Just in case anyone hasn’t seen this:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4628040

And I know you think I look that young and my legs are that long, but no, that isn’t me. I’m only occasionally that mean. Ok, just kidding, I’ve never been that mean in my entire life. And don’t ever try googling me again, because forever more, you’ll just find her!

I’m guest-ing over at Bloom today.  Probably my 15 minutes of fame.  If you haven’t given Bloom a try yet, today’s the day.  It’s delightful.

That is, if you consider finding a really good bread recipe pay dirt.  The following recipe works better than any other I’ve tried.  It’s soft, it’s still good the next day, it’s fast to make and it’s made of 100% whole wheat.  The instructions are very detailed, which I love.  Takes the guess work out.  I suspect one reason it works so well is that it was given to me by a neighbor, so we’re at the same altitude, humidity, etc.  I’d love to hear if it works for you!  (This is Bart Wilson’s recipe, for some of you who live in my neighborhood.)  P.S. My kids think this is a meal, when eaten with milk.  Please don’t tell them otherwise.

Turn on oven to 170.  Grind 6 3/4 cups wheat (white is milder, but red is what I have) to make 9-10 cups of flour.

In your stand mixer (you have to have the big one for this) mix briefly:

4 cups very warm water, 1/3 cup oatmeal (optional), 1 T salt, 1/3 cup oil, 1/3 cup honey or sugar

Turn the mixer on speed one and add about half of the flour.  Continue mixing while adding 1 1/2 T dough enhancer, 3 T gluten, and 2 T yeast.  Then add the rest of the flour.  Leave the mixer on for 12 minutes (set a timer) to knead.

Turn off the oven (you want it to cool to about 120).

Spray 3 large pans or 4 smaller (4×8) pans.  Divide the dough between them.  If you plop it into each pan, it will pick up just enough grease that it will be easy to handle as you shape a loaf.

Put the loaves in the warm oven for 25 minutes (set a timer).

Turn the oven on to 350.  Set the timer for 33 minutes.  Leave the bread in the oven while it warms up.

This has worked so well and is so easy for me, I’m seriously considering not buying bread any more.   Try it!

Would you have thought something that sounds like “ratatouille” would be complicated?  I would have.  Turns out, it’s easy, it’s good for you, and it’s delicious.  Even my Sam liked it, and for a twelve-year-old boy, putting giant spoonfuls of vegetables on his plate is really saying something.  It also looked lovely and quite impressive (like something you might make for company), and I wish I had taken a photo.  Here’s the recipe I used (my only modifications were cook the onions with the eggplant, a little italian seasoning instead of parsley, and bake a little longer).  Get to a farmer’s market this week (or your own backyard) and try it.

Mary went to preschool yesterday to meet her teacher and get acquainted with the rocket slide and the tiny, tiny monkey bars.  I explained to her that the next time she came to preschool, I wouldn’t be with her and she would be a big girl and come by herself.  She didn’t seem worried about that, and I’m sure she’ll be fine.

This morning, her first words were, “Tomorrow can you drive me to preschool?  Because I don’t know the way.”  Yes, in her mind she wasn’t just AT preschool by herself, but was expected to GET THERE by herself.  Isn’t that a funny visual?  Three year-old walking the two miles to preschool unescorted?  What’s also funny is that she didn’t seem too worried about it yesterday.  It wasn’t until she gave it a little more thought that she realized the route wasn’t clear in her mind and she might need a little help.

Funny girl.

1. Are you fainting from surprise? Since I never post to this blog any more (I’m going to start again soon. Really.), maybe you’d like to read another? Matt will be traveling more than usual for the next few months (please don’t tell the boogie man) and I’m starting another blog that will be a place for the kids to post messages for him. For obvious reasons, we’re going to make it private, but if you know us in real life and would like to share, please leave a comment or send me an email and you will be invited to read our kids’ hilarious ramblings. Specify if you’d like an email when there’s a new post, or just permission to check the blog.

2. Most of you know this by now, but my sister Anne and her friend Emily have started a new blog. Click on the Bloom button at the bottom of my blogroll to check it out. And watch for a “guest post” from me there soon. Aren’t I fancy?

3. I accomplished something I always procrastinate, and took my kids to get their pictures taken. I stopped paying for school pictures a few years ago (always so bad!), so this is kind of instead of that. I know they’re not too hip, but I thought for traditional studio portraits, they turned out very well (can’t beat the JC Penney coupon price):

If you are feeling rather blah about life, maybe because you’re tired of feeling like a housewife, your kids are driving you crazy, your house is a disaster, and your husband is away, a movie NOT to watch is “The Hours.”  You’re welcome.

Well, I’m exhausted, as you might imagine. 

