Fresh Bread!

If you've been following me on Facebook or Twitter you know that my awesome hubby gave me an early birthday present last Thursday. As always, he had found a really good deal on something and needed to order it in a timely manner. He didn't actually mean to give it to me early but this was the outer box it came in.

Kevin had told me he ordered something for my birthday so I knew not to open any packages that came in the next few days. What can you do when the box says what it is, though? It came while Kevin was at work so I could have just left it on the front porch and pretended I didn't see it. I've long since determined that I'm not a good enough liar for that kind of thing, though. So when he got home that night I said, "I really hate to burst your bubble, sweetie, but I think my birthday present came today and it says what it is on the box. Thank you for the bread maker." He was a little disappointed but he was kind of impatient for me to try it to make sure it works anyway. 

We went and got ingredients Friday evening so we could try a plain white loaf. The bread maker has a timer feature so you can put the ingredients in and walk away and it will start the process by itself about 4 hours before you want the bread done. So we put in our ingredients and set the timer so the bread would be ready Saturday morning around 9am.

Results

Waking up to warm, fresh baked bread is officially one of the best things ever. 

So yummy!

Since then we've made two more loaves for a grand total of three loaves in three days. The machine is so easy to use. (And as the Georgia summer is approaching it's especially nice to be able to make bread without having the oven on heating the house up.) So far we've tried plain white bread and plain wheat bread and we like the white bread better. We have a whole bunch of this stuff in our food storage, though, so we're getting a grinder and we're going to try some honey wheat and cinnamon raisin and other recipes until we find a wheat recipe we love.

Do you have a favorite bread recipe (wheat or otherwise)? Do tell!

Baby Communication 101

I love this product. Our family has all four Baby Signing Time! videos and my kids love them. My 2 (almost 3) year old, Alexander, can't talk or sign yet but we're working hard on both. If nothing else, having Baby Signing Time on helped me learn the signs so I can be a better teacher for him. Really great stuff. Check it out.
Baby Signing Time Dvds
All About Baby Signing 

Invitation!

I just completed my tour guide training last night and I'm so excited! If you're interested in coming on the day I'm going to be giving tours, let me know and I'll get you the info for my times. 

Just so you know, you don't even really need a ticket to come, but they're easy to download and I think having a reservation is always nice.

Come see the Temple! A great family experience!

Get your ticket/reservation here

Find out more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our Temples

Dealy Dealy

Barnes and Noble has a listing on Ebay for a refursbished Nook with a buy it now price of $79 and free shipping! It's the regular Nook not the color or I wouldn't be typing this post, I'd be putting a couple of Nook Colors in my Ebay cart. I've had my Kindle for a couple of years now and it's still working great but if I had a use for a second E-reader, I'd jump on this fast! Kevin and I get great deals like this all the time buying refurbished electronics and such and if you don't mind some times having less of a warranty I would definitely recommend it as the way to go.

Simple Expressions

 

Click. Print on card stock. Share!

Gratitude

I just looked over my little blog stats for the month of March and I want to take a moment to thank all the people who have been reading my blog lately. My google friend followers alone have more than quadrupled in  the last month and I can't even tell you how happy I am about that! I love sharing my little projects with you and I hope you continue to enjoy it too.



You all rock!
*Muah!*

Our Prophet

This is a clip from the Priesthood Session of General Conference (of the LDS church) in April 2008. President Monson always tells the best stories. He never fails to make me smile. I can't wait for Conference this weekend! I'm definitely feeling the need for a spiritual boost.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head!

Yesterday was kind of a poopy day over here and today I've decided it's because Spring isn't doing what I want it to do. I want warmth and sun and it's cold and rainy instead. I know rain is part of Spring just as much as sunshine is but having to still run the heater is bumming me out. So, to put myself in a better mood...a little creation. Something cute in honor of rain!

Click to enlarge. Right click. Save image as. Save.
Print. Share. Enjoy.

