37 and a half years and finally....domestic diva!

Today was definitely a day to be grateful for our hands. We started the day early out in the garden. All the rain we've had and the accidental flooding of the garden has caused a huge weed problem. As much as we all hate it, we went out and worked together to make our garden look good again. I'm sure my legs will hurt tomorrow and my fingernails are really sore, but it was great to have everyone working and very little complaining. (except me every time they picked my sprouting corn!) The weather was gorgeous, we couldn't have asked for much more.

After cleaning up from gardening, I began my next challenge. Making bread. I have tried making home-made bread dozens of times with not one good loaf. Always dry, dense or flat. Very frustrating. I have been itching to try it again so I did a little research and really tried hard to be patient and follow all directions to a T. Well, it paid off! I made delicious, fluffy totally edible bread. I can't even tell you how excited that makes me. The funny part - Whitley really wanted me to take her shopping. I told her I had to wait till the bread was done and that would be about another hour and a half. She whines "why?...isn't it Amish Bread? " (which it was) I asked what that had to do with anything. She says "doesn't that mean it doesn't need an oven, you just let it sit or something and it turns into bread?" Yah, Whit, it's that easy! Next time I will make a few more loaves so maybe it will last a while. We went through one whole loaf just taste testing.

While I was making bread, the boys went out to work on their bikes. Don't ask me what they were doing, cuz I can never figure out why they do what they do. I was just glad to see them doing something that didn't involve a screen in front of their faces.

Whitley and I managed to get some shopping done for a b-day gift for one of her friends. I hate trying to reason with a teenager on what is really ugly and what is not. I finally just zipped my lips and counted myself lucky I wouldn't have to be there when she opened it.

Glade has been working outside all day, the yard looks amazing, the garden is weed free and the garage floor is free of mud. (for the next few hours anyway) The kids have been so good, hardly any fighting and everyone doing their part. Sometimes you get little glimpses of how good it can be. What a great day to teach about self-reliance and following the counsel of the prophets.

Bo and I made this mess while making bread, he was very helpful.



My first REAL loaves of bread!


Rhett, Dalin, Nick, and Brooklyn working hard.


Stephen, Bo and Rhett - we brought out the sleds and boogie boards so we could sit on them!


Even Katy helped, well...sort of.


The whole gang - minus me of course.


Rhett trying to piece together his bike.


Nick looking for just the right socket