My last post brought to mind this great passage from the introduction to the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book (the authors of which are not Mormon) about the wheat kernel:

"There it sits- a single kernel of wheat, maybe three sixteenths of an inch long, creased along one side and rounded on the other. At the bottom nestles a tiny oval compartment, the minute beginning of the plants rebirth, called the germ. Above the germ is the endosperm, a protein- and calorie-rich food reservoir that will fuel the plant as it germinates. Enveloping both is a hard seed coat, impermeable for decades to anything but the warmth and moisture that will bring the seed to life."

"What's so marvelous about this simple structure is that everything that helps the grain preserve and reproduce itself also suits the needs of human beings and animals superbly well. It comes close to being a complete food, needing to be supplemented only by small amounts of animal products and/or legumes, and the leafy green and yellow vegetables that almost any environment between the polar caps will provide in some form. The same hard seed coat that protects the seed's capacity to reproduce itself has also made possible for humankind the almost indefinitely long storage of a wholesome food supply."

Still with me? Here's the part that made me cry, yes, cry the first time I read it:

"There are those who can look on this kind of arrangement and keep their wits about them. There are others who can't conceive of it as anything but a sure, small sign of some larger benevolence, hidden deep behind the appearance of things- and who feel, too, that nothing could be more fitting in response than to summon up all that is skilled and artful in themselves to bake a fine, high-rising loaf of uncompromisingly whole-grain bread."

I was raised on whole wheat bread, my mom made it all the time, and taught me to make it at a young age. I LOVE whole wheat bread, and I have a sandwich bread recipe that's like a miracle, it's 100% whole wheat, very soft and moist, not at all crumbly. You can take a slice and fold it in half without it breaking. You can find that recipe on this blog.

But.... last fall I discovered no-knead breadmaking. What a revelation! It's so simple, you mix four ingredients- flour, yeast, water and salt, let them sit for a couple of hours, throw it in the fridge, and then at anytime over the next two weeks you can break off a hunk of dough and have a fresh, crusty, tender artisan loaf in about an hour. So that's how I, a lifelong whole wheat only lover, got seduced by white bread. I intially tried to substitute whole wheat, but the results were so dismal I gave up. But this week I decided to give it another try, and after several failures, finally have a pretty good working recipe. It needs a bit of tweaking yet, but it's very good as is. You can find it here. I doubled the yeast, and used more gluten, 40 grams total, but otherwise followed it as written. Now I have the best of both worlds, whole grain, and almost no work. It's healthier for me, and more in line with my own religious "health code", as found in Section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants:

10 And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—

11 Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.

12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;

13 And it is pleasing unto me that they (animals) should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.

14 All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth;

15 And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger.

16 All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground—

17 Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.

Most people know that Mormons don't drink smoke, and don't drink alcohol or coffee. What most people don't know, is that besides banning things that are bad for you, the Word of Wisdom also tells you what a healthy diet should look like. Looking at the highlighted portions above, our diet should consist chiefly of grain, specifically wheat. In fact this is mentioned three times. Meat isn't abstained from, but used sparingly. This is repeated twice. Then herbs, or vegetables in season, and fruit in season. Even most members of the church focus solely on the alcohol, tobacco, and coffee restrictions. But the promised blessings:

18 And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

19 And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;

20 And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.

21 And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.

are so great, that it seems a wise thing to more closely examine and adhere to ALL of the admonitions contained in the Word of Wisdom. Now that I've got the whole wheat no-knead thing worked out our daily bread will once again be the staff of life it should be, and that makes me happy.

Today I was blessed to attend a wedding, and witnessing such strong, new love stirred thoughts about the things I love...

I love temples... what a blessing to have a little bit of heaven on earth, to go into those hushed corridors where everyone smiles graciously and you can leave the world behind and feel close to God and angels.

I love temple marriage... and I love going back to the temple to see new couples get sealed and feel that spirit and be taught and remember the joy I felt on my own wedding day.

I love eternal families... as a kid I used to think of an "eternal family" as a mom, dad, and kids who lived together forever. Today I saw such an intricate web, so many connections going every which way, and I felt the "wholeness" of our eternal family, it's all of us, some connections are more visible, but if you trace the threads far enough, you can find connections to everyone.

I'm grateful for parents who taught me these things from the beginning, I'm grateful to have a husband and family who bring me such joy, and most of all I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for putting it all in motion.

When my girls were little one day they spotted these kits at the craft store:


I hate craft foam, and we normally avoided synthetic materials in general, but I was feeling indulgent that day, so we brought them home. As we started to assemble them, I thought it was wrong that the prince had a sword and the princess didn't, so I cut a sword for each princess out of extra foam. My middle child was delighted for her princess to have a sword, but the oldest said, "No thanks, my princess doesn't need a sword." This prompted the following conversation:

Me: What if your princess gets attacked by a dragon?
Her: The prince will save her.
Me: What if the prince isn't around? She needs a sword in case she has to fight the dragon herself.
Her (shocked): But if she fights the dragon her dress might get ruined!
Me (sarcastic): If she gets EATEN by a dragon her dress will definitely get ruined.

