Halloween Pumpkin Birthday!

Halloween Part 3

The Viking warriors getting ready to Trick or Treat at the Convention Center in Orlando.

Our two casualties slept through all of trick or treating. We had tons of fun making the costumes- especially the clay accessories. Don't we look pretty Vikingish?

Here we all are in our Viking Costumes

Halloween Part 2 Homeschool Party

Mixing Orange Paint to make Pumpkin Bags.

Getting wild at the cupcake walk.

Bobbing for Apples is Fun,

But Luke will take donuts any day.

Some of our Spooky Treats.

Jake was the Grand Champion apple bobber. With all the girls around,
he has to prove his manliness.

Halloween Part 1

Halloween is such a fun holiday. I think part of the fun is just getting ready. The week before Halloween, the whole family took a trip to Bullhead to go to the Halloween store. Here the boys are trying on helmets. It was decided that we would be a family of Vikings. We got a costume for Nate at the store, but headed to Jo-Ann's Fabric for the real fun!

And, of course, carving pumpkins is a great pre-Halloween Family Night.

Troy's 1st Birthday

My baby is one year old! Here he is getting the hang of that cream on his cupcake (just a side note- it is a homemade sourdough, whole grain, chocolate and carob cupcake- I know, I know, but it is a step up from Jake's first birthday- tofu for icing)

He's a cutie all right.

Opening Presesnts

Oooooo!

Field Trip to the Alpaca Farm

Who knew how lovely a day learning about alpacas could be?

Home School 2011

I know it is November, but I was determined to start blogging about our home school adventures this year, so I'll start with a picture of these guys. These boys are the reason for most of what I do. I just love them.

Blogging Update

It seems that my breadmaking/homemaking blog hasn't been much of a priority, but I wanted to at least give an update. My house as improved tremendously- How did I do it? I moved :) Not that that is a great solution, but we were renting and our year lease was up and we found a house that fit our needs a little better. After living in a big, old house in Maryland, that was so spread out and divided, I was so excited for the open floor plan. I thought it would be great to have my art room right by my kitchen and the laundry right there so conveniently and our homeschool room so handy- but every messy thing I did (art, cooking, laundry, kids projects) was right in my face all the time.
Now we have a play area in the garage (it is a very clean, well-lit, RV garage, so my workout room moved out there too), an eat-in kitchen that is separate from the family room, and best of all, a hobby room. It is a big room off the garage with two separate areas, plenty of storage, a utility sink, linoleum floors, and a north window in my studio area. That means our messiest activities: homeschool and creative projects, are totally separated from the living areas of our house. It is awesome! The other great thing is that there are NO toys in the boys' rooms. They do migrate a little, but all of the toys have a home in the garage- and it really is a nice place to play. The only kids things that have a home in the main part of the house are books!

All My Problems Start Here

Yesterday was Mother's Day. We had a lesson in church about work and personal responsibility. I have been thinking a lot about that topic because there seems to be one skill that has eluded me, and that is the womanly art of housekeeping. I have now been married 10 years. Unfortunately, my house has been messy MOST of that time. I have gotten better, but the mess makers in my house have increased and so I'd say it is just about a wash.
I've given myself exactly 20 minutes to work on this post and I have two previously occupied children now climbing on me, so I hope this makes sense.
I have more than once come to the conclusion that the main thing that hinders my ability to progress in this life is my inability to keep my house in order. I am a very ambitious person. I have a lot of lofty visions and goals and many things I'd like to be, but the thing that always seems to get in my way is the mess.
I know it takes time to keep up with house work, so I'm trying to change my priorities to put this at the top. I've tried a lot of books and programs checklists, professional organizers, etc., but I haven't really been able to keep up with any of it.
OK- enough whining-
THe point of this is not to whine. The point is to say that I am turning over a new leaf. The scriptures say that "I give men weakness that they may become strong." The prophet Nephi says, "I know that the father giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he prepare a way for them to accomplish the things that he has commanded them." If God told me to move a mountain, I'm pretty sure that I could do it, but what if he told me to move that pile of laundry? Sister Beck has said that "LDS women should be the best homemakers in the world" and that our primary job is to nurture and that another name for nurturing is HOMEMAKING. My house is a house of order and not a house of confusion
Just to be clear, these pictures are what my house looks like right now. This isn't its worst state, not it's best state- maybe a little worse than average, but pretty typical. I got up at 4:30, read my scriptures, prayed, wrote in my journal, fed the baby, worked out, made bread, did some dishes, packed a lunch, fed the family breakfast and now I have 2 min. left to work on this before I shower and start working on the house. More on this, but let the journey to being a Domestic Goddess begin.

Success!!!

I've been stewing over this blog for over a year now. I've had a desire to share my various homemaking ventures, but it always seems like just another thing to do in my already chaotic life- And what is this blog supposed to be about? Originally, it was to be a place to promote bread making via Pantry Secrets, a method of bread making that inspired me enough to become certified as an instructor... But I haven't taught many classes, and I've started to abandon the quick and easy way and delve into the more complex realm of sourdough.
So I probably will post a thing or two about bread making, and a lot of things that don't have much to do with bread. Today, though, it is all about sourdough. Today I made an amazing batch of homemade whole wheat sourdough bread. Now, for those of you who are not accustomed to breadmaking, that may not sound like that big of a deal. And even to those who make homemade bread, that might not seem too impressive, but words cannot describe the sense of accomplishment I had at seeing my beautiful dough rising, and those gorgeous loaves baking in my oven.

It really isn't that hard, but if someone asked me for the recipe, I'm afraid they might feel like we did when we asked Nate's Grandma Randall for a recipe for "Squeaky Cheese". She said first you need some good acreage, a milk cow, someone willing to milk the cow morning and night, and so on. Well, to make a good loaf of sourdough bread, you first need a starter. A starter is just yeast, but it is a lot different from the yeast you can buy at the grocery store. It's more of a living breathing organism- not totally unlike a pet- that you have to nurture and feed. You can make a starter by mixing flour and water and letting it sit out for a while. Every day you pour some out and add a little more flour and water and eventually, you might have a good starter.

The development of my starter is probably a subject for another post altogether, so I'll save that, and just get on with what the process was for the bread I made today. Yesterday morning (or maybe it was Friday night), I got my starter out of the fridge and fed it. I fed it a few times so that by last night I had a good quart or more of fresh bubbly starter. I mixed it with a little more water and a little more than half of the flour my recipe called for. I mixed it together to make the sponge. Then I covered it and set it out on the counter. This morning I added oil, eggs, honey salt, and the rest of the flour and mixed/kneaded it in my Bosch for about 5 minutes. I oiled a big bowl and let it raise in the bowl while I was at church. When I got home from church it was almost ready to spill over the top of the bowl, so I punched it down and shaped it into loaves. Then I let it rise for a couple more hours until it had just about doubled in size before I baked it.

Most of my sourdough loaves have resembled paperweights. Last week I was totally on a roll and was making some great bread, when I blew it completely. I had put the dough in my oven with the light on to rise. I thought I'd just turn the oven on for a second so it would be a little warmer, but you guessed it, I got distracted and left the oven on. I didn't realize my mistake until the oven beeped to let me know it was up to temperature (350 degrees). I ran to the oven and frantically pulled out the melting plastic bowls and dumped the partially baked dough onto the counter. I had to throwthe bowls away, but amazingly, the dough that I salvaged rose just fine and baked up into some nice bread. Up until today, that was still my best whole wheat sourdough bread attempt.