Of Course We're All Different

There's a young mom I know, who hasn't started homeschooling, but intends to. Numerous times she has commented, in a surprised manner, that all homeschoolers are different from each other. I find it intriguing that this is a surprise, because by it's very nature, homeschooling implies going one's own way and going against the social norm of putting your kids in public school or private school. Even though homeschooling has grown tremendously over the past 30 years, it is still not what most people are choosing for their families. 

So if homeschoolers are unique, which they are, what is it that binds them or forges their friendships? I think what binds is the weight of responsibility for educating and training your children. Taking that on, 100%, as parents, gives a common ground that immediately makes you relate to each other. So we enjoy meeting and talking and being in groups together because of this load we're all carrying...but what makes us choose those select few to call 'friends'? It isn't doing school the same way or using the same materials, though having the same foundation can certainly aid that. Many of my closest friends in our homeschooling years were in the groups I was in and we all transitioned to other groups as well. That said, what helped those relationships grow and continue? Having similar parenting philosophies is a big one. Similar values about life. Are you doers or talkers? That is a big one. There are those who want to talk all day and night every day about everything. Then there are those who go and do, and they do a lot often. 

People are different but there are commonalities that bind us to each other. Notice I'm not even discussing Christianity because to me, that is a given. Those who see the Lord and His word the same get a major in-road to who we are and how we operate, then we move into the lesser issues of education, philosophies and lowest on the list, curriculum. 

Bread

Did my first batch Sourdough bread making! 3 were underfermented and 4 were not...

Exposing Unbelief

Good sermons... not light and fluffy. Stuff that shows we need to redeem the time and be serious about how we interact with the truth that's available to us. 

Exposing unbelief part 1,2,3

https://hopebiblechurch.org/sermons/

The Other FMF Sourdough Bread Pan Attempt

The Pantry Mama, How to Bake Sourdough in a Loaf Pan was my other attempt at FMF. I opted for half KA Bread flour and half hard white/hard wheat. I'm going to get a stronger starter going with just white flour the night before and feed in the AM and plan to mix/bake that same day. I did not have enough hydration so sprayed the dough while it rose in the pan...next time I'll hydrate more before the first bulk rise and really watch the autolyse. I think I went too long. It tasted great and had a nice texture, but isn't as tall or as springy as I wanted. Might add 20 g honey too this recipe also. 

Very soft, nice flavor, good crumb, but I want taller. Baked 1/11/25 very late at night b/c I started too late that morning. 

More Discard! Starting FMF Sandwich Loaves

Made simple discard crackers seasoned a variety of ways on 1/12/25... These are very simple and savory, and would be good with hummus. Easy way to use up extra, I used whole wheat and white starter. They are powerful and have a lot of seeds, and I did feel like my chest was heavy after eating too many without drinking water! Yikes. 

I used Little Spoon Farm's cracker recipe because it is fast, few ingredients, and as always, used a lot of discard! 200 g!

The night prior to making crackers (1/11), I started two different sandwich loaves, trying to start using FMF in my bread and coming up with a loaf for our regular bread. 

Grains in Small Place's recipe, made 2 small bread loaves in normal sized pans. I did not let these rise enough, or over fermented it...not sure. One loaf got weirdly puffy and the other was too flat. Different pans and the one seemed to be part of the problem. Won't use it again, will probably trash it honestly. 

GISP's Sourdough Bread with FMF

Pet-peeve is that she calls fermentolyse, autolyse, which makes me uncomfortable, but I like this recipe b/c you can use olive oil instead of butter and honey instead of sugar... THOUGH, sugar might work better and I'll try it next time since I didn't love my results. I did use all FMF, started 1/11 and baked 1/12. Think I needed more active starter, will take out and feed at night before bed, then feed again early in the morning and get moving on the bread by 8:30 am if possible. Her dough takes 3-4 hrs on first bulk rise and mine took so stinking long I lost track b/c I was also making another sandwich loaf recipe the same day. I did finally put these pans in the fridge at 11:30 pm b/c I had to bake the other recipe. 