A couple of things you might like to know, since I never post lately.  One (some of you know this, but some of you might not) something quite sad happened to my mother.  I won’t explain in detail, but Anne wrote about it beautifully (you should read this, too).  It isn’t about me, really, but as I talk to her often, and think of her oftener, it colors the mood of summer quite a bit.  Reminds me not to complain about my long days.  Makes me sad too, because in some ways she will never be the same.  She is well, though, and a little better each day.  Thanks for praying for her.

Two, Matt ran in his first race ever and he won his age group!  We’ve teased him a lot about how there must’ve only been a couple of people in his group, and how he’s getting so old (he’s not though), but I’m pretty proud of him too.  He tends to approach things in kind of a scientific (anal?) way, running with a heart rate monitor, reading books and web sites about how to train and how to prevent injury, getting shoes and insoles specially fitted.  Apparently, his attention to detail is paying off as he feels great and obviously knows what he is doing. 

It was a great day.  We had driven to Rexburg so he could run in the Teton Dam Race (he did the 10k, but he is training for a half marathon in August) with my brother Steven, and Steven won his age group too (and he’s not as young as he used to be either).  Watching my brother run is inspiring.  He was in the first 15 finishers on this race, and just looks good doing it.  The kids ran the fun run (Matt’s mom came along and ended up running with them — go Vicki!)  which was especially fun because they came through the “real” finish line.  They also enjoyed talking about how they ran the “dam” race, over and over again.

Three (I guess that’s more than a couple), Thomas is five months old now and is the best. baby. ever.  Sorry if you do not have a baby like him.  He is nearly always happy, sleeps for nine hours at night and wakes up with a giggle, and is ultra-patient with the mass confusion and chaos that frequently surrounds him.  Also, he eats his toes, which is adorable.

We are trying to have some sense of discipline ’round here with this unsightly white board dictating the chores and the daily schedule.  We want to have fun too, but I have discovered that letting everyone do what they want all day long doesn’t turn out to be that fun and results in kids eating junk food in their pajamas, playing too many video games and arguing with their siblings all day.  Even with the white board, there’s plenty of sleeping in, having fun, and general horsing around:

Funny story.  A couple of weeks ago we were working on baby announcements (if you didn’t get one, I probably don’t have your address — let me know if you’d enjoy getting something in the mail that’s not an ad or a bill, because I still have some) and were trying to hunt down a couple of old friends of Matt’s.  Why not try Facebook, we thought.  We hear it’s the best form of communication since cell phones (which you’ll know I don’t use much anyway, if you’ve ever tried to call or text me).  Yes, according to some standards, we are hopelessly behind the times.

In order to search Facebook, as I’m sure you know, you have to sign up for Facebook.  So I started an account with exactly three pieces of information.  My name, my high school, and my university.  There are hundreds of people with my first and last name on Facebook, so I wasn’t thinking anyone would find me, assuming they were looking.  But a week later, two friend requests from people I know.  And I realized you can have Facebook search for email addresses, so that must be what those two people did. 

Well, I would never turn down a friend, so I accepted those two and as I’m sure you can imagine, the social experiment that is Facebook started rolling.  Every person that knew those two people got a message that I was now on Facebook (and I added a picture a few days later, just for clarity), and I started getting more friend requests, mostly from people that I only know sort of vaguely.  Now I have 34 friends (does that make you think I’m cool?), and I haven’t even tried to find anyone yet.  At first I was feeling pretty good — how flattering that these people want to be my friend!  Then, I realized that the purpose of Facebook is to get as many friends as possible.  Yes, for most of those people, I’m just a means to an end.  How do I know that?  Well, if we went to school together and haven’t kept in touch, or if we saw each other at a reunion, and they barely gave me the time of day, that’s a hint that we’re not really friends, just “friends.”

Still, what a fun new way to waste time!  I hope you’ll want to be my friend too (hint, hint!).  Matt and I are contemplating having a contest to see who can get the most friends, because we are total dorks.  So far, it’s 34 to 0.

I was looking out my front window yesterday afternoon when I spied a man, unknown to me, leaving my yard with a blower.  My blower.  The blower Matt had neglected to put away following his weekly lawn mowing.  No time to think, and my reaction surprised even me.  I opened the door, headed out toward the street, and yelled, “Hey!”  I can’t remember what I said next, but the guy just handed it back to me and kept on walking.  “Sorry,” he said, “I thought that was ours.  We were doing some work up the street.” 

Well first of all, that wasn’t even a good story, as anyone who has driven down my street will know.  Not a lot of professionally-groomed yards ’round here.  And though of course we shouldn’t just be leaving things lying around our front yard, what kind of person enters a yard during broad daylight to take advantage like that?  But more importantly, what smallish, unarmed, if it’s a fight-or-flight-scenario-I’ll-take-the-flight, kind of woman chases after him?  Me. That’s who.