Rolls!

The rolls didn't rise exactly like I wanted, but they passed the taste tests!

Dara was the most dramatic in affirming the quality of the rolls. I don't know what to make of the surprised look with her first bite. Did she expect them to taste bad?



Then she followed it with a look of sheer delight (at least that's how I choose to interpret it). If I were telling the truth - I think she's posing. But I like to think that she thought the rolls were the best ever!



(The boys liked them too, but Dade's pictures weren't as demonstrative and I didn't take pictures of Joel eating them. He doesn't really appreciate that kind of thing.)

Ingredients

My experiment today was to make yeast rolls. I've tried before, and I've had some folks offer to help me try again. I just really want to be able to do this on my own. (But why does yeast have to look so gross?)

As of right now the dough is still sitting in the refrigerator - where it can stay for up to 4 days! I'll make them into rolls tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

Dade was home from school and joyfully came to help me. He got tired of watching the thermometer with me and proceeded to ask me which pans he could use for his ingredients.

He had a whisk, pan, measuring cup, and water - what more does a boy need to have a good time?Apparently the taste test of his concoction (of water) was okay - but could be better.He asked me if he could use the candy cane he found in a drawer as an ingredient. (I've been saving it since Christmas for some unknown reason - I guess for today.) When I told him he could, he didn't believe me. What does it say about a mother when her son asks three times "This candy cane? I can use this one? Are you sure I can use it?" and he's holding it up in front of your face with surprise on his? I guess he thought I would change my mind because he kept the wrapper mostly on until the taste test. The special ingredient didn't improve the taste of the water so...

One last little story to help you enjoy my son a bit more (we were outside so there's no pictures). I was mowing the back yard this afternoon and caught 2 green grasshoppers for Dade. He was reluctant to receive 2 so one got away in the hand off. I returned to mowing and a few minutes later Dade motioned for me to stop. This was his question, "Do grasshoppers like water?" I thought he was probably going to try to save this one and assured him that they get their water from the grass they eat. His reply, "Well I sprayed him with water and he jumped away. Now I can't find him!" We looked for a few minutes but the grasshopper really did get away. :)

New Things!

It's hard to believe that we have less than 90 days left here. Where has the time gone? We're still waiting for the house to sale. Joel's been praying (since last October when I asked him to put the "For Sale" sign in the yard) that we'd be able to stay in the house until June 1st. It looks like he and God are on the same page - what a blessing to me!

Here's a picture of the outside (for Robin). It's a bit hard to tell that it has been painted, but up close it's huge!Another huge blessing was when Luis Bautista came over and replaced our counter top in the kitchen. Thank you so much for the blessing of your time and talent!

I feel so happy in my "new" kitchen and in preparation for moving to Uganda and eating new foods, I spent an hour the other morning making falafel. (At first I found myself asking, "Who does this?!" and when I found out the answer was me (and probably many others) - I really enjoyed it.)

There are a bit strong in garlic, but Joel really liked them. I took them up to his office where everyone said they were quite good (keep in mind that I'm well loved by all of them)

They're definitely not pretty. I was going to make the kids try them, but I think I'll wait until next time. We'll see...

Boys Ranch (part 3)

We went bowling yesterday at the alley here on the ranch. (They really do have everything here.) It's the first time Dara and Dade have ever been bowling - it was good. I'm so grateful that I was bowling on their lane with the bumpers.

Dara had pretty good form. She insisted on using the pink ball even though the orange one was lighter.

Dade used the two-handed approach. It actually worked quite well for him.

We had 9 people bowling on one lane so there was plenty of down-time between turns. This is Tiffany finishing up her drink (I think she really wanted every last drop).

I have so many pictures of Dara cuddling with Poppa.

Dade truly loves the girls out here in my parents' home. This is Katherine and Dade thinks she hangs the moon. Thank you Katherine for spending so much time with a rowdy little boy and for cheering him through his 8th turn when no one else was really paying much attention.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, roller blading, and playing in a muddy river. There are no pictures of the river because I opted to stay back at the house with mom and visit. We go home today...it's been so relaxing and fun. It's neat when it feels like a longer visit than it actually was.

Boys Ranch (part 2)

Tiffany, my youngest sister, found my roller blades that I had loaned her about 9 years ago. So...I tried them on. I coasted really well, and I went up hill very well. It was the stopping when I started going down a slope towards my parents' yard that got me panicked.

I survived only because I grabbed Tiffany's boyfriend (I almost knocked him down with me).

