The Greatest Thing...

... since sliced bread is, well, bread that you slice yourself. Have recently settled on two versions of a basic recipe that I think will keep me from buying bread at the store for the foreseeable future.

... about baking bread at home is a bread machine to do most of the dirty work. Still loving my investment of almost two years ago.

... about birthday presents you pick yourself (and your husband sweetly orders as a "surprise") is getting to play with them early. This year: pizza peel and pizza stone. I have cracked the code. More tweaking necessary for sure, but already my first attempt was better than anything that can be found in these here southern regions.

... about this picture is that I really was this close to this pelican. He was not about to move. If I lived in his little corner of the world I wouldn't move either.

... about living in the south is that even though we were dressed like this:

two weeks ago, it is now 80 degrees and it appears spring (or summer?) is here to stay. (Yes, those are the blue trays on the shelf!)

... about little photographers is the angles that they capture. Above: our friendly little Beatta and his buddy Ellie Alligator the Algae Eater (she's hard to see). In six years I have never taken a decent picture of a fish tank. Below: Mister Blue's bluer-than-blue shoes. Photo credits for both go to Amy.

... about a catch-all blog post is including awesome little moments like this from two weekends ago:

Yes, my husband pulled my children around the backyard in the kayak. It was wonderful.

... and those munchkins? Yes, pretty much the greatest things of all.