Adam Bede by George Eliot

Adam Bede by George Eliot

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is one of my favorite books in awhile. We read it for book club, and even though it took me an extra month to finish it, I loved it. George Eliot (Marian Evans) is a very intelligent writer--I liked her comments about human nature.

Here are two of my favorite passages.
"Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds; and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar combination of outward with inward facts, which constitutes a man's critical actions, it will be better not to think ourselves wise about his character. There is a terrible coercion in our deeds wihich may first turn the honest man into a deceiver, and then reconcile him to the change; for this reason -- that the second wrong presents itself to him in the guise of the only practicable right. The action which before commission has been seen with that blended common-sense and fresh untarnished feeling which is the healthy eye of the soul, is looked at afterwards with the lens of apologetic ingenuity, through which all things that men call beautiful and ugly are seen to be made up of textures very much alike." p. 359

In other words, we can't be sure of how we will act under the circumstances of life until we have lived them ourselves.

"There is no sort of wrong deed of which a man can bear the punishment alone: you can't isolate yourself, and say that the evil which is in you shall not spread. Men's lives are as thoroughly blended with each other as the air they breathe: evil spreads as necessarily as disease. I know, I feel the terrible extent of suffering this sin of Arthur's has caused to others; but so does every sin cause suffering to others besides those who commit it. An act of vengeance on your part against Arthur would simply be another evil added to those we are suffering under: you could not bear the punishment alone; you would entail the worst sorrows on every one who loves you. You would have committed an act of blind fury, that would leave all the present evils just as they were, and add worse evils to them. You may tell me that you meditate no fatal act of vengeance: but the feeling in your mind is what gives birth to such actions, and as long as you indulge it, as long as you do not see that to fix your mind on Arthur's punishment is revenge, and not justice, you are in danger of being led on to the commission of some great wrong." p.469-70

As seen by its effects, revenge is its own sin.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Here's a recipe you might enjoy. I made it for cinnamon rolls last night, but it is delicious on any kind of cookie. I'm planning on putting it on my gingerbread men whenever I make some.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
1 cube (1/2 cup) butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
dash salt
2 tablespoons milk
1 package (4+ cups) powdered sugar

Mix cream cheese and butter until soft, add rest of ingredients and mix until smooth. Add more powdered sugar as needed to get desired consistency.
This makes a lot--over 4 cups of frosting. You can always half the recipe if you need smaller amounts.

Merry Christmas! (Wish I could send you some of the treats myself!)

Pink Princess

Here she is. I'd like to make another dress with this pattern ... maybe after I forget about the time and stress it took to get this one finished.

Quilt

I made this quilt for my sister in law. I was going to wait and post when I could also post the picture of the quilt I'm making for my baby... but I am postponing finishing it while I make a pink princess Halloween costume (by the way, it is going to be a fabulous pink satin dress, so I will post a picture of it, too, when I am done.)

I loved this quilt so much I could have been tempted to keep it... but then I wouldn't have to make more.

If you want to make one, I got the tutorial off of Cluck Cluck Sew. And I used 2.5 inch strips of fabric to give me 8 inch blocks (7.5 inch when sewn together).

I love homemade bread

My sister inspired me with a post about making bread. Well, I've been doing it more regularly lately. I will admit, I've joined the cult... and although it doesn't stay fresh as long, I am getting to the point where I just don't like store bread because it doesn't have that indescribable essence from freshly ground whole wheat.

So if you are curious, here is the recipe I use. It's a combination of my sister's and Chef Brad's.

Wheat Bread

Makes 5 loaves

6 cups water at 110 degrees
2/3 c oil
2/3 c honey or sugar
3 tbsp dough conditioner
2 tbsp salt
2 cups white flour
3 tbsp yeast
freshly ground whole wheat flour, enough to make a soft dough (maybe 10-12 cups, I don't count)

Add ingredients to mixer in order. Mix on low-medium speed for 8 minutes. Allow to rise once in a large bowl. Punch, rest dough 5-10 minutes. Form into loaves and put in pans. Rise again. Bake at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes.

I freeze extra loaves as soon as they are cool and then I can pull out a "fresh" loaf when we need one.

Another recipe I have enjoyed lately include this one for pumpkin cake.

Mt Humphreys

Karl and I spent a Saturday hiking in Flagstaff with some friends. The forecast was 40% chance of rain, and we were going to the highest point in the state, so we brought rain gear, although it almost seemed crazy to be packing a fleece with the lows around 85 degrees at home.

We drove to the trailhead, leaving the kids with Aunt and only bringing the baby. The mountain was beautiful! I didn't see a single cactus... and wondered if I was still in AZ.

We started hiking and made it to just below the saddle when we saw lightning. We took the opportunity to snap some photos before heading down. Other hikers heading back told us, "your not going on with those babies, right?" "Of course not."

As we started down, we saw a couple of rain drops and then a few small hail. I put on all my rain gear and covered baby with poncho. Immediately it started pounding hail. Ouch! My exposed fingers did not like it. Our friends' almost two-year old got pretty wet. We hiked as fast as we could, sloshing through muddy hailstone-filled puddles. It was a bad day for our friends to be wearing jeans.

The hail and then rain abated by the time we made it to the parking lot. Our key fob had gotten damp and Karl had to disarm the car alarm in order to get the car on. I enjoyed myself immensely. Karl couldn't stop smiling and even laughing, especially after the hail started. We have a crazy idea of fun.

Sara's opinion of the hike was a little less rosy: "Thunder. Lightning. Hail. Must hike faster. Hail. Rain. Lightning. It was cold it was wet and we were stuck on the mountain with our frightened two year old. Not my best moment as a parent. WORST BIRTHDAY EVER thoughts circled in my mind." Oh yeah, did I mention it was her birthday?

