tea roses. suitcases. baking.

So, here's the truth, I love tea roses. A lot. I have a whole bunch of them sitting on my little english desk and I'm drinking the sight of them in as I type this. Here's another truth, I have to pack for a three week trip and I am procrastinating. Big time. I always procrastinate packing really badly;-) And so, instead of packing like I should be, I shall blog because this is oh so much more productive. Ah, well at least I'm honest about the situation.

Speaking of packing, which of course leads one to think about suitcases, I love old vintage suitcases/bags/trunks. If I could collect them with any kind of good reason, I would. However, I can think of no logical reason (not that everything in life has to be logical...most of the time I'm not such a huge fan of logic) to collect such a thing. I might be able to think of why I should collect vintage bags, such as actually having the space to keep them. Can you imagine me trying to store old trunks and suitcases in my little space?! Bahaha! Maybe I could stack them all together, get rid of my bed, and put the mattress on top of them...would that be reasonable? A "trunk" bed. Might actually work...

I'm headed home for three weeks on Saturday. Haven't been back to good old S.C. in far too long, but I'm going to miss "here" very much. It says a lot about where you live and what you do, when you're torn in going on vacation. I am blessed...obviously. Mostly it's the people though. I am amazed at the incredible, amazing people God has given me to work and live with. Says a lot about a group of people when they can all live together, spend ginormous amounts of time with each other, and at the end of the day, not want to leave each other. Beautiful!

What's better than slice of delicious homemade bread? Homemade peanut butter with raw honey on the homemade bread! Oh-my-word! Can you say yummy?! I love to bake bread, however, I have had a very love/hate relationship with my efforts lately. Living at a very high altitude, baking becomes a whole other entity. I mean, how do you get bread to rise and cornbread to not fall apart here? Well, if there's any interest, I'll blog about some of my secrets;-) I have conquered the art of baking the perfect loaf of bread at this altitude, after months and months of failing. Success! I was truly beginning to sympathize with Anne and all of her cooking escapades.

Now, I'm off to try and figure out the perfect gingerbread cookie for a special little man's Christmas party. It's a wonder we're not all in a cookie coma after all the cookies I've been baking the last couple weeks. However, for those moms out there who are appalled at the thought of their children consuming mass quantites of sugar this festive season, I only have one word for you...xylitol! It's a natural sweetener that comes from some fruits and veggies, measures cup for cup like sugar AND here's the best part, it actually helps fight cavities! Oh, yes, you heard me right, cookies, candy, cake, and whatever other sweet creation you come up with that actually help your kiddos. This is something to rejoice over! Happy baking everyone:-)