making bread

Funny little tidbit - I have struggled to make bread for years. Couldn't do it! I killed the yeast every time. I have only been successful making bread in the breadmaker. Yet, honestly for all the homemade foods that I make bread just shouldn't be that hard for me. A very good friend of mine gave me a recipe she uses and some helpful hints on the phone. And glory be but it worked. I have since made several batches of bread! It is amazing. My youngest wanted to help out with today's batch. The kids think it is absolutely great that we now have fresh homemade bread - and what a great smell when cooking! Love it.

The loaves didn't turn out perfectly shaped but that is cause I had help - and it was more important to let the 7 year old help then to worry about it being perfect. Plus, we only care that the bread rises - not that the loaf is shaped perfectly. Rising is a big deal --- because when you kill the yeast like I am known to do --- ya get a lump of dough and it just sits there. Starring at you! Almost laughing in your face! Yuk!

Here is the recipe - in case any of you want to try it. I find it is much better tasting than store bought bread and far cheaper.

6 to 7 cups of wheat flour - I use 3 1/2 cups of whole wheat and 3 cups of a lighter, white wheat.

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt (I use sea salt)

2 tablespoon shortening

4 1/2 teaspoons regular or quick action dry yeast

2 1/4 cups very warm water (microwave water for 2 minutes - then use)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 cup of honey

• In a large bowl, stir 3 1/2 cups of the flour, sugar, salt, shortening and yeast until well mixed.
• Add the warm water. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping the bowl frequently.
• Add honey and beat/mix with electric mixer
• Stir in enough remaining flour - 1 cup at a time to make dough easy to handle - I add 3 cups
• Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead about 10 minutes.
• Grease large bowl with shortening. Place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place about 60 minutes. (I plan it that when I am making bread I have something else going in the oven - then I put the bread to rise on top - it is warm there and rises nicely) Let it rise until the dough has doubled in size. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
• Grease bottoms and sides of two 8x5 or 9x5 inch loaf pans
• Gently push fist into dough to deflate it. Divide into two.
• Flatten each half with rolling pin into roughly 18x9 inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Roll dough up tightly beginning at 9-inch side. Press thumbs to seal after each turn. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal. Pinch each end of roll to seal. Fold ends under loaf. Place seam side down in pan.
• Brush loaves with butter.
• Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise on stove top another 50 to 60 minutes (or until dough has doubled in size)
• Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be center of the oven. Oven should be preheated to 425 degrees.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until loaves are deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.
• Remove from pans to wire rack to cool.

Very, very tasty! I have found that cutting the bread with an electric knife works incredibly well.

I tried a variation - and added 1/2 cup of Bob's Red Mill Oat Bran Hot Cereal (basically it is adding fiber to the bread) - and cut the wheat amount by 1/2 cup. My oldest son loves it even better than the regular recipe. The bread was softer and he likes that. Plus it has a slightly different but very good taste (according to my son). So give that a try if you are looking for a healthy variation.

getting it all done

Do you every feel harried? How do you get it all done?

One trick that I have learned regarding housework is to not try to do it all at once. I do a bit here and a bit there. I don't try to clean the whole house as I never seem to have a block of time to accomplish that and it seems too overwhelming, too daunting. I pick an area and hit that! I do the bathroom about every other day. I also clean the kitchen quite often also. I find I always have 10 or 15 minutes here or there. I use that to target an area and make it better.

Second, I enlist the children to help. Again, everyone takes an area. It doesn't always make my children happy. For example, tonight we are watching the football game. During half time, I cleaned the kitchen floor and sent my oldest down to clean the downstairs bathroom. By the time, half time was over we were back and two areas were cleaner.

And Mom is happy!

Do you have any tricks to fitting it all in? What makes your life easier?

I do have one other trick --- I make grocery shopping lists and send my husband. He will often even take a child or two with him. It is a great stress reliever to have a bit of time for myself or to have that time to get something else done. Plus, he really does a great job especially with the grocery shopping. He tends to stick more closely to the list and we tend to save more money that way!

cost of food

Have you found food to be going up lately?