She was unconvinced, however, by my flawless logic, and despite my best efforts, has continued to prefer the swooning princess archetype. Until she read this book:

The main character, Aethelflaed, impressed her so much she's dressed up as Aethelflaed for Halloween two years running. In a beautiful, flowing red and gold dress with a sword hanging at her side, a golden circlet on her head, she's the picture of this Celtic warrior queen. And Aethelflaed is exactly the kind of role model I love for my daughters. As daughter of King Alfred the Great, and fiancee (at age 14 or so) to Earl of the neighboring kingdom, Aethelflaed had a blinking neon target hanging on her back. Instead of living her days in fear of kidnapping or worse, and trusting in others to protect her, she takes matters into her own hands, insisting her guard, Red, teach her how to defend herself.

This training comes in handy when her travelling party is attacked on the way to her wedding. I won't give away the details, but suffice to say that the reader, who has come to love Aetheflaed like a sister by this point, is glad that her life doesn't depend solely on the skills of those who are sworn to protect her.

Aethelflaed grew up to become "the greatest heroine in Old English military history". This book only shows us a year of her childhood, and leaves us wanting more. Author Rebecca Tingle so skillfully weaves all the elements of Aethelflaed's live together, making what could be an intimidating character into a very human one. As a side note, after I read the book I discovered that Rebecca Tingle got her masters at Brigham Young University, where I spent some formative years. Later she studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, where she discovered the fragmented accounts of Aethelflaed's life that inspired this book. She started writing the book at Oxford, but finished it over the next few years while also marrying and starting a family. Given the stereotypes that abound about LDS women, I love to see a woman successfully combine her academic passion with her divine roles as wife and mother. Right now homeschooling and daily survival take all my energy, (I'm no Melissa Wiley or Alice Gunther) but I know this phase of life won't last forever and someday I'll create a masterpiece, too.

P.S. In writing this post I discovered that she's written a new book about Aelfwynn, Aethelflaed's daughter. I think I know what my oldest is going to be for Halloween this year.

We're blessed with a good friend at church who's a science teacher. He knows we homeschool, and he's always sharing interesting learning opportunities with us. On the Fourth of July he came over and did Diet Coke and Menthos experiments with the kids, and another time he brought over all the ingredients for making homemade icecream with the "kick-the-can" method. Once he even went on a walk with us around our property and shared his extensive knowledge of the local flora and fauna. I'm so grateful he's taken on this casual mentor role with our family.

Last week he called to let us know that the International Space Station would be visible in our evening sky. It passes this way often, but conditions have to be just right for it to be viewable. If its full daylight its brightness gets swallowed up by the brightness of the sky. But it has no light of its own, so if it's completely dark you can't see it either. It has to be dusk, dark enough to spot it in the sky, but the sun still near enough to reflect off it. It looks like a bright star shooting across the sky:

To find out when you can view it in your area go to this page on the Family Education website.

If you want to follow up afterwards by learning a little more about the space station here are some good places to start:

-The European Space Agency's website has a page just for kids. There's a lot of good stuff here. We learned which countries are involved with the space station. That prompted a little talk about international co-operation (that's an oxymoron right?) We also learned that parts of it were launched in 1998, the year one of my children was born, so that gave us an immediate reference point for its age. When it's completed it will be about the size of a football field, hard to grasp when it was such a tiny dot in the sky.

-NASA has some info about what my kids were most interested in- how and what the astronauts eat This page had a little info. The kids thought it was freaky that salt and pepper have to be in liquid form. Can you imagine the misery that would ensue in zero gravity if someone shook some pepper all over their food? (Maybe not, if you've never accidentally pepper sprayed yourself, not that I HAVE, of course) This page also had some cool videos and pictures. Here's a picture of their dinner trays, everything has to be velcroed down:


-Also from NASA, on this page, is a really detailed and interesting account of what they eat at "Cafe ISS" by American astronaut Ed Lu. The kids favorite part of his story was where he talked about eating trail-mix goldfish style, floating through the air and gobbling it up piece by piece.

I admit, we've read Paddle-to-the-Sea before, twice even. Once when Eldest was doing Ambleside Year Two, and once with Middle. We've thoroughly enjoyed it, but all the while I was dying to do more with it, as well as the rest of the Holling books. Well, that time has finally come. As a starting point, I got Beautiful Feet's Geography Through Literature Study Guide, and the accompanying maps. Then, after a vain search online for notebooking pages, I made some myself. I'm rather pleased with how they turned out, and how I was able to tailor them to fit with our other areas of study. I managed to tie in nature study, zoology, grammar, math, and creative writing. Of course, I've only completed pages for the first two lessons, but our first lesson today was successful enough to encourage me to keep it up.

First we talked about, and drew, sign of spring in Nipigon Country, as noted in the text. Then we talked about signs of spring where we live, which is a very different animal. No melting of the snow pack here, for example.