(Bottom floral artwork from Promise Collection by ShabbyPrincess. More fabulous free downloads at ShabbyPrincess.com)

Random Insightful Quote of the Day

When a child is born, a father is born. A mother is born, too of course, but at least for her it's a gradual process. Body and soul, she has nine months to get used to what's happening. She becomes what's happening. But for even the best-prepared father, it happens all at once. On the other side of a plate-glass window, a nurse is holding up something roughly the size of a loaf of bread for him to see for the first time. Even if he should decide to abandon it forever ten minutes later, the memory will nag him to the grave. He has seen the creation of the world. It has his mark on it. He has its mark on him. Both marks are, for better or for worse, indelible.
~ Frederick Buechner,'Whistling in the Dark'

Alphabet Treasure Hunt

This is a little activity my mom came up with for me when I was two. She made two copies of each letter of the alphabet. Then she would post one set all around on the walls at my eye level. She would give me one of the second set of letters and tell me to go find the one that matched. My mom was pregnant with her third baby in three years at the time (and insanely morning sick) and this game gave her the ability to rest while I would go on a hunt and bring the letter back to her. Over the years there were other variations, and of course there were times when she could look with us instead of handing us the letter from the couch but this is the general idea. There is actually an article that she wrote all about it in the November edition of knowonder! magazine*. Her article is called "The Amazing Alphabet Adventure" and it's on page 112. You should definitely give it a read. My mom is a mother of 6, she did daycare in our house for years and know she's a elementary school teacher for kids with special needs. She is a veritable fount of knowledge when it comes to creative/educational activities for kids.

Moving on to "little Amy's" present day story. I don't think I've mentioned it on this blog before but my son Alexander is going to be three in July and he's never said a single word. He babbles in his own little boy language but never a word in English (or Spanish. The doctor asked me that once when I said he doesn't speak English, "What language does he speak?" Totally didn't get what I was talking about. So I told her he speaks Curious George.) I know there's plenty of kids out there who didn't talk right away but we can't help but wish he could say things like "Mommy" and "Daddy" and "Yes, mother I am now ready to be potty trained."

Anyway, the reason I share this here is because I've noticed lately that I've been putting off teaching Alexander a lot of different things because he can't talk yet. I've been waiting and so focused on that one thing, I've been slacking in other areas. I've realized now that just because he's delayed in that one aspect, doesn't mean he can't learn things like matching and recognizing his letters, which is all this game requires. So I decided to give my mom's idea a try.

I used velcro for the wall posting, in case you're interested; loop half on the wall (semi permanent but that's how serious I am about this) and the hook part on the back of one set of letters. 

Good letter cards can be used for any number of learning games so I wanted to share some printables. **Free Free Free!** Get all three sets and then you can mix and match as your child becomes more familiar with the upper case block letters.

Upper case print/block letters. Full jpeg alphabet in zip file. 

All Arial font except "I" is Lucida Fax (to distinguish between lower case file "l" and upper case file "I".)

Click for 4shared download

Lower case print/block letters. Full jpeg alphabet in zip file.

All Arial font except letter "a" (to simplify as possible writing guide) 

Click for 4shared download

 Both upper case and lower case cursive letters. Full jpeg alphabet in zip file.

All Learning Curve font with "guidelines" added.

Click for 4shared download

If you read my post from last Thursday you'll remember that I printed my cards out on regular printer paper and then laminated them. Of course you can use whatever paper/card stock you want and they don't have to be laminated to serve their purpose. I just wanted mine to last a really long time.

Here's Alexander trying to get the matching A to stick to the wall, too. Sorry son, no sticky on that one.

I effectively posed this picture, because I called him to me and handed him the A and pointed to the A on the wall. So, no he didn't magically learn "A" overnight. I figure we can practice and have a lot of fun! Here's to better teaching and communication! 

I love you, little boy!

*Story has been moved to a new webpage on knowonder! Click here to see it.