Big Day Ahead!

Here it is -November 5th, already and I really should have my fat self out in the kitchen by now to get cracking on a lot of cooking that has to get done today.

But, instead, here I am, still seated at the computer with several blogs left to be read in my reader and a few other things on my mind too. So I figured, what the hey -go ahead and do the post for today and share the bounty of things for which I am truly thankful today.

First off -why the rush on cooking today anyway? I've been baking bread like it's gonna go out of style the past two days and today, I have to make two pans of lasagne plus, I might just bake up yet another batch of bread if my energy holds up.

Wednesday, I baked 3 batches of bread -8 loaves of Swedish Limpa Rye and a batch of what was supposed to be Swedish white Kaka bread but unfortunately, for who knows what reason, the white bread very much flopped for me. To say I was upset would be a bit of an understatement because I was so excited, so thrilled a mere three weeks ago when I figured out this particular recipe could be used to bake the white kakas I so dearly love to eat. But, judging by the way those 4 loaves turned out, the only ones who will get any of that so-called bread will be a few pieces here and there for Sammy the dog -he can use them to gnaw on -and maybe spread some of the bread outside for the birds, whatever ones are still around these parts -to have a bite to eat too.

Now, the reason for this frenzy of baking and cooking is because tomorrow is the day when the women of our church hold our annual bazaar and having a big -actually a pretty huge -supply of the home baked breads, especially those that hark back to the Swedish linage of many of our parishioners -is what has this cooking on my agenda.

Because of the flop of the white bread Wednesday evening, I decided to give it another go yesterday and thankfully, whatever went wrong Wednesday with that dough I must have somehow eliminated that step yesterday because I ended up with three loaves for the bazaar (and one for us to have with the great home-made Vegetable Beef Soup Mandy (yes, Mandy -my daughter who normally is not on a friendly basis with the kitchen) made for us for supper. The kids actually ate the soup -even most of the veggies and meat in it -which is quite a super feat for both of them and they both were very happy to have some more fresh home-made bread to go a long with that accomplishment too.

So now -I have roughly 12-14 loaves of bread to drop off tonight at the church social hall along with a poinsettia tabletopper I embroidered too that will go on the crafts table for sale tomorrow. And tomorrow morning, I'll be taking two pans of lasagne out there to be served for the dinner we also have at our bazaar.

And, as I get these things ready to go for this event, I am also thinking how thankful I am that I am able to fix these things -especially this year, what with all the other things going on in my life the past couple of months. I'm very fortunate first off that I am getting chemo treatments to -hopefully -rid my body of any traces left of the cancer cells and also, that I am so lucky too that the chemo has not had a really bad after effect on my system.

I'm thankful as well that we -Mandy and I -are able to donate these foods to the bazaar. There have been times in my life over the years that baking one batch of bread or a cake or a pan of some type of cookies, would have put quite a strain on the food budget in the household but I have a pretty full pantry these days of ingredients needed to bake these items and to put together not just one, but two pans of lasagne too. And when our budget was much, much tighter over the years, I still wanted to be able to share what little we may have had available to give and today, I'm even more thankful and very happy that we can give this much from our kitchen to benefit the church group.

I'm very pleased too that since I am no longer working full time that I had the time and have developed my embroidery skills somewhat to also be able to have done this tabletopper to give for the crafts table at the bazaar. Last year, my first time to have any projects like this completed and that I felt were suitable to be given to the bazaar, I was very pleased to see how well received those items were. I only wish this year I had been able to find and create a second tabletopper in a holiday theme to donate too.

Giving these things gives me such a sense of satisfaction -happiness that I am able, physically, to prepare these items, as well as providing things that will bring in a good return for our efforts tomorrow too.

And while I am on a thankful binge here, of sorts, there is one other thing that this morning for which I am also giving thanks. And that is for the arrival of a new baby over the past night/morning -a son -weighing in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces, 21 inches long and named Joseph David. Although I've never met this baby's mother, his father is a long-time friend of my family. For many years, we always called the new father by the nickname of "The Prince" or sometimes, "Prince Valiant" because he looks a lot like Prince Valiant of the cartoon, plus back when we first met him, his mode of transportation was a little old Plymouth Valiant.

So, to our own "Prince Valiant" and his bride, the "Princess Becky," many congratulations to you on this wondrous gift and addition to your family. For his safe arrival, all of us are truly thankful!

And now -time for me to go head to the kitchen, for sure, and get cracking!

Peace and still finding -daily -so many things for which I am very, very thankful!