Say wha'?

This was part of a conversation at breakfast yesterday that cracked all of us up. The girls were talking about words and their meanings.

Aubrey: Sit down and sit up both mean to sit, but mean different things. One means to sit when someone is standing and the other to sit when you're laying down. Stand up and stand down have complete different meanings that aren't related to each other at all.

Lauryn (5 yo): What does "stand down" mean?

Aubrey: "Stand down" means to surrender.

Lauryn (looking completely puzzled): In Latin?

New 'Do

Kora's been wanting to get her hair cut and layered for quite a while now, so Friday afternoon I took her to my stylist to get it done. I really had no idea what she wanted but she had a picture in her head of what she wanted. It turned out very cute. The pictures really don't do it justice, partly because I'm such a bad photographer, and partly because it doesn't catch the way she moves. It has made her look at least two years older than 13, her real age. The fact that she's just a tad bit shorter than me doesn't help either. (The other day I wore flats to church while she wore three inch heels. I'll not make that mistake again - I felt like she dwarfed me!)

I told Anne, the stylist, that her father would NOT like the new cut. I was right. But we all think it suits her very well. The layers allow her hair to be even more wavy than it already was. Now she just needs to learn how to use a straight iron.

These pictures are with it air dried, with natural wave.

These pictures were taken today, when we used a flat iron on it.

An expensive lesson

Here's a tip for you:

If for some reason your garage door opener decides to start acting funny one day - let's say it will only raise your door about 5 inches off the floor and then stop - here's a tip that will save you from having to pay a technician a healthy service charge to come out and tell you what the problem is:

UNPLUG THE OPENER AND THEN PLUG IT BACK IN.

Yep, that's right. Evidently, some automatic openers "run on Windows" as my computer geek husband says, and just need to be reset sometimes. So if yours ever does this, try unplugging it before shelling out $60 to the technician.

Not that we know anyone who's had to do this recently. No, not us. Absolutely not. Uh-uh. Just wanted to pass a tip on in case it could help anyone else. ;-)

The Sword used as a sledgehammer

The other day at lunch, Hailey (7 yo) was explaining to her sisters what she had been playing when called away to eat.

Hailey: I am the queen of everything.

One older sister: Aren't we queens of anything?

Hailey: No. I'm the queen of everything! You are all peasants.

Aubrey (11 yo): Remember, Hailey, "The FIRST shall be Last!"

My Christmas Gift

I mentioned a couple of weeks back about my Christmas gift I would blog about in the future. I finally remembered to take a picture of it when I was using it this morning so here it is:

Do you know what it is?

This, my friends, is a grain mill. Yep, it's a counter top appliance that will grind grain into flour. Until a few years ago I didn't even know such things existed, but as I started learning more about bread baking and started doing more of it, I started coveting one, er, I mean, wanting one. ;-) My hubby obliged for Christmas.

Of course this means I had to go buy some wheat berries. I also decided to buy some oat groats at the same time, as oat bran is extremely high in soluble fiber, which Kelly needs in his diet due to his digestive condition. I bought both red and white wheat berries, for different uses. I tend to use the red wheat when baking bread and the white for more general baking purposes. I use half white and half whole wheat flour in most of my non-bread baking, and my family loves it. I baked bread this morning with freshly ground whole wheat flour and the house smelled wonderful!

But I have to say the most pleasant surprise has been the oat bran. While I bought it primarily to use in making Kelly's sandwich and toast bread, I have started using it in other applications. It makes really good breakfast meals - I replace half the white flour with an equal amount of oat bran. I've made muffins with it that were almost inhaled. I made pancakes yesterday morning with half white flour/half oat bran that were scrumptious! The oat bran adds a richer flavor to everything that we are really liking.

I have yet to experiment with grinding anything else, like rice or beans. I'm not entirely sure what I would use this for. Anyone with a mill have any suggestions?