Summertime

... When the livin' is easy. I think I'd substitute HOT.

The only thing to do is take afternoon naps or swim. Or both.

Today we are caring for a lost baby quail chick. Karl found it by the fence last night. There were no parents around and it is little--too little to fly, practically just hatched. I'm not sure how it got into our yard. But we are going to try to feed it for a few weeks until it is big enough to get over the fence. I gave it some hard boiled eggs this morning, and Karl is picking up some chick feed today. I worry about Speck. It is hard to be so little and helpless.

Tutorial: Make long sleeves short sleeves on a men's dress shirt

I am a beginning seamstress, and hardly ever do clothes, but I wanted to make some dress shirts short sleeved so that my husband can wear them to work in warm weather. Making a long sleeve shirt into a short sleeve shirt should be easy! Plus, there are lots more long sleeve shirts on clearance racks.

1) First, I ironed the shirt and made a mark where I wanted to cut the sleeve. I used a short sleeve dress shirt to decide where to mark, adding an extra 1-1.5 inches for the seam.

2) Next, I used a quilting ruler to make a straight cut. I made the cut perpendicular to the top edge of the sleeve. You could use a regular school ruler and scissors, just make a line with a pencil and try to cut as evenly as possible.

3) Now I folded the other sleeve over and used the first sleeve to measure. Then I cut the second sleeve exactly the same length as the first.

4) I folded the cut edge under and ironed, then folded and ironed again to make the new sleeve edge.

I wanted them to be equal, so again I used the first sleeve to decide how much to fold under on the second. Here is the finished doubled-under edge.

5) Now to sew it! I picked a line on the sewing machine and kept the edge of the shirt lined up with that line so that the seam would be the exact same distance from the edge of the sleeve all the way around. My folded fabric was not always the same distance, which is why I measured from the line on the machine.

6) When I got to the hem on the inside of the sleeve, I had to make a cut along the seam. Otherwise the fabric would have puckered. I stitched a few stitches on the cut side to keep it from fraying. On one shirt I repeated step 5 to get a double line of stitches and it looked like a professionally made short sleeve shirt.

7) All done!

I found this link for making short sleeves on a woman's t-shirt.

Lake Powell

We had a great vacation to Lake Powell.

The sight Karl wanted to see most was Rainbow Bridge National Monument. It was a pleasant boat ride there, while we enjoyed the scenic red rock. The short hike to the bridge was also fun, although the kids hadn't brought shoes and C managed to stub his toe. Jeff took a picture of him sucking on it. On the way back, the other boat broke... luckily before they'd gone very far. So we towed them to the nearest marina and they bought a new impeller. The minute we docked at the marina there was a mad dash for the restrooms. Evidently my munchkins were well hydrated--at least they made it. What an adventure.

The following day we spent mostly on the beach. The kids loved playing in the sand. There were at least 20 kids altogether, and lots of beach toys. All I had to do was supervise and feed the baby. Now that is a vacation.

There was tons of food for the trip and everyone helped bring a couple of meals. It was nice to not have to eat "camp food" the way we usually do if just our family goes camping.

By the end of the trip I had taken the opportunity to explore solo on a kayak, give C a short ride, kayak with Karl around lone rock, take M out on the wave runner twice, and get a ride around the four-wheeler track with Karl. I loved the loops. As a side, I also like the showers and didn't mind that they were cold (when it's hot enough outside, "cold" is the perfect temperature.)

I don't know when we'll be back, but I would love to go to Lake Powell again.

Inside the expedition vehicle

We went off roading yesterday and here is a glimpse of what it is like.

Rocking the baby

Remember this poem? I remember seeing it in a friend's house as a child, and taking care of the baby lately reminded me of it.

Song for a Fifth Child

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Baby's first camp out

Our family went camping this past weekend and had another adventure! Baby had his first taste of the great outdoors at not quite 4 weeks old, continuing our family tradition of breaking them into camping at a young age. K's entire family came.

We drove to Lake Alamo, northwest of our house, for a weekend of kayaking on the reservoir. Although it had hit 98 degrees the week before, this weekend was cold and rainy (perhaps the same storm that brought snow up north). Luckily, we still had lots of fun. Friday we arrived and set up camp, then it proceeded to rain most of the evening. We were prepared with a no-cook dinner of fried chicken, potato salad, and hot dogs and marshmallows for roasting. K had the cars parked in a nice square, wagon/corral style to break the wind, and he strung a tarp between two vehicles to create a rain awning to keep us dry as we sat by the fire.

Friday night it rained most of the night and in the morning we heard the tales of who had gotten the wettest. That is one way to make a camp out memorable. We warmed everyone up with a yummy whole wheat pancake breakfast with bacon, sausage, and eggs. The rain also had mostly gone, so everyone was able to go down to the lake for kayak rides. Bunch of us saw an elk. Then in the afternoon we drove back home.

Sunday I went to church for the first week with Baby. We enjoyed meeting members who hadn't seen him yet. I was able to conduct the music in sacrament meeting and do choir practice, while feeding the baby around those events.

Yesterday we worked hard to clean and put away the camping gear. K showed us a bird's nest in a pine tree in our yard with three baby birds in it. They are about half the size of your pinky finger and don't have their feathers yet. Today M woke up feeling under the weather, so we have relaxed and read a lot of library books. I also made some bread. It's nice to be home.

Quiet book

Today I put together a binder with pictures for my kids to look at during church. It was easy: I cut pictures and activity pages out of the Friend, Ensign, and Temples magazines. I can add to it when I find more pictures. I also have a few that will require laminating the pieces so they can do the activity. I hope they enjoy it and don't fight over it!