A Mommy Moment

A few days ago I was having a conversation with Taran about not needing to play computer games so much, because there are so many other fun things to do.  I thought it was going pretty well, until this final exchange.

Me:  "You know, when I was growing up, we hardly ever got to play computer games."
Taran:  "Because there was no electricity?"

'Nuf said.

It's a bird, It's a plane, It's. . . LDS Supermom!!! Oh, wait. Never mind.

So, I'm trying to bake bread every week, and, so far, it's not turning out so hot.

I decided that I was going to bake bread to replace the outrageously priced bread that (it seems like) we buy on a daily basis.  The worst part is that it doesn't even taste that good!  One thing that I do actually miss about living in Utah, besides the affordable health insurance, is that you could buy bread at the grocery store that tasted almost like homemade.  Or almost like Great Harvest Bread.  Whichever.

Ok, so I've had this Nutrimil wheat grinder for a couple of years, but I never had anywhere to put it in our old house, so now that I have space, I decided to break it out.  My mother-in-law gave it to me, and it was such an awesome gift, but I always felt guilty for not using it.  Well, no more! 

I finally bought some wheat from the Cannery (at $7.25 for a 25 lb bag, it's cheaper than cheap), read the instruction book, and I was a-grindin' away.  And it actually was really easy, with my awesome Nutrimill [thanks again, Lynda!!  :o)] 

The problem came when I tried to bake the bread.

The first batch came out really crumbly, and definitely not the texture for sandwiches, which is kinda the point of the whole thing.  So I called my friend Kathryn, who is totally the homemade bread guru (her family hasn't bought bread from the store, ever?), and she gave me a couple of pointers, like, using vital wheat gluten, and applesauce in the recipe.

However, the only place to buy vital wheat gluten is at Whole Foods, which had an odd smell of body odor, but could have just been something exotic from the salad bar.  I also didn't appreciate the guilty feeling while I shopped, but I made it through with only vaguely disgusted looks from the cashier and bagger because I didn't bring my own reusable bag. 

So, I made another batch yesterday, with very high hopes.  However, the bread itself turned out to be very flat.  I did some reading, and I found out that Kathryn's recipe, which works fantastically in the mountains of the Utah desert, doesn't work the same when you're in high humidity, and close to sea level, which we are in good old Wake Forest, NC.  Oh, and the weird squiggles were me spraying Pam on the bread in an attempt to make it prettier.  Yeah, that didn't work.

The good news is that the inside texture of the bread is beautiful, just what you dream about for sandwiches, or bread and butter to go with soup--it's just very very flat. So, basically, I'm thinking that I need to keep the vital wheat gluten and applesauce, but pretty much double the yeast that's called for.  I also am going to try to use the bread maker that Jeff got for me a couple of Christmases ago, and see if that's any better.

Because, (imagine a Scarlett O'Hara accent here) I'll never buy bread from the grocery store again!

Wieghtwatchers update

Well, this morning I was 152.5, which is another pound lost, so, Woo Hoo!!

Although, I 'm ashamed to admit, the reason that I didn't post an update last week was because I actually gained a pound.  But I was PMS-y, plus I hadn't worked out every day, so it was to be expected.

But, I seem to be back on track.  If only I can make it to my goal before we get pregnant again.  Here's hoping.  :o)

Weightwatchers Wonder Twins

Just a quick update for ya'll, but mostly for my sister who is doing Weightwatchers with me.  As a matter of fact she was the brave one who did it first, and my inspiration to take the plunge.

Anyway. . .

153.5!!!!!!!


I've been doing this for 3 full weeks now, and I lost 1.5 lbs the first week, 1.5 lbs the second week, and 2 lbs this last week.  Woo hoo!!!!!

I'm just like one of their commercials:  follow the program, and you too could lose 1-2 pounds a week.  And it works!!

Woo hoo, again!!!

My Pretty Pretty Princess

Taran turned 7 this last Sunday, and she asked for a castle cake.  I was not excited to make a castle cake, but when I went to Target to see how much their cakes were ($36.99, before tax!) I was even less excited about buying one, so I bit the bullet, and made the cake.

Those of you who are faithful readers might remember that I made Taran a castle cake a couple of years ago, just before Benjamin was born, and that one did not turn out to be my best work--to put it mildly.  And it would definitely not have passed inspection, the cake was so structurally unsound. 

