the honorary swedish citizen

I just got back from my massive Twin Cities/Montana/Portland/Montana/Twin Cities trip.  I high fived Craig and he took off this morning for Seattle.  This was the first time he was not really excited to go, and I was not envious of the rainy/cold weather he is headed toward.

I got to spend an amazing week with my sister and her family.  I also had the privilege to accompany her to the Little Winter sale in Portland, OR.  It was totally crazy, but so super fun.  

While I was out there with her, we got to talking about blogs, and I realized I just don’t do enough blogging about one of my most favorite things.  Like food.  And bread.  Or food and bread.  Anyway, I thought I would share my easiest bread machine recipe. 

What’s that?  You don’t HAVE A BREAD MACHINE?!  Head down to your nearest thrift store.  I just stopped by my favorite Saver’s and not only did I score a pair of Ecco boots for Vienne for $4.99, I saw about 6 bread machines.  I had to resist buying another.  By the way, the more beat up it is, the better.  That means it has made MANY loaves for a happy baker.  If it looks super clean and never used… Well, let’s just use the “never trust a skinny cook” metaphor.  You get the idea.

Jenah’s Easy Bread Recipe

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

1.5 cups bread flour

1.5 cups whole wheat, white wheat, or oat flour

1/4 cup oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Place the water, yeast, and sugar in the pan of your bread maker and put it somewhere warm.  (I set mine on the radiator in the winter or turn up the oven and set the pan over the vent of the oven.   Just be careful with that last suggestion, if its too hot, the high temps kill the yeast.)  Let the yeast sit there and foam for about 10 minutes.

Add the rest of your ingredients to the pan and put it in your bread machine.  Set for regular.

Let it cool a bit and serve with butter, honey, or jam.  Or all three if you’re one of my kids.

Enjoy!

(On a side note, you can use all bread flour if you want, but please note that this loaf bakes up reeeeeally fluffy if you do.)

last week my friend jerry, who’s wife is expecting a baby any time now, was completely overwhelmed at the current state of his home.  “i feel guilty,” he said.  “all the stuff i have to do is inducing so much guilt!”

now if this sounds weird coming out of a man’s mouth, you must realize that jerry is a stay at home dad.  his wife works, and he is the full time, 100% on the ball, make all the meals, sign all the permission slips, make and take the kids to all appointments stay at home dad.

i know how he feels.  i had my life down to a pretty manageable science before vienne came along, but adding another person to our lives, not to mention our living space, has taken considerable time and energy.  i love her to death, and babies are some of the loveliest reasons to rearrange your life.

at any rate, we got to talking about keeping your life sane, and your home tidy.  i feel like i have gotten to the point in my life where my home is, for the most part, clean and tidy.  there are days when things explode and unravel.  but i can, within about a day, get a complete handle on it again.  it has taken a long time to find a system that works for me.  my life can be completely chaotic.

there are people that can devote entire days per week to cleaning.  i found that this does not work for me, because just when i get an entire day to devote to a week’s worth of cleaning, a disaster occurs and i have to attend to said disaster.

i have also tried making lists, (i forget i made them) setting priorities, (everything is a priority) just “doing stuff,” (like checking out thesuperficial.com or watching what not to wear on tlc) trying the fly lady, (no more emails!  please!) none of which had any lasting effects on my home.  i finally came across something called “motivated moms” and its made all the difference.  (my friend lindsay calls in manic moms.  ok, maybe she’s a little right.)

here’s how it works.  each day you have daily jobs, and rotating jobs.  the daily jobs are just that, daily.  they consist of things that should be done on a daily basis like sweeping the kitchen floor, doing dishes, wiping out bathroom sinks, and so forth.  the rotating jobs are ones that turn up every week or so.  they are things like, cleaning toilets or paying bills.  some of these jobs take no more than a few seconds, (taking vitamins) but none of them should take more than a half an hour (spending a half an hour on a clutter spot.)

the beauty of this program is that you don’t have to do anything but what the list says.  i don’t have to come up with a plan because it has already been planned out for me.  and if i miss a day, which sometimes happens, i know those jobs will come around soon.  most of the jobs are fast enough, that if i miss one, i can add it to the next day without overloading myself.

