More snow, on the way!

Here in the middle of the US we are under a winter storm advisory, it is currently misting and freezing on surfaces.  So far the roads are not extremely slick but now that night has fallen that will likely change.  In the night it will begin to snow, lightly.  By morning we will be under a blizzard warning (and not the kind made of ice cream!)  The forecast is for 8-10 inches (or more) of snow tomorrow and then blowing snow and extreme cold. As Larry used to say, on Thursday there will be no temperature!  The hi is to be zero degrees F.  The Governor of Missouri has declared a state of emergency-all travel may come to a stop.  After I take Brayden home in a bit I'll be staying home as much as possible.  Unfortunately, Sears is unlikely to close so one of us will have to take Tanya to work and pick her up.  I love winter but even I have had enough of the gray skies!

Word of the week:  worthy, an adjective;  1) having great merit, deserving respect or support,  2) having sufficient worth or merit

Quote of the week:  "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."  Thomas Jefferson

Of Aunts and bread

Yesterday, I went to visit the youngest sister (and only living sibling) of my Grandmother.  At 92 she is still pretty active, uses a computer to email and chat with her grandchildren, play video slots and solitare, she follows the Kansas Jayhawks avidly, gets out to Walmart and the grocery store on her little cart.  I only hope that I am as able as she at 92.  We had a lovely visit.  I took out some photos that had been my Granna's, a few of which she had never seen.  I learned a bit about her parents, I knew the "facts" of their lives but not that her Father was a jokester for example.  That particular trait runs deep in my families! And continues on in my children.  Anyway, in honor of the visit and my Granna I made Ora Hickam's white bread today.  Granna taught me to make this and I have made it for years and years-I used to bake all the bread we ate.  Well, I'm nearly doing that again!

I put the hi-lighter in so you could see how high it rose.  This is what I expect bread to do, the other barely rose above the sides of the pan, best case.  This makes four loaves-so I have to give some away but that usually isn't a problem!  (Libby, you forgot yours!)

Working away at "disappearing" nine patches for Christmas gift bags, and a few other things. I've worked on photos-the 80's now, and some on the Town of Kansas research that ate my life.  My house is pretty clean so I can do other things guilt free!  All in all I'm pretty happy. Just to be able to say that is awesome!

Thoughts on John Adams

I have just finished John Adams by David McCullough.  A well researched, well written biography of our second president.  I certainly learned a great deal about John and Abigail as well as John Quincy and Thomas Jefferson.  One of the thing I'm taking away is this:  the old saw about "No matter how things change they still remain the same" is true.  Abigail said "Heaven help us."  when Thomas Jefferson was elected president, as did I when "W" was elected (both times) and John bemoaned the lack of civility of the Congress in their behavior towards John Quincy, who was then president.  I think you could bemoan that now as well. 

It was an interesting read, not light by any means, but I like a good biography more and more the older I get.

Here's hoping your day is great.

Monday

Well, I'll start off with bread.  I made Buttermilk Honey Bread today, so far it's the best tasting of any I've made.  I'm not happy with the way these breads are rising, or rather not rising.  It takes nearly twice as long to rise as the recipe says and then it never really gets as high as it should, today's bread is about 3 inches high at most.  I'm used to breads that get quite a bit higher.  No photo cause we already ate a loaf. Grin.

I had planned to go to Columbia and see Scott and Bri as well as my mother in law on Saturday and return on Sunday but. . . Friday we got another inch of snow and the forecast was for another 24 hour snow event beginning at noon on Saturday, another 3-6 inches.  Decided I should just stay home.  We got one-half inch.  I am still bummed.

So the word of the week is extraordinary.  Defined by the Oxford American Dictionary (still not new but newer)  Adjective.  1.  very unusual or remarkable.  2.  beyond what is usual or ordinary
Think I'll aim for being extraordinary (or Extra  Ordinary).

Quote of the week:  (one of my very favorites)  "Promise me you'll always remember you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem and smarter than you think."  Christopher Robin to Pooh.
Words to live by.

Two in one day!