However, I was able to learn from past experience, and I came up with some refinements, so I think it turned out pretty well.  It's not decorated with a lot of finesse, and I wasn't able to take the time to put it in the fridge and let the layers set, so it's kind of bubbly looking, but it was pink, and Taran loved it, and that's what matters. 

Anyway, here's some pictures of the cake en route,

the finished cake,

and Taran enjoying her castle on the big day:

Maybe in a couple of years it will actually look like the picture in the book.  :o)

Yes, it's Come to THAT

And by THAT, I mean, I have finally admitted that I can not lose the last 15 pounds on my own, and I actually joined Weight Watchers. 

I have always been able to lose weight after babies on my own, mostly just by eating low-fat, and exercising.  But this time around, it hasn't been working.  Benjamin is almost 2 and I have been doing my regular diet thing, and so far, nothing. 

Well, no, not nothing, but certainly not back down to my pre-pregnancy weight. 

As far as the exercising thing goes, I walked at the mall a whole bunch, and then I have been working out for almost an hour every weekday since August.  Jeff got religion on the whole exercising thing after our last  reunion in Tillamook with his family, and so he has been really serious about weights, and cardio, the whole shebang.

I have been working out with Jeff, even doing his "manly" workout that our brother-in-law who used to be in the military put together (albeit with much lighter weights) and we both do the 30 minute Tae-bo Cardio  (a huge shout-out to Lexi who turned me on to these videos back in the trailer court), and then we do abs.  By all counts, I should be down to a size 6 by now, but again, nada. 

Well, no, not nada, I have gone from a 12 to a 10, but, again, not what I used to do.

The really frustrating thing is that Jeff has lost almost 20 lbs, and looks fantastic, but I have stayed pretty much the same.  I am happy for him, truly, and so proud of him that he's so consistent, but I wished that I could share in the success, you know?

ANYWAY. . . this all boils down to the fact that I was feeling extremely desperate a couple of weeks ago, and I was about to do something really stupid, like start taking hydroxycut, or xenadrine.  Thankfully I talked to my mom, and she helped me see that a better thing to do would be to start keeping better track of the amount that I eat, and that I needed to use the Word of Wisdom as my yard stick when it came to picking a weight-loss system, not just an infomerical.

Which then led to the aforementioned decision to sign up with Wieghtwatchers.  I'm doing the one that's online, so I don't go to any meetings, but so far, it seems like it's perfect for me.  The new program, PointsPlus, counts fat, carbs, fiber, and protein, so it helps me eat better nutrition, which I want to do anyway, and it encourages me to keep track of other healthy things, like drinking so much water, eating so many fruits and vegetables, milk products, etc.  Plus, it helps me keep track of working out, which I also love.

Keeping track of how much I am eating is so empowering, and has really let me know that even though what I was eating wasn't too bad, it did have too much sugar, and I was eating too much of it.  I was drinking a lot of empty calories in juice, because I like flavored drinks, and the fastest thing was to just grab the juice that we keep in the fridge door.  But now I have a huge container of Crystal Light that I keep perpetually filled, and whenever I'm thirsty, that's what I go for.  And even though I'm eating less, not so much snacking, etc., I don't feel deprived, which is very important.

And so, the real question is, how is it working?

Well, I've been doing it for 2 weeks now, and I've lost 3 pounds!  That might not seem like a lot, but I'm less now than I have been since I got pregnant.  When I started the program I was 158.5 (a weight that I had been for months) and this morning I was 155.5.  And that's real weight lost!

Last Monday I weighed myself and I was 154, but it was after fast Sunday, and I had already worked out, so I had more water loss.  So it wasn't truly fat lost.  Even though I was a little disappointed about that, I am very excited about the trend, and am totally excited about continuing.

I'll give you another update next Friday!

Norman Rockwell and Black History Month

What on earth, you may ask, does Norman Rockwell have to do with Black History month?  Well, actually, lots!  How, you may ask?  Well, let me tell you!

Most people, those who just know Norman Rockwell's name in passing, would probably put him in a corner as an unimaginative illustrator, who only portrayed white-bred America, and nothing else.  And he certainly wasn't a real artist.  His paintings weren't real art.  Were they?

