Mastering Domestic Skills: White Bread

Amish White Bread

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I've never used oil and loved it)
• 6 cups bread flour

 

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

It turned out so well! I am hooked from now on we will have home made bread in our home. The recipe made 2 loaves and we have eaten one already!

Sunday: My favorite things

 Love notes on the mirrors

 One Class down!

BOOK CLUB!

Moving this picture so I could see it everyday

Bean wreath

Supplies Needed: A wreath. we used ones made out of straw but you could use the foam ones also
Hot glue gun with lots of glue!
Lima Beans (it took a little over a fourth of a bag to cover my wreath)

So all you do to make this is hot glue them on, one by one. It didn't take to long! Now I need to spray paint it and find a thick sturdy ribbon to hold it up.

 Its a fun project to do with friends. I made new friends and got to know old ones better!

Flower Giveaway

The winner is Nancy!

PS: Send me your email!

Flowers have taken over my house

Whenever I make flowers it takes over.

Totally worth it for these creations.

To have the chance to win these Flowers, YOU MUST:

Comment on THIS Post on THIS Website

Extra Entries:

Become a follower of Sarahsconnection for an extra entry.

Tweet, Facebook, or blog about the giveaway for an extra entry.

Comment and tell me what you did and a link to your blog

Giveaway ends Feb 1st

Baby Case Make over

 So I have been carrying around the big blue for a while and this last week some friends and I got together and made these.

First you have to find a plastic case. Look a the dollar store or there is the Huggies wipes containers but they are hard to find because everyone is making these.

Step one- hot glue felt onto the container
Step two-cut off any felt going over the sides
Step three hot glue the next piece of fabric on the container
Step four- cut the excess off.
Step five- add ribbon across the front
Step six- hot glue ribbon around the sides


 view from the side

So cute!

Not yet 2 months and in 3 month old clothing

Sadly I just realized that Mason fits into 3 months old clothing.We bought this little number when we wound out we were having a boy.

I remember I was so excited to be right! Lucas was dead set we were having a boy. But with all the beef burritos I was eating I knew there was a little man inside of me.

He's smiling more epically at girls with dark hair.

I swear the other day when I was talking to him he said ok.

I love you Mason

Aprons!

My wonderful mom let me raid her sewing room. We went through boxes of fabric and found these! I made it for a belated Christmas present for my wonderful friend! It was a simple patter to do and didn't take to long.

Hopefully she doesn't look at my blog before I give it to her. Love you Hayley

My favorite things this week

Red Velvet Cupckaes

They didn't turn out very red. 

I used the Hersey's recipe it required red food coloring to turn the color.

It was kind of a disappointment.

Round two = different recipe.

Cake Class #3

My beginning cake class has been good!

Today we learned how to make flowers. 

I love the colors of the frosting.

 This is my first rose

 Pom Pom Flowers

Suprise!

So Lucas has two jobs one with Utah State University logging core at a drill site in Idaho. Were they are drilling for geothermal energy, when he is one site it's usually for 4-6 days. Which means its me and Mason. When he has an off week he works at Maceys grocery store as a butcher. He works hard in a normal month he works 200 plus hours. Which sounds like a ton but the schedule he has makes it so when he's home and working at Maceys usually 6am-2pm.

Today the drill site is in transition between drill sites so he was able to come home. I had no idea he was home. I was out walking around running errands. I lost my phone in the car and when I found it I had missed 30 calls! I finally got home and was talking to Lucas on the phone gabbing on I had no idea he was 15 feet way inside! It was a wonderful surprise.

Another fun surprise is that Mason is learning to play with toys! He makes new noises as of today. They are these loud cooing noises that sound they cries. So I keep running over to make sure hes ok and he is smiling and kicking his legs and arms.

My favorite things this week

 Those eyes. He follows me when I walk around he's starting to know I'm mom

 I thought to myself man I would love it if Lucas would bring me flowers and he did.

 Making new friends in my cake class

How I wish I lived by Zions this weekend

Free Entrance Days in the National Parks

NPS/Dan Ng

Yosemite Falls is visible from numerous places around Yosemite Valley, especially around Yosemite Village and Yosemite Lodge. A one-mile loop trail leads to the base of Lower Yosemite Fall.

America's Best Idea – the national parks – gets even better with several fee-free days at more than 100 national parks that usually charge entrance fees.*
Mark your calendar for these fee-free days in 2011:

• January 15-17
  (Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend)
  
• April 16-24
  (National Park Week)
  
• June 21
  (First day of summer)
  
• September 24
  (Public Lands Day)
  
• November 11-13
  (Veterans Day weekend)

Making the fun even more affordable, many national park concessioners are joining the National Park Service in welcoming visitors with their own special offers.

Finding Doctor Horkely

In preparing for Masons arrival my mom was going threw a check list with me and I was doing pretty good covering everything except the lamas class I never took one my mom kept telling me you need to go you need to learn how to breath and push. Well I didn't and everyone kept telling me you are breathing so well and I pushed him out in 30 min! OH yeah!

