Yeast Breads. And then some.

I have never considered myself a successful baker of yeast breads, but I have had some surprising successes recently. Tonight I made, for the second time, homemade bread bowls - amazing! - and broccoli soup. The combination is absolutely heavenly. I thought I would share some of the recipes I have used recently in case any of you are interested in trying such recipes and would like recommendations of recipes that have worked.

First, the bread bowl recipe is found here. I used the 2nd recipe down called "Loz Bread Recipe," and I quarter the recipe because the original recipe makes 8 loaves! And here is the soup recipe I use and love. And as you can tell from the 2nd picture, even the kids loved ate the soup. :)



I recently found this recipe for Not-so-French French bread. It doesn't take an unbearably long time to make, and you do most of the work by mixing it with a spoon, not by kneading, and it still comes out delicious.

I am a huge fan of monkey bread (click here if you need to see a picture to know what I'm talking about). I mean, really, what's not to love? Sugary, buttery, cinnamony goodness - yum, yum!! When I've made it in the past, I've used purchased Pillsbury biscuits that you cut up and use in the recipe. However, I had a hankering on a Sunday and we didn't have any of the biscuits, so I found a recipe to make my own. I will never go back. I can't even describe how incredibly amazing these were, and what a difference the fresh dough makes. I combined 2 recipes when I made this - this one for the yeast bread part, and this one for the sugar and cinnamon, topping, and baking directions. You've got to try this!

Back to tonight's dinner...as I cooked, my kids were entertained with playdough (pictures taken on a different occasion):

I have long thought of myself as a playdough hater, but I recently made a batch of homemade playdough and had an epiphany. I don't care if there is playdough in the house as long as I don't have to play with it because for some reason I absolutely detest playing with it myself. I'm not exactly sure why - something about the texture, the gunk it leaves on my hands, and my inability to really do anything cool with the stuff. In the past, it seemed like if I had the kids play with it, they always wanted me right there with them so I eventually stopped letting them play with it altogether. Well, a new day has dawned!! My kids will sit for a long time and play all by themselves...and I will let them do just about anything if they will do that for a few minutes!

Anyway, recently I read a blog post where the author talked about how we as mothers often paint a picture of the "perfect" mother. We make an image of this mother that includes Suzie's playfulness, Sally's organization, and Sandra's perfectly kept house (ha ha). But we'd do ourselves a favor to recognize that we all have our unique strengths that make us the mother we are. I am a great art project mother, among other things, and it's okay, thank heavens, to not be the playdough mother. :) While I think this philosophy can be taken to the extreme if we start justifying true weaknesses that we need to overcome, I think the majority of us can give ourselves a break and really embrace our individuality as mothers.

Pumpkins & More

We carved a pumpkin tonight for Family Home Evening. Here are the kids helping to scoop out the pumpkin guts:


Peter carved the pumpkin's face based on a drawing Kaia drew for him of what she wanted it to look like:


Earlier in the afternoon, the kids and I headed to the playground for a little while. Kaia, who still spends a good part of her day running around in her underwear (as you can see from the picture above), picked out the outfit in the following picture. Do you notice anything? (Hint: think color) My girl, whose favorite color has been turquoise for so long, has declared that pink is now her favorite color. I don't know why that makes me a little sad - maybe because it means she's growing up and her tastes are changing, maybe because I have come to absolutely LOVE turquoise.


And my little Asher, who was in such a lovely 2 year old mood today (ha ha), is just as happy as can be running around the playground:

Welcome, nephew!

My kids finally have a cousin!! Just a few days before Kaia's birthday, on Sunday, October 19th, Sienna had her cute little baby boy. His name is Eamon Jai (first name pronounced Ay-min; middle name is Thai for "heart"). We're so excited to have him in our family!

When Kaia saw me making this poster for her birthday, she just had to help out. I love the picture of herself in the upper right hand corner. Then she drew a "naked" Asher running to his dresser (under him) to get clothes. Then she drew a dresser for herself and one for me & Peter (we appear to be in need of clothes, as well).


