Baking Bread

At Keepers this month we learned how to make bread from scratch! Something I personally had no clue how to do but soooo wanted to learn. We got a great lesson about the nutrition of a wheat grain too. Did you know that most of the nutrients in a grain of wheat are in the found in the smallest portion of it?


See, the germ is only 5% of the whole kernal but it contains the most nutrients. There are 30 nutrients found in the germ, but when we buy wheat flour in the store it's been processed and only 4 of those nutrients remain (still good but not as good as fresh). Needless to say I'd love to get a wheat mill so I can grind (don't worry it's electric so it only takes minutes) my own fresh flour. The only catch is once you grind it you have to use it within 3 days so it doesn't spoil ;)
Oh, and that 85% Endosperm........that's where we get white flour :) and it has the least amount of those nutrients, especially when we bleach it.






So now that we had some education we went to the store and bought both whole wheat flour and bread flour (cause if you use ONLY the whole wheat it's a much more dense bread, but I want at least some of that so it's more healthy ;) and we got started on our bread :)








We made 2 batches so we could make a variety of things and Brianna wanted to give some as part of a gift to her cousin :) Oh yeah, and in the process of all this our washer flooded Micah's room, so as if the whole timing part of making bread wasn't enough we added a nice little monkey wrench into the whole thing! LOL

And without further ado.........here's a portion of our finished product!
The tin container is a heart shaped loaf tube :)
Now we can have sandwiches on our own freshly made bread!!

Playdough fun

Micah has finally gotten to the point of not just eating the play dough so the kids are getting more time in with it! He wakes up bright and early (between 6:30 and 7am) and starts asking to go outside or play play dough right away :) LOL. So here are the kiddos playing away.

Our Anniversary :)

Well Feb 27 was our 10yr anniversary! We got tickets to the Opera with my parents to see Hansel and Gretel :) My parents treated us to dinner at a very nice restaurant right next door to the theater where we had a great meal. Afterwards we walked over to the theater.....I think the flash made the lighter color in my makeup look more pale....... I mean I know I'm pale but not THAT pale! LOL


And this was the view from the balcony at the hotel we stayed at :) VERY nice.
It was a WONDERFUL anniversary and I'm looking forward to many more years with such an awesome husband.........who by the way had gotten me an awesome gift.......a GPS! No more getting lost or having to call for directions ;)

hmmmm

interesting food for thought ......... TennZenn

Valentines times 2!

One of the things the kids have really missed about homeschooling is the class parties :) Although we have playdates and such with friends we decided to set up a Valentines party.........or 2 :) The first one was on Thursday and it was with our Keepers group.

The kids enjoyed a snack then got right to decorating their bags to put their valentines in :)



They put the valentines in their bags then we played some games. One of which was heart bingo. They used some heart shaped valentines candy to cover their spots ;)
I didn't think to take any pictures of the other valentines party we hosted, but it was Friday afternoon :) We had 5 moms and 17 kiddos...........so about like a class party! LOL The kids played and enjoying sharing all of our animals. And it was a beautiful day so they were able to run and play outside and enjoy the sun. We had some snacks and exchanged valentines and fun was had by all :) Although it was a bit of work I definitely think we'll be hosting these events again!

What?

Yes mom, what?

A trip home...........

to Mississippi to see David's Family :) We had a handsome nephew born early this December and we hadn't been in awhile so we made the trip the first weekend in Feb to see the family. I think the kids are getting better about the traveling with each trip :) Not that it was perfect but it was better :)

On the way down our DVD player died on us so we had to make a walmart run and buy one..........sad part was that we couldn't find the double screen ones so we went ahead and got a single screen then when we stopped at a walmart on our way home we found out they were in automotive NOT with all the video stuff :( But alas after some persuasion from David ;) I resolved to just being thankful we had one that was working and the kids were happy!

It was a nice trip, just to short...........

The kids played a really cute game where you hold a character/animal card up to your face and ask questions trying to guess who/what you are, it was too cute!
Since Micah sucks on his index finger everyone always makes a game about asking if they can have a taste or at least have the other finger.........so here papaw was trying to get the other one!
Micah sleeping.......his only 45 min nap on the 9hr trip home! Gotta love those road trips huh?!?
Caleb took a nice little nap too :)