One huge thing on the check list was finding a doctor for Mason. I had no idea were to begin and then I went to the internet. Ever time I have a question I always ask Lucas to google it for me. Well off to inter mountain health car website I went. They had bio of all there doctors and there beliefs of different issue that our children will run into. For example vaccinations. There answer weren't just a paragraph but pages of explanations in terms I understand.

Then I started asking everyone I even asked my car insurance agent, friends, people in my church. It came down to two doctors and we are please to be with Doctor Horkely. Our first visit he sat down with us for 45 min answering our questions. He was aware that we were new parents and has always told us how much things are going to cost so we are prepared. I'm a fan/ SO if you in Logan and looking for a pediatrician we recommend Doc. Horkley

Dinner for Two

For our anniversery we decided to keep it simple and the gifts we got each other was dessert and an appetizer. Lucas was in charge of the appetizer and we had Havarti cheese, Colby cheese, crackers and peppered salami. We ate ever bite!

Salmon for two

 Lucas smoked the Salmon with hickory chips. He soaked them for 45 min and placed the in the smoker box  in the grill. We are huge fans of citrus so thinly sliced lemons and limes with lemon pepper is all we added.

Dessert was my gift I made a chocolate cheese cake with a white chocolate cream sauce to top it off. I turned out pretty good. I added to much butter to the graham cracker crust and it overcooked quickly. This was my first cheesecake and I'm sure there will be more to come! I got the recipe from Closet Cooking. This guy has a passion for food I want to try more of his creations.

Happy anniversary

Two years ago I was married to the man I was completely in love with and still am. Getting to the alter wasn't easy it took a lot of patience on my part but was totally worth it! I met Lucas before I served an LDS mission in 2006 he would come over with his roommates and hang out and chit chat. Also he took me on a shoe date. In our singles ward we would all give one of our shoes and all the boys would pick one and then do nice things for us all week and then take us on a date. I put in my chaco and I can't remember what Lucas did for me throughout the week but I remember our date.

We went hiking to the wind caves up Logan Canyon, before hand we got Subway. Funny story is within the first 5 min of hiking he told me about how he was in the "Superman Club", he had to explain to me that being in this group requires you to not kiss but make out with a girl within 24 hours of coming home from your LDS mission (when serving a mission kissing girls is NOT allowed for 2 yrs). Immediately I labeled him as just a friend.

After coming home from my mission I open my door to my new apartment and low and behold Lucas is sitting at the kitchen table. From then on for some reason any girl that liked him or he liked after that I instantly was jealous and protective. I kept kicking myself and telling myself to stop it that we were just friends. And we continued to be friends threw the entire year, he came over to visit me and my roommates daily. He had a round of people he would go visit he was known as a friend to everyone and if you ever needed anything he was your man.

Soon summer came and dating was slowing down and I want to date and fall in love with someone. I remember lying on the grass outside with everyone playing four square in the parking lot and I was pondering how I should try and date or if I should move to make a new pool of friends. I felt like I needed to stay and stay for Lucas. Never before had dating him crossed my mind but it felt right very very right!

I told a few of his really good girl friends and turned my flirt on, He didn't take me out on a date for 3 months later. I kept on wanting to give up and move on to someone else, but I felt a direct impression that he was the one and I must be patient. Well that kind of sucked to know that you wanted to marry someone that you weren't even dating.

So I prayed everyday that summer that he would recognize what I had. Guess what he did! When he came back to Logan at the end of the summer he asked me out! I'm pretty sure I cried I was so happy and then he asked me out again! Before I knew it he called me his girlfriend and kissed me. Well it wasn't soon enough it still took time and I thought for sure it would take him a lifetime to ask me to marry him. I was willing to be patient as long as I could hold his hand. But then he threw a fast one I honestly freaked out. But after a minute of steady breathing I was fine and was engaged to the man I had been in love with the day I came back to school.

Know two years later we have a great job, insurance hurray, complete college degrees a wonderful place to live, wonderful student loans that are slowly going away, stronger testimonies that Heavenly Father does watch out for us and wants what is best for us. The best accomplishment of those two years is MASON!
 
I would never call marriage easy but always satisfying we have to constantly be communicating and adapting our communication. Saying I love you daily and telling each other how handsome and beautiful each other is. We are best friends, I once told Lucas that I need him to know me better then I know myself so he can help me when I can't help myself.

He is my best friend he has saved me from depression, has given me a son and has allowed me to fulfill my greatest calling being a mother by fulfilling his as a provider. The best thing about him is that he loves me as much as I love him! Liking someone more then they like you was always sad, but I'm done with that and am excited to be with the love of my life for eternity.

A give away on my friends blog

So I have learned of a great new thing a way to sell your creations easily and here is my friend Lexi's products. Go to here blog and learn about her giveaway!

This is the product I hope I win

Mason