jennanddave.com

Today's my birthday. I'm older than I was yesterday, but then that's true every day isn't it? The last couple of years, my birthday's been a bit sad. This year it was truly amazing. After making me breakfast, Dave had to leave for a day-long conference. My friend Katie and her daughter came over early this morning just as he was walking out the door and hung out through lunch, making what would have been a fairly long drawn out morning fly right by. Soon after they left my dear friend Jocelyn surprised me with the most amazing home-made pretzels. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement. Later on, Katie and family came back over and made dinner, around the start of which Dave got back home with a birthday cake to accompany the amazing birthday apple pies he made for me. Meanwhile, Henry's birthday present to me was giving me kisses and hugs whenever I asked for them, which was the best present a girl could ask for from a kid who loathes showing any kind of affection whatsoever unless he's asleep in which case he'll snuggle you right off the side of the bed. In summary, it's a glorious thing to sit back at the end of the day and feel very well taken care of, and today I do feel *very* well-taken care of, and loved. I'm looking forward to paying that feeling forward.

This week is an exciting week involving lots of packing and loading and eventually culminating in a big move to a new house on Friday (unless everything falls apart over the next five or so days which is always a worry because I'm a bit of a fatalist). As if that wasn't exciting enough, Friday also heralds in the arrival of a long-awaited addition to a good friend's family. To sum up, as far as days go, Friday is a big one, so while I can't wait for it to get here, I'm also planning on enjoying the anticipation as much as I can.

Posted by Jenn at 07:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This has nothing to do with anything, really, but I just checked my junk comments folder for the first time in a few months and there are over 16000 of them. Sigh. Let the deleting begin.

Yesterday I baked bread again for the first time since the end of school last June. Summer quickly developed a rhythm all its own, and bread baking was not a part of it at all. Looking back (and down at my waistline) I can see that pie took its place. Pie is summer, bread is fall, winter, and spring.

My pulling out the container that holds our yeast packets was precipitated by a few things. The first is that we decided we really wanted to have grilled cheese for dinner last night and we didn't have a lot of bread left. The second is that it was three days before payday and we're even more broke than usual because in two and a half weeks we're moving to a new house. The endless flow of cash that occurs during the house-buying/selling process is not for the faint of heart, and Dave and I are very faint-hearted when it comes to cash. At least when it's flowing away from us. If it's coming *to* us, well, that's a different story. So out came the flour, and the salt, and the other bits and pieces that go into a good loaf of bread. The day had turned gloomy by the time the two loaves were in the oven and the scent was exactly what was needed to cheer up this cynical girl's heart.

Henry got off the bus, I pulled the loaves out of the oven and onto a cooling rack, then we headed off to have the young man's hair trimmed in preparation for school pictures on Friday. While we were there, a friend texted and invited us over for apple dumplings, which eventually turned into an invite to just come over for dinner. We ran home so I could grab a loaf of still-warm bread. It pleased me greatly that not only were we having an impromptu evening spent with friends, but that we could contribute something to the table as well. It's not often that everything comes together so easily, so I really appreciate it when it does.

I've probably posted a link to it before, but here's the bread recipe I use. It's a great sandwich bread and makes even better toast. Next time I make it, I'm going to try making cinnamon raisin bread with one of the loaves.

Posted by Jenn at 01:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)