A Beautiful Birth

"The birth buzz."  That's what Steve, my husband called it, when he looked at my face 20 minutes ago.  I can feel this quiet, but energetic excitement bubbling up from deep inside me, and it must showing on my face.  The awe inspiring feeling of watching and supporting the strength a mother has as she brings forward and welcomes into the world that miracle of miracles, her new child.  It's so much bigger then me.  And I think that I might be hooked.

Habits for the Future

I have been struggling lately to have discipline that I know I want.  There are so many things that I want to accomplish, I know that I need to have this skill.  Yet it is so hard to create the habits that I want to have.  I do well for 2 weeks or so, and then it all falls apart again.  Keeping to a schedule, house work, study, learning new skills all while raising two little girls is a hard thing to learn now.  I  appreciate my mother, and am grateful that she me HOW to do all of these things, the basic skills (except for maybe studying well) so I am not having to learn it all now.  But I did not learn to keep in the habit of consistently doing all these things.  And perhaps that is just as difficult to learn now.

Lovely, Fluffy, Hearty, Homemade Whole Grain Bread Recipe

Is there anything quite like the smell of a baking, hearty and full of texture, yet luxuriously soft and fluffy, whole grain loaf of bread?  That moment, about 10 minutes before it is finished, and the smell wafts through your home, you have this burning desire to rip the oven door open, tear the bread out and begin to devour it is so, so tempting.  But for that perfect loaf, you know that patience is requisite.  *sigh* So your mouth waters as you wait. And as you take it out of the oven the smell is overpowering, but you still have to wait for it to cool, at least a little, or all that precious work will have been in vain.  But that first bite, so soft and warm, so comforting, with butter on top just beginning to melt is oh, so worth every minute.