by Kat | Dec 11, 2023 | General, In This Moment
Involves a “sometimes” quote…
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. ― Thich Nhat Hanh
As December races by, I have been trying to focus on finding some joy in the days… And despite joy being most-times fleeting and hard to find as December marches on with all the stress it can bring. I am trying to slow down and look for joy in my days.
Slowing down is a very good place to start… and to smile!
This morning I am so happy for the slowing down process that is making sourdough bread… and what a joy it is to smell bread baking in my oven! The latter is absolutely something that puts a smile on my face!
My advice to you all… bake something today, and revel in the joy of it!
Have a Joy-filled Monday everyone!
by Kat | Dec 4, 2023 | General, In This Moment
Is for celebrating weekend successes!
Success Number One:
The schedule was much better. And Sunday’s bake… well, it was spectacular! This was a much lighter, airier loaf with tender crumb and a crisp crust!
Success Number Two:
Getting back on the Watercolor Horse might have been a bit scary, but it felt so good and it is a good start to this 4-week class!
And today… I hope attain the Put Up The Christmas Tree achievement. I have all the ‘bits’ ready to go… I am thinking that some Charlie Brown Christmas and The Polar Express will help keep me focused!
Happy Monday all! See you all back here on Wednesday for some unraveling!
by Kat | Mar 10, 2023 | General, Museum of Me
If I look back on my school days… which I do with some regularity in my 60’s… and I note two key things:
- If I was good at something, I wanted to do it all the time.
- If I was not good at something, I found ways to avoid doing it at all costs.
Those two things sum up my educational life… very succinctly.
I think you can imagine how those two key things have influenced my life… or rather, how I have used those two things to influence my life!
I was late to reading… believe it or not! When I was a child they taught reading phonetically and that just did not make sense to me at all. I learned to read linguistically. But once I caught on, there was no stopping me… I always had a book with me.
Math was a similar struggle… throughout my entire school life. Not once was math ever taught in a manner that made any sense to me. I had the misfortune to being in the “guinea pig” group for a concept school for 3 years in middle school. The thought behind this concept was that if children are allowed to choose what to do, they will always choose to learn. Ha! Enter wee Kat… who finished all the reading “requirements” for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade in 6th grade. That same person did not do one lick of math in 3 years. True fact. Suffice it to say, I was not the only one and they had to implement “remedial math” classes for a large group of us when we moved on to high school.
I was, however, fascinated with science in middle school. I had an amazing science teacher… Mr. Meppelink. Mr. Meppelink made science a wonder! And science remained fascinating until I reached a big stumbling block… the one where science and math merged… that was when I “fell out” a bit with science. There was no chance I was ever going to be a scientist with my poor math skills. I wish I had some nice while-I-was-in-school-aha-moment where it all clicked but there was never one while I was in school.
But, the science story did not end when I finished school!
Nope!
Some many years later…I realized that science is part of my daily life when I discovered the “how’s” of baking! The science of flour, water, yeast, and salt to make something that is edible! Bread! And if you really want to get further into the science of baking… sour dough! (Which, to date, I have never been successful at achieving! But I have tried!)
So though I was never a good science student, I managed to bake my way into being a fairly good scientist in the kitchen! Even with all the Sour Dough failures I have had! And those math skills? Well, I am happy to tell you all that I am a very happy percentage baker.
While I was not the best student… I am happy that science found a way to move it self from thing two to thing one!
Thanks to Kym for making sure these memories keep percolating to the forefront of my brain!
Happy Friday and Happy Weekend everyone!
by Kat | Feb 20, 2023 | General, In This Moment
Is a continuation of the weekend.
I thought I’d share some of the things that have made my weekend extra wonderful!
First, I saw this on IG and I had a batch of focaccia in the fridge… so on Saturday I did a bit of a riff on it. One russet potato, a couple of shallots, and some cheddar and gruyere cheeses and we had the most delicious “potato bread” I have ever eaten! I followed the baking instructions for Richard Reinhard’s focaccia not the IG post baking instructions. The leftover potato focaccia was just as good reheated with some fried eggs for Sunday night dinner!
Quite possibly, the perfect focaccia!
I have been enjoying the new On Being season and on Sunday I spent an hour with Ada Limón. It was so delightful to hear Ada read some of her poems from The Hurting Kind and of course, I now have some new favorites! A bonus was listening to Ada read A New National Anthem.
As for today… I *think* I will begin a sleeve on my handspun sweater! Yes, the body is almost done! I have about one inch of 2×2 ribbing. Today is a bit gloomy here… a good day to knit and think about President Carter, his dear wife, Rosalynn, and his family.
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Sep 12, 2022 | General, In This Moment
Greetings everyone and Happy Monday!
It was a full weekend… a full indoor weekend thanks to the grey skies that brought some rain to Pittsburgh! Much needed rain, mind you…so I am not complaining. (Okay, I am not complaining about the rain but the mosquitoes on the other hand…)
I tried my hand at making pita bread from scratch – it needs a bit more work – but warm sort of pitas on Friday were a treat! I just need to work on the “getting the pita from the counter to the baking steel” bit… that was rough but no fingers were burned in the attempts however oval pitas were not quite the look I was going for! Ha!
I did lots of practice sewing on French Terry fabric scraps… trying to find the elusive sweet spot for all the tension knobs on my serger. It took some time, but I did get it “dialed in” for my fabric. And then some actual sewing began. I have one sweatshirt almost done, and one more all ready to go! It was a bit stressful as this sewing is well outside my comfort zone… but I rewarded myself with an extra “happy hour” on Saturday while we caught up on the new HBO series Game of Thrones House of the Dragon.
Outside of that there was a Steeler win (in overtime) which made Steve insanely happy.
I spent some time reflecting on 9/11.
I learned a new word.
I also spent some time working on this month’s suggestion for my word, which is to think about my word visually – with pictures – this month. I am finding this to be so much fun, capturing images of the things that fill my days!
AND… I even spent the tiniest bit of time knitting on my puzzle-y sweater start! The back is patiently waiting for the fronts to get caught up… and they are moving in that direction!
There you have my weekend highlights…I am more than ready to get this Monday off and running. I have my list ready for the week… how about you? Are you prepped and ready to tackle this week? I hope so!
See you all back here on Wednesday with The Big Sweatshirt Reveal!
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