Home Keeping Guide Cover

I've started work on my Home Keeping Guide remake and the first job is the front cover. I've done three different versions but can't decide which to use so thought it would be helpful to have other's opinions.

The first has a faded beach background:


The second is a silhouette at sunset for the background:


The third is the same beach photos as the original but it is the original photo rather than a faded version:


Please leave a comment saying which one you prefer and why.

Thanks.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Do we need another government inquiry into home schooling? | Education | guardian.co.uk

  tags: home-education

• Young boy with fatal condition survives against the odds

  This little boy is the nephew of Deana from Simple Joys (http://deenyssimplejoys.blogspot.com/). It just goes to show that even when a child is diagnosed with a supposedly fatal condition doesn't mean they can't survive and live a joyful life.

  tags: pro-life

• iamhealed.net » Blog Archive » Idiotic laws

  tags: pro-life

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Who needs toys...

...when you've got a recycling bin.

(Just so you know it only has paper, cardboard and plastic in and it's all clean.)

New Year Review

Last year I intended to do quarterly reviews but I let perfectionism get in the way and ended up not doing any so this year I’m trying to do better by just writing things out as I think of them and not worrying too much about whether it is set out in the best way.

That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Colossians 1:10

Bible Study
Last year I used the Daily Bread reading plan by Robert Murray M’Cheyne. I managed to more or les keep up with it until about September and then gradually ended up about a month behind by the end of the year. This year (once I finish last year’s reading plan) I’m planning to study the Hexapla. I don’t have a set aim of how quickly I want to get through it – I just want to study God’s word thoroughly and compare the different translations. I figure that looking at the alternative translations in parallel will help my understanding and it will enable me to see for myself the differences between the translations. This is something I am really looking forward to for this year.

Gardening
Last year I did plant a few things but all I ended up with was two tomatoes (and I didn’t even plant them!). Unlike 2006 (I didn’t grow anything in 2007) watering was not an issue since it was a fairly wet summer but the slugs and snails totally destroyed my runner beans. I also usually find it difficult to access the tools etc I need to work on the garden but this year my husband has tidied out the shed so I should be able to find what I need. Since Little Girl loves to spend time outdoors it should be fairly easy for me to get the time I need in the garden to make it a success.
Short term goals

• Sort seeds.
• Decide what to plant.
• Write on calendar when to start seeds.
• Read a bit about the plants I am growing.
• Clean out pots and prepare for planting.

Long term goal

• Maintain plants throughout growing season and raise a crop.

Exercise
I did start doing daily cycling for a couple of months in the summer but then when the weather became not so good I didn’t like to take Little Girl out on the back of the bike so I stopped. I then got some exercise videos which I did a few times but I haven’t got the hang of them yet. I’m thinking I might try going out on my bike again as Hubby has been out on my bike (because mine has the child seat) with Little Girl this week and evidently she really enjoys it as she keeps requesting to go out on the bike now.
Short term goals

• Go cycling twice a week.
• Do an exercise video once a week.

Long term goal

• Exercise four to five times per week.

Healthy Eating (Nourishing Traditions style)
Last year in addition to baking sourdough bread I developed my own sourdough spicy fruit loaf. Sourdough fell by the wayside in the last couple of months but I’ve got the starter out and ready to go now so should be resuming sourdough bread this week. (Edited to add: I made some today.) I started making yoghurt, buttermilk, crème fraiche and kombucha and will continue to do so. I also obtained some kefir grains but haven’t been successful in producing anything palatable from them yet. I was already making stock from bones/carcasses but I have started deliberately choosing meat on the bone in order to avoid the need to buy stock cubes at all. We switched from margarine to butter and from semi-skimmed to whole milk (except for in tea – I just don’t like the taste of whole milk in tea). I introduced a Nourishing Tradition-ised version of baked porridge (oatmeal) into our breakfast repertoire to give a bit more variety whilst still being healthy. I have started doing a bit of pickling and making condiments and hope to expand on this in the coming year.
Short term goals

• Resume sourdough baking
• Experiment with kefir again (any suggestions of how to make it more palatable are welcome)
• Try a new Nourishing Traditions recipe each week.

