Sew God's Grace

Here's another bread that I like to make often.  Since I use the bread machine to make the dough, it is a no-fuss recipe.   Right now I am trying to avoid dairy products to attempt to help with Grant's fussiness.  This bread contains no milk ingredients.  You can substitue sugar for the honey as well if you would prefer! Soft Oatmeal Bread 1 1/ 4 cups plus 2 tablespoons warm water 1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup vegetable oil 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon lemon juice 3 cups flour 1 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast Place ingredients in bread pan in order suggested by the manufacturer.  Select "dough" setting.  When the cycle is complete, punch dough down.  On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 9 inch by 18 inch rectangle.  Starting with a short end, roll up the dough.  Pinch ends together to seal.  Place in a greased 9 by 5 inch bread pan.  Cover and let rise in a warm place for 40 minutes or until doubled.  Bake at 350 degrees for 4

Recently, I was visiting with a friend and her daughter about what they had been doing the day before.  With a sigh, her daughter told me that they had been working outside.  She seemed to think that whenever her dad was home on a Saturday, all they did was "work."  I told her that it may seem tough now, but those times will be good memories for her later. This led me to start thinking about some of my own memories of childhood--when the "work" we did as a family seemed never-ending.  Things like painting the house, shingling the garage roof, and canning jam came to mind.  However, I think one of my favorite family work traditions would be "walking the beans." I grew up on a small farm in south-central Kansas.  (Read:  more rain than what we get here in western Kansas!)  I prided myself on knowing a little bit about farming when I was dating and later married to my husband.  However, I learned that what I thought was a large field was, in fact, just a

Since we welcomed a new little one into the family just one week before Maddie's eighth birthday, we didn't celebrate her birthday right on time.  We had a party with just family, but I told her that we would invite some friends over for a get together sometime.  Well, this Thursday was it.  With a two week old, I tried to do fun activities that the girls would enjoy, but I did not want to go over the top with time-sucking preparations.  Here's what we did. We started with the girls making personalized bead bracelets.  I bought a little kit in the kids' craft section of Walmart for $10.  The girls had a great time.  I set out paper plates for the girls to put their beads on and taped their elastic cords to the plates so the beads would not come off of the ends.  Very little prep, and the girls had a great time with it. Next we painted toe nails--very girly and easy to set up for.  I have lots of fast dry nail polish which I highly recommend for younger people. 

Okay, it's not the prettiest picture--I had to lay it out on the floor in my basement--but here is the finished quilt top for Grant's quilt.  In a frenzy of nesting energy, I got most of it done the week before he was born.  I just had to add the borders and sew the back for the quilt, a feat I accomplished one night when Matt had a meeting and I got all the kids into bed!  I'm going to take it to my friend Kristy to get it machine quilted.  She owns a quilt shop and has great taste.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I will post an update when it is finished. Our little Grant came two and a half weeks early on June 29th, 2012.  It wasn't that big of a surprise because our last two kiddos were two weeks early as well.  However, for some reason I had decided that he was going to be a while.  He was born on a Friday, and I had made plans to have Maddie's eighth birthday party the following Sunday.  Needless to say, the party was postponed.  I don