Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Waxing Sentimental

Lately I've been making two very yummy bread recipes: Artisan Bread and Grandma's French Bread. Both are fantastic. However, today I was feeling a bit sentimental. I had a craving for bread that I have a personal connection to. There is something soothing about making "the family bread." It's the bread my mother makes, my sisters make, my grandmother and aunts make and that my great grandmother made. There is a sense of history and connectedness when I make it using more muscle memory than brain memory. It will be the first bread I teach my girls to make. It is the first bread dough they ever tasted. It is the first bread I ever made. It is the bread that is served both for every day and holidays at home. I used to long to make the "fancier" breads. By "fancier" that pretty much meant to me, anything but that bread. Now I love the rhythm that comes with kneading the dough I've been kneading since I was in junior high (maybe earlier, I can't remember for sure). In fact, I think I'm old enough to say I've known how to make this bread most of my life. This bread symbolizes home for me and the home I'm making for Ralph and the girls. In fact, I taught Ralph to make this bread too.

Tonight is one of those nights when it is important to focus on the things that matter. Like fresh bread that is creating a sense of heritage for my girls. Feeling Bug-A-Boo pop, jump and move inside me. Seeing my girls work out some of their excess energy by having an adventure chasing a fly in the house. This way I don't focus on mounding dishes, dirty floors and the fact that there is a fly in my house.

What makes you feel sentimental? What connects you to your heritage or what things are you creating as a heritage for your kids? Is it food like me or something else entirely?

Nugget says, "Isn't my scarf pretty?" and Zita having some snuggle time with  Daddy. 

30 Weeks


Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Sound of Red Returning

Thanks to LitFuse Publicity Group and Kregel Publications for providing this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a book that sounded extremely intriguing to me but I didn't know what to expect. Sue Duffy was a new author to me. I was a little skeptical when I got the book because it was thinner than what I expected based on the description of the book. 
I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. I could not put this book down after picking it up. It was very well written with some fascinating and surprising plot twists. I did not expect the plot twists (always a good sign). It had good pacing and I did not feel like quality was sacrificed by the length. There was sufficient fleshing out of each character without getting lost in rabbit trails. I also felt there were sufficient loose ends to attract me to the next book in the series. I will definitely be reading the other two books. 



About the book:

After losing everyone she loves, concert pianist Liesl Bower has nowhere to go but to escape into her music. Searching for the peace she usually finds in her concertos and sonatas, Liesl can’t shake the feeling that she is being haunted by her past . . . and by someone following her. When she spots a familiar and eerie face in the audience of a concert she’s giving for the president in Washington, DC, the scariest day of her life comes back to her with a flash. It has been fifteen years since Liesl watched her beloved Harvard music mentor assaulted on a dark night in Moscow and just as long since the CIA disclosed to her that he’d been spying for Russia. She had seen that man--that eerie face--the night Professor Devoe was attacked. And now he’s back--and coming for her.

On the run and struggling to rely on the protection of CIA agent Ava Mullins and handsome newspaper reporter Cade O’Brien, Liesl learns she isthe prey of an underground cell of Russian KGB agents determined to restore their country to its former Soviet might. But what she doesn’t know is that she is in possession of something--a piece of sheet music--that Russian intelligence is now frantic to find. Inside that music is a secret code, the hidden transcriptions of her deceased mentor, that clearly identify a Russian mole operating inside Israel’s Department ofDefense, a mole with enough power and access to execute a daring assassination that no one would see coming.

Caught in a deadly conflict between American and Russian undercover agents, this innocent young pianist is just trying to survive her own personal trauma. Through it all, Liesl must learn that no matter how dark her world grows or how fiercely her enemies pursue her, God is still in control--if only she can yield herself to His grace. Read an excerpt here: http://www.sueduffybooks.com/#!vstc1=books 
About the author:

Sue Duffy is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Moody Magazine, The Presbyterian Journal, Sunday Digest, and TheChristian Reader. She is the author of Mortal Wounds (Barbour, 2001) and Fatal Loyalty (Kregel, 2010). Sue has also contributed to Stories for a Woman’s Heart (Multnomah). She and her husband, Mike, have three grown children.

