The Bread

Ahh, the bread-making days are the very best days. 

It's been a while now that I've been making our bread.  A kind woman who is a bit older than me allowed the girls and me to visit one hot July morning.  I remember calling her and inviting myself over so that she would teach me how she does what she does. 

My girls were one and three years old at the time.  She had the best well-behaved, well-mannered kids I'd ever met.  Teenagers at that!  They sewed their own homecoming dresses, babysat every kid in the neighborhood (families with seven children!), and bread seemed like a good excuse to use to have some chatting time. 

I did not sit idly by with a cup of lemonade while she worked.  No.  She told me to roll up my sleeves and put flour on my hands the second we rolled in the door.  I learned so much that day that I still carry with me.  Bread, yes.  Life, without a doubt.  She's an amazing woman, wife, and mother.  This one's for you, Winnie.

There are a lot of moments where I completely blow it as a mom.  Well as a wife too if I'm honest.  My patience wears thin, I expect (and demand) too much, my words are not kind, and everyone feels on edge when mama is not happy.

 

But the days I bake bread... well, I have different energy.  I just feel more confident as a woman/wife/mama.  I don't know why but I'm full of more grace and peace and able to fill others' cups with it as well.  I have the recipe memorized now but still need to concentrate on counting out my 10 cups of bread flour. 

 

Yes, I do get a little testy when someone comes into the kitchen around cup 5 or 7 and then I lose count and shew them out lest my bread zen be completely lost.  But overall, we're all a little nicer on bread day.

Maybe it's the smell

Or using my very favorite bowl

Maybe it's the satisfaction in providing a simple, delicious, staple for my family

 

Maybe it's the slow, steady kneading and process that bread making requires. 

Whatever it is, I love bread days.  My joy is in serving those I love, especially those right inside these walls with me everyday. 

Thank you, Winnie for teaching me so much that ridiculously hot and humid July morning.  I've added another kiddo who loves the bread you taught me to make.  I can't say enough for how much I've learned from those who are a little bit ahead of me on this journey.  Little tidbits and valuable nuggets of info scattered into conversations have molded me into the person I am today. 

 

 

Who has mentored you, formally or informally, along the way?  Can you be a Winnie to someone?  We ALL have something to offer, something to teach or pass down.  Winnie has no idea how often I think of her and how much she has taught me in just living a godly life everyday.  She is worth more than rubies! I'm so thankful for the people God has placed in my life to help me up when I fall and to hold my hand along the way.

 





"I don't like tomatos but I love ketchup"

...said my 7-year-old daughter. 

It's true. 

(Photos completely unrelated to content.  You'll see.)

 

I have some of those odditites too.  Here are my top 5:

1.  Gladys from Texas said it best but I echo her sentiments all the way: "I love Jesus but I drink a little."

           I DO love Jesus!  I also married an Italian that makes amazing wine.  We combine the two and life is good.

2.  I love quilting but stink at garment sewing. 

          I tried to step out of my box at Sewing Summit and try my hand at sewing a skirt and pajamas.  Neither has seen the light of day yet.  I've been home a week and contemplate what should become of them.  The seam ripper will be busy, that's for sure.

3.  I love people but gosh am I an introvert. 

        Introverts recharge or get their energy from some alone time.  I completely agree.  I really, really, really love my family and friends but if it's 1pm and I haven't had some down time... I get cranky and put myself in time out. 

4.  Selling a house is stressful but I love kicking everyone out and cleaning "just incase". 

       Open Houses, showings, appointments... I love them all.  It's a tad crazy getting everyone and the dog out but hoooo baby do I love having a good excuse to finally get all that slime off the surfaces.  Mostly I've just been painting over everything.  The cleaning was too intense!

5.  I love writing but blogging is hard.

Until the app arrives that downloads my thoughts in blog-form, this will probably be a little inconsistent.  I don't know who said it, but "I don't know what I think until I write it down" is funny but true.  When I am struggling with a spiritual matter or something is just bugging me, it really helps to just write.  RIGHT?!   But sadly I don't get to write at the computer nearly as often as I'd like.  I have three little kiddos, homeschool, and a little quilting business.  Even if no one ever reads this space (which is very likely!) it's so healthy to write. type.  whatever. 

So there's a little bit about me.  I was recently inspired to be a little more vulnerable in my blogging.  After attending Sewing Summit last week, I still think that's a good idea.  I've often held back on things I want to say so as not to offend anyone.  I've never been sure how much of my personal life to share. 

Well hopefully you'll journey along with me on this here road as I process those things over and over.  It's good to be back. 

August in review

Oopsy! There goes August and summer for that matter. I've been working and taking pictures and here are a few highlights of where I've been.

First of all, the memory quilt back is finished! It has actually been added to since this picture, but just border-type thingies.

HOPEFULLY the completed finished totally done picture will be up soon...

I know I'm not breaking any records with my slowness of making this one. The quilt was getting so bulky with all the different fabrics, so I went in search of a walking foot.

Dear Walking Foot Inventor, I love you.

And yay for tomatoes! And peppers! Each year our piddly little garden is a little less piddly. I once read a tip in a gardening magazine in a waiting room or somewhere about putting used coffee grounds on the soil for composting. WOW, best tip ever. Since that seemed to work so well, we just put the rest of our food scraps out there too (you know, the normal stuff like peels and seeds).

Add a little princess charm and voila - more tomatoes than we know what to do with! I always thought that was the mark of a successful gardener - giving away heaps of things while saying, "we have so many, we just couldn't possibly use them all". It translates as "I'm such a remarkable gardener. Did I mention I was generous too?" Sorry, I digress. But hey, we got tomatoes.

And we had a birthday here. Mr. Incredible got a lemon cake on a special plate. He is one super awesome fantastic guy. Really. He works his little brain all day and comes home to his "housefull of honeys". Usually one of us is crying, but he somehow manages to act happy to be here. And he keeps coming home to this estrogen palace, so that's a bonus. It's really something to keep falling in love with the same man after all these years. We've both kind of changed, matured, had two new people enter our lives, and sometimes it's weird to think we knew each so long ago. Ya know, back when we drank cheap beer and slept till noon? Anyway, I never know how to appropriately celebrate the birthday for the love of my life, but we were together with Chinese food and a bottle of wine.

I think he was ok with that.