My own little fairy tale

Dear "Secret Life" readers. I feel like it's time to tell you all that I have a second secret life, and a story to go with it.

Fanny's Dream by Caralyn and mark Buehner is the story of a young farm girl who dreams her fairy godmother will come dress her up for a ball. But when the fateful night arrives, Fanny is met in the pumpkin patch not by her FGM but by the farm boy next door who convinces her that all of her dreams will come true if she marries him and moves to the farm next door.

I'm a firm believer in fairy tales especially when the fair maidens remind me of myself. Come join my little fairy tale adventure at Our Happily Ever After.

If you like Fanny's Dream, you may also like these funny fairy tale twists:





Christmas Reading

This Christmas I have a stack of books that fortunately or unfortunately keep piling up. For Classics Book Club we are reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  by Robert Louis Stevenson. For the fun of it I've picked up:

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Van Trapp
Chester, I Love You by Blaine M. and Brenton G. Yorgason
White Demon by Tiffany Black
and
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

And then I was inspired as I watched the Christmas Devotional this past Sunday, and I added these three books to my list:

The Gospel of Luke
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
and The Mansion by Henry van Dyke

You may not own your own copies of these Holiday Classics yet. Perhaps you will be as thrilled as I was to find all three available for reading online. Have a Merry Merry Christmas as you read and remember that Christ and His love for us is what truly makes December so merry and bright.

This month's Classic Book Club book: Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. It promises to be a racy one.

Last month we read The Hiding Place  by Corri Ten Boom. I love thsi book, and I have some questions for you, because I know if you have read it, you love it too. When did you first read The Hiding Place. How did it make you feel. How does Corrie Ten Boom's life change your outlook and make you want to be better? What truths does Corrie Ten Boom share that resonate with you?

 

Teaching, the best way to learn.

So, I heard once, or maybe I read it, that teaching is the best way to learn something you think you already know. Last fall I began teaching knitting classes to some friends. In the last year, the friends have created a TJed based Mom-taught school for their homeschooled children. This Fall I'm teaching 2 knitting classes. I'll let you know how it goes.

Yogurt Cream Cheese

1) I made yogurt.

2) I put it in a strainer lined with cheese clothe in my fridge for 6-8 (or maybe more) hours.

3) It didn't strain very well and was still a bit runny.

4) It tastes like yogurt.

Any suggestions?

Starting Over With Sourdough

My new cookbook has a recipe for whole wheat sourdough starter. After saying for weeks that I was going to try something out of this cookbook I decided this would be a good place for me to start.



My husband says the bread reminds him of bread in Germany. I can't deny, it does have a very "rye" type of taste . . . which got me thinking. I wonder if bakers in Germany use their own cultured yeast instead of commercial yeast.

The recipe makes 5 loaves, so after the first loaf I was a bit tired of the new taste. I'll be excited to see how the taste changes as my new start matures.

Anyone intersted in trying a loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread?

Change in Priority

I love books. But the more I read, the more I realize I'm not a book critic. I just love books. I didn't become a librarian because I love books, though. I because a librarian because I love to learn things and I couldn't think of another profession that would put me as close to the source of knowledge as this one.

With that said, I hope you'll visit often, not for book suggestions, or to see the newest, greatest things I'm reading, but rather, to see the newest greatest things I'm learning from what I've read.

I'm a pretty random reader, too. For instance: in the last few months I've read a cook book from cover to cover.

which has propelled me into many new cooking adventures and nutritional research, a few children's books



and one Russian classic that includes children in a surprising way. I hope you'll be willing to endulge me, and maybe even join a conversation or two as I talk about what I'm learning, and what projects I'm inspired to start as I read.