Find out more at www.sueduffybooks.com
Link to buy the book:  http://ow.ly/8B9HT
About the giveaway and party:
Win a Kindle Fire from @SueDuffy2 and @KregelBooks in the "Red Returning" Giveaway!

Sue Duffy and her publisher, Kregel Publications, are celebrating the release of The Sound of Red Returning by giving away a Kindle Fire prize package worth over $200 to one lucky winner!!!! (1/23-2/11)





Enter the Sue Duffy’s Giveaway today and you could win:



* A brand new Kindle Fire with Wi-Fi

* The Sound of Red Returning (Book One in the Red Returning series) by Sue Duffy



To enter click one of the icons below. But, hurry! The giveway ends on 2/11. Sue will be announcing the winner of the “Red Returning” Giveaway on February 13th on the Litfuse website!



Enter via E-mail Enter via FacebookEnter via Twitter
Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. 

Blog tour schedule 

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

More Grandparent Love

So I've been a little lax on posting lately and I realized the girls are changing so much! We needed to get a few videos up here for the family to catch up on these sweet and squirely girls. This is a bit of bed time fun I caught tonight when I came home from work. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

A Little Something for the Grandparents



Here is a sweet little video that will probably only interest the grandparents. Nugget is just singing and playing with the Noah's ark animals. It was just so sweet and cute I had to share. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A Snowy Night's Dinner

I haven't posted about our food in awhile. Trust me, we are still cooking and baking up a storm here at Helm's Deep. Tonight I made Minnesota Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup. It just sounded so perfect for this snow day. I had a little trauma while making it, though. I only had 0.5 cup of wild rice soup. As Ralph had to run out today anyway, he went to Trader Joe's to get some. We know they at least will always have wild rice. Well, when he got home with it, I realized it was wild rice from CALIFORNIA!!! {enter shudder here} How does one make a MN wild rice soup with wild rice from CA?! Well, I just had to go with it but it's very sad. The soup, however, was very good. We absolutely loved it.

Now, to make a dinner of soup perfect, you need to have bread. I have been wanting to make bread bowls for awhile and decided today was the perfect day. These Italian Bread Bowls are absolutely fantastic! They are not hard at all and definitely add something to the soup. I will be making these a lot in the future. Check out both recipes I highly recommend them both.


Friday, January 13, 2012

Sleep Is A Beautiful Thing

I woke up very refreshed this morning after basically passing out last night. We've had several weeks of various sleep disturbances with the girls: colds, nightmares, loosing Nuks, etc. We were starting to think that we would not sleep through the night again until after Bug-A-Boo comes and starts to sleep through the night. You know, like in October.

Then a miracle happened. Despite their colds and coughing, they went to bed in the same room AND slept through the night for the first time in weeks. It really has been weeks. I feel awesome! I bet Ralph feels even better because he gets up on his own the nights before I go to work. He thinks I should be well rested to hand out narcotics and monitor sick people. He's a smart guy. Definitely a keeper.

Now I've been following along with Ann Voskamp and her Joy Dare. I think it's been helping my perspective overall but I'm telling you today! Today I feel like I could blow up my 1000 Gifts App. Hearing the girls playing happily in their room until just before 9. Making Egg Nog pancakes, trying to use up left over Egg Nog. Finding syrup in the pantry when I thought we were out. My yummy coffee this morning. Ralph meeting with a new client. I can see some sun shining through the clouds.

Now, not that my day's perfect. I need to finish a project by Sunday and it probably won't happen. I have one extremely fussy girl, despite sleeping all night. My house needs some attention but probably won't get it until next week due to a  crazy weekend and the above mentioned project. However, it all seems much more tolerable with a little sleep under my belt.