I have decided to share deals when I find them. (If you live in my area hopefully you too can take advantage of the deals!)

At our local Piggly Wiggly I found chicken breasts for $1.29 a pound but you had to buy the 10 pound bag. And they had leg quarters for $.49 a pound but again only in 10 pound bags.

I was fine with buying a 10 pound bag - as I have a foodsaver - so I just repackaged into smaller bags for our family use.

I thought the price was good. Haven't seen chicken that low in a long time. What is chicken going for in your area?

Christmas gift

Guess what I got for Christmas?

a dehydrator

It is very cool!

I tried bananas and they weren't our favorite - but then I tried the apples. Wow - fabulous! I did one batch the other day and they are almost gone! They were very good and everyone loved them. Here my son is helping. Below you can see them all laid out. My husband got me a square shaped dehydrator and apparently they are better than the round ones - more space to lay out the food. Things fit better.

When I did the first batch of apples, I tried two different ways. One way (clearly the healthier way) - I cut them up and soaked them in lemon water for a bit as I cut up the rest. They were good. Turned out really nice. The other way, I cut them up and sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar. They turned out fabulous. While I don't always like to encourage adding extra sugar - these I feel are better than eating a candy bar and taste so much better than candy. The kids loved them so much they asked me to make another batch. One of the best things is the smell - the whole house smells like apples and cinnamon! What a wonderfully delicious smell!

This is what they looked like - this is the healthier batch.

The kids ate up the cinnamon and sugar batch - so until the second batch is done - I don't have anything to take a picture of. Just goes to show how good they are - they are gone before the picture could be snapped!

couch school

School - in a comfortable position and with a wonderful treat. What better way to do math! In German class, we learned the word Pfefferminze and our wonderful German teacher found a cute peppermint candy in the shape of a tree. That is what my JJ has in his hands and eating while doing math.

Here is a our wonderful Pfefferminze - prior to Christmas we had been learning O Tannenbaum. So when our German teacher saw these in the shape of a tree she just had to get them for all the students! We have a wonderful German teacher - isn't she thoughtful!

I was in one of those moods and just decided to let the bible fall open to any page - and let God's word speak to me. I have actually been pondering a situation and trying to determine if I should speak up or not. Interesting that the bible fell open to this:

Psalm 141

O Lord, I call to you; come quickly to me.

Hear my voice when I call to you.

May my prayer be set before you like incense;

may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;

keep watch over the door of my lips.

Sometimes God just speaks to us in the most amazing of ways. I had stopped to pray earlier today to ask if something else I had read in another book was speaking to this issue and if I should speak up. Then when I got home I opened the bible and this is what page fell open. I am pretty sure I have my answer - in a very clear voice!

I also just love the part of the verse about setting a guard over the mouth. Don't you think that should also apply to emails --- they didn't have email when the bible was written - but I think that verse could also say 'set a guard over our typing fingers!'

The Word of the New Year

I haven't been one to do New Year resolutions as I don't find them to be very successful. A blogger friend that I follow had a great posting on Memorial Stones. Click here for more info. She posted something about it last year and it got me to thinking. I decided I really like the idea of picking a word with a bible verse to focus in on for the year. God really spoke to my heart. I had felt frazzled and crazy at that time. Felt like things weren't going well with the children - lots of bickering and fighting between them. And I just felt like I needed to slooooooow down and really be still so I could listen to God speaking to me, listen for his guidance and direction. Just be still and calm my soul. So the word I picked was 'be still' (I couldn't limit it to just one word, of course!) and the bible verse that tied into that for last year was

Psalm 46:10 - Be still and know that I am God.

That verse really, really applied to this last year for our family. My husband (although not thrilled about it) had major surgery and then had time to just be still, sitting in his chair, waiting to heal. It was his time to 'be still' and know that God was with him, healing him and carrying him through his ordeal. We had bickering issues with the kids and really had time to work through those this last year. Through it, I felt that we (my husband and I) really had to be still and listen for God to direct us in how to approach the situation. God did amazing things and really helped to heal the situation.

