It's amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it!
{Yes, the daycare kids love him. Naturally.}
.jpg){kind=avatar}
A Heart for Orphans
1 hour ago
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Friday, November 06, 2009
I know what it is...
I know why I struggle to write...I haven't taken any good pictures lately! This happens every year. Once the weather turns cooler, I don't get outside as much...and there is less natural light...therefore I take fewer pictures. (Indoors with the flash is SO not good on my camera).
Yeah. That's it.
Anyways...last night Mitch took me to a concert to see Mark Schultz and Point of Grace. It was so much fun. Other news headlines here:
Alright, since it's a beautiful, sunny day out, perhaps I should go find some good photo opportunities!
Yeah. That's it.
Anyways...last night Mitch took me to a concert to see Mark Schultz and Point of Grace. It was so much fun. Other news headlines here:
- I haven't been sewing. At all. But I sure do need to.
- I baked more bread...white this time...it was good, but my loaves were too big. Going to try again soon.
- I hope we hang Christmas lights outside this weekend while the weather is nice (59F tomorrow hopefully).
- Tirzah still refuses to suck her thumb.
- Malachi is doing terrible at potty training, but we keep trying. So far we have trained 5+ other children...I think he'll get it eventually.
- Daycare is nearly full and very busy.
- Mitch is coaching 7th-8th grade boys' basketball at St. Cloud Christian School for the next 6 weeks.
- Mitch's foot/leg is feeling a lot better. He is now walking with just regular shoes, and no crutch. His ankle is really stiff and he walks with a limp, but says it feels much better.
- After being derailed from our homeschooling schedule when Mitch first went off his foot, we are finally back on track and into a rhythm again--4 lessons of math per week, 5 of everything else, spelling tests on Friday, and 4 lessons per week for Zeke.
- Micah, Eden, and Caleb babysat Zeke, Josh, and Malachi last night while we were at the concert. We spent a lot of time coaching them ahead of time, and then called several times while we were away. I'm proud of them for doing a good job...and grateful to be moving into a new stage of life with them. (Tirzah went to the Gewecke's and Patrick was out with a friend).
Alright, since it's a beautiful, sunny day out, perhaps I should go find some good photo opportunities!
Thursday, November 05, 2009
I struggle
Last week I was on a roll for sure, and this week I struggle to write.
Tirzah has decided to stop self-soothing and refuses to suck her thumb. These were the good ole days for sure:
That picture was taken on October 23rd, and she had already started to not put herself to sleep...but she automatically put her thumb in her mouth after she was already asleep and in the bassinet. I grabbed the camera to take a picture, because I knew it was fading fast. I haven't seen her do it since then.
Since then:
Someone has always held her to sleep (unless she fell asleep in the car),
She now wakes up nearly every hour at night beginning sometime around midnight,
Naps during the day are shorter,
She is generally more crabby overall.
We have no explanation why she won't suck her thumb, but she won't suck a pacifier either. She won't even suck on my finger. She will bite my knuckle, however.
I am hoping that she figures out how to put herself to sleep again soon. We saw the doctor yesterday and she said she'd never heard of a 6 month old just stop sucking their thumb. Go figure. I had stopped giving her reflux meds earlier in October, so I am going to try giving her those again for the next week to see if that helps improve anything. Ugh...
I have had her sleeping in a bassinet beside my bed since she was born. Technically I should have stopped using it when she got to about 3 months, but it is so nice to have her right within arm's reach for middle of the night feedings. But it's clear at this point that she's outgrown it (she can nearly crawl out of it and onto the bed), so I need to transition her to a crib. Or something. I'm not really sure what to do yet. It won't solve the issue of getting her to fall asleep on her own or stay asleep, at least *I* don't think so. But it will keep her from waking up and falling! :)
It's not all bad...I may be exhausted (I stayed up late, and was up with her MANY times last night--including a 1-1/2 hour stretch), but I am determined to enjoy my day. It's FINALLY sunny here (over a week of clouds and rain) and tonight I get to go to a Mark Schultz and Point of Grace concert with Mitch. Hurray!
