1.

I’ve got to get this off of my chest. Yesterday, I went down to check the mail, and guess what I found? Evidently some people think it’s funny to go down the road bashing in people’s mailboxes! Grrrrrr. I cannot imagine having that much lack of respect for other’s people’s property that I could just decide to destroy it because I thought it was “fun(ny)”.

So, of course, I had to go spend money that I had not planned to spend to replace the new mailbox that has only been up for a few months. It just really irks me. OK – it’s off my chest now.

2.

This week my kids got to spend a couple of nights with their grandparents. As much as I loved the peace and quite, I sure have missed them and I can’t wait to pick them up later today. It’s always good to have them back home.

3.

There were some really good deals this week at the stores on some items that I needed to stock up on. It felt nice to buy quite a bit and spend just a little!

4.

Sunday will be Katie’s 11th birthday. My goodness, where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday she was just this little bitty girl who loved wearing her pink hat ALL.THE.TIME. LOL I sure to miss those days, but I love watching her grow up. Happy early birthday, sweetheart!

5.

Melia will also be baptized Sunday afternoon. It is going to be such a wonderful day for my family! I’m praying for good weather all around!

6.

Brian and I decided to try and save ourselves some money by grooming Chip, my Shih-Tzu, ourselves. We spent $30 on the clippers and didn’t do too bad, but boy does he NOT like it. He fought and carried on. It took about an hour to get the majority of him, but we still needed to do his face. We ended up having to get some extra help for his face because he just would NOT be still. If we can ever get him to calm down, this will save us about $80 every 6 to 8 weeks.

7.

This week, we also have something else to be thankful for. Brian got a raise at work! It’s been a long time coming, and we are very thankful for it. God blesses us when He sees fit. We will continue to try and be diligent about handling our finances the way He wants us to.

For more Quick Takes, don’t forget to check out the Conversion Diary.

I love baking bread and the smell of freshly baked bread! It’s one of my favorite things to make! Most of the time, it’s hard for me to keep my family (aka my husband) away from the bread to give it time to cool!

With the summer heat now in full force, I always dread those baking days because it heats up my kitchen (and the rest of the house) so much. So, I try to choose one morning a week and get all of my baking done at that time so I’m not heating up my house so much. I also set my roaster oven up out on the back porch and bake out there, too! I can bake more at one time plus only heat up the house with half the amount of heat. The key is to spread things out enough that you’re not overlapping your breads too much. Over rising can also cause problems in your breads, especially in rolls.

Here’s a list of what I’ve been cooking/baking this week:

(I also made some crepes for us to eat for breakfast. I’ll post the recipe for them soon, as well. )

Half of my yeast rolls went to a meal that my small group at church was taking to another class member and her family who is not feeling well.

A lot of times, when I’m making rolls, I’ll bake half and freeze the other half. We don’t need all of them at once, so I have enough for 2 meals that way. I just have to make sure and allow enough time for the dough to thaw and rise before baking, for crescent rolls – about 1 hour and for dinner rolls – maybe 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

One more quick tip: Make sure that you use a pan with high sides when making things such as rolls or cinnamon rolls. The dough need something to “climb” on so that they rise up and now out. This gives you nice fluffy rolls instead of flat rolls.

This plan also works well for other dishes as well. Cook once and eat twice (or more)!

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I just wanted to say “thank you” to all the men and women who are/have served our country.  Thank you for giving up your time (and lives) to defend our freedom.   May God bless you and your families.