I didn't take a picture of these on the table before freezing because they don't look good...definitely need more active starter, will use white, and need more moisture and to watch the 2nd fermentation time. It was getting gassy so I think that was the problem. Maybe I should try one large loaf? The texture was soft though I did rub butter on at the end to help with that. 

3rd Dutch Oven Loaf

I should have started to write this all down sooner, because less than 2 weeks in, I had forgotten this 3rd recipe of DO bread. I used my new banneton and thought the shape would be a rectangle. Shockingly, this is what came out of the DO! We ate this with butter, jams, and ham for dinner one night, oh, it was the pancake Sunday! So much sourdough on Feb 9th! Wish I could remember the recipe but it isn't in my mind. I started out making a few things back to back and then quickly moved to doing multiples at a time b/c of the big time lag. I don't usually have the free time I've had lately, so it was really fun to get to jump in and get rolling. Such a huge thanks to my friend who got me started! 

 

Sourdough Episode 3, Introducing Discard

So in my first post, I referenced discard. After feeding twice/day, leaving the starter out on the counter, I was becoming quickly over-run by discard and couldn't bear to throw it out. Some went in gravy and it was delicious, highly recommend this use. And I made my first batch of discard pancakes using Emilie Raffa's recipe. I'd printed another recipe but it used a lot less discard and had milk in it, and this was solely meant to use up as much discard as possible. It was our lunch on Sunday instead of the usual green smoothie. 

Here's Emilie's recipe. She is The Clever Carrot and these were delicious. I'm pretty sure I used FMF or at least bought WW for these. I'll do again and write it down faster. These froze beautifully and reheated great in the toaster with  a couple iterations. We did cut them in half after the first toasting. Still had a nice crisp texture on the outside like fresh. 

Somehow I missed taking a picture of these but they were pretty thick and fluffy. This recipe can be made and let to sit overnight. 

NEXT UP: SOURDOUGH DISCARD BROWNIES

At this point I felt like I was getting a handle on the use of discard, having used it in the sweet rolls, pancakes and gravy, so I did the usual and went rogue on this recipe by Kathy Cartwright. This produced a fluffy brownie with a nice tang, very good for brownie sundaes! 

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter or marg., melted

1 c. sugar (can do white/brown; I did coconut and sucanat)

1 lg egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c. sourdough discard (was nervous not weighing but this was the recipe, I used some white and some ww discard, ROOM TEMP)

1/2 cup AP flour (I did half ww bought and half bought white)

1/4 cocoa pdr, unsweetened

1/2 tsp baking pdr

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c. choco chips (opt), I just had a few in a bag and sprinkled on top with some turbinado since I didn't use any refined sugar in the recipe. Gave a fun crunch to the top which was nice with the sundae toppings. 

Preheat oven 350 degrees, grease 9x9 in. pan with bakers spray or parchment. Mix wet ingreds, mix dry separately then fold dry into wet gently and gradually. If adding chips, do it here, but you can put this in the pan now and sprinkle chips on top also. After you put batter in pan, smooth it out. Bake 20-25 min till pretty clean probe comes out. Cool before cutting. Important with anything sourdough it seems. 

Very nice tang, will make again

The Christian Super Bowl Ad They SHOULD Have Made (2025 Edition)

Stay Away From Christianity Today Magazine

It is a sad reality that what some Christians know, others do not. This is a concern when it comes to the news of the day. Christianity Today hasn't been good for a very long time, but folks may not know that. It is called CHRISTIANITY TODAY afterall. But it is just capitalizing on the unknowing believers and leading them astray. 

https://notthebee.com/article/bombshell-christianity-todays-magazine-staff-made-significant-campaign-donations-from-2015-to-2022-and-every-dollar-went-to-democrats

https://metrovoicenews.com/christianity-today-editors-donated-to-radical-democrats-report/

https://www.wnd.com/2023/10/christianity-today-staff-gave-lots-campaign-donations-2015-2022-democrats/

