— 1 —
Conflicted
A conversation from my morning …
Daniel: I am so sad that I will never have any children.
Me: What makes you say that? Why wouldn’t you have children someday?
Daniel: Because … I will never kiss a girl.
— 2 —
For the Birds
We took the kids to a live Birds of Prey show at the Audubon Center last weekend. Others might have come to see eagles and falcons, but I was there for the owls. Here’s who was the star of the day, in my opinion:
Screech Owl, cutest creature in the whole entire world
If it were legal to keep these as pets, I would have several. Dozen.
— 3 —
Homemade Bread
You know, I used to make homemade bread all the time. When the first half of our family was still small, I baked every other day to supply for all our bread needs. I was adorable, I think. Anyway, fast forward about 10 years and I don’t do that anymore. At this stage in my life, I am okay with that, and my bread machine usually gets me through.
But last night I hit an all-time low. In a moment of weakness and desperation, I picked up a box of bread machine mix from the store. I wanted fresh bread to serve with dinner, knew I would have almost no time to even mix up my own batch of bread machine dough, and I had successfully used one of these mixes before.
But not so last night. All I can think was that maybe the yeast packet that came in the box had expired, but this loaf was no loaf. It was a very small brick. I could not even make a packaged box of bread machine mix come out right in a bread machine. It was a very low moment for me.
I might need to redeem myself this weekend by making a batch of these delicious cinnamon rolls — easily the most impressive thing I have ever made with my bread machine before. Here’s hoping.
— 4 —
Pink Eye Update
If you read the post below this one, you might be nervous about even reading on this website today, for fear of contracting the highly contagious and extremely undesirable Death Eye. But guess what? It isn’t Death Eye!
I was thrilled yesterday to discover that I am merely extremely allergic to something in the air, that happens to blast straight into my eyes when I am driving the van with the vents open. I realized this when it happened to me again yesterday. I was weeping as I drove to pick up Ambrose at cross country practice, “It’s not Pink Eye! It’s just a horrible allergic reaction to air! Thank you, Lord!”
— 5 —
Cashless
This having a no debit card while I am waiting for my bank to send me a new one thing? It’s getting old fast. I use that card for everything. EVERYTHING. Now I can do nothing. NOTHING. Amazon doesn’t work, Netflix doesn’t work, and Dunkin Donuts doesn’t take checks. The good news is that I am probably having the most frugal week of my entire life.
— 6 —
Busy Days Ahead
The first week of October, I will run my first 5K in about 20 years, make a quick trip to Connecticut to send the November issue of Catholic Digest to the printer, spend two days in Boston taping the remainder of this season’s The Gist, and arrive home just in time for the weekend of the fair.
Please join me in my denial of what this schedule will mean for my personal sanity, state of my laundry piles, and cleanliness of my bathroom.
— 7 —
Go Outside and Play
I just realized how beautiful a day it is outside today. The big kids will still have to complete their schoolwork, but the little kids are getting tossed out into the yard. Right now.
Hope your weekend is great! (Go see Jen for more of these!)
I think you should make The Gist taped in front of a live studio audience so I can come watch you and Rachel tape them!! I promise I’ll be as quiet as a church mouse 🙂
I love what Daniel said…my almost 5 year old daughter is already dreaming about kissing boys and getting married. What am I going to do?
I didn’t start making homemade bread until my children were already out of the house, and I don’t know whether that’s a good or a bad thing! I showed my older daughter the basics and now she’s co-owner of a bakery and bakes rings around me. Anyway, here are two recipes that might come in handy and fit into your busy days:
a fast one-rise bread that we like a lot: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/english-muffin-toasting-bread-recipe
and a fast dinner roll recipe that I blogged on my bread blog: http://cornerloaf.blogspot.com/2010/02/perfect-ly-fast-dinner-rolls.html
And we’re big owl fans around here, too.
Not directly related, but I just saw that Logos Bible software has a set of your books on sale. Congratulations!
I LOVE that you are writing here again! I missed your blog 🙂 And glad you don’t have pink eye!!
Have you ever tried making Irish bread? There’s no yeast involved and it’s so quick to make. like you I used to make it almost every day for the 1st 10 years of marriage and have lapsed. There’s no excuse though as it literally takes a few minutes and it’s just delicious (especially with a half pound of butter melting on every slice while it’s still hot)! You’ve also just reminded me to try again in subscribing to Catholic Digest, the site would’t accept my overseas order last time I tried. J
Just wanted to check if there’s a reason my comment from yesterday hasn’t been approved? It seems pretty innocuous! (and you don’t need to publish this comment, just checking)
oops, now I realize: the fact that I put recipe links in must have kicked it into the “needs to be approved” category. ack, sorry for the follow up comments 🙁
So glad you don’t have pink eye! I know I’m in medical school and all but pink eye creeps me out. Goo.
How you’re surviving without a debit card is beyond me! Color me thoroughly impressed. 🙂
Sorry nancyo! I didn’t get back here till just now … one of the reasons I have not blogged as much in recent years is because of the time it takes to track/aprove/respond to comments. I do plan to do more posting here, but I make no promises about how much/how often. I know better than to do that, and I hope you can be patient with me. 🙂 Thanks for sharing the recipes. The dinner roll one especially looks tempting!