Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Our family has just returned from an absolutely wonderful vacation. Dh is on parental leave, so we were able to take just over 3 weeks for a trek out west. First we flew to Saskatoon and spent a week with my parents over Easter. 2 of my brothers and their families were able to come out for the weekend and we had a fabulous time together. It was the first time my Mom had all of her grandkids in one place. Fun!

For stage 2 of our journey dh's parents flew out to join us and we all took the train from Saskatoon to Vancouver. The kids loved the train; anything that lets you walk around instead of being strapped into a car seat is a great way to travel.

We spent two nights in Vancouver (at the Cascadia - with a pool and a delicious buffet breakfast we quite enjoyed our stay) where the Vancouver Aquarium was a definite highlight. Then it was on to the ferry and over to Vancouver Island. Five fabulous nights were spent in Ucluelet. The weather was perfect, and the kids had a blast exploring tidal pools and collecting sea stars, hermit crabs, clams etc. for their own "touch tank" - a bucket which we carried back to our cabin and changed the sea water in daily.

Dh rented a surfboard and wetsuit to taste the waves while A, her grandma and I headed out on "a three hour tour" (you have to sing that part) to see a humpback whale enjoying some spring krill.

We spent a night in Victoria, and one just up the coast in Sooke before heading back to the mainland to visit friends in Abbotsford and Vancouver before flying back home. What a wonderful vacation! Thank you, God, for your many blessings.

(If you'd like to see more pictures of our trip, contact me and I'll send you the link to our web album :)

Snowdrop sighting!

OK, I don't know about you, but those first flowers of spring are worth celebrating. Yesterday as I helped the eldest with her paper route I noticed some small white flowers growing beside a doorway one street over from ours. Today, we grabbed our nature notebooks (first time since last fall, I think), some pencils, and headed over. I loved the drawings all three of them did (no bias here ;) and when we came home and looked up the name of the flower, sure enough, they're snowdrops. I'll have to scan in the kids' sketches soon.
Thank you, God, for Spring!

Mom, why do some wolves swim?

I dunno.

We can't always know everything. No, the truth is that I was busy doing something else, and that was my automatic response in an attempt to maintain my train of thought. Worth it? Probably not. But he'll survive.

Down the drain??

Okay, so I attempted a slightly longer post last week (or was it a couple of weeks ago?)...but, of course, the effort was an interrupted one (like everything in my life these days). So I clicked on the 'save now' button. And now I want to know...where did it go?!

And bring us a loaf in the morn

Hey! Here it is - I found it! (the lost post)


Dh bought me a grain mill for Christmas! It was something that I had been wanting for years, but a couple of things were stopping me:
a) the price tag
b) I liked the idea of milling my own flour, but would I actually stick with it?
c) I didn't really want another kitchen appliance that needed cleaning (I hate cleaning).

So I kept putting it off. And then, in December, our automatic bread maker started making funny noises. In hindsight I think it was just that I was trying to make a loaf of 'rapid french' bread that was too dry and the machine was working too hard.

Anyway, dh (wonderful man that he is) suggested that maybe he should get me a new mixer for Christmas. I think he was thinking one of those flashy kitchenaid that are advertised everywhere these days. (If it's in Canadian Tire, it must be good, eh? ;) After much research on my part I discovered the Electrolux DLX (I had been trying to make heads and tails of the kitchenaid vs. Bosch debate, but that's another post.) In the end, I decided that what I really wanted was a grain mill. For now, I use my bread maker to mix the dough, and then bake it in the oven.

After much experimenting, this is now my "regular" bread recipe. (For excellent instructions, and the original source of the recipe, see the real life home.)

Bread Recipe (for 2 lb breadmaker)

Grind 2 cups of hard wheat.

Meanwhile, place in bread machine pan:
1 1/2 cups water
2 Tbsp honey or sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt

By this time the mill will be long done. Dump the flour on top of the wet ingredients and top with:

2 Tbsp gluten
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Place bread pan in machine, set to 'dough mode' and press start. As the machine starts blending the ingredients, add:

approx. 1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
(recently I've been using a.p. spelt as we had run out of wheat flour)

Check the dough a few times during the first few minutes of mixing to see if you need to add a bit more flour. Basically you want it to form a nice smooth ball, and clean the sides of the pan. If it is too dry your machine will have a hard time kneading it (and may make funny noises!) and the dough won't rise very well. If it is too wet it will be all sticky (when you are trying to shape the loaf) and could over-rise. [I once tried a loaf that was obviously TOO wet - I thought it would just be nice and moist. Well, I forgot it when it was rising and the thing ROSE all over the edges of the pan and all over the bottom of the oven. BIG MESS.] Better to err on the slightly-wet side.


When the dough cycle is complete, dump in lightly greased pan (or shape nicely, if you prefer :) and bake in 350 F oven for 30 min.

Yum.

Upstairs, downstairs and in my lady's chamber

Today is one of those days. The baby is sick, mama's running short on sleep, and yet somehow I still maintain the delusion that things should be "on schedule".

Earlier this afternoon I was thinking, "It's like pulling teeth trying to get "school work" done around here. And where is my eldest? Why, she's lying on the couch READING SHAKESPEARE! (OK, so it's a 'stories from', not the Bard's original English, but STILL.) Doesn't she realize she should be "doing" history? Or math? What kind of homeschool is this, anyway?!"
And now she's building a house out of math manipulative blocks, ds is at a friend's house playing lego, and 3yo is wandering around (mumbling, "upstairs and downstairs and in my lady's chamber") looking for something to get into. Time to go get her making dinner!

Milestones

Do something long enough and it can almost seem like you've been doing it, well, for a long time. (That's rather redundant now, isn't it?) This past December I passed the 10 year mark for being either pregnant or breastfeeding*. Now, you may be aghast at the thought, but I am rather proud of this "accomplishment". It's tough to stick with something for that long, and 10 years (a decade!) is no mean feat. Having said that, it's not like it's really been much work for the most part. Yes, there have definitely been days (and weeks, and months!) when I didn't think I'd make it, but overall, it's almost the lazy girl's approach to mothering.


*spread over 4 children. And, yes, there was some slight overlap between the two (nursing and pregnant**) but I never made it as far as tandem nursing.

**I love how the "milk-brain" thinks tangentally rather than completing...yeah. I was remembering the time (between #2 & #3) I was shopping for a nursing bra. The sales clerk asked, "Is this for when you're pregnant, or nursing?" I replied, "Both!" She totally missed the point of my answer (I was, at that time, both pregnant and nursing) and started going on and on about how my size was going to be fluctuating and I should wait to buy a nursing bra until a certain point in my pregnancy, blah, blah ... I just ignored her and kept trying on bras.