In this house, in this family, there is no shortage of hilarity on a daily basis. Since I’m the kind of lady who enjoys a good laugh, I appreciate tremendously my family’s ability to make me come thisclose to putting a rush on a potty break. In fact when I first started this blog, I wrote about it here. If you want to see what hotflawedmama pre-seasoned blogger sounded like, check it out.

Anyway, tonight was no exception. My favorite hubby has been “requesting” our famous made-from-scratch pizza for awhile now so I thought pleasing him was in order today. I’m sure all you parents can relate to the many times a day your kids ask, “What are we eating?” Or some variation. I typically vacillate between finding it cute to ridiculously irritating. Most of the time I say something sarcastic (didn’t you know sarcasm is the BEST way to parent?). Zach falls into the let’s-drip-all-comments-with-sarcasm column as well, so he took over tonight.

Trysten: Mommy, what are we having for dinner?

Zach: crazy sauce

Trysten: Dad, what are we having?

Zach: Silly sauce

Trysten: Daaaaaaddddd, what are we really having?

Zach: Nuts sauce

My husband told my son that we were having nutsauce (granted, he tried to make it two words but failed miserably). I looked at him, he made the most hilarious face, and I immediately fell into my side-splitting laughter.

Nutsauce. I think any joke that has that as a punch line will forever be funny to me.

Nutsauce aside, the pizza tasted extra special tonight. Perhaps because it wasn’t nutsauce?

It’s been raining, non stop. This means that our storage room is flooded, ankle deep. Then our laundry room overflowed. Then our drains backed up and there was water in our kitchen and EVERYWHERE. It’s just been an interesting couple of days. I’m done with rain. Seriously done, for now. And did you know dishwashers are so nice? I strongly dislike doing laundry by hand.

In other news I had my doctor’s appointment today for my spleen. For those just tuning in, I’ve had an enlarged spleen for the better part of 3 years. It was found when Dailah was in utero and I’ve been “under watch” since then. I’m ready for it all to be over, quite frankly. Doctors have no idea why it’s big and bumpy and weird.

So I was on my way to get my blood drawn and ultrasound of the spleen and do you know what came on the radio? Lisa Loeb’s “Stay”. I was feeling all nostalgic and nervous and I cried.

I seriously cried. I’m ridiculous.

Won’t know much about the spleen for the next few days but when I looked at it on the screen it looked good to me. Realizing I have no idea what that means other than what googling “spleen images” shows me. Mine looks like most of those so that’s got to be a good sign, right?

Anyway, forever the optimist I’m gonna say it’s all good and I can officially be done with my very nice hematologist in a few short days.

That’s about all I know. Lots of rain, enlarged spleens and Lisa Loeb. A day in the life.

Not much going on in this little life of mine. It’s raining and raining and raining today and though I found it to be perfect napping weather, the kids have yet to actually doze. I think this is more frustrating for Zach than it is for me but that could be due to the fact that I still managed to catch a few zzzzzz’s.

So with nothing much to say, I’ll leave you with these pictures. Dailah seems to be growing at such a rapid pace. Her language is so developed it scares me and these pictures seem to show her little girl side. I’m not quite sure what happened to my baby but I’m really enjoying this little girl she left behind.

That’s horse poo.

It’s been a good few months since we were able to trek up to the horse barn and visit some of our favorite four-legged friends. Our friends have since grown facial hair (have you seen a horses coat in winter? Crazy weird) and were a bit ansty in the saddle, to say the least.

Temps were 55 degrees today so we decided a horse ride was in order. After 35 minutes of tacking, combing, slapping horse butts, etc it was time to mount. 5 minutes later it was time to unmount. The kids got restless and I was scared poopless with Trysten on my saddle sliding to and fro.

Confession, I’m a nervous rider. Always have been. Then put the horses nervousness and Trysten yelling and dogs barking and you have one mom with heartburn.

Perhaps in another month we’ll all welcome the chance to be with each other again. Until then, I was able to snap a few good pics.

Dailah and hotflawedmama’s cowboy boots. Hers have been worn almost every day. Mine, not for 3ish years.

Tombstone pizzas cost $4 so you go with 5 for $4 Totinoes instead.

Love grocery shopping.

Anyway, a lot of people have asked for my bread recipe lately so I’ll post it now. I use it for everything! Rebekah, have you and Patrick tried the honey bread recipe from Marcus’ cook book yet? If not, do that. Everyone in my family loves that as well and it’s super easy. It’s also perfect for toast or a little extra somethin’ on sandwiches. So here it is. It’s the one out of the Joy of Cooking cookbook (which is a must have for anyone who loves cooking or baking, in my opinion).

