Homemade Dog Biscuits Recipe

If you love your pets like me, what better way to show them than by making home-made treats!  You can also add other ingredients to enhance their flavor and/or to promote health (examples:  wheat germ, garlic, brewers yeast, yogurt, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, etc.).  By making your own treats, you know exactly what goes into them.  And if you have a finicky eater or your doggy has a sensitive tummy or allergies, you can customize your treats just for them.  There are tons of recipes and information on-line, so do your homework and come up with what works best for you and your dog!

You can use any shape cookie cutter you already have, or, you can purchase a dog-bone shaped cookie cutter at your local kitchen supply, craft/hobby or on-line store!

Better Than Store-Bought: Homemade Dog Biscuits

Ingredients:

½ cup water
2 eggs
½ cup cornmeal
½ cup rolled oats
3 tablespoons peanut butter
½ cup canola oil
2 cups whole-wheat flour

Combine ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then stir to combine (mixture will be thick). Sprinkle flour on a countertop and roll out the dough with a rolling pin until it is between ¼ and ½ inch thick. Using cookie cutters, cut out biscuit and place on a well-oiled baking sheet.

Bake biscuits at 400F for 20 minutes (or until hard). Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Recipe courtesy of:  http://www.takepart.com/video/better-store-bought-homemade-dog-biscuits

Veterans Day



U.S. Navy 1982-1986



VF-124, F-14 Tomcat Squadron

Wild Bird Treat Mix in a Quart Jar

This would be a neat gift for friends and family members that are bird enthusiasts! 

Wild Bird Treat Mix in a Quart Jar

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup small mixed bird seed
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups quick oats

Directions:

• Layer cornmeal, wheat germ, bird seed, raisins and oats in order given (starting with cornmeal), in a 1 quart wide mouth jar pressing each layer very firmly before adding next layer. 
• Decorate jar and attach a recipe card with the following instructions:  
• "WILDBIRD TREATS"  
• Empty all ingredients from jar into a large bowl, mix.  
• Add: 3/4 cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy, and 1 cup water.  
• Mix very well.  Add more water, if necessary, to make a stiff dough.  
• Spread in a 9"x13" baking pan.  
• Use knife to cut bars into 2"x4" bars. Leave bars in place.  
• Bake at 250 degrees F. for 45 minutes.  
• Leave in pan to cool.  
• Cut into bars along cut lines.  
• Feed wild birds one bar at a time.  
• Keep remaining bars refrigerated until needed.

Recipe courtesy of:  http://www.food.com/recipe/wild-bird-treat-mix-in-a-quart-jar-136395

VOTE!

Quotes for Women, By Women - Get Out and Vote!!

"We've got a generation now who were born with semi-equality. They don't know how it was before, so they think, this isn't too bad. We're working. We have our attaché cases and our three-piece suits. I get very disgusted with the younger generation of women. We had a torch to pass, and they are just sitting there. They don't realize it can be taken away. Things are going to have to get worse before they join in fighting the battle."  ~Erma Bombeck, Author (1927-1996)

"The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future."
~Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915) Suffrage organizer in the Pacific Northwest

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."
~ Alice Walker

Dating Advice 101

August 26, 1920

Women have had the right to vote in the

United States of America for only 92 years!

"On Election Day in 1920, millions of American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy: Disagreements over strategy threatened to cripple the movement more than once. But on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship."  http://www.history.com/topics/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage

Exercise your right to vote!

Democrat or Republican? Not me!

This was written in 2002. Sounds like it was written yesterday. Voting Republican or Democrat is NOT going to change ANYTHING!

http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/blow/blow4.html  

We need a big change in this country. Stop voting for the lesser of two evils. Neither party is for "the people"...they are only in it for their own political career and to pay back favors for them getting there!   Instead, do a "write-in" and vote for them.  Even though they will probably not win, high numbers of write-ins will get the message out there that this country is tired of the "status-quo".  Neither parties are what they used to be.  Campaigns are all about mud-slinging lies and falsehoods, nothing else.  Both parties claim they will bring jobs back, cut taxes, etc.  Yeah, right.  Like they have a say so in any of that.  It's scary to see people idolizing these candidates, as if they're going to save them personally.  Get a clue.  They do NOT care about you, unless you're one of the 1 percent and are contributing to their campaign funds.  Stop following blindly and start voting for someone that WILL make a difference.    

"I'm Marni, and I approve this message." 

Powerful....

Reflections - Looking Back

As I reflect back over this last year, I can definitely say that I hope and pray I never have to deal with that kind of emotional pain again.  I am not yet ready to discuss the cause of this pain, but I am ready to move on and claim my life back.  I used to think I was a very strong person.  This brought me to my knees.  The heartache and the blow to my self-esteem and self-worth is indescribable.  Everything that I had believed in my whole life was shattered.  Not only did the incident make me question myself, it made me question everything about life.  My perception of everything was altered.  Because of what one person did, I no longer believed in or trusted anyone.  I questioned if true love existed, or was it just nature's trap.  I wondered what was wrong with me.  I actually felt like I was going crazy at times and would have actual panic attacks which I had never had before in my life.  Like I said, what I felt and how I saw things cannot be described with words.

It has been 18 months since the first revelation.  I am just now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  There were many months that I didn't think I'd see that light.  There were some days when I'd feel like I was gaining my strength back, but then something would knock it right out from under me.  I couldn't count how many times something would trigger that initial pain and the subsequent uncontrollable emotions.

As the saying goes, "time heals all wounds".  My wounds are starting to finally heal.  Though I will be scarred the rest of my life because of this, I have survived.  I don't feel those extreme "crazy bouts" anymore, though I still have moments that I could easily succumb to but they are getting less and less all the time.  I am starting to have those happy and joyous times again.  And I am not as skeptical as I once was.

What got me through all this?  Though at first nothing was helping, I did reconnect with God.  Prayer, reading everything I could find about what happened and why, and the undying and loving support of my family and friends is what helped me get through it.  I still have a bit of a ways to go, but I at least am "out of the woods" now. 

I know with God's grace that I will continue to heal from this.  Now, I have to make a conscientious effort to stop dwelling on the past and move forward.  I have to forgive both myself and the person that caused the pain.  Even though I may not tell this person to their face that they are forgiven (unless they ask me for it), I must forgive them in order for me to move on and heal.

Here is a quote from a website that I follow on Facebook:

"Don’t live your life with hate in your heart. You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate.  Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.”  It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.”  Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself!  And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too. If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time."  http://www.marcandangel.com/