Long term goals

• Replace all condiments possible with home made ones.
• Eliminate shop bought snacks containing hydrogenated vegetable oil.
• Reduce sugar intake as far as possible.

Stewardship (frugality and “green” living)
Amazingly my current figure for this years spending (our financial year ends at the beginning of April and I forecast expenditure and then update it with the real figures) is only 0.2% higher than last year so far although I expect it may end up higher than that in the end.

I’ve been tracking my grocery spending in a spreadsheet for about three years but had never made a price book. Finally in December I started one (which led to some very interesting discoveries with regard to price) and my intention is to make use of it in order to find the best prices and to be able to stock up when things are on special offer.

I started making lentils and rice which is a very good cheap alternative to mince (ground meat) and I’ve started using lard (which is 72% cheaper than butter) for some baking and for greasing baking tins/trays. Another big change food-wise would be that we started getting organic fruit, veg, milk, cream and eggs delivered from a local farm.

I finally got around to buying cloth handkerchiefs instead of using paper tissues. I am sure this is saving us a fortune as I would often get through a box a week and I have definitely noticed that I don’t need to buy as many as I used to. My husband also agreed to try toilet cloth instead of toilet paper (for number ones only) on a trial basis which is also cutting down our use of resources.

I already mainly use homemade cleaners but having bought a huge bag of Ecover washing powder, it would be silly to switch to homemade. I have however decided to mix it with borax, soda crystals (washing soda) and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in order to reduce the cost per wash from the current 7p per wash.

I’ve also been making more of a conscious effort to avoid buying more “stuff” and to try to avoid excessive packaging which is probably reflected in the low increase in our spending despite high inflation.
Short term goals

• Update price book monthly and make appropriate purchases according to the information.
• Use half lentils and rice in all mince dishes.

Long term goals

• Cut back/eliminate kitchen roll use.
• Price up meal recipes (including any variations) in order to see how much they cost.
• Refine washing powder recipe.

Home education
This is something I have been thinking about a lot this year. I have a lot of ideas about how I want things to work out in the medium term but am less concerned about the short term. Rather than having specific learning goals or a time frame for those goals, for the most part I just want to provide a suitably varied range of appropriate experiences so that my daughter can learn and develop at her own pace. Although I don’t follow it strictly, I have found “Slow and Steady Get me Ready” useful for activity ideas and variety.
Short term goals

• Create a home-education file.
• Write down appropriate activities and put them into categories.
• Try to ensure each category is covered at least once a week.
• Continue teaching letters and progress to words when appropriate.
• Read at least one book about education.

Long term goals

• Read more about various philosophies of education (Montessori, Charlotte Mason, Classic/Trivium) and make notes.
• Sketch out details of a medium term plan.

Decluttering
This started out with considering whether our books, DVDs and videos were good things to read/watch and then expanded to become a full scale clear out. The DVDs and videos have been done but books take time to read so they are a much longer job. We sorted through our boxes of stored stuff and managed to roughly half them. This has produced a lot of stationery mainly in the form of empty files, dividers and scrap paper. I’m now trying to work through the rest of the house tidying and decluttering. I come from a family of hoarders and used to be very sentimental and obsessive about keeping things (such as all my Christmas and Birthday cards and all my school work since I was about nine or ten for example) but since starting on the books etc it was like a light bulb went on in my head and suddenly I realised how unimportant these things are. Yes it is nice to keep mementoes of significant occasions or special people in my life but I don’t need to keep everything to make a life record which someone else then has to sort through when I’m gone.
Short term goals

• Finish general decluttering around the house.
• Go through and put away last remaining storage boxes.
• Finish removing staples from scrap paper.
• Throw away, recycle or Freecycle all unsalable items.

Long term goals

• Sell “stuff” at a car boot sale in the summer.
• Get rid of anything left over either through e-Bay, Freecycle or charity shops.
• Create a regular system of decluttering and “stuff” avoidance.
• Teach my daughter how to declutter and not accumulate loads of “stuff”.

