Making Bread

I have been making my own bread for a while now. And by "making" I mean "using a bread machine". Although, I do only use the bread machine to make the dough. I don't particularly like the ginormous square shaped loaf you get from baking the bread in the machine. So, I just use the "dough" setting and bake the loaves in the oven.

I'm making our bread for several reasons. 1) It's much cheaper and 2) Please tell me why we need "caramel color #72" in our bread??? ..among other things that just shouldn't be in the ingredient list for bread.

The whole bread making process is relatively easy. Especially, since I'm really only doing a quarter of the work.. measuring and pouring the ingredients into the machine, greasing and flouring the pan, placing dough in pan, pressing the buttons on the stove. *whew!*

Sad to say though, after about 6 months of this treacherous work, I kind of started to slack off a bit. We would go maybe a week without any bread because I was simply too lazy to "make" it. I actually bought a few loaves here and there. *gasp!*

Well, lo and behold, I'm back on track and making two loaves at a time!! One of thing that I wanted to share that has made it a bit easier is something I read here and implemented pretty much right away! And I LOVE IT!!!

And, in case you didn't click on the link... all you do is measure all of the dry ingredients into jars and presto! the "quarter of the work" job turns into and "eighth of the work". Until the next time you have to get the jars ready. But for me, this is so much easier and it works for me!! (sorry I didn't follow the "cleaning theme")

Jars with flour, sugar & salt. (do NOT put yeast in) (sorry if you knew that, but I prob wouldn't have)

Yummy Country White Bread

And here is Gilly enjoying a nice warm piece of freshly baked bread with honey!! YUM!

And here is the world's easiest bread recipe EVER. It's true. I wouldn't lie.

Ingredients:

-1 cup warm milk (I nuke it for 1 min)

-2 Tbl butter

-1 egg (this is optional & for those of you like me, who don't know much about baking/cooking - the egg will make your bread "fluffier")

-3 cups flour (I use 1 1/2 c wheat flour and 1 1/2 c white flour)

-2 Tbl sugar

-2 tsp salt

-2 tsp yeast

Add all wet ingredients to bread machine (milk, butter, egg), then add dry ingredients. Make a small well in top of dry ingredients and pour yeast in. Done and done!

Signing

It is about time!! :) We have been signing to Gilly since she was about 6 months old and she's finally starting to use it! It's very exciting! We have done "eat", "drink", "more", "go potty" (just started this one), "done" & "milk" (which I no longer do, for obvious reasons ;).

She has known what most of the signs have meant for quite a while now. It's nice that she's started using it finally! :) It won't be much longer before she's talking, but until then, it's great to have a way to communicate!! Other than, of course, grunting and whining!! (which after about 5 minutes of, makes me want to shove an ice pick in my eye.)

As a side note, do you think there might be anything Gilly needs in this picture? A fan? Lemonade? A foot rub, maybe?? Poor girl. She has it so rough. Ha! Cracks me up!

SOTW - Maybe There's A Loving God

photo by eduardtrag


I like to think I'm generally not an emotional person. I don't know why I like to think that, I just do. (becoming a mother is slowly changing that, however.) But, this song makes me choke up every single time I hear it.


I think what strikes me (besides the beautifully placed chords and bongo drum) is that even though we aren't always where we need to be with God (ok, probably never), He's always there... waiting... patiently. Stretching out His hand, waiting for us to grab it. I think it paints a beautiful picture of Gods love and depth. Despite our smallness. Give it a listen sometime and for now, just read. :)

Maybe There's A Loving God

by Sara Groves

I'm trying to work things out

I'm trying to comprehend

Am I the chance result

Of some great accident

I hear a rhythm call me

The echo of a grand design

I spend each night in the backyard

Staring up at the stars in the sky

I have another meeting today

With my new counselor

My mom will cry and say

I don't know what to do with her

She's so unresponsive

I just cannot break through

She spends all night in the backyard

Staring up at the stars and the moon

They have a chart and a graph

Of my despondency

They want to chart a path

For self-recovery

And want to know what I'm thinking

What motivates my mood

To spend all night in the backyard

Staring up at the stars and the moon

Maybe this was made for me

For lying on my back in the middle of a field

Maybe that's a selfish thought

Or maybe there's a loving God

Maybe I was made this way

To think and to reason and to question and to pray

I have never prayed a lot

Maybe there's a loving God

Waiting on God

I'm reading the Old Testament in my daily devotions. Which has been really good. Exodus chapters 25-31 was a bit tough to read.. it goes into GREAT detail about how each part of the tabernacle and tabernacle furnishings should be built. Not that that isn't terribly gripping...

It starts to get more interesting thankfully in chapter 32. Most people probably know the story. Moses has been gone at the mountain of God for a while (the Bible says "so long"), and so the people decide to build a calf and worship it.

What I thought was interesting is not only were they worshipping it, but they actually thanked it for bringing them out of Egypt!! Ok, I can maybe understand worshipping after they had been waiting a long time or whatever. But, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the calf had nothing to do with their release from Pharaoh. I mean how dumb were these people??

But, then I was thinking (trying to somehow apply this to my everyday life), do I ever do this? Are there times when I'm praying for something and it maybe takes longer than I can handle or think it should? Do I then put my trust in (in a sense, worship) something else, like, myself, when, instead of waiting on God, I just try to fix the problem? Pretty sure I do. What a great reminder to wait on the Lord! :)

This Old Testament stuff is great!! :)

The Truth Project

Worldview. It's our filter. How we process everything that comes in and out of us.

A few weeks ago we started "The Truth Project" at our church. I can not tell you, how, even after 3 sessions, this has begun to change the way I see most everything.

The sad thing is I grew up going to church. I grew up believing in God. I have never not (I know, double negative. Sorry.) believed in God. Yes, I did have a "rebellious" period. Where I experimented and questioned and all that jazz. But I always knew God existed. So, the fact that it's taken something like TTP to really get me to really think about what I really believe is sad. But, here I am. And I'm not where I need to be, but I'm not where I used to be - thank you, Jesus!

My favorite author, C.S. Lewis, so very well puts it, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

"Do you believe that what you believe is really real?" Is the question that keeps coming up at TTP. Seems like a redundant question, but think about it. Do my actions show what I truly believe? I can say I love God, but if I go through my whole day and He doesn't even cross my mind??? Or I don't ask what He thinks about decisions I make??? Or I don't love, and I mean really love, my neighbor??

To me, this is the difference between "...the demons believe that God exists.." and "Catie believes that Jesus died for her sins and lives her life in such a way that speaks that."

If you (or your church) hasn't heard of/done this, I would encourage you to! It may change your life!!

Card Making

I have been scrapbooking for a few years, but only recently have I been "dabbling" in card making!! It's so fun!! Just thought I would share one with you! :)

(I must tell you that I "scrap-lifted" this idea!!)

(the inside)