the best thing about this, well besides the clean house, is the fact that i don’t stress about my home as much anymore.  i don’t have to do the ritual “oh crap the inlaws are coming shake down” because my home is most often in a state of calm and cleanliness.  it is nice not to have a 10 hour “cleaning day” but also not have to devote tons of time each day to cleaning either.

www.motivatedmoms.com

i am a little annoyed, and its not because i got stung by a hornet in the bottom of my foot on the way home from central elementary yesterday.  there are a couple other things that are making me a little irritated.

i get really tired of people who demean stay at home moms.  we work really hard, and make really big sacrifices for our families.  we believe that by staying at home, and forgoing extra monetary income, we create richer lives for our children.  i don’t want a bunch of hate mail from work outside the home moms, i know you bust your butts too, i just want to encourage the moms (dads) who DO stay at home.  high five, you’re doing a great job.  here’s to all the nice things we forgo to be able to wave to our kids from the front porch as they come home from school.  and enjoy it.  your job description won’t contain the words “hannah montana” or “making cookies” forever.

but i digress.  the thing that has me most riled up was a piece i saw on the today show (clicky: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32795933#32795933) yesterday.  they started out by saying there is a “new trend” among moms to birth at home, without doctors or drugs.  this piqued my interest a little because i have recently heard a lot about a new trend called “free birthing,” where you give birth at home alone, or with whoever happens to be sitting on the other end of the couch at the time your newborn pokes its head into the world.  these ladies are nut jobs, in my opinion, i mean, even cave women had a cave neighbor with a deerhide ready to catch a squiggly little cave baby.

a couple told their tragic story of how their own baby died when it was birthed at home.  it was so sad, mostly because their baby would have been born about a month after vienne was born.  i felt so bad, but i couldn’t help but think, newsflash, free birthing has risks.

however, as the story progressed, i discovered that the story was not about free birthing at all.  the couple had not only a midwife present, they had a midwife and her team present at this home birth.  they went on to explain that she labored at home for FOUR DAYS and went on to deliver a stillborn baby; its cord was wrapped around its neck.

as i skate nearer to the sign that says, “danger, thin ice,” i want to explain here that i realize that a baby dying is a horrible thing.  and my point is not to wave a finger at anyone’s face. (i’ll get to my point in a minute, just relax i’m setting a stage, here.)   but really, four days?  and what’s with that midwife?  while i don’t know the details of what happened, why they made the decisions that they did, it seems to me that after about, oh maybe, a day and a half, if i am STILL working on getting that baby out at home, i would demand that the scalpels be sharpened and sterilized immediately, and the hospital cafeteria food be put under heat lamps cause i’m comin’ in.

here’s where the story will take a different turn.

i was furious at the media for portraying midwives and home births in this manner.

if you want to make fun of a woman groaning naked on her jennifer converible, completely devoid of competent supervision, while in between bites of cap’n crunch her three year old screams, “WHAT’S COMING OUT OF MOMMY!?”  be my guest.  however, don’t scare women into thinking that midwives are a little more than a self taught baby catcher, and that if you want to labor in the comfort of your own home, there is something wrong with you.

women have given birth for thousands of years without so called “medical personnel” handy.  and even though i chose to have my babies in a hospital, i can completely understand why you would want to give birth at home.  (vienne was, for all intents and purposes, practically born at home anyway, but, i just like someone else to deal with the afterbirth.)

midwives are wonderful advocates for women, their  health and children, and they deliver thousands and thousands of babies safely in homes and hospitals around the world every day.  in fact, the stats say that they have less cases of infant deaths that doctors do.

i guess i just have a hard time with the media at large.  while i understand the risks of having a baby at home, i also have something called good judgement. i don’t need to be scared into thinking that all home births and midwives are bad because of the occasional tragic story.  and 9-11 was an inside job used to create pandemonium and a reason to attack afganistan. and why would you slam and entire workforce of women who’s sole goal in life is to deliver babies in the most natural and non-medicated way possible?

so matt, i guess all i can think of to say is,  just don’t be so glib, ok?