First Loaves of Bread

After being inspired by some other women's bread making abilities, I decided to make my first homemade bread. Well, how it really happened is we ran out of bread and I didn't have the car or the desire to go to the store, and I thought this would be a good time to give a try at making bread. So about 11 am I set out to give it a go. After reading the directions for making Honey Whole Wheat Bread! Yum! in my handy dandy Betty Crocker Cook Book, I realized it's a similar process to making pizza dough which I do about every week. So, it turned out to be easier than I excepted. There is truly something wonderful about making homemade bread. First, it smells wonderful even when it's just sitting on the counter rising. It feels peaceful, and made me feel that this is how life should be. I realized while kneading the dough for about 10 minutes (plenty of time to contemplate life), that bread making is cool. I hope one day I will be able to say to lil' b, "Can you go make some bread?" and she will be able to. In our day and age when everything is so processed and package, to me, it seems so precious to be able to pass something simple like bread making onto my kids. Well, first step- make your own bread.

I actually skipped a step accidentally. I was suppose to knead, rise for 60 mins, then roll out, shape, then rise again for 35 mins. Well, I read the directions wrong and skipped from kneading to shape and rise, so I just let it rise for 1 1/2 hrs. Here it is rising.

And , even with my mistake, it turned out. It was delicious. I am truly amazed how good it turned out. I will definitely completely follow the directions the next time, because it will make it even better and yummier!!Here is my egg salad sandwich I ate afterwards, with HOMEMADE BREAD. I couldn't believe it. It was euphoric. I felt like a proud puffed up mama hen. I throughly enjoyed the process and will be making lots more homemade bread, in fact I'm about to right now.

Bird Cages

These are Bird Cages by Tamar Mogendorff. Aren't they beautiful? I saw them in Little Circus' shop. She has a blog I've read to pretend that I can still read French. It's very sweet and I wish I could actually come up with sentences to say to her.

Wiener poopie

This is one of the funniest videos I've seen in a while. Please watch it. It'll give you a good laugh.

What Have I Been Up To?

I know you all have been curious, just kidding. But here it is anyways. I feel like a spastic crafter. I can't really stick with anything for very long. After X-Mas, I got really into sewing little stuffed bird ornaments, then I went to crocheting cupcakes (finished just one and now I'm done(phew, glad I got that out of my system), then crocheting flowers(fast and fun, great combo), now to embroidering which what I've doing most lately, and loving. Oh yes, and today I made lil'b a crown. Here's some pics, which I admit showing off your crafts has to be sort of narcissistic, but when I spend so much time with this, I want to put it somewhere, so here it is.



I now have made three of these crowns. They are so fun! Anyone need a crown?

This is a drawing of Belle's I copied onto some muslin, and embroidered. I love it. The idea came from Soule Mama's blog. It's her view of Jonah and the Whale.
This little tree was unfinished, and now he has some leaves and a border.

I'm Only Human

Today, lil' b and I went to the library to pick up some books for her, while dad stayed behind with our sick little Bug. On the drive into downtown, it started to snow, which made the event even more fun. We picked out our books at the library, and it was still snowing as we skipped down the street back to our car. While loading lil' b into the car, a grizzly elderly man, with thick dark rimmed glasses and an air of "I don't really like kids", walking towards us, stopped and commented, "These are the best years, don't miss out on them because soon they'll realize that you're only human." I was so shocked by his comment, not because I haven't heard it before, but because I never would have expected that old man to say something to me, and especially a something endearing to children. It really touched me to see this old man's emotions well up just by seeing my lil' b. Kids are amazing.

As we drove away, I couldn't stop thinking about what he had said, because it's so true. I am only a human and man, I am going to make some awful mistakes, I just know it. I'm human, so I have to. And it scares me to death. And the process of her realizing this has already begun. I've already had situations where lil' b caught me acting in a way I teach her not to act. Saying something to her in a rude tone, and she tells me I'm being rude, and I have to apologize. So humbling.