Keeping the home
Overall I would probably say I’ve got things more organised than I used to. Menu plans and checklists of things to do on regular days/weeks definitely help. Towards the end of the year things did get rather chaotic due to a number of factors but thanks to most of those being resolved and progress with decluttering I am more or less back on track with things now except for menu planning. My Home Keeping Folder is getting rather unwieldy and disorganised though so I’m thinking of starting afresh and working through Heather’s “Inside the Guide” series to cut it back down and organise it. My recipes are also rather disorganised so that is another thing I want to work on.
Short term goals

• Resume menu planning
• Remake Home Keeping Folder using “Inside the Guide”
• Sort through recipes/recipe books and only keep ones which will be used.

Long term goals

• Organise recipes into a file.

I aim to meet all the short term goals by April when I will do a quarterly review.

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

Colossians 3:23

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Serbian Abortionist Who Aborted 48,000 Babies Becomes Pro-Life Activist

  A good reminder that we should be praying for all those involved in the abortion industry that the Lord will open their eyes to whatthey are doing.

  tags: pro-life

• Yummy mummy survival guide | The Sun |Woman| Fashion|Beauty

  It's great to see a celebrity who is positive about breatfeeding *and* is not going along with the whole "get your body back and be superwoman" thing.

  tags: Breastfeeding, Motherhood

  • WELSH warbler Charlotte Church gave birth to her second child last weekend.
    

    
    The 22-year-old singer gave birth to bouncing baby boy Dexter Lloyd Hensonhad
    in a water birth at home with partner Gavin Henson and two midwives by her
    side.
    

  • After the birth of her first child Ruby, Charlotte said she wasn't too
    bothered about trying to shift her extra baby weight.

  • She also reckons breastfeeding helped her shed her baby weight as well as
    having other benefits.
    

    
    She added: “It was really reassuring knowing that Ruby had extra protection
    from chest, ear and stomach infections, as well as from diabetes and
    allergies. On top of that, breastfeeding is free and really convenient –
    especially in the middle of the night!”
    

    
    So forget stressing about your baby bulge and concentrate on enjoying your
    newborn just like our Charlotte.
    

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Born at just 23 weeks, the baby who defied our abortion laws | Mail Online

  tags: pro-life

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Debate: Should graphic pro-life sites be banned? - mirror.co.uk

  This is something I am unsure about but I don't think I agree with the reasoning of the first lady in this article. Perhaps if they showed the pictures to women considering abortions the abortion rate would be much lower?

  tags: pro-life

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Pro-Life Blogs

  tags: pro-life

• A Joyful Birth : Scripture

  tags: Birth

• Hospital to Home: Eating During Labor

  tags: Birth

• Laced with Grace » Why me?

  tags: Christian, life

  • We can often get caught in a trap, thinking we are the only one who suffers, who is suffering. We can mistakenly assume that “everyone else’s” life is wonderful. But, Jesus tells us that we will ALL endure trials here on earth. But, Jesus gives us tremendous hope, promising that He has overcome the world!

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Lentils and Rice

I just typed up this recipe for some friends (one of them has anaemia because they had cut back significantly on meat due to costs) and I thought it would be good to share here. As you will see from the figures at the bottom, it offers significant savings compared with meat.

Ingredients

½ cup lentils

1 cup rice

1tbsp whey

1 ½ cups stock (approx 750ml)

1 small onion, chopped

1 small clove of garlic, crushed

1 tsp thyme

salt and pepper

The night before

1. Place lentils, rice and whey in large jug and fill with water to double the volume.
2. Leave to soak overnight.

The next day

1. Strain and rinse lentils and rice.
2. Place in pan with all the other ingredients and bring to the boil.
3. Leave to simmer for 1-2 hours until all the stock has been absorbed.
4. This makes approximately 2lbs/1kg.

Serving suggestions:

• Can be served as is with vegetable casserole. We usually add some homemade salsa on the side to make it a little more tasty.
• Can be used in any dish which calls for mince (ground meat).
• Lentil burgers – mix with egg, tomato puree or salsa and seasonings (I usually use curry paste); place in heaps on greased baking tray; cover with tin foil and bake at GM4/180°C for 30-50 minutes.
• Meat loaf.

Iron Content

Lentils and Rice contains approximately 1.3mg iron per 100g which is roughly similar to chicken.

Lamb contains about 1.7 mg/100g.

Turkey contains about 2.1 mg/100g.

Beef contains about 2.7 mg/100g.

