April 20, 2011- Starting jelly and baking bread

Okay, so how did it get to be the third week of April without my realizing it?! :)
Is it just me or is this year flying by? Maybe it's because I'm preggers, but MAN!

Today, my husband kept the kids away from our room so that I could sleep in a bit. Jackson (our 2yr old) had a bad dream last night and consequently, kept me up until all hours. If I'd gotten up at 7, I would have been a zombie, so kudos to Tim!!

This morning, I really needed to wash some diapers and put them on the line, even though it was a bit overcast. The kids played with splash balls, an outdoor tub of water, and cups while I planted a few plants and did the diaper laundry- which means they were soaked, half-naked, and had a blast! Thank goodness for living in the middle of the woods, right?

This afternoon, Keelin and I decided to bake some bread and make some jelly! The jelly is still in the works (we're extracting the goodness from dandelions and mint picked from our backyard) and won't be finished until tomorrow, but here are pictures of the bread!

I made two batches- the dough on top is multigrain (a new flour I was trying) and I kneaded it by hand. The bottom dough is a wheat dough that I mixed using the knead cycle on the bread maker I got at a thrift store. Unfortunately, the bread maker is downright WONKY and the knead cycle is super loud, so I won't be using it again, I don't think... but it was good to see if the $10 bread maker was worth the shot.

This was the first rise after they were kneaded!

The multigrain after it had been punched down and kneaded some more.

The 5 loaves that resulted from those two bowls of dough! The top 3 are multigrain and the bottom 2 are whole wheat. I rolled the unbaked loaves in ground flaxseed and was so excited to taste it!

Here they are on the second rising!

You'll notice that they're in foil baking pans- that is because I only have two "real" baking pans and wanted to make enough to freeze, so this was a good option. Once the bread is removed, I wash them carefully by hand and air dry to ensure that I can reuse them many times! When yard sale season gets into full swing, I will make it an obnoxiously Dusti mission to get my hands on around half a dozen baking pans so that I can do my baking less often and more efficiently!

Baking in our CRAZY hot 40 year old oven. Our whole kitchen was super warm during this process. It just felt like someone was baking :)

We'll be eating one of each loaf and the other 3 will be carefully wrapped and frozen for future use!

The very first time I baked bread at home was about 3 years ago using a recipe that I'd run across while browsing The Hillbilly Housewife online called "Beginner's Bread." It is almost fool proof! I am just learning to branch out into reading bread recipes and trying them, but I can still, from memory, make Beginner's Bread- but with whole grain or multigrain flour, organic ingredients where possible- just to make it super healthy. I don't follow a recipe anymore, just make what tastes good to me and my family from a couple of years of practice and tweaking!

An Easy whole wheat Bread!

-3 cups of organic whole wheat flour, or 1-1/2 cups of white and whole wheat if you're unsure about the density of whole wheat

-1 teaspoon kosher salt

-1 packet, or about 2 teaspoons yeast

-1 tablespoon organic cane sugar or brown sugar or  local honey

2 tablespoons of organic oil (I use a few kinds- there is no right or wrong oil)

1 cup warm water


Add dry ingredients and stir them together. Add the wet ingredients and knead with your hands for at least 5 minutes. Pour a bit of oil into a dry bowl, stick the dough in and roll it around to coat it, then let it rise in a warm spot for up to two hours covered with a hand towel. The dough should double in size! When it’s risen, punch it down, knead it until smooth- just a minute. Grease a loaf pan and pop in the dough, shaping it as you wish. Recover it and let it sit for about an hour and a half. It should rise to double it’s size again. Bake it on 350* for 30-40 minutes. When it’s done, it should be golden on top and crusty. Turn it out onto a dish towel, thump the bottom to ensure that it sounds hollow- that means it’s done!
 
Do you make bread at home? What kind is your favorite?
 
I have a few other types of bread that I make and will be posting pics and recipes for as I make them this spring- zucchini bread, peanut butter bread, garlic breadsticks, buns, rolls- etc.

Halfway there!!

Today, I'm 20 weeks pregnant with my last baby.

How can this be??

It feels like we got the positive pregnancy test yesterday!

Baby Finn is an active little guy, lots of rolling, not a lot of kicking.

I'm starting to poke out a bit more!

Definitely enjoying carrying him high...

I can still wear a couple of my non-preggo jeans and a lot of my shirts!

In this picture, I'm wearing a pair of Lucky Brand (maternity) Jeans that I snagged at a consignment for $10.

I love that they don't look like maternity jeans.

I'm not an old fuddy duddy (I don't think, anyway!)- I'm only 24!

I think it will be fun when I have a bigger belly!

Just can't believe that this is the last time I'll be counting the weeks up to delivery,

feeling a little one rolling around, getting big and ENJOYING it...

It's bittersweet!

Cloth diapering a newborn!

I started cloth diapering when Jackson was 4 months old. Before then, I was researching like it was my job. I had tried to cloth diaper Keelin, but just didn't quite have the knowledge to pull it off. I had problems with leaks, buildup in the diapers, and looking back- I had a GREAT stash of prefolds and Snappis, I was just missing out on some really good covers and a kick butt cloth diaper detergent. If only I'd had someone to give me advice on what to buy! With Jackson, I started out with WAHM (work at home mom) made all in ones that were great during the day, but wicked at night, leaving his clothes wet. I eventually discovered Thirsties covers (to this day, my favorite PUL covers) and fitted diapers. I finally got the guts to try prefolds again and boy, was I in love! I then ventured into the world of wool covers- knit and interlock. And I found my true love! WOOL! So breathable, so natural, so virtually bombproof- what's not to love? Baby Finn already has half a dozen wool covers, some bought for him, some that Jackson has outgrown! When we found out in December that we were expecting out third and final baby, the first thing I did was start shopping for diapers. I've never diapered a newborn before and have always lusted after teeny tiny diapers. And guys, they are soooo teeny. Can't help but "awww" over them! I posted a few pictures last night, but forgot this one! It's my drawer of fitted diapers. The ones on the left are Tinkle Traps (prefolds cut and sewn to fit like a sized fitted) that were dyed by the previous owner plus a couple of bamboo fitteds that I got in a trade! Those two bamboo diapers are my only new diapers!! The ones on the right are Kissaluvs Size 0, also known as KL0s. They're super fluffy and I adore them!! Can't wait to put them on Finn's teeny hiney!

Some people are hesitant to cloth diaper. Some people would be even MORE hesitant to cloth diaper with used cloth! But I've been cloth diapering full time for a couple of years now and I LOVE to buy used! Saves a ton of money, the cloth is already prepped (natural oils that can prohibit the best absorbancy have been washed out), and sometimes you find really special diapers, like the dip-dyed Tinkle Traps! I don't know if I'll ever get around to tie-dying the prefolds like I want to, but it's nice to have some already done for me!

As far as santitation goes, I sanitize my diapers when I buy them used. I boil the daylights out of them, strip them using Rockin Green (my favorite cloth diaper detergent), wash them with baking soda, rinse them with vinegar, dry them in the sun- in no particular order! :) That, my friends, is more sanitary than the hospital sheets most of us have given birth on top of!

For those of you that have cloth diapered a newborn or are planning to, what kind of diapers are you using, have you used, or are thinking about using?