Whew....

I finished my last in-hospital service stint today ...until March! Of course there is so much going on at home and work that it really isn't a break.

I am trying to get the house in order and arranged - it has been pretty topsy turvy since September when I had the upstairs re-carpeted and painted. I am almost done putting all of the boxed stuff away//separated into stuff to give away to Goodwill //separated clothes for the kids into summer and winter//all of the laundry done.
Yesterday I hung some of the pictures and the white boards that I had used to organize the school days. Also put back up the plastic hanging folders to organize all of the papers and books. Today I went through the basket of shoes and separated out the ones that won't fit next year (summer sandles/flip flops/crocs) and the ones that will. Then made a full bag of shoes to go to Goodwill and another bag to go in the trash. So, the two things I had on my list for this weekend.

I have been on a cooking jag. I love to make bread and I had seen this book called "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day" on a blog I read. It really is a neat way to make / have fresh bread almost daily without having to take 2-3 hours to make a loaf ---and no kneading! Last week I made this dough for cheese bread and I had made two loafs last week. Today I finished up that dough and made three loaves (one to freeze, one to eat, and one to bring in to work).

Last night I decided to try one of the sweet bread recipes and made this "brioche" dough. I then made donuts out of it for the kids this morning. It was fast and easy and I froze a bunch of the dough so I should be able to do it again. Matthew was a little hesitant when he saw them (I don't have a donut cutter so they looked more like "munchkins" with powdered sugar on them as they came out of the frying oil. But, he was convinced to try and then ended up eating about 10!

The house smells great with the scent of baking bread, taco soup & home made corn tortilla chips (baked not fried!).