingredients together.
Drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
4. Enjoy!
Personally I don't think it's that yummy, but they like it. Besides, it's all about good ingredients. You know what's in there, and you know you're giving your loved ones the best.
(我倒不觉得有多好吃，可是老公和孩子们都爱吃，尤其是挑剔的嗒嗒也爱吃。 其实最重要的是用的都是健康的原料，做得不费心，家人吃得又放心又开心。）
Laura went to performance the Irish Dance at Sean Cummings Irish Pub at Downtown Oklahoma City.
I stayed home with Sophie. We kept ourselves busy by making all sorts of green stuff.
Sophie used green play dough to make two cute Ohmus, little enough to fit on a green spoon; I made some shamrock hairpins out of green felt and a green mustache for her to play with( She didn't like the mustache though).
And a bowl of glutinous rice balls with chocolate fillings for snack.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Spring is back in our backyard. Time to get busy in the vegetable garden again.
Spring Break. Tortilla Pizza for girls. Laura loves it. Sophie doesn't.
Tortilla Pizza: 1 Spinach Tortilla + 2 eggs + 2 whole mushrooms + Pepperoni + Cheese.
First day of Spring Break. Girls are working hard.
These are final works: Sophie's star and Laura's Cello Girl.
Laura's Laalaa finally fallen apart. It's been with her for almost 10 years. We bought it for her right after we moved to Seattle. She was a year and half. Ever since then, Laura has been inseparable from her yellow tubby.
Like that little lamb who follows Mary wherever she goes, Laalaa goes to Laura's school, goes on the field trips, and to the dental visits. Laalaa has not only seen the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate, she also visited the Yellow Stone, the Mountain Rainer, and the Royal Summer Palace in China.
I don't remember how Laura got so attached to this yellow thing, just like I don't even remember when Sophie started to cling to her puppy blanket. Kids grow fast. The bigger they grow, the faster the time seems to slip alway. Every time I looked back and tried to piece things together, more broken pieces emerged. Laura always asked me what she was like when she was Sophie's age, if she liked to make up stories, if she cried whenever she's in shower, of if she put stickers all over the house...
When those precious years are gone, they're gone. Sometimes pictures, videos and journals help me relive the moments. There were times when I found myself in the situation where I had no answers to Laura's questions. "Mom, you don't remember? You forgot already?"
Yes, I forgot. How sad.
But when I tried to fix Laalaa's "antenna", I couldn't help feeling a sense of relief. My girl is still a little girl. She's growing up, but not as fast as I had thought, not "out of pace". See? She still needs her Laalaa.
When I picked her up after school, I told her, "I have a surprise for you at home." She immediately knew. "Mom, you fixed my Laalaa!" And you should see how happy she was when she ran to her room and hugged the lucky yellow thing tight in her arms.
I hope I'll never forget that moment.
( A long-sleeve yellow T-shirt ( On sale for $2.99 ) was turned into a short-sleeve. The sleeve was cut and used for making Laalaa's antenna.)
Ohmu has definitely become Sophie's new love. She asked for the Ohmu Plush, so I made her three.
She carries them to school everyday and squeezes them in her small cubby. Everybody is surprised to see them.
"Oh my, are they squid?" "Are they worms?" I don't blame them.
"Sophie, what are they?"
"They're Ohmu!" but nobody seemed to get it. She noticed that, so after that, whenever people came close and ask, she would just say, "They're bugs." Everybody knows Sophie is a bug lover. So it makes sense.
(Just in case you're curious, put "Ohmu, Nausicca Valley of Wind in the Google search, you'll see how smart and cute this huge, monstereous-looking creature is, and that is one great movie!)
The hyacinth must have popped out of the ground for quite a few days. I totally forgot it. I must have planted it last year. Sophie noticed the color of pink among the still bleak background first. She ran to it, knelt down and smelt the flower. "Mama, come, it smells so sweet!"
My favorite season is fall. But the best part of the year is early spring. I came to the States in December 1996. It was a bitterly cold winter. I spent most of the time staying at the apartment which we shared with the other three students. When they all went to classes during the week days, I usually sat at the table in front of the window, studying English, preparing for the GRE tests.
We didn't have a car at that time. There were times when my husband and I walked all the way to his lab at the Ohio State University. He was studying for his Ph.D. in biochemistry. It was almost an hour's walk. It must have felt longer than that since we had to walk in the single digit. That's not something I remember about Columbus, where we spent five years before we moved to Seattle, at least that's not what I chose to remember.
The fondest memory is the spring of 1997, the first spring after that coldest winter. The laundry was a few blocks from our apartment. On one of the laundry trip, I noticed a few bright purple flowers popping out of the melting snow along the sidewalk. They were small, packed in a few bunches. Then I saw some more along the way, some in bright yellow, more in purple-blue. It was a such a happy sight, almost like a triumph to me. I survived the first winter! And the spring's here! Only later did I learn that was crocus.
I went out more after that. I walked to the public library, to Kroger, the local grocery, or simply around the neighborhood. Wherever I went, the spring flowers were blooming. That spring was also a wet one. But they were more of drizzles, like we had in Seattle. The colors were just dazzling in the mist. I love the fresh smell of the soft rain, the grass, the dirt, the flowers, and all the things that were growing. That mesmerizing scent has linked forever with my first Spring in Columbus. The scent of early spring, the scent of the feeling that I finally settled down, the scent of a piece of memory that a young lady tried to start a new life in a foreign place. It was so precious. I wish it could be bottled and kept forever.
I heard about a poem saying that Hyacinth is so fragrant that people are willing to give up his last loaf of bread for the flower, to feed the soul. I guess I must have the same urge and yearning back then. Only I didn't have the dilemma. My husband brought home plenty of food for us. And there were always flowers in blooming outside my window. I should be the happiest soul.
"If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,
And from thy slender store
Two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole,
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."
~ Musharish-Ud-Din Sadi