As evidenced by my last post, I went to bed way too late last night, so when the kids woke up at 6:45 they got to start the day with Sesame Street. We were all happy - they got to watch a fun show and Peter and I got some more sleep. Then Kaia and I had to get busy making her birthday cake and the frosting. Since she wanted a dinosaur party, we decided to make a volcano cake. This was a little tricky because Kaia doesn't like chocolate (like me at that age), so I had to be creative about making brown frosting. I ended up doing coconut-pecan frosting (like on a German chocolate cake). Kaia was a great help making the frosting.

With licorice "lava":


Today's birthday party is the first one Kaia has had with friends. It certainly takes a lot of work and prior planning to host a birthday party! But I think it went really well and the kids had a great time.


After dinner, we opened some presents that were from us and from grandparents. Kaia is really into "giving myself a surprise." This means she closes her eyes until the suprise is ready to be seen. So she unwrapped most of the presents with her eyes closed and got some great surprises!


My brother Jordan called to sing happy birthday to Kaia. At first she refused, but then Jordan asked if she would want to have the song sung to her in penguin talk. She smiled and consented. Kaia loved hearing Jordan and his fiance Brighton sing the penguin version. Then when Sienna called she let her sing to her in chipmunk and polar bear talk! All in all it was a wonderful day and my little girl is 4 years old!

Happy birthday, Kaia!!

Kaia was born exactly 4 years ago this moment, 12:08 am! (I shouldn't be awake right now, but I went to book club tonight with some of my good friends and we just couldn't stop talking. =)) I can't believe I've been a mom already for 4 years. More details of the big day will come much later "today" or Friday.

An Assortment

For those of you who read the blog for cute stories of the kids...

This is a picture of the kids hiding from "Earthshake" - from Land Before Time - the kids are still in dinosaur mode. Kaia does have panties on:


While climbing around at the playground this afternoon, Kaia told me, "I said a long prayer, Mommy. I prayed that we would live forever. I thought it was a really good prayer."

In the middle of sacrament meeting at church yesterday, Kaia decided that the tights she had on were too sweaty. She began to strip them off but unfortunately her panties came down with the tights just as her dress came up. They were like this for a couple of mortifying moments until Peter was able to pull them up for her. I leaned forward to hide behind my hair because I was laughing so hard. As far as we know, no one else actually noticed.

I was talking with my mom on the phone this morning. I asked Kaia if she wanted to talk to Grandma Mary, to which she characteristically responded, "No! I'm not in the mood right now!" But we can always count on Asher to be happy about talking on the phone. He told Grandma Mary about a fish toy he was holding in his hand and a couple other things before declaring, "Good bye!" Then as I began talking with my mom again, Asher suddenly said, "My need Grandma!" I'm pretty sure that Grandma would have given him anything he wanted after that sweet declaration.

Kaia helped me take the trash out a couple nights ago when the sky was a dark blue. She declared, "The sky is as blue as a marker!" I love getting glimpses of how kids interpret the world.

I've been trying to encourage Kaia to be more independent when it comes to going to the bathroom. She always wants me to come with her even though she knows how to go by herself. I told her to go in and go potty while I got Asher up from his nap. He was in a cuddly mood so I sat on Kaia's bed holding him. Kaia marched in with a scowl on her face and her fists pounding against the sides of her naked body. She said: “I want you with me all the time when I go to the bathroom or else I will be so scared! And I will be so angry!” I jokingly said, “But you look so happy right now!” All of a sudden she scrunched her nose up and started to laugh hysterically. She snapped right out of her brewing bad mood.

Color

I love color. Anyone that knows my parents knows that this runs in the family. My dad prided himself on the fact that there was not a single white wall in their home in Utah. Peter and I painted the walls in our last home, a rental, and then we painted our walls before we moved into our current home. And I LOVE the painted walls. Our main colors are yellow and orange. When Peter first suggested painting our walls orange I thought he was crazy. But I have fallen completely and madly in love with orange walls. I just feel happier when I see them. Anyway, as strange as it may sound, the thought has repeatedly occurred to me that one of the ways I know God loves us is because he gave us beautiful colors.

We did an art project a few weeks ago that involved lots of color. Kaia helped me die lots of pasta; even though we had some friends over to make pasta necklaces, we still have a ton left over to use for future projects.


