This is what happens when you let a 6 year old have a turn with a digital camera

Creative Child

On Wednesday nights at our church, Graham and Carter take part in activities for the elementary schoolers. Last month, they painted a mural. This month, they are working with a church member who is a dietician to prepare healthy snacks. Last week, Graham was so proud of his creation we had to take a picture. It's a mouse made from a hard boiled egg, a radish, raisins, some spinach and cheese. Right after we took the picture, he gobbled down his mouse, spinach and all.

Happy Birthday Kristin!

My sister Kelly hosted a birthday dinner for me last weekend. We enjoyed some much needed time with the whole family and a delicious dinner. Sometimes I wonder how Kelly has two energetic, healthy children (ages 1 and 3), keeps a clean and stylish home, works full time teaching and directing a dance program, and has time and energy to cook such good meals. She somehow got some domestic genes that were lost on me.

Anyway, Carter helped out by icing my birthday cake that my friend Prentiss had made the night before, while we were waiting on the bread to rise. Luckily, no one had 37 candles so I had an easy time blowing out the three we could find.

Nice.

Waiting on Bread to Rise

As my friend Rachel says, I'm now in my late thirties. On October 1st, I turned 37. Several friends helped me celebrate a couple of weeks ago. We gathered in the mid-afternoon to learn to bake bread. While Reggie is the cook in our family, I've always been the better baker but I've never experimented with yeast breads. My freind Betty humored me and brought her kitchen-aid, her 50 pound bag of bread flour, some sourdough starter, her measuring cups and breadpans to our friend Pride's house and we started.

It takes a long time to bake bread. You mix it, knead it, let it rise, punch it down, let it rest, shape it, let it rise again, then bake it. All in all, there are about 3 hours of "down time" when the only task you have is to wait on the bread. I didn't really plan it this way, but I think this is a really good skill for me to learn at this point in my life. Life is really good but it's really full and really busy. Perhaps every once and a while, I can carve out 3-4 hours when my only task is to wait and watch my bread rise.

By the way, Betty gave me a jar of sourdough starter and I successfully made two loaves of bread last weekend. Yum!