Ham contains about 1.1 mg/100g.

Pork contains about 0.9 mg/100g.

Bacon contains about 0.1 mg/100g.

Cost (1kg is roughly 2lb)

Lentils and rice costs about £1/kg.

Pork mince is £4/kg.

Lamb mince is £4.60/kg.

Beef mince is £3.75/kg.

Tesco value mince is £2.42/kg.

A blogging rest

At the moment things seem to have come together so that I am not getting much done. None of them on their own would make a significant impact but in combination they do. (Please note I am not complaining: I realise God has a purpose in everything even if I do not know what it is.)

The first is that my husband is working different hours to usual so is out of the house for much longer and gets home later than our usual bedtime. This would not be so bad if Little Girl and I hadn't both come down ill at the same time (there's something going round our church).

In addition to this we have an ongoing problem with our freezer which means that I keep having to defrost our freezer when engineers come round to look at it. As a result I have had to run my freezer stocks down and don't currently have a stash of precooked meals in the freezer which I would usually make use of at a time like this. Fortunately one of my husband's customers who has lots of spare space in her freezer has kindly taken almost all of the frozen breastmilk which is a blessing as I don't know what we would do with it otherwise.

Anyway, since I'm struggling to keep up with everything and writing posts is just too mentally taxing at the moment, I thought it sensible to have a blogging rest until the New Year. I may do the odd little post and there will be the automated posts from Diigo but that will be it until January.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Want What You Have: God Bless the Good Husbands

  tags: Marriage

• Jar Cakes, Jar Mixes, Food Gifts From the Recipe - The Recipe Link

  tags: Homemade gifts

• Ivory blossom: Greetings from the middle of nowhere

  tags: Moral standards

• The Kitchen Revolution: A Year of Time-and-Money-Saving Recipes

  tags: Menu planning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Seven Random Things

While catching up on posts in Bloglines, I realised that Crystal tagged me back in September and I haven't done it yet so here goes:

The Rules

1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 7 random things about yourself
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post

- I was born on a Saturday.
- I have double jointed thumbs.
- I am 1/8 Indian.
- Although I was not "homeschooled" my mum taught me to read, write, tell the time, add and subtract and do long multiplication and division.
- I have been a Christian for approximately ten years.
- When I was younger my ambition was to become the youngest person to swim the Channel.
- I made my wedding dress the fortnight before I got married.

In the spirit of randomness I'm going to tag the last seven people (excluding those who aren't blogging) to comment on my blog so that's:
1. Heather
2. Brandy
3. Casey
4. Mrs Flam
5. Suzanne
6. Linda
7. Our Family Is His

Blog Awards

Since April, three four people have been kind enough to give me blog awards so it is about time I passed them on.

The first one came from Toni in April:

I'm passing it on to the following people:
1. Amy from Amy's Place
2. Amy from Blessed Motherhood
3. Buffy from Buffy's Salon
4. Jimena from Do Good and Communicate
5. Shannon from Homemaking in the REAL World
6. Jennifer from Joyful and Graceful Living
7. Rachel from Life in the South
8. Casey from The Beautiful Letdown
9. Heather from Wanting What You Have
10. Amanda from Wholly by Grace

Then more recently in September I got the BFF Gold Card from Heather:

Here are the rules:

Rules: You may choose 5 awardees

Choose 4 faithful readers of your blog.

1 should be someone new or someone far away.

I've picked:

1. Toni from Amazing Grace

2. Heather from Wanting What You Have

3. Crystal from The Richey Family

4. Jennifer from Kruegers Journey to Simplicity

5. (new) New Life

Also in September, Amy gave me this award:

Which I am passing on to Elena at My Domestic Church.

And finally Our Family is His gave me this one:

The Rules:

1. Put the award up on your blog

2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you

3. Nominate at least seven other blogs

4. Add links to these blogs on your blog

5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blog

My nominees are:

1. God's Dancing Child at Dancing Among Infinite Love, Yahweh's
2. Linda at Ivory Blossom
3. Stephanie at Sojourner in a Strange Land
4. Brandy at A Work in Progress
5. Milehimama at Mama Says
6. Kristin at Homemaker at Heart
7. Ace at Joy and Grace

Each blog has different reasons for being picked and I like them for many different reasons but if I figure if I try to include reasons for each one I'll never get this post finished. If you have time, do check some of them out.

