Baking wheat-less bread - my first loaf!

Although I hadn't yet received my order for the required flours needed for this recipe, I did have the whole ingredients on hand so ground them up in my super blender. The flour wasn't exactly right but close enough.

It smelled amazing while it was baking and even though my loaf pan was a bit too big, it still rose nicely and I have a teen son anxiously waiting to slather some butter on it and try it out.

Very productive afternoon researching gluten-free recipes for some of our favorite foods. Found some great ones and will post them or their links after I give them a try.

Christmas isn't over!

 I love our neighbor across the street from us. He doesn't follow the modern norm of putting up Christmas decorations the minute the leftover Thanksgiving turkey is put away. No, he decorates his yard and home a day or two before Christmas and they stay up until the Feast of the Three Kings or there about. It is so sad that all of December is spent celebrating Christmas and just when the Octave of Christmas begins, so many people end it and the Valentine cards show up in the stores and people start planning for that.

Christmas begins the day Jesus was born and how much we and our children would miss if that was it as far as it went. There is so much more than just the Bethlehem scene to consider. What about the murder of the Holy Innocents? Herod's worry about a possible claim to his earthly throne? The Three Kings, their meeting with Herod, and their vision about not returning to Herod after their visit with Jesus and His family? Too many parts of an important history are left out.

To me, the saddest part of Christmas is all the trees dumped by the curb for trash pick up before the end of Christmas Day. Mothers sigh with relief that all this fuss is done for another year. Holiday visitors have long gone. All many have is leftover Christmas treats and forgotten reasons for the season. If Christmas lasted as long as our frantic shopping for it, we'd certainly be a happier people.

Happy New Year!

Well, 2013 has successfully dawned and I have neither broken nor started my resolution for this year yet. I will claim to be ahead of the game at this point!

The last couple of weeks got us all off schedule and I'm looking forward to resuming my projects and having a generally predictable time plan. I know, we make our plans but God makes it happen . . . or not. I'm sort of learning to be flexible!

Although I did pretty well on making Christmas gifts ahead of time in 2012, I'm starting even earlier so I don't sit there the night before Christmas and hurriedly finish up quilting and crocheting projects.

Lots of prayer required to see us through the coming year. While the government unsuccessfully deals with massive monatery math problems, we will see our taxes rise and the onset of obamacare hit our paychecks. More cost and less care as the math never has worked on that agenda.

We are praying for a change in the economy as two of my three college graduates still haven't found work. One of my children has to live and work in another country in order to even have a job.

We are trying to keep an optimistic view point but are cutting back on spending and making do. I wonder when the politicians will realize that when taxes go up, buying tends to go down which, basically, leaves things pretty much the same with no real improvement.

Anyway, we are starting the New Year, dressed in our Sunday best and attending Mass. No matter what the outcome of the year, God has blessed us with a new year to try and make better.