Wow, two posts in one day!  Unbelievable!
First:  Homestyle White Bread with Poppy seeds

I'm taking advantage of my sudden desire to bake, no one is complaining!  This one has a nice texture, is soft both inside and out, and tastes good.  So far, I haven't tried one that tastes a good as my Granna's Sponge bread.  Believe me these all will be eaten!

I have spent the past two days re-arranging and re-ordering my office/sewing room, again.  This is the third time, sigh.  Hoping it's the last.  The problem is I have a 10 foot square room with windows on two wall and doors on the other two and a ton of "Stuff."  I took out the 6 foot table and brought in two 4 foot tables so I would have a table to cut on and one to sew on, and I gained room for the little sewing table I got from Dad or my big ironing board.  I just got tired of running into another room to "square up" or press!  I'm down to only some little piles on my desk.  Scott says my desk has never been without piles, he's probably right!

Snow Day Round 2 or is it 3?

This is what I saw when I got up this morning !  I really wasn't surprised, it began snowing about 2 yesterday and quickly covered all the pavement.  I had to sweep the steps to the yard at 10 last night, poor Kelsey couldn't find the steps!  It's still poor Kelsey as she is belly deep in the snow- she likes snow but not this deep.  I can see blue sky off to the south but there is still snow flying!  I don't know if it's snowing or blowing, some of each maybe.  I am lucky in that I don't have to work so I didn't have a 30 minutes commute that lasted 2 1/2 hours and I don't have to go anywhere today!  The snowplow has already made three passes on my street, last snow it took two days to see the plow.
                          

The first photo is out my front window, poor little tree.  The second is out the kitchen window, that's some 6-8 inches of white stuff on the railing !

Check out the snow on the deck chair seats.

 

Tuscan Peasant Bread

So today I made Tuscan Peasant Bread. It was easy and came out looking great. It is supposed to be very crusty and it is! So crusty in fact I thought I might need a hack saw to cut it! Once cut though it was very soft and tasty inside. I made it into garlic bread to have with our spaghetti and it got 3 thumbs up out of 5-Tanya and I are wishy washy. It was definitely a good dipping bread, holds up to that very well and I think would be great in the olive oil and herb dipping sauces. I might make it again, or not.

Pictures

Yes the post below is missing it's photos.  I had to buy more space to store photos which I did.  I'm hoping the pictures show up again soon,  they did say that it could take 24 hours though.

Of Bread, Pictures, Pillows and Words

I've decided to work my way through this book of bread recipes! I'm made some of them in the past but I'll be making them again. The White Mountain Bread is really very good, takes less time and only makes two loaves. That's comparing it to my Granna's Sponge Bread.

So with that goal in mind I wrote off a list of things not found in my pantry and went off to Nature's Pantry to purchase the items not found at my Price Chopper! Came home with these:

Need to find jars for all of it, that could be tricky as I think they are in the shed and I've no wish to root about in  there when the temperature is below freezing!  Besides, I have to find room in the cabinets for the jars as well. Wish me luck! I'll show you the finished loaves, but not the recipes as it's a published cookbook and I respect the author's hard work and their copyright .

For over a year now I've been trying to organize my photographs. I have like 40 years of them! These are the boxes for the 1990's, a very busy time in my life, I found more photos for these boxes looking for the sheets I'd made up of the happenings of each year along with things like how old each kid was, what grade they were in etc. Judging from the stack of newly retreived photos I'll need another box! Good thing I bought extra. I make myself sort these for 15 minutes a day, hoping to finish this year. Although that may be a stretch as I want to scan them to the computer as well. Then it's decide whether to scrapbook them or just leave them as is with info on the back.

I did finish the boy's pillows made from the scraps of their Travel Memory Quilts. I think they will like them, especially in their fort!

