Holiday countdown

There are only 29 days until Christmas...I've been counting down since 66 days I have a nifty countdown chalkboard that sits in our kitchen and lil k helps me every morning by erasing the number and 'helping' me write the next number. My husband found mine at a local thrift shop, but there are tons of crafting sites showing how to make these. Maybe when lil k gets bigger we'll customize this board and/or I'll get to bring this countdown board back to my office where I used to hang it :)

So, with only 29 days left, I haven't managed to get gifts sorted out - we made lists, discussed things, got price quotes, but have yet to actually go out and buy them!!! I hate shopping this late in the year. I'd rather be done by Oct 31st, and then watch the crowds in late November/December while sitting and drinking a gingerbread latte. Instead I'm going to be out in these crowds Maybe I'd better take some time off work to go shopping next week...

Bread for the soul

I took a mental health day today - didn't really feel like working, was feeling tired and sore from my kinked neck (happened a week ago, still hurts). I did keep in touch with the office, being I spent most of my time on the computer, but I was looking for something "to do" with my time. I was thinking of that great sugar-free apricot delight log they sell at Cobs Bread, and thought I'd try to find a recipe for something similar. My googling travels took me many places, I found some great diabetic recipe sites, that then led me to researching what I might try to make for holiday baking (considering my boy and I should NOT be eating sugar, and I can't fathom Christmas without home-baked cookies). I'm not so sure about the diabetic shortbread cookies, but will give them a try (I found two versions, one of which includes eggs!?!!?).

Anyways, as I was doing a series of searches for recipes, I stumbled across a site that does contests and one such contest was "Waiter there's a....in my bread" leaving people to come up with something in their bread recipe...well, what a gold mine I found - tons of amazing bread recipes, one of which was oatmeal buttermilk that I just HAD to try today. I checked out some other recipes on the site that I may have to return to try, but lo and behold this oatmeal buttermilk recipe led me to instructions on forming the loaf on another site - A Year in Bread
This site was another goldmine...I spent a good part of the afternoon reading last year's posts on bread making from the three authors, and ended up making ANOTHER bread - Italian Rosemary Raisin Bread. Unfortunately, my oatmeal buttermilk bread was too dense (but still yummy), and my rosemary raisin bread was baked a little too long and is too brown (but it's still cooling, so I'm not sure if its affected the taste). I've since figured out I don't let my loaves rise long enough, my house is far too cool for them to truly double in size in 1-2 hours, so I need to put them in a warmer spot for longer. As well, I learned that in forming the loaves, I shouldn't push the dough around so much so as to not lose all the air bubbles...I'm notorious for 're-kneading' my dough when forming, so alas, I'll have to practice again later in the week... once we finish these loaves

Tumbles and Easter Eggs

Monday I received a phonecall to go pickup lil k from school. He took a tumble and they wanted him checked out. I went into a panic because lil k has taken many tumbles (he's a boy), but to get a phonecall to come get him to go to a doctor to me meant it was SERIOUS.

We arrived to find a joking little boy with a purple and blue goose egg bump on his head which we nicknamed an easter egg. The lil guy had taken his his rubber boots off and put them back on opposite feet and ultimately lost his balance on a step outside. It wasn't serious, it was just a precaution this centre gives to any child - they wanted to be sure there was no concussion to be 'safe'.

So I survived my first phonecall from 'school' for my child's antics...I'm going to be a mess by the time he hits grade school and I get calls about him and his friends attempting to jump from the top of the slide and... (supposedly that's the sort of thing boys do, ugh...) I was hoping to get him skates this year...maybe I'll put it off another year - having sharp blades on the bottoms of his feet don't sound like such a good idea right now...