Tirzah has decided to stop self-soothing and refuses to suck her thumb. These were the good ole days for sure:
That picture was taken on October 23rd, and she had already started to not put herself to sleep...but she automatically put her thumb in her mouth after she was already asleep and in the bassinet. I grabbed the camera to take a picture, because I knew it was fading fast. I haven't seen her do it since then.Since then:
Someone has always held her to sleep (unless she fell asleep in the car),
She now wakes up nearly every hour at night beginning sometime around midnight,
Naps during the day are shorter,
She is generally more crabby overall.
We have no explanation why she won't suck her thumb, but she won't suck a pacifier either. She won't even suck on my finger. She will bite my knuckle, however.
I am hoping that she figures out how to put herself to sleep again soon. We saw the doctor yesterday and she said she'd never heard of a 6 month old just stop sucking their thumb. Go figure. I had stopped giving her reflux meds earlier in October, so I am going to try giving her those again for the next week to see if that helps improve anything. Ugh...
I have had her sleeping in a bassinet beside my bed since she was born. Technically I should have stopped using it when she got to about 3 months, but it is so nice to have her right within arm's reach for middle of the night feedings. But it's clear at this point that she's outgrown it (she can nearly crawl out of it and onto the bed), so I need to transition her to a crib. Or something. I'm not really sure what to do yet. It won't solve the issue of getting her to fall asleep on her own or stay asleep, at least *I* don't think so. But it will keep her from waking up and falling! :)
It's not all bad...I may be exhausted (I stayed up late, and was up with her MANY times last night--including a 1-1/2 hour stretch), but I am determined to enjoy my day. It's FINALLY sunny here (over a week of clouds and rain) and tonight I get to go to a Mark Schultz and Point of Grace concert with Mitch. Hurray!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
A Bread Mission
Since Patrick has arrived, I've privately been on a mission to find some "good" bread. His parents had a yummy care package shipped to our house back in September, full of authentic German bread and treats. Using the information in that package, and the help of google, I found myself venturing into the world of bread making.
The extent of my real bread experience is in "quick breads" like banana bread, muffins, etc., and pizza dough.
All the recipes I looked at (at least the ones with good reviews) were made from sourdough starter. If I I don't make bread, then I certainly don't make sourdough bread. I got to feed some as a teenager to help out my mom. That's it. But, hey, how hard can it be? I was willing to try. (Sometimes us moms have to make up our own challenges to take our minds off the challenges of many small children, right?).
I found a great helpful website to educate myself about the art of sourdough. Visit it at Sourdough Home. They said not to try to make my own starter if I really didn't know what I was doing. They suggested getting a starter from a friend. But I don't have any friends who bake bread! So, what else could I do? I bought some organic whole wheat flour (sure to have all kinds of microorganisms on it to grow some sourdough) and was just ready to start. Then Kristin surprised me at church the next day with some Amish Friendship Bread starter. Yeah, I know the instructions on the bag are all specific to the AFB, but I didn't care--it is still basically a sourdough! I followed the AFB instructions for the full 10 days and made the bread from it. Instead of giving away my starter, I divided it to "experiment." I didn't want my bread starter to be fed on sugar and milk, so I took part of it and fed it on only flour and water. I fed it once per day. I wasn't really excited about the results, and I was filled with doubt. So I followed these instructions on Sourdough Home. I took about 1 tsp of my starter (yes, that is all), put it in a clean jar, added 3/8 c. flour and 1/4 c. water. After 12 hours I threw away half of my starter, and fed it the same amount again. I repeated this the next day and loved how it was looking--it was doubling every 12 hours. By day 3 I stopped discarding half of the starter. I doubled what I was feeding--in the morning I still did 3/8 c. flour and 1/4 c. water. At night I fed it 3/4 c. flour and 1/2 c. water. The next morning I planned on baking, so I fed it 1-1/2 c. flour and 1 c. water. I had quite a bit of starter at this point (about 4 c.). It sort of resembled a sticky goo...not runny. See how good it looks:
I decided to use about 3 c. of my starter and put the rest in a jar to feed and grow for the next time. The recipe I wanted to use had its own starter, and I was just guessing how much to make. I really had no idea...except that I had something like 3 c. of flour and 2 c. of water in the starter (maybe more?) and I wanted to cut the recipe in half (which had 4 c. flour and 4 c. water in its starter). So I literally just guessed.
