A Good Day to Crochet (and Frosty’s Demise)

This is what it looked like when we woke up on Saturday morning.

By the time I had brewed our coffee, this was happening.

 

I knew that our short lived snow holiday was coming to an abrupt end. This is ALABAMA, after all.

And by lunch time, Frosty had keeled over.

This was the scene as my sweet daughter awoke from her afternoon nap.

My children were less than happy about the loss of their beloved friend.

I made these brownies in an effort to cheer them. It was a sad day.

But, it was a good day for crochet.

I decided to dig out this UFO that had been long neglected.

I crocheted all afternoon and into the night. It felt good. And when I finish, I can move on to this. It’s good motivation for me!

Family Fun in the Snow

 

I can’t even begin to express with words the fun that was had on our snow day. I think these pictures will speak for themselves…

There were snowball fights…

And smiling faces…

And more snowballs…

And bigger snowballs…

There were snow angels…

And funny faces…

And shocked grass that was just beginning to green…

More funny faces… Boy the white stuff was cold!

There was snowflake catching…

And family snowflake catching contests…

And a snowman (who happens to be wearing one of my favorite scarves!)…

And two little kiddos who so loved the snow…

 

There were confused pups who had no idea what snow was all about!!!

It was a happy day.

And now we’re all settled in for a long winter’s nap.

It’s snowing here today… in Alabama

We don’t often get snow here in Alabama. The kids are so excited that we’ll be able to build snowmen and make snow angels by this afternoon. It seemed crazy when our weatherman said we were under a Winter Storm Advisory and that 2-4 inches were predicted for today.

So, we intend to enjoy this rare event. We have plenty of firewood, in the event the power goes out. And my pantry is fully stocked. I’m curled up by a nice warm fire as I write this. It’s going to be a good day around here!

Let’s make bread

 

I want to send out a big THANK YOU to Kim over at The Inadvertent Farmer for recommending this grain mill to me.           I love it! (She has a great bread making tutorial on her blog, so pay her a little visit if you’re interested.)

I purchased my grain mill on eBay from hhdynamics, who deals exclusively with WonderMills. They also service them, should you ever need some help with your mill. I chose a refurbished one with the full warranty and saved $50 compared to the cost of a new mill.

I also own the manual version of The Family Grain Mill, but I wanted a mill that would be quick and easy to use on a regular basis. My WonderMill certainly fits the bill!

It’s really fun to use. Sara Lynn loves to help. But beware, it’s pretty loud!

I draped a towel around the edges of the flour container to keep flour dusting to a minimum. It worked well.

We were so excited to mill our first batch of whole wheat flour!

It was impossible to keep Sara Lynn’s little fingers out of the fresh, warm flour.

She ended up making a few handprints while I milled up some spelt. (Don’t worry, I made her wash her hands before we started!)

I adore my Kitchen Aid mixer. I thought about buying the KA adapter for my Family Grain Mill, but I don’t want to overwork my beloved machine. It kneads my bread for me, so it works hard enough as it is.

My friends, it caused me a bit of panic when it was time to clean the kitchen up.

I really should have washed those dishes before I decided to make bread!

After pinching off dough for rolls, and setting them aside to rise, I decided brownies would be good, too. (And I wasn’t quite ready to tackle the kitchen clean-up just yet. I had to work up to it!)

So, I whipped up a quick batch of Sue Gregg's brownies. I hate to admit it, but these weren’t my favorite. This is the first of her recipes that I wasn’t crazy about. I like a nice chocolate-y, chewy brownie when I have one, which isn’t often. These were kind of dry and bland. Typical health food fare. What did I expect?

I’m going to try these next time.

Now, Sue Gregg’s whole grain bread dough is awesome! I use it for rolls, sandwich bread, and cinnamon raisin bread. It’s the best bread recipe I’ve ever tried.

I also realized at 7:00pm that it might be nice to actually eat something with our bread for dinner. I can get a little carried away sometimes! Making bread is so much fun.

And I didn’t even mind that it was 9:00pm before I had the kitchen back in order. But boy, was I tired!

Seeds have arrived!

This means that Spring is just around the corner, right? Right.

 

Please, please say it is so!

I can’t bear much more of these dark, wintry days knowing that these seeds lie in wait.

Just look at these beauties…

Oh, and the prairie flowers that will light my summer afternoons!

 

I can almost taste these tomatoes.

 

And have you ever seen the likes of these?

I can hardly wait to give them a try!

There will be peppers, pumpkins, and ground cherries, too.

And flowers, in abundance. Because what is summer without flowers?

Now, all we have to do is install all those raised beds I have planned. I guess it’s a good thing that I have a few weeks left before the last estimated frost!