My Web Wanderings (weekly)

• Siamese twins father 'over the moon' after successful birth - and teenage mum is 'doing well' | Mail Online

  tags: pro-life

  • The husband of the teenage girl who has become Britain's youngest mother of Siamese twins said she and the babies were doing well.

  • The husband of the teenage girl who has become Britain's youngest mother of Siamese twins said she and the babies were doing well.
    

    Laura Williams, 18, gave birth to conjoined girls, named Faith and Hope, by Caesarean section.

  • The couple, from Shrewsbury, had defied advice from doctors to abort the girls early in the pregnancy, which they described as the 'hardest decision of our lives.'
    

    Only about 5 per cent of conjoined twins survive the first 24 hours. But the girls' chances are thought to be good as they are joined at the front from navel to breastbone and do not share a heart.

• Introduction to Native Reading

  tags: Reading

  • The optimal time to learn to read is when a child is one to three years old,
    because this is the time when their brains naturally do the most closely-
    related task: learning to under-stand speech and to talk themselves.
  • Nearly all children naturally learn to understand speech, and to speak themselves, between the ages of one and three years (although the foundations do indeed start from early infancy). This is an enormously complex task, yet you don’t really teach a child to talk. Instead, children learn to talk essentially on their own, so long as they are raised in an environment rich with speech and with social interaction. And children generally learn to talk with obvious delight, seemingly without effort and, often, with amazing speed. They don’t learn to talk through regimented lessons, instead they learn by listening to and interacting with their family and friends, by singing songs, and by playing games. Nearly every child does this successfully, in every culture around the world, and children have learned to talk like this throughout recorded history and, surely, before recorded history, too.
  • I believe that the reason some children read easily and early is because reading early makes learning to read easier.
    I know this sounds strange at first. Most people consider learning to read a fairly difficult task. Look at how many six-year-olds struggle with it! And since it is difficult for many six-year- olds, they assume that learning to read must be much more difficult, if not downright impossible, for a four-year-old—to say nothing of a two-year-old! But this superficially compelling logic is not valid for all tasks.
  • For example, nearly everyone now knows that learning a foreign language is much easier when you learn it at an earlier age. In fact, in general, the earlier the better. It is better to learn a foreign language early for the simple reason that early childhood is when our brains naturally are most receptive to language acquisition. It is a window of opportunity that, if missed, makes learning harder. You can learn a second language later, of course, but it is much more difficult to attain the fluency and accent that young children pick up with no trouble at all. Because of this, schools in this country have finally started to move foreign language instruction from the last few years of high school to much earlier in the curriculum, preferably all the way to kindergarten and even to preschool. Many people resisted this because, although everyone knows that children learn their own first language spontaneously and with ease in early childhood, they assumed that learning a second language would be somehow too confusing. The reality is, while there are occasional moments of confusion— moments when a child speaks a bit of Franglais or Spanglish—children generally deal with the additional complexity of a second language better when they are younger. Preschoolers, compared to older children and adults, are truly geniuses at learning languages.
  • The core insight of native reading is that this natural genius young children have for learning spoken languages can, if given the right environment, be easily extended to written language, too. If children learn in this more natural way, they not only read years earlier, they also gain an ease and familiarity with the written word that is achieved by older children, if at all, only after a much greater struggle. Native readers learn to read as a natural, effortless extension of learning to talk. And the best time to learn to read this way is the best time to learn to talk: before the age of three. Better yet, when children learn to read in this more natural way, not only do they learn easily, joyfully, and at an early age, but they then become truly native readers. They become deeply and effortlessly literate in a way that has lifelong benefits, just as native speakers of a language have an ease and fluency that can generally only be marveled at by those who learned too late.
  • Many people have heard of a case or two of a child who could fluently read by three. Indeed, throughout history there is ample evidence that children are certainly capable of reading that young. For example, by the age of three the great mathematician Gauss could not only read, he also knew enough mathematics to correct an error in his father’s payroll accounts! More recently, it has been reported that not only was the entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey reading by the age of three, but that she was actually so fluent a reader that she started her career in public speaking at this same age, reading for her church congregation, to much applause and amazement.
  • fundamentally, speech and writing are just two different forms of the same language. The critical factor is to create the right environment where the natural miracle of language acquisition extends to the written word.

