Bonus Day Off is how I refer to my days when I am woken up at 130 AM by a little one (or two) and when I reach for one to pull into our bed, she is scalding hot with fever.
That's how it starts. At that moment, I am wide awake, realizing all that I have to do, and the gears start turning.
Once I settle down the work communications and dispense the Motrin, I typically lay down with the aforementioned child and heave a sigh of relief, and realize that I am about to have a bonus day off. One that I didn't plan, and therefore, have nothing that must be done except some TLC for little blondie.
Today was one of those days, and I thought I would journal the day's highlights here.
First of all, as noted in previous posts, I love to work on a dough. The yeast-warm water start all the way through to the smell of it baking on the oven - just to die for. And really, I am not that good at it (yet) but pratice makes perfect.
I decided to try some of it today, and then "feed" the starter to keep it going. So I moved onto the dough . . .
See what I mean about the chemistry - this is the same dough. So cool.
Then I made loaves and let it rise some more, and baked it. Wish I could post the smell - it's sooooo good.
This was about a 6 hour process on and off all day. This is why Joanne doesn't get to indulge in this sort of thing very often - too high maintenance. But very indulgent.
The bread turned out OK - not sour enough for me and the bread was a little dense - so the starter is going to keep fermenting and I will get to do this all over again. Interestingly, the recipe said to bake it with a shallow pan of hot water underneath it. Hmm . . .
In the meantime, Princess Mallory was sick, but insisted on wearing a dress. I was barely out of the pajama range, but she was in her dress.
We both wore princess necklaces like the one she has on. All day.
We also made some Mr. Potato Heads together. This was Mallory's creation:
Then, we ventured out to Wal-Mart to spend a gift card that Aunt Tricia and Uncle Ricky gave her. She picked a Cinderella tea set (of course) and we had our very first tea party with real iced tea (we are southerners, you know) and she totally had the knack for it.
During all of this (the bread baking and the playing), I had two very personable, fun Stanley Steemer guys come clean the carpets in the living room b/c of an iced-tea-spill from the weekend . . .
First, they gave me a 12-4 window, and they came at 1145. That never happens. Then, they guys were so nice and funny. I got the "how was your experience" call while the guys were still there, but I took the call out of their earshot. When I went back, they asked if that was the corporate office, I said, "Yes, and I told them how happy I was with how clean my carpets were, my only complaint was that the guys were shirtless and used a lot of profanity." You had to see the looks on their faces - it was funny. Then they realized I was just kidding, and we all had a good laugh. Maybe more funny for me than them, but I couldn't help myself.
Now it's bedtime - for everyone - and I will pray that the fever Gods leave my little girl alone so we can all return to normal . . . until my next Bonus Day Off.
