Puppy Games

I took this shot with the shutter speed slowed down.  It is a pic of Mary playing with Mackie.  This is his favorite game and they play it almost every day.  Mackie is the white streak coming over Mary's right shoulder.  The video shows how their game is done.

 

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Have I Told You Lately ...

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Happy Valentine's Day

 My attempt at tissue paper roses.  We are on a tight budget so I told Rich I would take care of the flowers.  lol

 My valentine to Rich

 I made 2 heart shaped pizzas.  I used a new sourdough pizza dough recipe and it turned out great!

I know this is a little late but I wanted to wish you all a blessed Valentine's and share a few pictures from our day.  We are so thankful to the Lord for all he has done for us and given us.  Rich came home from work with cards and candy for Mary and I.  He is such a sweetheart!

 

Mary Reading

I have been having so much fun teaching Mary to read.  We started Kindergarten this year and I think she is doing really well.  She struggled with reading at the beginning of the year but after our Christmas break she just took off lickity split in her reading.  I also read to her when she writes her words and does her artwork.  Having her draw pictures and do artwork really helps her with her writing skills.  I think it helps her fine motor development.  Any way I am really proud of my little munchkin and I wanted to share with you this video of her reading.

 

 

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Flinders Journey

 

This beautiful picture of a pink lake came up on my pinterest board about a week ago and it immediately caught my attention.  I read underneath the pin that it is a naturally occurring pink lake in Southern Australia that was discovered by a man by the name of Matthew Flinders.  I love true life stories and intesting historical accounts so I began to read about this man's journey to what was known in that day, New Holland, a little over 200 years ago.  It's a story of duty, true and deep love, devotion and tragedy of the worst kind.  Matthew Flinders was an English man that was raised in a family that had a history of doctors and his parents hoped that he would follow in their footsteps but he fell in love with the sea and adventure and became employed by the royal navy of England to explore new worlds and make maps.  He became very good at it and had achieved a prestigious position and was put in charge of a ship called the Investigator and was commissioned to explore and map the Southern Coast of Australia.  It was not known at that time in 1801 if Australia was one land mass or two.  Matthew had a sweetheart, Anne, who he had known since childhood.  She was a beautiful girl with black curly hair and lovely eyes. When he was 27 and she was 29 they married just 3 months before he left on this voyage and was so hoping to take his beloved new wife with him but the navy refused his request.  She was so broken hearted at him going.  She wanted him to leave the navy and not go.  He left her in that very sad state and went to discover Terra Australius (The Southern Land).  He was a good man and very talented at what he did.  His crew loved and respected him and he did many things to earn that.  He mapped the Southern Coast and the Recherche Archipelagos.  On the largest island in the North Eastern corner of the isle, he sighted this pink lake and made note of it in his journal.  He went on to be the first to sail all the way around the continent and introduced the name Australia and the name stuck.  When he made it all the way around he went to port and received a letter from his wife, Anne, that told him the news of his father's death and her having had a serious illness.  I read this letter and almost wept.  He was such a eloquent man and I just love the English language of this era!  So beautiful.  I love it so much I would like you to see what he wrote.

 

'Grateful for thy recovered health, my dearest love, and grateful to thee for thy many long and most dear remembrances of me, which I have received on our arrival here some days since. How shall I express the anguish of my heart at the dreadful havock that death is making all around? How dear is the name of father to an affectionate son, and how sweet the idea of being soon able to console and assist him in his every want and wish. When parting with the hope of soon showing that my actions should prove better than my words how much I loved him, how dreadful is this blow. Tis too painful to be dwelt upon, although, alas, I have lately had too much experience of death's power, for my eyes can scarcely be turned where some victim does not die. Douglas, the boatswain is gone - the sergeant, two quarter-masters and another followed before we got into this port; and since, the gardener and three others are laid in earth. Death's hand is now stayed, and his envious eye which had been cast upon more of us seems to be turning away.'

'But little indeed can be boasted of our state and condition, but thou shalt have some brief account of us; and first of the ship [the Investigator]: a survey has been held upon her and which proves her to be so very much decayed as to be totally irrepairable.'

As he said in the letter the ship was irrepairable.  So he got another ship and headed home after being gone over 3 years.  The ship he got was not better and began to have trouble and he had to go into a French port on an island east of Madagascar.  There the governor of the island put him under house arrest because England was at war with France and he accused him of being a spy.  For 6 1/2 years he was held there and it took the British Navy to get him out.  During this time he worked on his journals and maps but his heart was deeply grieved and he suffered many sorrows because he had been parted from his wife for so long.  He was supposed to be back in 4 years, have a promotion and all would of been well.  While on this island he contracted a serious illness.  Finally when he got home to his wife, Anne, it had been 9 years and 3 months.  He was now 36 and she was 38 and he had failing health.  He got the promotion but not much money.  So they were poor.  Two years later they had a daughter, Anne, named after her mother.  She was a beautiful child.  Matthew continued his work and published it July 18, 1814, exactly 13 years from the time he left.  The sad thing was he died the next day at the age of 40.  His wife was deeply hurt and so saddened by his death because she loved him so much.  While he was on house arrest on that island he talked about how much he regretted what he did by leaving her.  Like most people he became famous after he died.  Australia is in great dept to him for all the information he gathered and from that, they were able to colonize the land.  Matthew Flinders will always be remembered by the Australians.  I will always remember him for his sad and bittersweet story.  A man of great love and great loss.   

