28 Days of Love! Day 1.

My friend Miriam over at My Country Cupboard is doing "28 Days of Love" for February.  I think it is a pretty cute idea, so I am going to copy her! ;)

The rules are simple... post a photo each day in February that says "love" to you.  I was already working on a post today, but I think this could fit nicely with my post!

I have inherited a "disorder" from my mother.  We are paper collectors; more specifically catalog and magazine collectors.  Brandon refers to us as Catalog Queens.  My Mama has every issue of Country Living magazine since 1981.  Why?  There may be some useful slice of decorator know-how in the pages of the June 1987 issue?  Doubtful.  Whatever her reasons, I am cursed with the same inability to toss magazines.  I finally got rid of 10 years of Martha Stewart Living magazine after my Mema moved to a retirement community.  After helping her move from her home of 50+ years it dawned on me that I would likely have to help my parents move one day.  I am going to have to wrestle with her over those dumb magazines!  I do not want my progeny to suffer any over what to do with my stuff, so I got rid of Martha... but I kept Mother Earth News and Organic Gardening.


I have been trying (and failing repeatedly) to make wheat bread.  It is too dense or crumbly, or just plain gross.  So, today when I was looking for a Mother Earth News article on making wattle trellises, I came across an article by the authors of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  The article goes through the basics of Artisan Bread.  SCORE!  So glad I kept that magazine!!  I decided to give this recipe a try since my attempts thus-far have yielded zilch.

So, today was yet another attempt at wheat bread.  Eden and I dove in this morning and after much waiting (you know how bread goes), I just put it in the oven.  I will report back on the success of this recipe.

This leads me to my "love" for the day.  The smell of bread dough, the smell of baking bread (yes, even when it is inedible).  I love that I am home during the day to make multiple attempts at making bread.

Cooking and baking for my family is a display of my love for them and according to Psalm 104:14-15, God shows his love in The Same Way!!  I leave you with this sweet little nugget of love...

^{Psalm 104:14-15}

¹⁴ He makes grass grow for the cattle, 

   and plants for people to cultivate— 

   bringing forth food from the earth: 

¹⁵ wine that gladdens human hearts, 

   oil to make their faces shine, 

   and bread that sustains their hearts.