The aroma of freshly baked bread filling the house, particularly on a cold winter day, just makes you feel like a good wife and momma. One of the best excuses I find for getting away from the computer is to go to the kitchen. This day I decided to make a project with the kids, because especially my son, seemed to need a project. So pretzels it was.The kids struggled to get the dough in skinny strands to twist into pretzels; it kept springing back, so we ended up with some huge pretzels!
large homemade pretzel shapes
Notice the creativity in shaping the pretzels, in addition to their large size.
homemade hamburger buns
Next was hamburger buns. I found a recipe on www.heavenlyhomemakers.com and decided to give it a try. They took a long time, but boy were they good. Made with 100% whole wheat, they were light and fluffy and not crumbly. The odd-shaped one was using the last of the dough. I think it gives character to be odd-shaped. I also used her recipe for sloppy joes and that was dinner. Success!
sloppy joes with homemade buns
Chickens go Sledding
So, what do you do for entertainment? Yesterday it warmed up to about 35 degrees F and the chickens ventured from inside their cozy boxes and perched atop. They don’t walk down the ramp onto the ground because they don’t like the snow. Does it make their feet cold? Anyway, my daughter and her friend decided to take some chickens sledding. What a hoot…er…cackle!
homeschooler creates Lego headset
One of the favorite things my son likes to do during homeschool time is what he calls “Lego Art”. Every now and then he shows me some cool thing he’s made, which makes me feel good for allowing him time to create and explore and that he really is learning something!
Technology is not my thing. I don’t have the patience for it. If it doesn’t work the first few times, I give up. My husband does have the patience. He can sit for hours at the computer and figure out how to do stuff. He encourages me to do stuff. I try to be a good sport about it. So today we’re sitting at my computer working to put pictures on this blog. After awhile I’ve lost track of what’s even happening and am fighting sleep. I then got a bright idea. I started making bagels. Bagels are fun to make. My husband can’t make bagels. I’ll do something he can’t do and let him do something I can’t do. Every time he does something technical for me, I’ll bake. Or cook. Or maybe even clean. We’ll each contribute to our life together to make it better using the skills we’re best at. I’m thinking he might go for that, especially if I make a lemon roll-up cake next.
Today the sun rose at 9:45 am and set at 4:38 pm. It’s only way up in the interior of Alaska that the sun will set, not to rise for several months. Then, of course, we make up for it in the summertime when we forget to eat dinner because the sun is still shining brightly. Either way, it does take some getting used to. But, as my husband says, “You have to learn to make your own sunshine.” I think that’s good advice regardless of where one lives.
snowy house
Today it was cold. -11 F. It’s actually been rather warm lately. In the 20s. That’s warm for us. The rest of the country has been suffering a cold winter; for us it’s just normal, but we’re prepared for it. We have snow plows that move along at the speed of traffic on the highway. I don’t think there’s been any school closures, even though we got about 2 feet of snow over a two-day period one week. The buses have chains and, for the most part, people know how to drive (though sometimes I question that). We joke about the scaredy-cats who should just stay home.
