Kneading Dough and Needing Swords

I've spent the better part of my day today with my hands in bread dough. I thought I would take some pictures along the way. A good cook always gathers all of her ingredients before beginning. Or, in my case, gathers them for this picture so it looks as though I'm a good cook.

Here's my dough, ready for kneading.*****Only 2 hours to go before punching!

All risen in the pans; ready for the oven. *****Ahhh, beautiful bread!!

In the mean time I also had to prepare for our dinner tonight. I wanted to try a recipe we found for copycat Golden Corral rolls. These were a little time consuming, but worth every minute. They are fabulous!!

You might remember that I mentioned some time ago about ordering a bread maker. Well, it arrived a couple of weeks ago and I immediately sent it back! I rather enjoy my small accomplishment of homemade bread, and I don't think I would feel the same about it if a machine did it for me. Having said that, I'm not completely crazy. I have ordered a stand mixer with a dough hook to do the job of kneading for me. Eczema has destroyed my hands to the point where they really shouldn't be "in" someone's food. Winter will only make them worse, so I think a mechanical helper will come in handy.

I recently ordered a book for my son called, "The Squire and the Scroll". I'm sure many of you have heard of it before. We received it last night and I read it to the kids today for the first time. I highly recommend it to anyone with children; boys or girls. My son is going to be 4 in about a month, so you can imagine how short his attention span is. As I "proof-read" this story last night to make sure it was suitable for my kids, I wondered if he would be able to sit through the whole thing. It's a little on the long side for him, and the concepts were definitely over his head, but I thought I'd give it a try. 2 1/2 hours after we read it, he was still carrying around this book "reading" it. He was so excited about everything in it. The main character uses a sword (the Bible) to slay the dragon (Satan) near the end of the story. He immediately said, "Mommy, can I have a sword?" Little does he know that I have already ordered him the "Whole Armour of God" dress-up set for his birthday. How perfect is that?! He is so excited about the idea of protecting us from all the evil things out there. A little later he told me, "Mommy, I'm going to ask God for a sword. You don't get it for me, okay?" Can you guess what the tag will say on that present? *From: God* Four hours after we read this book I found him asleep on the couch; open book in his lap.

And still at dinner tonight, all I heard was plans from both children to re-enact the whole book. Ideas were flying of how they can make caves and castles and dragons. A temporary sword was fashioned out of blocks and every member of the family has been assigned a part in the story. I know that he doesn't understand all of the hidden meanings in this book, but he's excited about it nonetheless. I'm hoping to nourish this enthusiasm and mold him into an on-fire soldier in the Lord's Army.