Combine in a large bowl, and let stand until the yeast is dissolved, about 5 minutes:
1/4 cup warm (105-115 degrees) water
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast

Add, and mix well:
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
2 1/2 cups lukewarm (85 degrees) water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/3 sugar, honey, or maple syrup (I use 1/4 cup sugar pretty much every time)

Add:
4 C whole wheat flour
4 C all-purpose flour (I sometimes switch it up and use more wheat and/or more white, it’s a fun little experiment)

Knead, proof and shape. (Knead for about 10 minutes or until it’s no longer sticking to everything then roll it into a ball). Allow the dough to rise in a large oiled bowl until doubled (oil a bowl, put the dough in and then turn dough over so both sides are oily). Let first rise happen for about 1 hour.

Then punch down (this is my kids’ favorite part!) and knead for a few more minutes. Split into two. Grease 2 9×5 inch loaf pans and put dough in those. Let rise until doubled (about 45 min).

Bake until the crust is golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. This is about 45 minutes but I usually just check the temperature (it should be at least 195 degrees).

Then take it out and let cool sideways on cooling racks.

It is a lot easier than it sounds, I promise!

I can do 2 loaves at a time (so basically this recipe) in my mixer. I just usually do it twice so that I can freeze the extra 3 loaves and take them out as I go along. Oh, and if you are using the mixer, the kneading time is considerably shorter. I just go until it’s not sticking to the sides of the mixer.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes. It’s REALLY yummy. It took the kids a few times to get used to it after having store bought bread because it’s a tinch thicker but now they don’t like regular store bought.

And want to know another reason?

I just read that IF YOU MAKE YOUR OWN BREAD YOU SAVE ON AVERAGE $725/YEAR!!! Money in the bank, baby.

Walk, don’t run, to the nearest yeast aisle near you and bake baby bake!

This is it. My extremely generous mother-in-law bought this for me a few weeks ago. I had been borrowing hers for a few weeks to make my bread. See, I used to be an elitist bread maker; only kneading bread by hand. Then I got a taste of the Kitchen Aid kool aid and haven’t turned back since.

So I was borrowing Terre’s every week to turn out 4 loaves of bread. Then one day she surprised me with one of my own. And it happens to be in my favorite color (purple/boysenberry). Isn’t it beautiful?

So I’ve made more loaves of bread than I can count and the birthday cupcakes. Zach has whipped out some terrific chocolate cookies as well. It’s terrific. I’m actually not sure how I ever lived without it.

Thank you, Terre! Have I mentioned how much I love Zach’s family?

I call it my biscuit.

Because I love biscuits.

And I love it.

I’m human. So after my post last night. I’ll post this.

What in the world was The Bachelor about tonight? Sometimes I hate living in America. And I hate myself for watching that all the way through. But I was watching it with my sister so I’ll count it as bonding time.

But seriously, ridiculous.

Look tomorrow for a picture of my new baby. This baby doesn’t need me for anything but I still coo it and pet it and feed it and it loves me and I love it.

Here’s a hint. It’s beautiful and purple and it bakes bread with me.

My soul mate.

So the other day this story came across my Ethiopian Google Alerts. For those that don’t want to read the whole thing, the jist of the story is that a mentally handicapped Ethiopian man sent President Obama HIV+ blood. Crazy, yes. A real threat, no. It was really just another example of a time when the media dropped the ball on educating the public about HIV.

Did you know that EVERY 14 SECONDS A CHILD IS ORPHANED BY AIDS. Did you know that? Count that out just one time. Count to 14 and picture a child losing a parent, perhaps the second parent, to a preventable, treatable disease.

Then there’s the statistic that ONE CHILD UNDER FIFTEEN DIES EVERY MINUTE FROM AIDS OR AIDS RELATED ILLNESS.

I read that last week and did more hours of research to make sure that was accurate (per UNICEF it is). Then I spent the better part of last week mad at God asking how in the hell He would let it happen. Why even create these babies to leave them motherless or give them a life that ends tragically short with few pleasurable moments in that life.

Then today at church we sang some of my favorite worship songs. One of them being Grace Like Rain. At the end of worship Andy just remained silent. It kind of hit me at once. The whole time I’ve been mad at God and pointing my finger at Him not understanding that He could be doing the same thing to me. How in the world can I sit here and be mad at the situation without doing anything to rectify it?

It’s a little like sending soldiers to Iraq and having them just sit and wait for someone to literally make their feet walk. (Not the best analogy, obviously). But sometimes it does feel a bit like a war. A war on complacency. Of seeing humanity suffering and turning our heads. I have all I need to DO something yet I sit motionless, waiting. For what? For a sign or for money or for approval. It’s ridiculous. I have all I need.

The time is “now”, right? Lord help me sometimes I just want to crawl back into my age of ignorance. Things seemed so much easier then.

“Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man’s starving.”
(O. Henry)