All That I Knead Recipe

Just for you Sherry :)

Honey 'N' Oats Bread
Bread Machine Magic by Rehberg and Conway

1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup buttermilk (plus 2 tablespoons for Welbilt/Dak machines)
1 egg
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 tablespoons honey (I will probably double this next time)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Light crust setting

You're All That I Knead

I finally busted out the bread maker. You dump all the ingredients in and FOUR HOURS LATER you have bread. Good night, it's not hard but takes a long time; it mixes, and sits, and kneads, and sits, and kneads, and rises, bakes, and then cools. If you want bread for dinner, you have to get it in the machine before noon! But it smells so good and nothing beats fresh, warm bread with butter. Except maybe warm cake.

The first loaf was a flop. I didn't take a picture and threw it out after dinner. I made too small of a loaf for the pan and didn't add enough yeast. The second loaf was an onion bread that needed more onion. The third, and pictured below, was a honey oat bread made with buttermilk. It was so good. I didn't even wait for the machine to finish cooling it before I pulled it out and sliced off the top and smeared it with cold butter. Mmmm.

Now I'll admit this is still semi-homemade; I didn't do any kneading. And probably never will. It would simply be too much work for my liking. But I didn't use a mix and the bread was oh so good. I'm excited to try a carrot poppyseed loaf and a couple of other recipes.

I'm off to make toast!

Urgent Care

We had our first visit to urgent care last night. At 5:00 pm I was feeding Lily right before I needed to leave for bible study. After finished she started getting blotchy and really red. Her eyes started swelling and getting watery. I, like any grown 30 year old woman would do, called my mother. After getting the third degree to determine if I had switched soaps, detergent, perfume, or lotion, I decided to call the nurse at 5:30. I waited on hold for about 40 minutes and finally hung up. I knew they would call me back but for whatever reason, it made me feel better to sit on hold. After her normal color started to return, I put her to bed. The nurse called back around 7:15 and made me wake her up to check on her. She then suggested we go to urgent care. I knew she would be fine but had that nagging feeling in the back of your mind that if I didn't go, something terrible would happen. So Kevin played along in my insanity and let me take her to Kaiser.

We walked in and the place was a zoo; crying, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, moaning children were everywhere. When we heard one of the receptionists tell a patient that it was at least an hour wait to see a doctor, Kevin and I just looked at each other. We knew we didn't want to wait around that long. However, our receptionist told us that because Lily was so young, we could go right in. We saw a doctor almost immediately. Of course she said she didn't know why it happened and she was fine now and to give her a tiny dose of Benedryl if it happened again. One strong possibility was it was something I ate and then passed along. Unfortunately, the only thing new I had yesterday was the red cinnamon candies I kept eating every time I walked by the candy dish. Which was a lot. So we came home and Kevin gave her a bottle that night. The next morning she woke up as if nothing had every happened. I, on the other hand, was tired from being up every couple of hours to check on her. By morning the swelling was completely gone and her color was back to normal.

Here are a few pictures of her blotchy face right after it happened. She looks exhausted and as if she had been crying for a long time; neither of which were true.

Her eyes were still a little swollen and watery when we got to urgent care at 8:00.

Daddy kept her entertained while we waited for the doctor.

The Best Advice

I was reading Argyle and Apricots yesterday and was truly laughing out loud all by myself. Lori is an excellent writer and hysterical on top of it. She recently wrote a piece entitled "The Best Advice That I Ever Received: Wear A Bra." It got me thinking about the advice new mom's receive. Everyone has an opinion and us women love to share them them. But the two pieces that I have been very thankful for were given to me long before I was pregnant.

The first one came nonchalant. We were at dinner with our friends. They had brought their youngest who was around 5 months old. We had finished eating and Katie asked if we would be uncomfortable if she nursed him. We, of course, said we were fine. She went on to tell us that without meaning too, she didn't introduce Baby #2 to a bottle until too late in which he then refused. Her first son was bottle fed and Katie and Tim both got to take part in feeding their son. But she breastfed #2 and was stuck. She told me that she felt as though she had prevented her husband from being able to bond with #2 like he had been able to do with #1. And, it was harder to leave him knowing he would eat from a bottle. So when Lily was born, we introduced a bottle at around 5 or 6 weeks. Kevin would come home and give her an evening bottle allow her to get used to him, and he to her. We tried a couple of bottles and found one she liked only to switch again right before Christmas. Knowing that I could leave on Thursday evenings for my women's small group and see that Kevin and Lily were both comfortable with each other gave me such peace of mind. After the second week, I didn't even think about them until I was leaving to head back home. This of course was after Kevin realized she cries when she wants to go to sleep; "Why is she only happy for an hour and then starts yelling at me?"

The second piece was given before I was even dating Kevin but goes hand in hand with the first. Debbie and I were heading to a conference at the Master's College in Santa Clarita. We were talking about babies and raising children and she said to me "Let your husband hold the baby." At first I thought this was a little odd. Why wouldn't I let my husband hold the baby? But she went on to say that she, at times, was so wrapped up in caring for the child she never passed her son along so that her husband could bond and love on her son. Part of this came naturally. Kevin is a great dad and many times I have to tell him he cannot wake her up. But there are times when she is happy or we are out where I would prefer to hold her but I make sure to pass her along to Kevin.

I know that because I am breastfeeding, Kevin sometimes feels at a loss for how he can help. I often give him the diaper or change of clothes just so he has that much more interaction with her. He is often gone for work before she gets up and then home for about an hour before she goes back down. Which is why he is so excited to feed her the cereal in the evening. It's their time together. This also makes our weekends so much more precious. We may still be busy doing things, but we do them together.

I'm sure I have gleaned much more advice, but those are the first two I thought of in this new stage of motherhood. I am blessed to have a husband to partner with.

Mmmmm

Lily started cereal this week. She loved it! She gets so excited and says "Mmmmm" after every bite. One of the best things about moving to solid foods is that Kevin gets to participate more. He has given her bottles and she does really well but the spoon is a lot more fun. She is ready to eat as soon as Daddy walks in the door from work and won't take her eyes off of the bowl until she is full. We are learning that cereal is not a finger food and we don't do zerberts when we are finished!