I mixed together the following:
4 c. rye flour
2 c. bread flour
1 tbsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white sugar
Then I added:
3 c. (approx.) of starter
After mixing in the starter with a wooden (???) spoon, I added:
1c. warm water
And mixed it in the mixer:
After a while (the mixer could only do so well), I moved it out onto the counter to knead it. I did that for about 15 min. until my dough was nice and smooth (whatever that means--I used a timer). I put it into a bowl and let it rise for about 2 hours. I couldn't tell if it had doubled or not, but it was definitely rising. :)
After 2 hours I again took it out to knead it, this time for 5 min. (Apparently this "activates the gluten.") Then I shaped it into a loaf. Now I know a better way to shape my loaf, so next time I will try it. I also want to remember to roll it in oats--doesn't that sound nice? Anyways, here is what it looks like. The kids all thought it looked weird. I let it rise for another hour.
Then I baked it at 425F for close to an hour. How do you know when a loaf of bread is done? Found this great blog entry to help me.
According to Sourdough Home, it is better to wait until the next day to cut the bread, but we couldn't wait. Seriously, I was about to pass out with anticipation (and worry). Also by this time Patrick was home from school saying, "It smells good." I think that made me more worried...LOL.
We didn't wait. We cut it as soon as it was cool enough to touch. The final verdict? Patrick said, "I'm impressed."
Whew, what a relief!! :) By the way, the original recipe is called German Rye Bread (Bauernbrot) and you can find it here at Allrecipes.com. Patrick likes to top his with jam, honey and butter, or Nutella. I'm growing my starter again and will try it again. I also want to make a white bread this time.
{I don't make bread. I did briefly in 2000 when I had a bread machine. Briefly.}
The extent of my real bread experience is in "quick breads" like banana bread, muffins, etc., and pizza dough.
All the recipes I looked at (at least the ones with good reviews) were made from sourdough starter. If I I don't make bread, then I certainly don't make sourdough bread. I got to feed some as a teenager to help out my mom. That's it. But, hey, how hard can it be? I was willing to try. (Sometimes us moms have to make up our own challenges to take our minds off the challenges of many small children, right?).
I found a great helpful website to educate myself about the art of sourdough. Visit it at Sourdough Home. They said not to try to make my own starter if I really didn't know what I was doing. They suggested getting a starter from a friend. But I don't have any friends who bake bread! So, what else could I do? I bought some organic whole wheat flour (sure to have all kinds of microorganisms on it to grow some sourdough) and was just ready to start. Then Kristin surprised me at church the next day with some Amish Friendship Bread starter. Yeah, I know the instructions on the bag are all specific to the AFB, but I didn't care--it is still basically a sourdough! I followed the AFB instructions for the full 10 days and made the bread from it. Instead of giving away my starter, I divided it to "experiment." I didn't want my bread starter to be fed on sugar and milk, so I took part of it and fed it on only flour and water. I fed it once per day. I wasn't really excited about the results, and I was filled with doubt. So I followed these instructions on Sourdough Home. I took about 1 tsp of my starter (yes, that is all), put it in a clean jar, added 3/8 c. flour and 1/4 c. water. After 12 hours I threw away half of my starter, and fed it the same amount again. I repeated this the next day and loved how it was looking--it was doubling every 12 hours. By day 3 I stopped discarding half of the starter. I doubled what I was feeding--in the morning I still did 3/8 c. flour and 1/4 c. water. At night I fed it 3/4 c. flour and 1/2 c. water. The next morning I planned on baking, so I fed it 1-1/2 c. flour and 1 c. water. I had quite a bit of starter at this point (about 4 c.). It sort of resembled a sticky goo...not runny. See how good it looks:
