the staff of life

this is what has been on my mind for the last four days:



it all started last Wednesday when we made bread with the yw. the 1st counselor's Bosch mixer was awesome, but thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's Bosch mixer. i always thought i'd get a kitchen aid to help me fulfill my bread-making dreams but i was wrong. someday, some how i will have a Bosch mixer.

we've talked before about how i am a bread snob and prefer Great Harvest bread above most, if not all other breads - especially their honey whole wheat. and you probably know that this superior bread costs more than your average loaf and a lot more than the WF cardboard bread i grew up on. i like to make bread as much a possible but since i do it all by hand, i'm not too consistent so i end up buying a lot of bread from Great Harvest. however, i'm hoping to put an end to that soon.

last year we got a state of the art wheat grinder for our birthdays (thanks Carolyn) and it's been so nice to have fresh ground flour not to mention the know how for grinding wheat. i have my recipe perfected and as close to GH as it gets. i did the math and in eight months a Bosch mixer would pay for itself. so i'm pretty excited to save up for one. yeah, nerdy. i'm blogging about it. but how much Bosch mixer talk can a guy take? (thanks English.)

in other news... the light dusting of snow that was forecast for today turned out to be 16 inches... and it's still falling at a steady rate. church was canceled (amen) and we worshiped in our snowsuits.

birthday sandwich

Tom was born on President's Day last year, which is lucky because for the rest of his life he'll have a day near or on his birthday to celebrate free of school and/or work. and his first was no exception. it was a beautiful sunny day and we got out for a family run/ride. the cake was an experimental coconut layer cake (simply marvelous) and as i was frosting it Ash exclaimed, 'a cake sandwich!'



indeed, it was a big hit. Tom even rubbed some of it in his hair (a custom that dates back several centuries, i am told).



and the handmade-with-love-by-your-own-mom dog doll was well received too. happy first birthday, Tom!

so very proper

upon my sister's recommendation recently i watched the new Masterpiece Theatre Classic Emma (you can watch it online through March 9th). it was superb. i loved it. that's no surprise.

i've never read an entire Jane Austen novel but i sure do love the movies based on them and this is no exception. great casting, costumes, cinematography, etc. i also highly recommend it.

Februarys past and present

for the last several years February has meant some sort of travel or, more recently, birth days...

in February of 2004 we went to Jamaica with our good pals the Pages.
February 2005 it was San Fransisco with more good pals the Hurtados and in
February 2006 the Las Vegas Scooter Rally with the Hurtados again.
February 2007 was full of preparing for the coming of Ash.
February 2008 we visited St. George and L.A.
February 2009 we welcomed Tom to Ephraim (and this world).
and of course i never forget my older brother and younger sister with February birthdays and there is always Valentine's Day, which i love.




so it makes sense that i'm a bit antsy these last few days. not that i haven't tried - i've already started making plans for Tom's big one-year celebration cake. yes, it will be wonderful. but i'm really itching for a little more sun and some good old sight seeing. hmmmm, a long weekend west may be in store.