• GourmetSleuth - Kitchen Conversion Calculator

  tags: Unit conversion

• Mommy Teach Me

  tags: Education, Montessori

• United for Life - A UK pro-life organisation against abortion

  tags: pro-life

• Down`s births rise despite tests

  tags: pro-life

• My babies are named Faith and Hope: British teenager set to be world's youngest mother of Siamese twins | Mail Online

  tags: pro-life

  • Laura Williams, 18, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, defied medical advice to abort the girls early in her pregnancy, and will now give birth to Faith and Hope by caesarean section this week.

  • When Aled and Laura Williams arrived at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital they were understandably excited. About to have the first scan, 12 weeks into the pregnancy, they paid the requisite £10 for three photographs and duly waited for their appointment with the nurse.

    Two hours later, the couple sat in the hospital car park, Aled's face a ghastly shade of grey and Laura, beside him, still in shock and unable to stop crying.

    It was only then that they realised they didn't even have a picture . . . and why the doctors, in their supposed wisdom, had thought it better that way. For Aled and Laura had just been told they were expecting conjoined, or Siamese, twins.

  • The couple felt the doctor was blunt to the point of callousness.

    Laura recalls: 'He said I'd be better to get rid of them, that I would probably lose them by 14 weeks and if they lasted any longer it could cause all sorts of complications and I could end up having to have a hysterectomy.'

    He then told the couple to go home and think about it while the nurse returned the money for their scan pictures.

  • Aled says: 'We're just hoping for the best. If God wants the babies to be in this world it will happen. If not, that's what it's got to be.
  • 'Most people of her age want to go out drinking and having fun but Laura's always said she wanted children. And at the end of the day they're still our children no matter what the outcome.'

  • Laura says: 'No one can say we haven't tried. I'm just glad we have proved that first doctor wrong.

    'I bet there are a lot of people out there who have been in our position and have felt they had no choice. Whatever happens to us, we've proved that's not the case.'

  • The couple do not have the first, 12-week scan as the doctor advised an abortion and thought it would be upsetting to have a picture to remember their babies by.

• Precious Life - a voice for the unborn child

  tags: pro-life

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Getting Used to a New Routine and Other Bits and Pieces

From yesterday until Christmas Eve, Hubby is working late shifts Monday to Saturday so we're having to get used to a new routine. Yesterday was rather disorganised but today has been better. I'm trying out a meat loaf recipe I found on New Life. I never made meatloaf before (I think maybe it's an American thing) so I'm looking forward to seeing how it will turn out. I did make a couple of modifications as I used lamb mince instead of beef mince and I'm putting salsa on the top instead of ketchup. The loaf is now sitting in the oven ready to cook and the salsa is made and ready to be added.

Last year Little Girl was too young to particularly notice that Daddy was around at different times but yesterday after bath time she was calling, "Daddy" and trying to go downstairs to look for him. I'm sure we'll all get used to it soon though.

A while back I read about the "box of beans" toy at Lentils and Rice and had been trying to think of something suitable for Little Girl as I knew she would love it but beans would be too small at her age. Today I finally thought of pasta so she spent the half hour before lunch time playing with a cup of (dry) pasta and three plastic tubs:

One last thing I wanted to share before Autumn is over is our Autumn table decoration:

It's not really an English thing to do but I've been reading about Autumn decorations on lots of American blogs and thought it sounded like a nice idea to mark the seasons so this is my first time. The stuff is actually on a lazy susan which is nice as we can turn it to face different directions and it makes it easy to remove and put back when we need to. Hopefully on Monday morning we will go out foraging for holly so that I can make a Winter one.

Sourdough Starter - alternative to buying yeast

I've been making bread now for over a year without having to buy yeast. According to Milehimama, it costs about 9 cents for two loaves. I usually make three loaves a week so over a year that would cost about $7. In England, the same quantity of yeast would cost me 17p for two loaves which would work out at around £13.

Instead of buying yeast, I use sourdough starter which makes use of naturally occurring yeasts.