I've been reading a book Beth recommended called Accept No Mediocre Life: Living Beyond Labels, Libels and Limitations by David Foster. (I'd show you a picture but it's on my Kindle!) I struggled with the first two chapters as I found it difficult to isolate the point in all the preaching. All I took away from those chapters was the total fear that I had damaged my children by labeling, libeling or limiting them, sorry kids. The Third chapter seems to be improving. Anyway, the title made me think of the meaning of the word mediocre (well several words actually but for today I'll stick to that one.) The Webster's New World Dictionary (which is not at all NEW at this point really must buy a newer edition) defines Mediocre as: of middle quality; neither very good nor very bad; ordinary; commonplace; average. I think I'd like to be defined by a better word! I'm going to think on that word this week, if I have anything worth sharing I'll let you know. Next week I'll think on another word, that I will share. The other thing I've found in the book are several quotes from all sorts of people that I think are thought provoking, I've been "collecting" quotes for some time so I think I'll share some of them as well. Today's quote comes from Helen Keller "I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble." I know what she means.

Kolby's Travel Memories Quilt

Since the thermometer took a nose dive and hit single digits with a nasty wind driving it even lower I finished Kolby's Travel Memories Quilt. I had finished Brayden's right at Christmas and now they both have them. We will all contribute patches along the way, at least I will. The two patches in the middle are: Ireland, which I brought to him, and one from Germany that Larry had in his things. I made pillow covers for each of them from the scraps. As soon as I've visited Walmart for the pillows I'll post a photo of them. The pillows will be just the right size for long car trips and for use in their "fort" (under Brayden's bed.) I've been cleaning house at least some each day and am about to get caught up again. If I could just keep up everyday it wouldn't get in such a state, sigh. Alas, I'm just not that interested! Not much going on, some bread baking, some reading, etc. Had a nice long chat with my Dad and one with Rob this week. Skyped with Steve and Nora as well. She has such an engaging smile! I'm smiling just thinking of it. Saw the Eiman's last night, the boys didn't have "school" this week due to the weather, which means no picking them up for play at Granna's house. Brayden could hardly wait to play with the new Space Shuttle play set. Kolby got insanely excited about "bubbles" in the kitchen(what can soap hurt a dirty floor?)

Of snow and throwers.

We bought a snow thrower three winters ago, today I finally got to run it!  Rob always had too much fun with it to give me a shot.  Also I didn't really have appropriate clothes, read boots, until this winter.  Today the snow has been gently but steadily falling since before I got up, the size of the flakes varied from soft fluffy balls about the size of a dime to tiny little bits (powder to skiers! Yeah!) I think we're up to four or five inches and it is still coming down quickly enough to cover the newly uncovered drive and walkway in only a few minutes.  Too dry to build much of a snowman, although Tanya tried!  Rob and I did have a short snowball fight this afternoon.  I have let myself forget how much fun the snow is.  I've always been a winter girl, even when I had to shovel the snow off the drive (36 inches from a double drive in Denver one year.)  Being outside in the snow, smiling all the while makes me wonder what other things I've forgotten are fun?

Another January Saturday

Sorry I haven't been posting more often.  I'd like to say it was because I was having fun, sewing, reading or whatever BUT unfortunately, I've been fighting a cold followed by asthma.  Sigh.  I did finally, just now in fact, finish tying Kolby's Travel Memories quilt.  All that's left there is to bind it and sew on the two patches, perhaps tomorrow.  I have been taking down the Christmas lovelies, which makes me sad.  I've enjoyed them so much this year and left them up until Twelfth Night.  I've only the big tree to pack away once Rob and Tanya take their ornaments down and the Cottages to lift down and pack up.  Then Rob and I will stow everything in the attic until the Sunday after Thanksgiving!  Once that is down I'll scrub the house and work at some non-Christmas decor, among other things.  I spent the day shopping yesterday, bought a few Christmas things on clearance and two crystal pieces at the Antique Mall (something I rarely do but these two will look really fine on the hutch in the living room!)  Also the routine groceries and a new toy for Granna's house.  All in all quite boring! 

1 January 2011

I've been working on this computer most of the day, getting Quicken set up for use this year (see 2011 Goals-this is part of it,) and working as copying over the Ireland trip to the pages section.  The text and photos of the original blog posts have been moved and I am working at adding more photos.  When I finish I plan to have it printed out in book form, scrapbooking made easy!  When I have completed the addition of photos I'll let you know, in case you want to take a look at it again.  Now I'm shutting down and going to sew!