Exciting News, Weird Weather, and Bread Making Fun!

Exciting News!

Matt and Traci - New Parents To Be!

Well first the exciting news!  We are going to be grandparents for the fourth time on or around November 1, of this year. Our oldest son Matt and his wife Traci gave us this wonderful news about a week ago, we are so excited!  Our third grandchild, Charlie, is due on May 23, he will be the third child for our daughter Amber and her husband Brad.  Our family just keeps growing and it is so much fun.

Weird Weather
We are having an unseasonably warm March, we have had highs in the seventies and eighties for the past week and a half, and look to continue this for a few more days, we will then have a so called cool down with highs in the sixties, today it was 85.  The forsythia are in magnificent bloom, the fruit trees have blossomed, leaves are bursting forth, and everyone is enjoying the weather, spring seems to be in overdrive.  Normal highs for this time of year are upper forties to upper fifties. This extremely warm March comes off of the mildest winter I have lived through in Indiana, I hope this does not mean we will have an extremely hot summer.
 It was so pleasant on St. Patricks day, March 17, that  in the evening we had a campfire, cooked over the fire, and enjoyed the warm night air and did not head into the house until around nine-thirty in the evening.  We have never sat around a campfire for the evening in March, ever, because it is just chilly, verging on cold.  Are you experiencing warmer than normal weather where you live?

St. Patrick's Day Campfire Cookout

Bread Making Fun

Big Blob Bread, I ran out of bread pans!

13 Loaves then I ran out of bread pans

 Today I needed to bake bread as we were on our last loaf. I did three batches of dough, this makes about fifteen loaves.  Grandsons Henry and Patrick were over, so while Patrick played with play dough at the kitchen table and ate Marmite toast, Henry sat at the kitchen counter to help with bread making. Mainly Henry likes to play in the flour on the counter, he draws pictures in the flour with his finger, and he likes to make it "snow", he doesn't make too much mess, and keeps me company as I knead.  Patrick finished his toast and tired of playing with play dough drug a chair to the counter to check out bread making.  Oh Boy! Thank heavens I was kneading the final batch, because Patrick had a complete ball with the flour, he had it all over his face, he made it "snow", he laughed and laughed along with Henry.

My Helpers!

 It took a while to clean everything up, then we went outside to hang the laundry and I instructed the boys to keep brushing off their shirts and shorts as they were still rather floury. The new favorite activity at the washing line is hiding behind hanging towels then leaping out from behind and shouting, "Ladies and Gentleman", then an embarrassed look and a quick dive back behind the towels. I remember playing in the hanging laundry when I was a child, there is something very relaxing about lying on the ground while sheets billow above you in the spring sunshine.