After that we watched some Youtube videos of Canadian Geese while the kids colored in a picture of one. Since we were discussing the principles of lift, thrust, and drag as it relates to the flight of birds yesterday in our zoology text, we took a little Youtube detour at that point to watch a video on how birds fly. As they finished coloring, I read to them a little more about the geese's habits, etc., and they wrote down a few of them.

Then we worked on a little sheet I had made up with the seven different animals mentioned in the first three chapters. I had pictures of the animals, their common names, and taxonomy. We used process of elimination to figure out which taxonomy matched which animal. Middle, an avid fan of the "Sisters Grimm" series, could hardly contain herself when she recognized Canis lupus as the Gray Wolf.

We voted to skip the planned experiment on ballast so Dad can participate with us in doing that tonight.

I expected much resistance to the grammar page, I asked them to pick out a proper noun, common noun, action verb, and pronoun from the text then make up their own story using those words. They hate putting pencil to paper, but got so caught up in creating their stories they forgot to complain. Eldest even put hers into comic strip format.

We finished off with a few math problems, and a discussion on what kind of person the boy who made Paddle-to-the-Sea must have been. A good time was had by all, and I finally feel like we're really getting involved with Holling's story, instead of skimming over it.

P.S. I found this great website that has full page text and illustrations of this beautiful book available for free online, as well as a 30 minute movie that was made to go with it. The movie differs from the book in many details, but has its own good points.

Chapter 1- The Graceful Imposter

Believe it or not, out here in the desert we see more hummingbirds hanging around than I've seen anywhere else I've lived. It's probably the wide open spaces. Once I even saw a hummingbird just sitting in a tree in our backyard. I've NEVER seen a hummingbird at rest, it's amazing how small it looks with it's wings folded against it's side. But around the time the monsoon season got underway, we started seeing them more frequently, hovering around our desert willows and birds of paradise. Really small hummingbirds, a little odd looking....


I never caught them on camera, the above photograph was 'borrowed' from the web, but after awhile we realized what we were seeing weren't hummingbirds, but the hummingbird moth:

It's hard to tell from the above photo, but these are good sized moths, with wingspans up to 5". And suddenly, they were everywhere! You notice a moth that size when it buzzes your head, or accidentally flies into your house and starts beating against the windows to get out. Our cats had a field day, we found more than one set of wings sans body on the floor of our garage. Then , without our really noticing, they quietly receded.

Chapter 2: Guilty by Association

As the monsoon season progressed, our little desert homestead blossomed. The normally brown rocky turf gave way to a tangle of green. So it was on the relatively blank slate of our gravel driveway that I first noticed a bright yellow caterpillar with a horn on the end just like the hornworms that had attacked my tomatoes. In fact they looked exactly like hornworms except for their color.

I'm normally pretty lasseiz faire about the flora and fauna around here, we don't cultivate a lawn and we let the desert pretty much go through whatever cycles it's going to go through, but I've seen hornworms strip a tomato plant down to nubs, and I had gone to SO much trouble and expense this spring to put in a garden, my first reaction to these little yellow cousins was panic. I told my girls I'd pay them 25 cents for each worm they picked off the ground and put in a bucket:

An hour later, they'd each earned $10 and it was clear this was a losing war. The driveway was crawling with them and they hung on every bush like Christmas decorations:

As it turned out, they mostly left my garden alone, if you don't count the sunflowers. The native vegetation wasn't so lucky. It seemed as if these caterpillars were specially comissioned to take down every green blade and leaf the monsoon season had brought us. It eventually got to the point where even the main road running through our neighborhood took on a yellowish hue and a creepy crawly texture. The local newspaper ran a story about it, apparently it's been about 20 years since these little guys turned out in such force. Wasps and bees are their natural predators in the larval stage, and we had such a dry spring there weren't many wasps and bees around to keep them in check.

Chapter 3: It All Comes Together

As you've probably already guessed, there is a connection between those graceful hovering moths and the caterpillar inundation. We figured out pretty early on that these little yellow guys were the progeny of the White Lined Sphinx Moth, Hyles lineata. After a couple of weeks their numbers quickly lessened, and when we did see one it was no longer munching or crawling, but turning around and around in a little circular hole in the ground. I had hoped to see thousands of little cocoons hanging from our bushes, but these guys burrow in the ground. And yesterday I spotted one of those big moths on our front porch. I wonder whether the eggs this generation of moths lays will lie dormant until the next time conditions are right, or if they'll hatch again in a couple of weeks? I always thought the natural world operated on regular cycles, but so far this has been a "make hay while the sun shines" sort of process. A live, reproduce, die, and do it all over again as fast as we can kind of thing. And it just rained again today, so weather conditions seem favorable. Time will tell.

(Thanks to Barb, who wrote a post a couple of days ago on her excellent blog The Handbook of Nature Study, about the Hummingbird Moth. I can't wait to get out my copy of the handbook and learn even more about these interesting creatures.)