Ten on Ten: A busy Saturday

I have been wanting to linkup with Rebekah at a bit of sunshine for ten on ten.  In fact, I should have listed this as one of my monthly goals, but didn't think about it at the time.  She started this linky party as a way for bloggers to "share a snapshot of their lives...once a month on the tenth [by] taking a photo an hour for ten consecutive hours. Finding life and beauty in the ordinary things of our day to day!"  

While I don't know how great of a job I did finding beauty in the ordinary things, here are ten snapshots of our lives from Saturday.  I actually tried to do this on Friday, but didn't end up with 10 photos.  So the pressure was on for Saturday.  I'm going to work on my photo taking skills for next month...

Without further ado- 

It is hard to see, but the clock says 6:29AM- on a Saturday morning!  Yes, and believe it or not at this point I had been up for 45 minutes.  It should be a sin to be up this early on a weekend.  But anyhow, at this point the car is packed and we are ready to head to Chattanooga for the day.  I took this picture right before I woke up the baby to put her in the car.

Early morning car trips = a trip through Chick-fil-A drive-through.  Chicken biscuits.  Yummy.

We had Knox in the car with us, so we had to stop at Chris' parents house to drop him off before going onto my niece's birthday party.  Phoebe got a to have a quick break from the car to "wee...."

Caylee's birthday party was at Chuck E Cheese's.  It started at 9am, hence the early morning start.  (Chris didn't get back home till 8pm Friday night so we couldn't drive down there Friday evening.)

Princess cupcakes!  The birthday girl got hers before I got my picture.  Hey, it was her birthday...

After the party Phoebe and the birthday girl played outside because it was 70 degrees IN DECEMBER.

Trying to juggle work schedules and out-of-town family Christmas' can sometimes be a challenge.  We are spending Christmas at my parents house this year.  So we celebrated Christmas with Chris' family on Saturday.  Phoebe is playing with her new bowling set.  She doesn't quite get the concept of rolling the ball into the pins.  She prefers to knock them all down by hand...

After nap time we got pictures of all the cousins in their Christmas attire.

This is the first family picture we've ever taken with Knox.

I've mentioned before that we get our milk and eggs from a local farm.  Well after we got back into town Saturday evening, I went to pick up our milk and eggs.  And that completes our ten pictures for the day.

I hope you had a fun weekend!

I'm also linking up with Molly and Carly for YOLO Mondays.

fridays letters

Dear Chris,  YOU ARE COMING HOME TONIGHT!!!!  Oh my goodness, I am so excited.  I've missed you. Dear Knox,  You are a bundle of energy and were driving me crazy so you went to board on the farm for a few days, and you know what?  I actually missed you!  Your puppy energy is a handful sometimes but I really do love ya (and so does Phoebe). 

For the record I found them like this in the crate together.  I did not put
them in there together and lock it...

Dear Chelsea, Hannah, and Philip,  You guys are AMAZING!  Thank you so much for coming over Sunday afternoon to watch Phoebe and give me a little break!  We have the best and most thoughtful RUF students EVER! Dear Phoebe,  You make me laugh.  I love seeing you and Knox play together.  He really is your best friend.

Dear Ice Cream, You have been the death of me this week.  Remember my moderation goal?  You are not helping me out...  This is no excuse, but I think with the stress of Chris being gone and having nothing better to do in the evenings I might have over-indulged just a little bit, ok a lot.  I should have left you sitting in the freezer section at Kroger. Dear Mom and Dad, I'm not sure if you can still call Delaware home if you spend more time out of the state than in the state. Dear everyone, I just need someone to listen to this story, and you are the lucky audience.  I was picking Phoebe up from Mom's Morning Out yesterday morning and after I got her strapped in her car seat I went to start the car to go home and MY CAR KEY IS NOT on my key ring.  How does a key fall off your key ring?!?  Do you know how many nails I break trying to purposefully get keys on and off of that darn thing?!?  I turn the car upside down looking for my key.  Nothing.  I get the baby and re-trace all my steps in the church to the MMO wing.  At this point we are both in tears (she is cranky and over-tired) and I am having a mini-panic attack thinking: "my husband is out of town and I am stranded at the church with my baby, car, and no way to get home.  What am I going to do?"  The MMO ladies help me search that wing and even go out and help me search the car AGAIN.  No one has turned in a key at the front desk.  More tears.  A sweet old lady comes over to my car to talk and help me search the car/purse/diaper bag (again) and offered me a ride home.  God Bless sweet old ladies.  At this point Phoebe is playing with my keys (what is left of them) and drops them on the ground.  When I bend down to pick them up I see this UNDER the car!

Praise Jesus!  I mean really, how crazy is that?!?  I have NO IDEA how the key broke and fell off my keychain like that.  But at this point- 40 minutes later- I am crying tears of joy and driving home with a passed out baby in the back seat. Dear readers, Thanks so much for visiting.  It really does mean a lot to me that you would visit my little blog (and listen to my sob stories about lost keys).  Y'all make my day!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

I mentioned last Friday that our Christmas decorations were up and making me very happy.  This is actually the earliest we've ever decorated for Christmas, and I am loving it!  We put all our decorations out the weekend after Thanksgiving (and Thanksgiving was early this year with a whole week left in November after Turkey Day!).
Here is what is making me smile each day:

We bought new stockings this year.  (Previously we were using Michael's $.99 stockings that I had bought in college and decorated with puffy paint....)  I am loving the knit stocking look.  My only issue is that I want to get them personalized.  Is there any way to personalize a knit stocking?  Can you monogram them or applique them?  Does anyone crafty know or have any suggestions?  I won't  do anything with them till after Christmas, but it is something I would like to get done.  I had looked into stockings from Pottery Barn etc, but they were just SO expensive.  These were a quarter of the price at Hobby Lobby so I'm hoping to figure out some personalization solution.