It is very simple to make: Place a cup each of wholemeal flour and water in a large bowl (or jug), stir, cover with a tea towel and leave to stand overnight. Each day for around a week, add equal amounts of flour and water, stir, cover and leave overnight again. (I think my book suggested one or two cups a day but I only did half cups as I didn't want too much starter.) After a while it will start to get frothy and smell a little "beery". It will hopefully look something like this:



After a week to ten days, if your starter has become frothy then it is ready to use.

To make a 2lb loaf, I use two cups of starter, half a cup of water, a pinch of salt and around 1lb flour. I mix the first three ingredients together before adding flour. I keep adding flour until the dough seems about right. How much flour you need will depend on your starter so if you need a lot of flour and your loaf is too big for the pan, reduce (or even cut out) the additional water. If you find your loaf is on the small side then add extra water. After putting into tins and leaving to rise overnight, I bake the bread at GM4 for 1 to 1 1/4 hours before turning out to cool.

Once you have used your sourdough starter, you no longer need to keep it at room temperature. (You can if you want but if so, you must remember to stir it every day otherwise it will go mouldy.) I usually transfer it into a new container and top it up with 1-2 cups each of flour and water before putting it in the fridge. Either on the morning of the day I want to use it or the night before I get it out and add more flour and water to help bet it going again and to ensure there is enough of it for the next use. You may be able to use it straight out of the fridge but I find I get leaden loaves if I do this. I keep my starter in a jug with a plate over the top. This allows it to "breathe" and also enables me to see exactly how much of it I have.

Crazy Sheep

I was looking through our photos on the computer from the last year when I happened upon this video clip which I'd forgotten about. We were on holiday and decided to go for a drive while Little Girl was sleeping to look for snow. (Hubby loves snow and Little Girl slept better in the car than the holiday cottage so it made sense to combine them.) There we were drining through snowy hills when we came upon some stampeding sheep:

Our Annual Newsletter 2008

Today Hubby had a day off work so we spent the afternoon making our annual newsletter. Usually we print them off ourselves but we got a deal on Postcards at Vistaprint which was worthwhile in terms of both time and cost compared to doing it ourselves and they will also be better quality.

I thought it would be nice to share so here is the (anonymised) back of the card.


On the other side we have the same logo in the corner but larger and a picture of the three of us plus a greeting.

I am a "Mainline to Conservative" Christian

I found this quiz on Stephanie's blog. For once the top result was actually what I would have expected...

1.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%)
2.	Seventh Day Adventist (83%)
3.	Eastern Orthodox (77%)
4.	Roman Catholic (77%)
5.	Orthodox Judaism (69%)
6.	Orthodox Quaker (69%)
7.	Islam (67%)
8.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (65%)
9.	Jehovah's Witness (65%)
10.	Baha'i Faith (62%)
11.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (60%)
12.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (46%)
13.	Jainism (40%)
14.	Liberal Quakers (39%)
15.	Sikhism (39%)
16.	Hinduism (37%)
17.	Reform Judaism (34%)
18.	Mahayana Buddhism (32%)
19.	Theravada Buddhism (32%)
20.	Nontheist (31%)
21.	New Thought (30%)
22.	Unitarian Universalism (28%)
23.	Scientology (23%)
24.	Neo-Pagan (16%)
25.	New Age (15%)
26.	Taoism (13%)
27.	Secular Humanism (10%)

Snow!

This weekend we had snow on both Saturday and Sunday morning! It melted by the afternoon but it is quite unusual for it even to lie at this time of year and it is only the second lot of snow we have had since Little Girl was born.

On Friday we decided quite last minute to go to a table top sale on Saturday morning. We'd been thinking of doing a car boot sale but didn't fancy the cold so it seemed ideal. Unfortunately hardly anyone came so we only just sold enough to cover our £5 table fee and the organisers made a loss but it wasn't a complete waste of a morning. It was good practice and we've decided that maybe we should wait till the summer and then do a car boot sale. We also got a lovely dog book for Little Girl for 75p (she loves dogs - "woof" was her first word) and the people on one of the stalls gave her a toy vacuum cleaner which they didn't want to cart home again which she proceeded to use to "vacuum" all around the hall and under everyone's tables.