I decided to use about 3 c. of my starter and put the rest in a jar to feed and grow for the next time. The recipe I wanted to use had its own starter, and I was just guessing how much to make. I really had no idea...except that I had something like 3 c. of flour and 2 c. of water in the starter (maybe more?) and I wanted to cut the recipe in half (which had 4 c. flour and 4 c. water in its starter). So I literally just guessed.I mixed together the following:
4 c. rye flour
2 c. bread flour
1 tbsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white sugar
Then I added:
3 c. (approx.) of starter
After mixing in the starter with a wooden (???) spoon, I added:
1c. warm water
And mixed it in the mixer:
After a while (the mixer could only do so well), I moved it out onto the counter to knead it. I did that for about 15 min. until my dough was nice and smooth (whatever that means--I used a timer). I put it into a bowl and let it rise for about 2 hours. I couldn't tell if it had doubled or not, but it was definitely rising. :)
After 2 hours I again took it out to knead it, this time for 5 min. (Apparently this "activates the gluten.") Then I shaped it into a loaf. Now I know a better way to shape my loaf, so next time I will try it. I also want to remember to roll it in oats--doesn't that sound nice? Anyways, here is what it looks like. The kids all thought it looked weird. I let it rise for another hour.
Then I baked it at 425F for close to an hour. How do you know when a loaf of bread is done? Found this great blog entry to help me.
According to Sourdough Home, it is better to wait until the next day to cut the bread, but we couldn't wait. Seriously, I was about to pass out with anticipation (and worry). Also by this time Patrick was home from school saying, "It smells good." I think that made me more worried...LOL.
We didn't wait. We cut it as soon as it was cool enough to touch. The final verdict? Patrick said, "I'm impressed."Whew, what a relief!! :) By the way, the original recipe is called German Rye Bread (Bauernbrot) and you can find it here at Allrecipes.com. Patrick likes to top his with jam, honey and butter, or Nutella. I'm growing my starter again and will try it again. I also want to make a white bread this time.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Spelling Fail
I hope this doesn't reflect too poorly on my abilities as a teacher!
Eden started to add a couple more words to the list, and I quickly realized she missed the point of the exercise. By now she is really embarrassed, so let all the shame fall on me, ok? :)
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Micah Measuring Up
I came across this old picture of Mitch and Micah the other day and had to post a comparison shot. The photo on the left is terrible, I know. It was taken 2 years ago when Mitch had just arrived home from Texas. His hair is ridiculously long because he didn't cut it at all during the 11 weeks he was there. I can't believe how much Micah has grown! I also found some video of Micah back then...we didn't notice his squeaky voice at the time, but it has me in stitches now. :) His voice deepened so gradually that it was hard to notice. Now if I am in another room I sometimes mistake him for Mitch, as do some people if Micah answers the phone [without saying who he is].
Some Micah stats again...
Size 30 inseam fits him perfectly...size 28 waist is terribly big.
Size 9.5 sneakers
Size 10 (men's) boots
63 inches tall (I'm only 65 inches)
Approx 94 lbs
-1, -1.25 correction in his glasses
A short interview:
Favorite subject in school: reading
Favorite sport: soccer
What he wants to be when he grows up: Something really lazy that makes a lot of money (oh boy!)
Favorite movie: maybe Princess Bride
Favorite books: Little House on the Prairie series
Favorite wii game: tie between wii fish, wii sing, and wii Mario Kart {Mitch said wii fish + wii sing = wii fishing LOL}
Would love to spend the day: fishing in Canada
Would buy with $1,000: ipod touch, and a nicer house for you (????)...change that to a wii, large screen tv, and an iphone (boy, this kid does not understand $1,000)
Coolest trick you can do: fish
Did you change your underwear today?: No. I changed my shirt, though!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wow, that was easy!
I want to do a little promo for one of my favorite free software programs. [No one from the company asked me to do this.] :) I have been using the program for a few years now to edit my photos.