I know I mentioned this last year, but I have become an advocate of the fake tree.  I used to be a "real" tree snob.  Yes, a snob.   I do somewhat still miss the tradition of the family going to pick out and cut down a tree from the Christmas tree farm (we did this growing up) and then sipping on hot cocoa.  BUT this artificial tree that our land lord left us (read: FREE) is amazing!  It is so easy to put up each year, the pre-lit feature is pretty sweet and I do not miss having to water and vacuum up pine needles every day.  Yankee candles take care of the Christmas smell.

I like our advent candle set, but as Phoebe gets older I will be looking for a good advent children's tool. I've read about a couple interesting ones on some of your blogs, but if you have any other good suggestions please leave a comment below.

Oh and I buy poinsettias EVERY year!  They scream Christmas to me.  Plus, I think they are gorgeous.  But without fail I end up killing them before Christmas morning ever comes around.  I don't know if I give them too much water, not enough water, not enough sun, too cold an environment?  I tried a different placement this year, so hopefully that will help extend its life.  Again if you have any tips about poinsettias, please do share.

Nativity sets are by far my favorite Christmas decorations because they remind me of the true meaning of Christmas: the birth of Jesus.  We have several different sets from various travels with various levels of sentimental value.  The one with the nails is probably my favorite of our collection because it is so unique and baby Jesus is simply represented as a crown; I love that.

Chris loves his Cowboy tree and Cowboy Christmas figurines, so I tolerate them and look at them every time I'm at the sink washing dishes...  

And yes, I even have presents wrapped.  There are only 2 more gifts I need to buy; thankfully my shopping is almost done.  I don't do well with crowds, so I'm happy to finish early.   We are celebrating Christmas with my in-laws this weekend, so presents had to be wrapped.

Poor Knox.  We didn't want him to be left out of the fun...
Have you put up your Christmas or holiday decorations yet?  If so, what are your favorite decorations?

Old School Bread

So back in the day before there was a Walmart, Kroger, Publix, Ingles, (insert grocery store of your choice) every couple miles, people actually had to make their own food and get their ingredients from local farmers or their own gardens.  There is certainly a convenience factor of the quick freezer meal, processed snack, store-bought bread, and being able to pick up your produce (picked "fresh" and flown in from Costa Rica) at your one stop grocery store, but I assure you that that convenience comes with a cost.    I certainly shop at Walmart and the Kroger down the street- A LOT.  But since my daughter was born (funny how kids can facilitate such changes...), we've been trying to take baby steps to eat real food and live a more sustainable lifestyle.  (Of course as I am writing this I most certainly just consumed an obscene amount of ice cream that I don't think even pregnency justifies.  And I am kind-of craving these Ultimate Pretzel Crusted Peanut Butter Candy Bars.  Oh well.  I'm trying....)  During the summer months I try to get as much of my produce as I can from local farmers at the Farmer's Market (my garden was a massive failure this year...), we purchase our milk from a local farmer , and what I'm most excited about right now is that I've started milling my own flour to make bread. The health benefits of milling your own flour are tremendous!  A lot of vital nutrients are lost in the oxidation process within 24 hours of milling or "cracking" open the wheat kernel.  And a lot of the "good stuff" from the wheat is extracted now from processed bread in order to extend its shelf-life.  But I won't bore you with all those details now.  If you are truly interested you can read more about it on the Bread Beckers website or request this free cd.
I have been interested in milling flour to make our own bread for several months now, but just like any new project it requires some equipment- namely a mill.  I had been talking to a couple friends who were also interested in this "old school" type of bread making so we scoured Craig's list and were able to purchase a used mill.  There are a few different models, but we choose to go with the WonderMill.  So it is my new favorite toy in the kitchen.

You purchase your wheat in bulk to mill into flour.  Before the wheat is milled it can be stored indefinitely.  Mine stays in a bucket with a gamma lid on the floor of my kitchen.

Here's what the wheat looks like before it is milled.  Basically it looks like wheat off the stalk from the wheat field.

 

And after you mill the flour, (which takes less than a minute in the WonderMill), it comes out as wheat flour that is ready to be made into bread.

Next I knead together all the ingredients: water, honey, olive oil, salt, flour, yeast, gluten, and rice bran extract.

I just use my dough hook attachment with my Kitchen Aid mixer to "knead" the dough.  And then let it rise...

And after you bake your bread not only does your house smell amazing, but you pull these beauties out of the oven.

This is pretty much the only bread we eat now.  We use it for sandwiches, toast, side dish with pasta...

Bread Beckers has a great recipe book  that has recipes for various types of bread, rolls, waffles, cinnamon rolls, muffins, pie crusts, cookies- just about anything that uses flour :)

I've made dinner rolls, pizza crust, and cinnamon rolls- with hard red wheat that I milled into flour.  It was all good.  I want to try some muffins and maybe waffles soon.  I also used the mill to mill corn into cornmeal to make homemade cornbread.  (Chris told me he liked Jiffy better, so I still need to work on my cornbread recipe...)

So the WonderMill is my new toy that I am enjoying.  Do you have a favorite kitchen gadget right now?  Is there something you've been thinking about trying out for awhile now, but just haven't gotten around to it?