I especially love beautiful, vibrant colors in nature, in pretty paper or other crafting supplies :), and on walls. And Kaia has made me a true convert to turquoise - not a bright turquoise but the color as it looks in these photos. What are some of your favorite colors or where do you love to see color?

Stories

I have always loved stories. Growing up, President Monson was my favorite apostle because he always told so many stories. And one (of the many) reasons I love scrapbooking is because it gives me an opportunity to capture some of the little and big stories of our lives. The day I learned about my dad's attack, I felt frozen. I couldn't do anything that day. I didn't care to cook, tidy up, etc. But the next day my creative side exploded. I scrapbooked like crazy night after night. I think the reminder of how fragile life is spurred me on to scrapbook some of the memories that had been floating around in my head.

Now I've learned of a FREE online class that can help anybody else who is interested in stories. Jessica Sprague, a digital scrapbooker, is teaching the class, but you don't have to be a scrapbooker to take this class. Here are the details:


Will you join me in learning more about capturing our stories?

And my dad's recovery is going remarkably well. The doctor's were able to remove all his staples. He can't fly until a wound in his chest heals (the doctor thought he was joking when he asked about flying so soon after the attack - he obviously doesn't know my dad well :)). Hopefully he'll be able to fly by next month or he'll have to drive out to my brother's wedding!

Frontline

I am not sure who I'm going to be voting for in a few short weeks, but I have learned of something that will help me make that decision. Tonight, PBS is airing a show on their Frontline series called The Choice '08. It is supposedly an objective view of both Obama and McCain. It will air tonight on PBS from 9-11 pm ET.

ETA: I noticed on the website that this show will also be available in its full length on YouTube and for free on iTunes!

A couple of additional notes

1. My dad was attacked at 8:00 am.

2. He was in surgery for 7 hours.

3. When he asked the doctor how close the wound in his neck was to causing a different outcome, the doctor said, "You should be dead right now."

Again, I feel so incredibly grateful my dad is alive right now.

A Day of Miracles

Yesterday began as a fairly normal day. We joined friends at the park in the morning, followed by a nap for Asher. Kaia and I were eating a snack. Then came an unexpected phone call. My dad called and basically told me, “I want you to know that I’m okay now, but you almost lost your dad yesterday.” What?!? After my dad visited an ATM machine (in Florida, where he is for business), he was followed by a man and then brutally attacked. My dad was stabbed 27 times. It is quite literally a miracle that my dad is alive. I’ve never before given much thought to the expression “he came within an inch of his life,” but it took on new meaning as I realized that my dad nearly died. If one of those stab wounds had been an inch (or less) in either direction, my dad wouldn’t have been the one making that phone call. It is a miracle that none of the knife wounds punctured any vital organs. I feel so incredibly grateful that my dad is still alive. At the same time, the world suddenly seems a much scarier place. At the moment, I don’t have much desire to ever leave the relatively safe confines of my own home. I know this feeling will pass to some degree, but I don’t think I’ll ever feel as safe as I once did. To know that any person at any time could attack me or a loved one is shocking, immobilizing. That this happened to my own dad still leaves me reeling.

Yesterday when I got off the phone with my dad, I found that items on my to-do list that had seemed so pressing only moments before were suddenly rendered completely irrelevant. Who cares about a mopped floor when I almost lost my dad? So yesterday I spent a lot of time staring off into space and trying to process what had happened. This morning, instead of jumping out of bed to mop those floors that were still trying to attract my attention, I lay in bed for a few more moments as Kaia was “saloning” my hair, smoothing it out and combing it, rubbing gel through it. In reality, which experience will stick with me longer? I’m pretty sure I won’t fondly remember mopping the floor. Of course, those types of things still need to be done, but I’m going to try not to do them at the expense of time I could be spending just enjoying my growing little ones and my loving husband.

Both my parents felt impressed that my dad’s life was spared because my little brother is serving a faithful mission. I am so grateful for this blessing. I am grateful that Heavenly Father spared my dad so we can have more time with him in this life. My dad was actually released from the hospital today, so he’s doing much better, although it was still take time for the wounds to heal and the pain to lessen. We would appreciate any prayers on his behalf so that he can continue to recover quickly.