*Key Lime Pie Murder* by Joanne Fluke

This is the latest of my Summer Reading Challenge reads. I SAVED it for months until I was "ready" for a fun and easy read....and that happened after all the cleaning and organizing of the past few weeks. ::snort::

I continue to enjoy this series.

I AM finding the characters to be unrealistic, but that tends to be the case in most mystery cozies. Where else in America would a pudgy 30 something year old woman with frizzy red hair have TWO men fawning over her and content to live in a perpetual state of competition? I seem to be the only reader out there who thinks a good marriage makes for way more fun and interest in a series than ongoing dating. LOL Take the Benni Harper Series or the Bed and Breakfast series...and what are those classics with Jack and Nora....I still maintain it would be possible for this to be a great series if Hannah would simply choose Mike and get on with adjusting to marriage....THAT would be as funny as all the dating shenanigans in my estimation. ::snort::

My plan was to give this one away this week - but really I NEED to keep it until I've copied the recipes and the copier is out of toner. ::snort:: Maybe next week.

Yes, I do clothe my babies EVERY morning......
but then this happens...and it's simply easier in W TX to let them be cool.....

No Catchy Title Comes to Mind

I took a break from stocking the freezers, to pay bills. I'm not sure WHY this takes all day - but it does.

I also put in a Produce Co-op order.

Mike is still at work. Stacia fell asleep at 7:30 p.m. and I'm praying she STAYS down because if she wakes up now it will be a sleepless night for both of us.

I redeemed the day by playing ImagineIFF with Jared, Arielle, Nolan and Zander. The older two young men are at work. I took cookie dough out of the freezer and made enough cookies for everyone to have 2 cookies.

I think I'll go pick out a new book to read....

Summer Reading Challenge Winners


Today is "book drawing day" in our house.


Debbie in NY wins Miserly Moms

What? Debbie in NY again for Intimate Faith

We HAD to draw another winner so - we have more copies....


Mamabright wins Intimate Faith as well

I'll be contacting you for your shipping address.

Remember, new books posted on Saturday for next week's giveaway.

BREAD COMMENTS for BETH
(I thought I'd just comment here)

**Do you always do yours in glass pans.

I have been because it is easier to judge when they are done.... I was using Pampered Chef pans but they got SOOO big that I couldn't fit them in any bread bags that I could buy. LOL

**Do you make slice marks across the top when you roll it to put in the pans?

Yes....I'm trying a new key....one mark down the middle means Italian, 3 diagonal means 7 grain bread.

**Do you rise in the Bosch first and then in the pan later?

I use the sponge method. You're going to kill me....I don't rise for long periods at all. I put the liquids in my Bosch with some of the flour and let it sit for 15 -20 min. Then I add the salt and rest of flour, shape into loaves, place into a pre-heated to warm (170*) and then turned OFF oven for 20 minutes (longer if needed). The process is explained more in the recipe.

** Does your bread rise just as well with the Pampered Chef pans or the glass?

It rises the same. One thing is that if the dough doesn't "feel" right, instead of 5 loaves, I'll shape 4. With the PC pans I get 3 giant loaves. I love the PC pans but I have found that my family will devour bread at the same rate - regardless of loaf size...so I'd rather have 5 normal than 3 giant. LOL

I've been playing with the recipe and if needed (out of gluten), I lower the water amount and add an egg per loaf.

Terrific Tuesday
Quote of the Day: During our walk Zander kept talking about "men don't kiss their dads - they kiss girls"....this eventually culminated in Michael kissing me in the middle of the street...to which Zander remarked, "You two are LOV...ERS and it was all my idea! You know it." He refused to listen to Mike's reasoning. ::snort::


I woke up with quite a bit of pain. I decided to skip Curves today and do one of Becky Tirabassi's Step Routines. I don't know what I will do when these two videos wear out. I LOVE the Christian music - a blast from the early 90's. ::snort:: I break a BIG sweat when I do any of the workouts...it was much gentler on my wrists today than Curves would have been. I lost all the weight at the start of the year when I was alternating this and Curves. Then I hit my "all or nothing" stride and decided I must do Curves 5 or 6 days a week to hit 100 workouts by the end of the year....I quit losing weight. ::snort:: It's also very hard for me to do the video when Michael is home....because the only tv/vcr (9 incher) is in our room. I had hoped that I could do Curves 5 times a week and skip the video...Curves is QUICKER, out of the house and therefore more convenient in a strange sense...but first the not losing and now the wrist pain - time to tweak the routine again.

I decided to tackle Pizza Sauce today ... I turned this

into this. Before we opened all the cans I decided to give in and buy an electric can opener. Wow....it does the whole Pampered Chef thing with the smooth edges. Cool. Nolan and Zander were totally willing to help open 36 cans of tomato paste and 12 cans of tomato sauce. LOL This became a family affair. Jamin had to help stir....it was THICK.

I 12x the recipe. I have 11 quarts of sauce - enough for 33 pizzas or 11 weeks!

Since I already had sauce all over the stove and counters to clean up; I made Spaghetti Sauce next....here's a photo from a previous marathon sauce adventure. Horrors! The recipe for Spaghetti Sauce is NOT on my blog and it must be.....in case the house burns down or something my goal is to have all our favorites on the blog. ::snort:: I tripled this recipe...I freeze it in quart sizes for quick lunches for the young men (5 qts today). I also freeze it in gal sizes for dinners for us (5 gal bags today). I use this sauce for spaghetti, penne, manicotti and lasagna.

Josiah took pity on me and ran to the post office to mail books. I went to the dry cleaners and they were closed. I'll send Jared's CAP blues to base with Michael tomorrow.

Jamin made some pizza dough and we had pizza for dinner. I thought we'd have Spaghetti, but Zander begged very politely for pizza. LOL

Mike made it home by 6 p.m. so we had a "sorta family dinner". Jamin is off work - Cy is working. Mike is making long distance calls. I'm updating the blog. ::snort::

Bre called on her lunch break - what a JOY to get those calls from WA. She's going to call tomorrow and catch Josiah for a sibling heart to heart.

Ah - here's Michael ready for a walk...I'm off!

The Case of the Mysterious Noise....

It seems that while we were gone and Josiah was home alone he kept hearing strange noises. He'd get up to check and it would be THIS floating around various rooms.

He reports that he put it in the closet and it made noise. He put it up high and it pulled loose to float the next night.

We got home and I wondered why a Mylar balloon was tied to the moose on top of my hutch. Today, I asked him to round up all the left over floaters from "Dad's Night" and that thing on the hutch....I was surprised it was a Mother's Day balloon...and that it had been tormenting him while we were away.