However, those of us who love Norman Rockwell's art (yes, I said art) know better. 

I grew up looking at a large coffee table book that my family had about Rockwell, and which contained a large number of his paintings, and something in me just completely responded to his style and point of view.  I would look at it for hours at a time, looking at my favorites as though they were old friends.  I loved his almost photographic realism, his use of detail, and that you felt like you knew how the people in his paintings felt.

Norman Rockwell is probably most well known for his portrayal of everyday America.  And some might argue that it is idealized, but it is also quite universal, because a lot of people did experience what he painted.

It's the collective memory of a nation--images binding all of us together, even though we might not have actually been there.

I absolutely love how he can tell an entire story with one small moment, seemingly frozen in time, just by having so many specific details.

This one reminds me of my mom, and a story she told me about her childhood,

while this one always makes me think of my dad (who grew up on a farm in northwestern Illinois), and his father.

This one makes me think of Jeff and our family's eternal love for the Cubs, even if they never win another world series.

And this one reminds me of myself, and my struggle to figure out who I really was, as I grew up.

I also love that Rockwell showed individual faith in a world that wasn't perfect, or ideal--something that we have to do as members of the Church.

Some people, looking back, have criticized Rockwell for not showing enough diversity in his art.  But most of his art was painted to be a cover illustration for the Saturday Evening Post; a magazine with very clear cut guidelines of what they did, and did not, want. 

As a matter of fact, I was very surprised to learn from the exhibit that the Saturday Evening Post had a policy to only show black people as servants on their covers.  And as I went through the entire collection of 332 magazine covers that were displayed in one room, that there was only one cover (one of his fairly early one's from the 20's) that had a little servant boy, who was black.  The other people on his covers were white, but from all different occupations, backgrounds, and economic status. 

I don't know, of course, but I believe that Rockwell didn't paint black people because he didn't want to show them just as servants, and that if he had had an opportunity, over the years, that he would have painted black families and individuals just as part of life, the way he did white families and individuals.

However, there was one other cover where I noticed a black man that was prominently featured, called "Boy in a Dining Car".

The museum had an explanation along with this painting that talked about how Rockwell was very sneaky with this cover, because he technically showed the man as a servant, working on the dining car, but the way he was painted--from the kindly expression on his face (which you might not be able to see very well because it's so small here), to his obvious position of experience, helping the boy figure out how things worked on a train (the boy is by himself, and trying to figure out a tip), and even the way Rockwell has the viewer looking slightly up at the man--makes the man and the boy not only equals, but the black man is the benevolent superior.

As time went on, Rockwell stopped being sneaky about it, and just put his values out for everyone to see.

Later on in his career, when he no longer painted Saturday Evening Post Covers, Rockwell painted what has been called "arguably the single most important image ever done of an African-American in illustration history."

This painting is based on the time when Ruby Bridges, a little African-American girl, went to an all-white school at the beginning of the end of segregation.  I used to look at this painting in my family's book, and feel so sad for that girl, and wonder why on earth people would throw things at her, just for wanting to go to school. 

Actually, I still wonder that.

One of the most amazing parts of the exhibit was an entire room dedicated to Rockwell's study and preparation for work called " Mississippi," about the murders of two young men involved in the civil rights movement.  There was a quote on the wall about how he started out with prejudices that were passed down to him, but as he "grew up" he became so disgusted with what he saw, that he made it a mission to change those perceptions.  He even used his son for the model of one of the young men, because he wanted to paint with enough emotion to get across his anger and pain about what had happened.

The image is shocking, sad, and real, which also describes Rockwell's work. 


I have also loved this painting since I was little, called "Moving In," where a black family is moving in to what used to be an all-white neighborhood. 

I love this because the kids are looking at each other, trying to figure out how to go about this new situation, but if you look closely, there are so many similarities between the black kids, and the white kids: baseball gloves and bats, pets, etc., even the way that they are standing.

How grateful I am for the truths of the restored gospel, that we are ALL children of our Heavenly Father, that each one of us has divine potential!!  Because however great, however infinite his love for me, that is also how much he loves each of my brothers and sisters.

So, yeah, Norman Rockwell, was "just" an illustrator, but he is also one of the most important American artists, with one of the most vital voices, in our history.