Can you believe it?

How could these children be old enough to play real ball? where has the time gone? When Fifi was three she was three for about five years -- we went for looooooong walks, and spent endless time reading story books, and then she was suddenly this Amazon.

And Buster -- look at him. He actually looks like somebody else's kid, pitching a real ball in some foreign game that I happen to see as I sit at a picnic table eating take-out Thai food with my new husband. Not actually my son, whose uniform I washed and who learned how to pitch without my help whatsoever. (Of course, his father gave him some pointers ...)

I can't get over it. Gotta keep on having children, or they are all going to turn monstrously huge like this and I'll have to resort to those pathetic life-like dolls that have a little battery operated heartbeat and synthetic skin, and real eyelashes. Much better to just keep on having real ones who still throw easy ones that I can catch.

A blog I just found

Since I am still technologically a toddler, I do not know how to link to a website other than just typing out the address of it. Maybe Superguy can show me how, and then I will graduate to technology preschool. (I wonder if there is something the equivalent of learning to hold the scissors properly, except for computers?)

Anyway, in my quest to learn more about the fine art of cooking, housekeeping, and generally being a post- postmodern woman, I came across this neat blog, www.thepioneerwoman.com

What caught my eye is the recipes. All women's blogs contain recipes, except maybe for women who can't stand cooking, in which case I haven't run across them. She shows you with beautiful color photos exactly what she does for each step of the recipe, and the results look delicious.

Plus, her story is too too impossibly romantic. You'll have to read it, AMM.

The day of rest

Can we find a lovelier example of Sunday rest? This truly was not posed -- they were all asleep.

(And the large circular blue thing is the top of a punching bag. Why it was there? don't know.)

Bread -- for a real family

We love homemade bread, and I love to make it. So today, being such a mild summer day, proved the perfect chance to try a recipe called "Batch Bread." It is recommended for a large family, a small restaurant, or a boarding house! I feel that we qualify. Note that the dough -- which weighed more than five pounds, which I know because I added an entire five-pound bag of flour and then some) -- did its main rising in my Ginormous Family Dutch Oven ("heavy enough to kill an intruder!").

Updates will appear on the quality of the bread. For now, Messy Bessy is basking in the Ma Ingalls moment.