Our Budding Artist

Mary has really been having fun with art lately.  When she was a little younger she only wanted to paint and use the color red.  She did some really awesome paintings in red but now she is branching out into other mediums and is having a blast.  Here is some of her artwork and pictures of her working on them.

When she hung this picture over her bed, she said it would be like a window to the outside.

To Remember

A dear friend contacted us and wanted to buy one of our lamps.  She is a person who has struggled with a lot of pain in her body over the years and many surgeries.  She had a very bad part of her back that was causing her excruciating pain.  After searching she found a doctor who said he could help her with surgery but it would be a very delicate and risky procedure.  She had the surgery done and it was successful and she has healed up and went through therapy and now is pain free after all these years!  She has given God all the glory for this as He is our healer and the doctors can do a lot but not everything.  So she wanted to have a lamp made with a scripture from the book of Luke where Jesus healed a woman who was bent over and could not straighten up to remind her of the Lord's healing touch in her life.  Rich gladly accepted and made this beautiful lamp for her.  I was just so blessed by this, realizing that our lamps are useful but also a wonderful way to remember something and share it with others!

  

Sourdough Lovin'

A few years ago Rich got a book from his mom about Alaskan Sourdough. He decided a couple of weeks ago to make a sourdough starter. It turned out great! He has made cinnamon rolls, buns and flap jacks. The dough takes longer to rise but the bread tastes so much better and is a lot softer that using regular yeast. Our little dog, Mackie, really likes it too. He is not usually a big bread eater but he ate a lot more of this bread. Rich said he had read in the book that sometimes people fed their sled dogs the bread when they were low on food as it has more protein in it than regular bread. So, I looked up the nutritional value of sourdough and I found out some very interesting things.  Here is a little bit of the article.

It said: 

Very basic sourdough bread that had once been fermented for a healthy 8 hours or more is not to be found anywhere except in ones own kitchen today. In commercial bread yeast levels are dramatically increased, accelerates and proving agents introduced including bromide, a known thyroid poison that was insanely substituted for iodine in the US. Fast-made bread is one of the most destructive implementations into the modern diet. It has become normal fare. Poorly-prepared and poorly-digested wheat is the chief contributor to the current plague of “gluten-intolerance,” obesity, diabetes, Candida diseases and many allergenic conditions all of which contribute to the conditions that cause cancer.

Only when wheat gluten is properly fermented is it healthy for human consumption. When not it is potentially one of the most highly allergenic foods we eat. It is similar to the controversy with soy which also can only be considered a health food if it is fermented long enough. Correctly fermented wheat contains 18 amino acids (proteins), complex carbohydrate (a super efficient source of energy), B vitamins, iron, zinc, selenium and magnesium, and maltase.

The article is long.  If you would like to read more you can go here.  Sourdough has natural occurring bacteria that helps promote digestion and has many benefits to your health.

Well now here are the pictures of the things Rich has made.  A picture of the book cover on Alaskan Sourdough and a recipe for the starter.

 

For more amazing recipes you can go to Foodie Friday Here.

December Memories

I finally have gotten around to putting all our December photos together in a slide show.  I try and make a slide show each holiday so we can remember what we did.  I burn them onto disc and then every once in a while we pull out the discs and have a family movie night and watch a bunch of them and enjoy remembering all the fun we had and see how much Mary has grown.  My husband's parents had a bunch of movies that they made of Rich and his sister put on to disc and we have fun watching them too.  It is so fun to see what Rich was like as a little kid and see how Mary looks like him.

 

Here is our month of December in photos:
 

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Beautiful Buns

My husband made some beautiful buns yesterday for lunch. We had salmon burgers and he made some wonderful refrigerator dough the night before. He had used the dough for cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast and now he was trying some different ways to use it. So he made the dough, refrigerated it over night and then rolled it out to 1/2 inch and cut it with a large biscuit cutter and then let them rise to double their size and bake.  (He also made the pea salad and I will share that on another post later)

 

The buns turned out so yummy.  So tender and fresh!  The best bun I have ever had for a sandwich.  Here is the recipe:

 

Overnight Rolls
Ingredients need to be room temperature
Combine:
2 1/2 teaspoons of granulated yeast
2 teaspoons of sugar
in a 1/4 cup of 85 to 100 degree water.
Permit these ingredients to stand until dissolved, about 10 minutes. 

Scald: 1 cup milk
Add and stir until melted
7 tablespoons vegetable shortening or butter
Cool. Combine and beat well:
7 tablespoons sugar
4 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon salt
Stir in the milk mixture and cool to 85*
stir in the yeast mixture and:
4 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
Beat the dough about 5 minutes. Place in a foil-covered bowl in the refrigerator over night.

Spray pan with cooking sprayRoll dough out to 1/2" thickness and cute with a large biscuit cutter. Place rolls on cookie sheet. Let them rise in a warm place for 1/2 hour. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 18 minutes or until golden brown.

 

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