All of yesterday was great but the highlight was when I got to go fishing with my dad. Just the two of us. And I caught 3 fish!!! It was great visiting with him - just sitting in the grass and talking. So relaxing (and exciting because I caught fish - please humor and appreciate my pictures)

Daddy caught a huge catfish first.

Fish #1 - a catfish! (I used corn to catch all the fish - just in case you were wondering.)

Fish #2 - a rainbow trout - it was so pretty and so big! (for real)

Fish #3 - a little perch. When I said, "Daddy, get the camera again!" He said, "Are you serious?!" I was so ecstatic to be catching fish I even took a picture of the tumbleweed I caught (for the record, he caught a tumbleweed too.) If you want proof of the tumbleweed, let me know and I'll post them too.

Boys Ranch (part 1)

Dara, Dade, and I are here at Boys Ranch, TX with my parents. It's wonderful 'cause my brother is here with his two and both sisters came out - it's like a mini family reunion. Out here in West Texas there's a different kind of fun. We went to this red clay hill and slid down on a snow sled. It was a lot of fun. The kids clothes will never be the same again.

Our nephew Austen.Our niece, Gabrielle, opted to slide without the sled.

I even tried the sled. It was a short-lived trip but fun. The first time I did it - I flipped over at the end. Thankfully my dad didn't get a picture of my gracefulness.

The two clay hills were on either side of the train track. Right before we were about to leave - the train came by.

Dade was threatened within an inch of his life if he moved. It may have been a bit of overkill, but he's still safe.

Lake Palestine (part3)

My nap was great! (Thanks for wondering) :)

We did a bit of fishing while out on the boat. The boat had this depth detector device that would tell us that we were in 5 feet of water or 28 feet. You could also see if there were fish swimming underneath you.

I don't know if you can see it well, but we were at 28.8 feet and there were quite a few fish. Dara was very good at telling everyone when fish were around. She'd say, "They're going left!" "There's a lot of them" "There's only one" and "They're all gone now". It was kind of depressing knowing that there were so many fish around and yet none of them wanted my worm. Jason pointed out that the fish might be wondering what a worm is doing this far out. Who knows...

At one point we were about ready to move on from an area were we had "seen" no fish on the little device. Joel was driving and had just said "There's no fish here anyway". When Charlotte said very meekly, "Well, I have a fish". To be honest we thought she had caught a "sea bass" (or some grass), but we could see her line was moving around and there really was a fish on the other end of it!

This was the only fish anyone caught on our boating trip, but it was beautiful! (And it wasn't a perch or crappy)

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Dade has had a bit of a rough time here not being able to play outside as much as he would like. So Chuchu helped him get some of his energy out last night.

(this was just a pretty cool picture and thought that it was worthy of posting even though it had nothing to do with boating)

Lake Palestine (part 2)

This was the color of the sky this morning, but the ducks (you can see them in the upper left) were out there with Dara and Dade - enjoying the day.

So at 10 a.m. we finally got to go out on the boat. You can tell by our coats that the air was still a bit nippy. There was a large flock of ducks and pelicans that were out in the middle of the lake. It's a tribute to God's great design that they aren't affected by the cold temperatures of the water (the water was 57 degrees).

I wanted to drive through the flock to watch them fly away but we were told the water in the middle was quite shallow so we had to scare them indirectly (the drivers of the boat weren't purposely trying to scare them but it did happen anyway - much to my glee).

The pelicans were so pretty and graceful.
I'll post more later, but it's nap time and Joel's already snoring. I just don't want to miss out on my nap!!!

Lake Palestine, TX (part 1)

We're out here on Lake Palestine with Joel's family. It's cold (like 45 and cloudy). The house we're staying in is beautiful and it has a dock that puts you out by the water. We waited until about 11 a.m. to go out and try to fish. I really like to fish and I've had this new, pink fishing pole since November of 2008 and have yet to catch a fish with it. So off we went... Dade says that he is the best caster in the family (probably in the world!) - that's how far he cast. I couldn't show the bobber in the picture because it was too far away from him. Maybe he really is the best caster! (to his credit - he does cast very well for a 5 year old)

We fish with passion in our family. Notice the ferver with which Dara casts!Imagine her saying "Here I go!"

It's truly a desperate act to try to fish in weather like this and soon we decided that since the fish were smart enough to not be biting in wind blown water that is quite chilly - we should be smart enough to not be out here trying to catch them.

The only one who caught anything was Weldon. He caught the tree on the way out of the house. He caught it well enough that it took both him and Joel to get it uncaught. :)