Here are my favorite features:
Well, different programs for different uses. Picasa online is good for managing my photos that I have posted on the web, creating albums to share, slideshows, etc. I like how easy it is to group and sort photos. I will not use it to edit photos, because opening the program and getting it set up is time-consuming. On the plus side, Picasa does sort images and it is also free. Irfanview does not sort or store images.
Memory Manager is the only program that I have ever spent money on to organize my photos. I LOVE Memory Manager. It does SO MUCH, and it makes backing up my photos a breeze (all my photos are backed up to DVD, which is almost the safest storage method). It's editing capabilities are superior and very easy to use, especially for most people.
Adobe is a professional level program and costs hundreds of dollars, so I won't even go there.
But let's say I want to upload pics to my blog and I need to do some fast editing? Or pics of diapers to my store or website? Or pics on ebay? Message boards? Facebook? Email? I will open Irfanview every time. It is fast to crop, rotate, resize, and anything else that I need to do. EASY!! After they are edited, then I may use photobucket or picasa online to store and share them.
So when I was creating the post of Malachi...the one with all the faces...I was just playing around. I randomly cropped his face from a series of pictures. I didn't fuss with making sure every picture was "exact", but I cropped quickly and tried to make them "about the same." As I worked, I saved each to a special folder to make them easy to find. Then I clicked on a button that Irfanview has called "create a panoramic image." I selected which photos I wanted to use in my image and voila! Irfanview created it perfectly in a nice, straight row. Wow, that was easy!
Like I said, I have been using the program for a long time. I have memorized some of the shortcut keys. For example, select an area that you want to crop with your mouse, then hit ctrl-y. Or ctrl-r to resize/resample a photo. Or 's' to save as. Or shift-g to adjust the colors and lighting. Or 'r' to rotate right, 'l' to rotate left. Or...I think you get the idea. Shortcuts do make some editing a lot faster, too. :)
So there, my long, boring tip for the day! Just one of my little secrets to how I do it "all." :)
Here are my favorite features:
- Remarkably small file size means fast download and install
- Easy to use
- Wide variety of features such as red-eye reduction, special effects, reduce/resize photos, etc
- FREE
- (even has a Deutsche version...which, you know...anything German is cool around here)
Well, different programs for different uses. Picasa online is good for managing my photos that I have posted on the web, creating albums to share, slideshows, etc. I like how easy it is to group and sort photos. I will not use it to edit photos, because opening the program and getting it set up is time-consuming. On the plus side, Picasa does sort images and it is also free. Irfanview does not sort or store images.
Memory Manager is the only program that I have ever spent money on to organize my photos. I LOVE Memory Manager. It does SO MUCH, and it makes backing up my photos a breeze (all my photos are backed up to DVD, which is almost the safest storage method). It's editing capabilities are superior and very easy to use, especially for most people.
Adobe is a professional level program and costs hundreds of dollars, so I won't even go there.
But let's say I want to upload pics to my blog and I need to do some fast editing? Or pics of diapers to my store or website? Or pics on ebay? Message boards? Facebook? Email? I will open Irfanview every time. It is fast to crop, rotate, resize, and anything else that I need to do. EASY!! After they are edited, then I may use photobucket or picasa online to store and share them.
So when I was creating the post of Malachi...the one with all the faces...I was just playing around. I randomly cropped his face from a series of pictures. I didn't fuss with making sure every picture was "exact", but I cropped quickly and tried to make them "about the same." As I worked, I saved each to a special folder to make them easy to find. Then I clicked on a button that Irfanview has called "create a panoramic image." I selected which photos I wanted to use in my image and voila! Irfanview created it perfectly in a nice, straight row. Wow, that was easy!
Like I said, I have been using the program for a long time. I have memorized some of the shortcut keys. For example, select an area that you want to crop with your mouse, then hit ctrl-y. Or ctrl-r to resize/resample a photo. Or 's' to save as. Or shift-g to adjust the colors and lighting. Or 'r' to rotate right, 'l' to rotate left. Or...I think you get the idea. Shortcuts do make some editing a lot faster, too. :)
So there, my long, boring tip for the day! Just one of my little secrets to how I do it "all." :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
