Can I really!?

Today I decided to be brave and once again attempt the huge task of making bread! For some this is an every week occurence and is as easy as making pie, or no, actually more like,as easy as making cookies for them! ;)

Bread has always come hard for me. I don't like bread that breaks when I fold it.I've made bread that was absolutely gorgeous when it came out of the oven, but give it a day and it was the awful break-when-I-fold-it-in-half bread.

Some of my friends make the oatmeal bread and told me it's easy and yummy! The last time I made it I was discouraged. It was so soft I couldn't even shape it into loaves. I just baked it in one big blob!   : D

This morning I mustered up the courage to give it another try - and I MADE BREAD!

Nevermind that my loaves were three different sizes! My "guessing scales" didn't work so well ;) When I let it cool a little I FINALLY got the chance to try the bread! I couldn't wait! Maybe,just maybe there's homemade bread in our future : D We'll give it a day and see if it gets all yucky and hard ;)

Oh, and I was equally as excited about trying my strawberry jam I made last night! I found this awesome recipe that takes only half the sugar! Strawberry Freezer Jam always gave me the blues because I could never help but think about amount of sugar that went into it! Seriously, an equal amount of sugar and crushed strawberries! Anyway, everyone tells me , "well, you use only a little bit", and if you remember telling me that, it's ok...but it still bothered me ;)

Julia's Strawberry Freezer Jam

5 cups mashed strawberries

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

5 Tablespoons plus 1 Tablespoon Instant Clear Jel

1. Place smashed strawberries in a large bowl

2. In a smaller bowl, mix together sugar and clear jel,whisking until well mixed.Add the sugar mixture to the strawberries,whisking until very well mixed and sugar looks dissolved.If you don't stir it well, the starch will thicken in clumps.This should only take a minute or so.

3. Let strawberry mixture sit for 10 minutes to thicken completely.Scoop into clean jars,seal with a lid and place in freezer.

                                              He didn't seem to mind less sugar in his jam :)

Just when you thought...

...I totally forgot my blog and may never post again ... here I am :) I didn't forget about our little corner on the internet, it's just, well, life happened and I was not feeling inspired ;) So when I don't feel inspired to sit down and blog it doesn't happen! :)
 Alot of things happened since I last blogged. March was really kinda busy and April didn't start out much better. When you think it should slow down, it only gets busier.So I guess I should stop wishin' for a slow down!
 Then end of March we thought we were headed to Ohio to go see Joel's family and celebrate his dad's 60th, but two nights before we left we decided to head to Florida to visit them instead.They were originally planning to be home by that weekend but Joel's dad had severe kidney stone issues, was hospitalized for a few days and then it was recommended for him not to travel for a little while. So instead of pushing our trip out a week we decided to just run to Florida.
 It was a nice visit. Florida is beautiful but I think Pinecraft would probably eventually get on my nerves if I was there to long. Their little beach towns were gorgeous tho'! As we were driving to the beach one evening Joel told me that he thought it looked like so much fun to walk the little shops down there in the beach towns :) I love it that my hubby gets in the mood for that kind of stuff :)

This spring weather has me so excited! I love feeling spring in the air. I really wanted to have a garden this year but we didn't work any place up here for one.I actually wanted raised beds but I think that's something that needs to wait till we have our own place before we put the time and money in for something like that. Liz did have a little raised bed thingy behind the house here where she had flowers in, so I took that and planted some lettuce and radishes and tomatos and peppers. My first batch of lettuce and radishes came up beautifully.I planted lettuce twice, since that and none of that really came up very nice.Not sure why.

I told Joel that this has been my hobby this spring. And I sit out there willing the stuff to grow so we can eat it! :) I'm just waiting for my tomatoes to come up.I think I'm probably most excited about those! I don't know what you think of when you think of summer but I think BLT sandwiches!

I also started growing fresh herbs. I just thought it sounded like fun and was wishing I had fresh stuff on hand to cook with.Some I started with seeds and others I got plants. I have parsley, cilantra,basil,thyme,dill and chives.It's been a fun experiment for me.

Yep, around here we love spring. It makes us feel alive!

The other day as I was driving down the road, the song "There could never be a more beautiful you" came across the radio.I'm thinking maybe Jonny Diaz sings it?  Go on youtube,I'm sure you can pull it up - since I have no clue how to download it and have no time to figure it out ;)

Anyway, as I was listening to it, the thought hit me that we are made exactly how God wants us made!I know this song is probably talking about outward appearance some but my mind also went to our different personalities and make up. Maybe you don't like your  quiet personality, or maybe you wish to be more quiet or more outgoing - who knows, seems us as humans always find something wrong with ourselves or each other.

But as I was thinking about it I guess it was made clear to me that we are where we are because God has us here on earth to fulfill a purpose - to glorify him. And we all glorify God in a different way. Maybe you glorify God by your friendliness, making friends easily and reaching out to people, or maybe you preach or maybe your just a natural teacher.Others glorify Him with behind the scenes stuff because they have a personality more suited for that.

So it's easy to look at ourselves and be discontent, wishing we could be more like somebody else...

Or me and Joel were talking about it the other day that sometimes it's easy to look at somebody else and be very critical - well, why can't they get up and give their testimony or teach or etc. etc. because I can! and get caught up in that rut not remembering that God made us all with different gifts,different personalities.

I think we all need to remember that God made us and others the way He wants us.And we have no right to be discontent or to judge another because "there could never be a more beautiful you."

This song spoke to me this week. I also read thoughts about this in my devotional this week and then yesterday the subject was touched on in our Sunday School. God must be trying to speak to me in someway I guess :)

I hope all of you have a wonderful week!

~staci