Now with a new year upon us, I want to again find a word with a verse that I feel God is calling our family to concentrate on. This has been very hard. Last year, when I saw her post on Memorial Stones I knew - just knew - felt it right away that 'Be Still' was it. This year in some ways alot is speaking to me and yet also nothing has profoundly reached my heart. So I have been searching. Many themes seem to be popping up for me but I seem to have narrowed it down to two:

1) potential - I love this verse and hadn't really thought of it in this light - Matthew 13:31-32

"He told them another parable: the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." What is our individual potential and potential as a family? "All of the potential is in the seed - God placed it there to begin with. Each seed has the possibility within it of becoming a huge tree. The amount of potential we recognize in ourselves makes a big difference in how much we grow and how much we allow God to use us." (Making Life Count by Robert E. Logan and Tara Miller p. 35)

Isn't that amazing to think about. The smallest seed - and through God - the potential is amazing. We all, with God's help, have amazing potential. Potential to be witnesses for Christ, ambassadors for the kingdom. I think of my own kids and their potential - what will they grow to become - how will they turn out - they remind me so much of that small mustard seed just waiting to be watered and fed so they can grow into amazing young Christian adults. I pray for God to grab hold of them and hold them so tightly that they remain His through the turbulent teenage years.

So that is one thing speaking to me.

The other one that is most certainly speaking to me is:

2) Hope - (or lack therefore) I don't feel very hopefully about this coming year. I see hopefully things for our family but also see many unhopeful, almost scary things for our nation. Yet, I also know that our hope is in HIM. No matter what will happen, God will see the faithful through the situation. He helped Daniel when he was sent into captivity in Babylon. He is ever faithful to those who are His children. I found Psalm 42 and 43 speaking to me. I won't post all of it here but it is fabulous. Take a moment (please) to go read it. I found it to be so uplifting but specifically found these verses really speaking to me:

"Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God."

It is a great reminder to praise him even if we aren't hopeful, even if we are feeling anxious and worried, even if times are a struggle. And to continue to place our faith, trust and hope in Him.

Maybe this year is a two word year? I will continue to pray about it and see what God has in store. If you do something like this - a word / bible verse for the year - or memorial stones --- I would love to hear about it. I would love to know what your word of the new year is.

Sir Quinlan and the Swords of Valor

Sir Quinlan and the Swords of Valor by Chuck Black

My boys love books with swords and men fighting. I like a book to have a good moral lesson. In this book we both win. This is the 5th book in The Knights of Arrethtrae series but each book in the series seems to stand alone. We have not read any of the other books in the series and yet have not been 'lost' in the story or feel like we are missing something.

This book is an allegory where characters represent figures in the bible. The two main characters are Tav and Twitch. Both characters have 'real' names but Tav and Twitch are their nicknames. When Twitch starts to follow what God is calling him to do, his name switches to his real name. It kind of reminded me of Paul / Saul - when Paul was doing God's work he was called Paul but when he was not following God's will for his life he was called Saul.

The names of many of the characters are significant and mean something beyond just being a name. Bli is short for blindness and is a character that causes Tav and Twitch to be blind toward their purpose in life. Bli is leading them astray but they are too blind to realize it.

This book has wonderful discussion questions found in the back at the book. It would actually make a great book for a middle school level book discussion. Great for the homeschooling crowd. Currently, I am using this book as a read aloud with my 11 and 7 year old. My 11 year old could easily read this book himself but we are enjoying reading it together - and then going through the questions at the end of each chapter. There are many scripture references listed and we take the time to look them up and read them aloud. My kids love the book. I highly recommend this book.

It is just so wonderful to find a great book for middle school aged boys that also is Christ-centered. That is so rare in today's world and so appreciated. My family loves this book so much we are looking to buy the rest in the series. I am just thrilled to find a series that is intriguing to boys - it has chivalry, knights, weapons, sword fighting, a code of honor --- what wonderful appealing things for boys! Yet, it is also seeking to lead the reader to the bible and Christ.

I received this book from WaterBrook Maltnomah Publishers for the sole purpose of reading and doing this review.