Home For Heaven's Sake

Oct. 17, 2008

Our Daily Bread... Monkey Bread!

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Psalms 13:6 "I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me."

Something about this time of year makes me think of God's goodness even more than usual. Perhaps it's the beauty of the fall foliage, or the crispness of the fall air that feels so good after a long, hot summer. Seeing my kids enjoying delicious fresh apples or picking pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, or even working hard to rake leaves into a pile and then jumping in to scatter them again - these things are glorious reminders of our Creator.

I am not much of a cook or baker for the most part, but the aromas and flavors that accompany this season are irresistable, even for cooking novices like me. Whoever thought of sticking the Thanksgiving holiday in at this time of year was a real genius. (LOL) Thankfully, we live near family, because, as I said, I'm not much of a cook. Each year, my mother "WOWS" us all with an unbelievable spread of Thanksgiving goodies. Aside from the traditional turkey and dressing, my mom makes at least a dozen more dishes, and tries to cater to each of her 5 children's tastebuds. (The youngest of my siblings is 25, but still, Mom knows what everyone likes best!)

Now, I've said all that to say this: My assignment each year is to bring the bread for our Thanksgiving dinner. For the past several years, I've been including my children in the breadmaking, and it's really become a fun tradition for all of us. The recipe we use is so easy, but it tastes like it's really complicated. (Shh! Don't tell! Let them think that I am really working hard!) This recipe makes a tube pan or bundt pan full of rolls, which is plenty for us. But if you need more, you might want to double the recipe. (BTW - This is not the sweet kind of monkey bread, but is more of a dinner roll type of bread.) Here it is:

Thanksgiving Monkey Bread

2 pkg. dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 egg

3 cups sifted flour

1 stick melted butter

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Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of warm water.
Mix together sugar, salt, egg, and flour - Beat well.
Add yeast mixture - beat well.
Let rise until double in bulk.
Roll out on floured surface to 1/4 inch thick.
Cut several pieces with biscuit cutter.
Dip each piece into melted butter and place in tube pan, layering pieces randomly.
Let rise, again.
Bake at 350* for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

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"This, then, is how you should pray:
   " 'Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,
0your kingdom come,
   your will be done
      on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
      as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.

Matthew 6:9-13

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Oct. 16, 2008

I Never Leave Home Without...

Posted in Blogger Friend School

I signed up for the Blogger Friend School a few weeks ago, but have somehow neglected to follow through with any of the assignments. Yes, I'm a procrastinator extraordinairre! That gets me into trouble sometimes, and it used to get me into trouble when I was in school - a LOT. Thankfully, the Blogger Friend School is a school where participation is encouraged, yet optional. This week I'm diving right in... with last week's assignment... lol. And the assignment is to write about something that I would never leave home without.

This is not a difficult one for me, because I'm one of those people who seem to carry everything but the kitchen sink. The reason for this is that I've been caught too many times in a situation without something that I needed, and those kind of circumstances make me very uncomfortable and frustrated. So basically, I carry a lot of little odds and ends in my purse, pretty much wherever I go. This also means that I do not change purses frequently, like - a different purse for different outfits, because it's just too complicated.

For example, I always carry a TIDE pen, for those inevitable little spills and stains. And a Sharpie, cause you never know when you're gonna need to mark something permanently, like kids' cups or jackets. I always have Head-On, for headaches, and ActivOn for muscle-aches and pains (dh and I are gettin' old!). And, particularly during the winter months, I keep lip moisturizer of some sort handy. For my kids, this means keeping three different ones so they are not sharing eachothers germs - so I purchased Aquafina Lip Balm that comes with three different colored tubes. They each know which color is theirs and can get to it anytime they need it.

Let's see, what else is hiding in my purse? Well, there's a wallet, of course, even though there's no money in it most of the time. It does have all the necessary ID cards, bank cards, insurance cards, library cards, discount cards, and membership cards. Whew! What else... eye drops, lipstick, fingernail file, Swiss Army Knife (this comes in SO HANDY, believe me!), extra pens, notepad, bandaids.

There's something else that I've added to my stash recently, that I really don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. It's my Pocket-sized New Testament. Now that 2 of my kids are playing basketball and they have 2 hour practices twice a week, I find myself doing a lot of sitting and waiting. I don't always want to lug my laptop or bookbag around, but I always have my purse. And now, I always have my little New Testament with me, as well. I'm looking forward to putting it to much better use.

I guess the only other thing that I ALWAYS carry with me would be my cell phone. Besides using it for calls, it also serves as a timepiece because I do not have a wristwatch that functions right now. It can also be used as a light, a timer or stopwatch, a calculator, a radio, MP3 player, voice recorder, camera, or calendar, to name a few. And perhaps my favorite use for my phone is GAMES. I love SCRABBLE, and since I've got the game on my phone, I've gotten pretty good at it! I like to think that it's increasing my brain power at least a little bit, too.

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Home For Heaven's Sake is a blog about one family's adventures in homeschooling. From lesson plans to field trips to ordinary, everyday life, this blog tells our story.