Bread

I am excited that we will be having fresh bread with our lunch today. Actually, I think that we will have pb&j sandwiches made out of fresh bread. I used this recipe because of all the good reviews on it and because it makes three loaves.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/simple-whole-wheat-bread/detail.aspx

If the bread turns out like I hope it will, I am planning on using it as we travel to help lower the cost of our eating out expenses. I am getting very impatient for it to finish rising - it has to rise three times! I'm just going to peek at it one more time then I will leave it alone for a bit. Lol!

Grinding wheat

I keep reading about people who hand mill their flour and think that I want to try it. I am a little afraid of the investment of money and time involved, the grinder is very pricey! I think I would like to try it at first with a coffee grinder. I am afraid that I will get the stuff and not be able to keep up with the needs of my family. What if they don't want to eat regular bread anymore?! I really like the idea of it though... $65 is a huge part of my grocery budget, but it would last a long time. I think I want to try it, now to convince my husband that it is a good idea...

Dine

I really am very tired of the attitude! Yesterday I turned in my keys at school I am done. During the brief meeting that I sat through and the lunch afterward, my clueless principal (nice guy, totally doesn't get it) inferred no less than 5 or 6 times that I now have no purpose, no meaning, no higher calling in my life. When did being a stay at home mom lose it's validity? What is it about devoting my time to the service of my family that riobs my life of meaning? Why will I be bored? I was a stay at home mom for eight years before teaching two years and I can't recall ever being without something to do... Lonely? Yes! Tired? Yes! Bored? No way! I could try to excuse his remarks as being those of a man ignorant in the ways of family as he is divorced and has lived alone for years. I know that he probably had very little to do with the raising of his children, but there are many others that hold the same views that know better. At what point did feminism get such a hold on even the conservative Christian base in our country that stay at home mothers became the people with the lowest status? Is it not God-pleasing to spend your efforts training up your children, caring and providing for them and leading them in the path that they should go? Take it from this unemployed girl, I have plenty to do, my life still has significant meaning and way less stress, and no I won't be wishing I had all the stress of teaching back come next August. Maybe I will get a part time teaching job to aid with tuition and funding college funds, but knowing now the traps that are out there, you will not find me so eager to sell so much of my time away from my family ever again.
Now since I have a firm hold on this soapbox, I had better go switch the laundry...

The baby wanted his picture taken. How can you say no to that?!

Our newly redone entryway. They did an awesome job on the pattern! The entry was redone to match what they did in the dining room.

The (finally) clean living room. Yes it took me until today to find it back after the flooring people were here last week...

Tulips! Random pictures of tulips season is now upon us. I LOVE tulips! Considering taking the kids and getting pictures done with tulips this year as the moles seems to have gotten to my tulips. Out of about 200 bulbs, I currently only have a handful coming up. Really hoping the first ones are just over achievers and more are coming...

The boys playing ball after supper.

Our carpet-free dining room! During the first 24 hours it was tested with vomit AND an entire bowl of cereal. Yep! Easy cleanup!

Relief

This last week has been a very tense one. A couple weeks ago I felt a lump in my breast. I wasn't sure what was going on, so I decided to wait and see if it went away on it's own. After about 3 weeks it had not, so I went in to the dr and had it checked. She thought that it was about 2 cm in size and defiantly not a cyst. She asked if I wanted to wait and watch it for a couple months or if I wanted to jut go ahead and ultrasound. I decided to just get it over with and get the ultrasound which I had this morning. I was so impressed! The ultrasound tech was really nice, and they even had a radiologist on hand to read me my results right away. It's a lymph node. Thank God, it doesn't seem to be anything of concern right now. And so, I am heading back to school to resume my teaching responsibilities with one huge burden lifted. I am so thankful for the kind and caring medical staff that showed me such care and compassion today as well as my husband who has been the greatest blessing in my life. Now on to school!

A person shouldn't have to struggle against reformed theology in a Lutheran school. Just saying.

I miss 2006. And 2004. And 2001. Time keeps on marching forward and I feel like I am slowly losing my children's childhoods. I long for the days when I could hold them and rock them and nurse them. I wish I could go in reverse a bit and hold my babies again. I wish there could be more babies for us in the future.