Today Is....

A Great Day!

The weather here is absolutely gorgeous -sunny, bright -grass is getting greener. The temperature is very nice too -still a bit to chilly for me to go outside without my jacket on, but didn't have to wear my mittens to keep my fingers from freezing, so that's a darned good thing, isn't it?

I'm in the midst of making Swedish Limpa Rye Bread -my favorite thing to bake! It's sitting in my my great big tupperware bowl, all covered up with wax paper, tea towels and a couple lap robe blankets cover it and doing its first rise now.

So while that is working -without my having to do any actual work with the bread dough -I took Simple Sammy for his first walk of the day.

I think he enjoyed the warmth and fresh air as much, maybe even more, as I did! He was zipping all over the place -from one side of the road to the other, sniffing away at the ground then, lifting his head and doing his strut walk as we went down the street towards Peale.

The nicest thing today about walking him is that Peale Road -where the pavement ends and the dirt road begins -is dry today so didn't have to watch every step along the way there for puddles and slippery, slimy mud as it has been most of this week.

When we passed the last residence along our street, the two men (father and son) who live in the trailer there were out in their backyard and had both their dogs out there too. They have a pair of "weiner dogs" -a male and female and I think King is actually Queen's son. Both dogs are very nice -well, they are with me and with Sammy -especially King. Queen pretty much just abides Sammy's sniffing and trying to be friends whereas King will always come running down to the road to greet Sammy.

They are so comical to watch though as both of them will crouch and look at each other in a rather mischievous way. King will do a little yip bark at Sam, then crouch and sniff some more and Sam just strains like crazy on his leash, wanting to be loose and able to really run, chase and frolic with King.

Today is a big day for one member of my family as today is my older daughter's birthday.

If my memory serves me correctly though, 46 years ago today, as I was reposing at Prince George's County Hospital in Landover, MD -waiting patiently (hah, that's a joke) for Carrie's arrival (which didn't happen until about 9:30 that night), I believe the weather was very different that day that it is today. Seems to me it was sort of misting, then spitting showers, then back to misting again and I know it was a lot cooler that day than it is today too. As a matter of fact, that entire spring consisted of a lot of cold and very rainy days.

When my daughter was two weeks old, my Mom, the baby and I came up to our home here in Pennsylvania and spent four weeks here then until I had to return to work and it seemed like every day we were here then it was cold and rainy and even a couple of days when it also snowed a bit too!

Last year, it seemed like it rained almost every single day in the month of May -and it was cold too last year. It was touch and go whether the lawncare company that takes care of our church cemetery grounds would be able to get to the cemetery and get the grass cut in time for the Memorial Day Services, what with all the rain coming down, day after day! Finally about 2 days before Memorial Day, the weather dried up enough that they were able then to get all the cutting done!

So, time now for me to check on my bread and get it sectioned out, make the small "kakas" and place them in cake pans then to rise for about another hour and then, pop them in the oven and get them baked. (Kakas, for anyone unfamiliar with this type of bread baking, is a term the folks around here who are of Swedish descent, use for the loaves of bread they make by forming a section of dough into a circle, rolling it out a little (or in some cases, a lot -individual choice on that aspect), prick holes all over the top of the loaves as they begin their second rise before baking.) I don't know the reason why the bread is shaped that way -by tradition -but it is and I know my kids and grandkids love it and so do I! The bread I make I use layer cake pans to put my loaves in to rise and bake my loaves don't really get all that big around but, because I always add a bit of honey to my bread dough, my rye bread has a little hint of added sweetness to it when it's done.

Jonathon and Aaron, my son's girlfriend's twins (age 8) love this bread and I haven't made any rye bread and taken up to them in quite some time now but today, they'll be receiving two loaves of Limpa Rye bread -one loaf for my son and their Mom and one loaf, just for those boys! Those two boys can devour a whole loaf of my Limpa Rye bread in the sitting for one meal -just the two of 'em! My version of a little spring treat for them, ya know!

This evening now I have to work! Yes, you heard that right -WORK!

Younger daughter, Mandy, is the sexton at our church and she had already cleaned the church on Thursday to have it ready for services tomorrow and made plans then to go down to Lebanon and Gettysburg this weekend to visit with some friends because she hadn't been informed that today, there will be a wedding taking place at our church and she isn't going to be here to clean the narthex and social hall and all the other areas of the sanctuary before services tomorrow so I volunteered to go out this evening and do the cleanup -make sure the carpeting is all cleans and sparkly, any garbage taken to the janitor's closet till it goes out Tuesday night for pick-up and in general, just make sure the whole building is ready and nice and clean. She was a bit upset because things had been a bit mixed up and no one had informed her about this wedding today therefore, she had made plans to go away for the weekend. Gonna have to make sure the wires don't get crossed again like that in the future now!

So, back to the kitchen now and get my bread moving along.

Enjoy the day and hope you have some way in your power to make something that will be healthy and tasty and also scent your entire home while it's being prepared in one of the best smells ever -freshly baked bread!

Nothing like it and a great way to enjoy the day a bit more when you have that to munch on too!