Sunset Café Saturday

Today I am introducing a new series here at Rising Eden. On Saturdays I will be inviting you all to join me via this bloggy world and sit for a few minutes with a cup of coffee, or tea, or whatever you prefer to indulge in, on my back deck where we can enjoy a gorgeous view of the sunset. Here I will share a little about my family’s week and what’s going on with us. I invite you to share your travels through your week and we can swap some ideas for balance and organization for the coming week.

We all do better when we work together right? So come and settle in a nice deck chair and grab some guidance or share an insight!

This week was recovery week for us as I was under the weather last week. But even with all that, Halloween was a hit for everyone. We had a backpacker, Merida from the movie ‘Brave’, Superman, Thomas the Train, and a cute and chubby hydrangea bulb. Our fairly rural neighborhood even has a little trick-or-treating so the kids were all happy with the treats that they ended up with. The funniest part was when we were going back home and they trick-or-treated at our own door to Daddy, who had gone home a bit early to pass out treats!

My silly crew on the way out to trick-or-treat

I’m getting back to my usual kitchen routine too. So the bread is baked and should last me the better part of the coming week. Now some of you may think it is a bit over-kill to make the effort of baking our own bread. But I do this for several reasons. First, I love homemade bread! Heck, I love almost any type of bread. But with five kids to chase around that might not be enough of a motivation to go to the extra effort, right? Not so, I say! Since I love good bread, I prefer to buy the good stuff, meaning the more expensive stuff. Besides, have you read the ingredients on the cheaper, store brand breads? Not only do they not taste as good, but they are full of corn syrup and preservatives. So not only am I saving money by making our bread, but we are eating much healthier bread.

So cost and health aside, why else do I bake bread? It is not that hard. No, really, it isn’t! If you are going to be at home for a few hours anyway you can easily take a few minutes here and there and end up with at least 4 loaves of warm, yummy goodness with minimal effort. For example, yesterday afternoon I was beginning to think about dinner prep and started my dough at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Three hours later, the house smelled great and I was gazing upon 4 beautiful fresh loaves, cooling on the table. And that was including many interruptions to monitor the children who were jumping in the leaves outside, making dinner, and nursing the babe. I am also a big fan of the thinking that if you are going to make a mess in the kitchen anyway, you might as well get more out of it with the same amount of time and effort. So if you are looking for a quick way of feeding your family healthy and saving money, I encourage you to give it a whirl. You can use any number of recipes an you can even employ the convenience of a bread maker. Of course you may even find it therapeutic  to beat the dough around like I do when I am feeling irritable!

And last, but not least – baking bread is an excellent air freshener!

My fresh bread with homemade pumpkin butter – Yummmm!

So what about you? Do you make your own bread? Or anything else that you would like to share? I would love to hear your ideas for a  healthy jump start to next week in the comments below! In the meantime, get some rest this weekend and feel blessed. 🙂