I'm trying really hard to get my heart set on tdf this year. It's hard though with all the stuff that's happened and is still happening around here.

Teams joined: SHERlocked, Into the Whirled, Tardis, Stashbusters, and Peloton. I might join Hopelessly Overcommitted but it seems to me that by the time you get to the point you should join that one you are all ready doing to much in everything else.

Spinning: ITW's Doctor Who series. Snow Angles with an Ood x2, Mercy Hartigane, Bigger on the Inside, and Children of Time. Also, Pickin and Spinnin's Doctorin' Up the Tardis. Some undyed baby alpaca for "John's Sweater."

Goals: To spin and post every day.

Training: I have GOT to get the kids year end portfolios completed and sent out before the 30th of this month.
Organize my stash and figure out what I want to spin.
Decide on what teams I'll be spinning for.
Pre draft fiber before it gets too bloody hot to do it.

Mix and freeze: 28 batches of bread, 4 batches of rolls, 6 batches pie crust, 3 batches granola bars, 2 batches cookies, and 4 batches of pizza dough to freeze. Baggie up: 4 batches muffin mixes, 4 batches 'hamburger helper' mixes, and 2 cake mixes. Plan 93 meals and pre-make anything I can that I haven't all ready thought of so I'll have as little food prep going on in July as I can.

Get the house in a state of cleanliness that would let me ignore it, for the most part, for the month. Yikes!

Plan viewing list:
Sherlock series 1 and 2 (re-watch)
Sherlock Holmes movies 1 and 2 (re-watch)
My Little Pony (gods help me)
River Monsters (re-watch)
What ever Agatha Chrisie movies are on netflix (re-watch)
Stargate SG-1 (re-watch)
Stargate Atlantis (re-watch)
Doctor Who- last season (re-watch)
Doctor horrible (re-watch)
Living planet series
Serenity/firefly (re-watch)
Beatles
Star Wars trilogy (originals) (re-watch)
Star Trek (original) (re-watch)
Bones

tbc


Find some interest in doing any of the above.

My birthday cakes

I'm not quite sure why she made two cakes, but my daughter was hard at work last night making our dessert for tonight.

Spice cake with cream cheese frosting.

Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

The flowers are made from chocolate and caramel candies. I love both cakes. They remind me of the 70's.

My problem with hobbies/crafts

Where does everyone get their energy to do everything AND crafts? By the time I’ve done some laundry, the kids and I are finished with school, I’ve made dinner and cleaned up, I’m so tired it’s all I can do to make it into bed, let alone spend the hours it takes to warp the loom.

This is certainly not worth getting upset over. I just don’t understand how so many of you manage it.

Because I said I'd post it back with my pea soup: My favorite bread recipe. This recipe is very easy and forgiving and comes from an Amish lady.

6-7 Cups flour
1/3 Cup sugar
2 ½ TBs vegetable shortening
2 tsp salt.
2 ¼ tsp (or 1 envelope) yeast.
½ Cup warm water
2 Cups warm water


Melt shortening. Dissolve yeast in ½ C water and set aside.

Measure out flour by scooping from the bag. Yes you heard me right. Do not do the proper spoon and measure, but scoop with a big ole’ measuring cup and level with your hand.

Add melted shortening, sugar, salt, and yeast water together in bowl with 2 cups warm water.

Here I use my Kitchenaid mixer (it’s old and cranky but still does a great job) Mix until you can no longer hear the sugar scraping in the bottom of the bowl.

Slowly add the flour. Start with 3 cups and mix thoroughly. Then add by 1 cup increments, allowing the mixer to completely mix between additions.

Once the mixer can’t mix anymore, plop the dough out onto a floured board and continue to add flour as you need. Add only enough flour to give you the right consistency. Here I’m hoping you already know how to make bread because bread making, for me anyway, is all about looks and feel, not hard recipe facts.
Kneed until dough is smooth (no longer looks like it has cellulite) and place in a greased bowl. Dampen a dish towel and place it over the bowl. Place dough in a warm, draft free place. Let it rise until doubled. This will depend on how warm your kitchen is. It can take my dough up to 4 hours to double sometimes.

Punch down the dough and plop out onto floured board. Divide in half and shape into 2 loaves. Place each loaf into a greased bread pan. Prick the tops with a fork, cover with damp towel and let rise again.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. My new oven element takes a while longer to cook things so I just estimate and keep watching. Once it’s nicely browned on top and sounds hollow when you knock on it, it’s done.

Place on metal cooling rack, lightly butter tops and turn out of pans, setting top side up again. Try to keep everyone out of it until it’s cooled enough to cut.

We go through about 10 loaves of bread a week around here, so I’m ALWAYS baking bread. I just wrote this out from memory so if you try it and something doesn’t seem right you can blame me.

Now it’s 9:30pm and while I’m dying to get my hands into some wool and do more carding and spinning tonight, I think I’ll just go to bed. Tomorrow it’s more laundry, a huge lesson in American History (which I am having a blast teaching) and more bread baking before an even earlier bed time so I can get up at 4am on Saturday to help my oldest get his car to his mechanic.