A lady at church said a really similar comment, just last Sunday. After watching me hold Bug, she came up and said, "Aren't they so wonderful?" referring to children, and I said, "Yes, they are." Then she told me how her boy was 25, getting married, and such a great man. She said it amazes her because she was a single mom and knows there were plenty of mistakes down the road. I told her that it scares me to think about what will be my parenting mistakes. My parents were good parents, but there were mistakes and shortcomings. There has to be, and sometimes it's painful to realize that. The lady and I got distracted, and she walked away, but came back 5 minutes later. She told me that the cracks in our parenting are there on purpose, because that's where God comes in. That's where He takes over and molds them and teaches them to persevere through trials. I thought this was very interesting and encouraging. All of it made me want to live more in the moment with my kids, savor this special time, and realize I'm only human.

Reading During My Childhood and Loving to Read

Yesterday after finishing an amazing book by J.D. Salinger called Franny and Zooey, I was sitting at our mini kitchen table with my husband around nine pm eating homemade cookies and drinking tea, and I started contemplating how I wish I had read more books as a child. All those years wasted, well not wasted, but not much reading was going on. So after thinking this, B and I began discussing what we did read during our childhood years and I thought it was interesting so here it goes.

My earliest books I can remember reading on my own besides picture books is The American Girl series of books. I ate those books up. If any of you know them, they include fascinating titles like Samantha goes to town or something like that. Mostly I read Felicity and Samantha, Molly was just too modern for me. I was really into pre 1900 as a child. Then, when we moved a lot during my third grade year, I read a ton of Archie comics. In middle school, I remember reading Dealing with Dragons and a sequel, which is a mystical story about princesses and dragons, definitely an interest of mine then. In seventh grade, I read some Christian fiction like This Present Darkness, Piercing the Darkness, and some horrid romance books. Then I got really into Fear Street. Ever read those? They are awful. Basically like sitting through a horror movie, which I can't do now, big scardy cat.

What was I missing? So few books. I feel like I missed so much. I want my kids to be devouring books at that age. I could have read so many of the classics like Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudiced, Lord of the Rings, or Fahrenheit 451.

Anyways, when did my love for reading and books begin? It was my junior year in high school and I signed up for an English class with Blou Carmen. There were rumors she was a witch and that she had never worn the same outfit twice and that she was incredibly hard. So I was scared before the clas had begun. Thankfully I trudged forward, because that class changed my life. She really didn't wear the same outfit twice and no she wasn't a witch, just a wonderful inspiring unique teacher. For class we read Cat's Cradle, Of Mice of Men, Catcher in the Rye, and The Great Gatsby. From then on out I was hooked on reading and it also helped me decide later to major in English.

I just wish I could have started earlier, because I barely read anything as a child and I feel like I missed out on so much free time I could have spent reading. I just pray that my kids continue loving books and become little bookworms.

My Husband Has Long Flowing Hair

Recently, I've questioned whether my husband has hair longer than my own. Weird to some, new to me. I never thought I liked really long hair on a man, but maybe my views have changed. I've always been a fan of shaggy hair on men, you know, the shaggy, I-don't-give-a-rip skater boy hair, yes, I like it. But never have I thought I liked flowing hair. B's hair sometimes has tendrils, not kidding you. And sometimes ringlets. This is not thought of as manly to some but it has become it to me.

B always use to talk about wanting "warrior hair," whatever that means, and I just thought he was being silly, but he wasn't. Now, the mane, his mane, is warrior man hair proportions for sure. It bounces on his shoulders, and I can run my hands through it and when I think I'm done, I'm not, meaning his hair is really gosh darn long. He has black hair that's incredibly shiny with a subtle wave. It's really beautiful, really hair meant for a woman in my opinion, and many other women's opinions. I've had plenty of friends comment that they wish they had hair like B. Seriously.

So, to sum up this irrelevant post. I'm saying that his hair has grown on me and I like it, flowing that is. And I feel nervous about the day he cuts it. It's so exotic. Well, warrior like. Sometimes pirate like. Yes, I even like a pirate tail now. What's the world coming to? I dream about growing out little bug's hair, my 10 month old little boy, and not caring if anyone calls him a girl because I think he's manly, just like his dad, and he'll remind me of Mogley from the Jungle Book. Then there will be two men with flowing hair in our family.