This is a summary of the downhill trend of CT:

https://dominickbaruffi.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-christianity

Second Type of Sourdough Bread

I wanted to make 2 smaller rounds so the college kids could get to try this new endeavor. The crumb was much tighter and the exterior, smoother. I used a different recipe, this one started 2/5 and was baked 2/6. It is The Clever Carrot's Sourdough Bread: A Beginner's Guide recipe. As with the first loaf, I went for white fed starter and all KA bread flour. At this point I was actually using KA to feed my starter but realized I should use cheaper flour so switched after this round of baking. I was very happy with this recipe, good flavor, nice even crumb. I used a bowl with a finely woven tea towel covered in GF AP flour, and stored in the fridge overnight covered well this time with plastic/shower cap. Scored and baked right out of the fridge. Success!

Feb 5th got it mixed and to this point, put in fridge to bake the 6th. Started early in the morning.

Used a heated DO to bake (well, two of them), on parchment

I like how this recipe splits nicely into 2 smaller rounds; good for gifting or just to serve at a meal for a group. Could put one on each end of a table. 

The Start of My Sourdough Journey

I thought I'd posted pictures of my beginnings with sourdough, but alas, something happened with my phone I'm seeing because there isn't anything here about this. I want to catalog what I've done for my own records, and maybe it'll be useful to someone who comes along this way. 

My starter was mature and a gift from a friend, 40 grams, and I was feeding a 1:1:1 ratio twice/day. I quickly ended up with a lot of great discard that was being saved in the fridge. It was robust and kept bubbling in the fridge actually. 

I made sweet rolls for the college kids (orange marmalade and cinnamon) and added 100 or 150 g of discard to the orange marmalade dough and while a site I found said you didn't need yeast to use discard, that was dead wrong and when the dough didn't rise, I added in rapid rise yeast in a little water, worked it in, let it sit, and the dough did respond. The tang was really nice from the discard and I'll do it again. 

1/4/25 was the beginning of my sourdough journey and the 5th I started the dough, then it was ready to bake on the 6th. 

The first boule I made was 1/6/25 and the recipe used 125 g starter (white flour), 325 g water, 500 g KA bread flour, and 10 g salt. Mix the water/starter mix, add the flour/salt, mix, sit covered 1 hr. 4 sets stretch and folds every 30 min, sit covered on counter 3-8 hrs, shape and put in floured banneton. I put it in the fridge at this point, and it got hard on the top b/c I don't think I used a shower cap to cover but just a dry towel. Oops. Should have been plastic wrap or a shower cap.

It could sit in the fridge up to 3 days which is perfection if you ask me. I could easily get two batches of this going, do the one in a warmer setting for faster rise and bake the same day, then have the other in a cooler area to rise longer and then pop in the fridge for 3 days. 

To Bake: preheat DO 475 degrees, score dough, place gently on parchment and lower into hot DO, put lid on and bake covered 30 min, uncovered 30 min or until 205-210 degrees. I went 209 degrees and cooled for many many hours. I was worried about gummy bread. It was beautiful and really had nice holes. Feel this is my go-to white bread flour free form boule and I'd like to try with half FMF (freshly milled flour). ***Since I'm working at not having discard, take 20 g out and do a 1:3:3 feed (I've never done this) or 40 g and do 1:1:1 and use when bubbly. Maybe take out small amount night before, feed at night and feed again in the morning...this will only work with a small amount of starter...maybe 10 g? Maybe 5 if doing a triple ratio...

"The Chosen" Show

As many of you have, I've been asked if I like the show The Chosen for quite a few years. Many people I know like it and have recommended it to me. I've never wanted to because of the Mormon connection with it, but this point regarding someone regularly depicting Jesus Christ really has me thinking along another more serious line. I do think there is a difference in re-enacting a Biblical story and having a series with Him as a character. I hadn't thought of that before but am glad to consider it now.

This article references numerous works I respect (Grudem, Postman etc), so could be worth a read:

https://g3min.org/the-chosen-and-the-sufficiency-of-scripture/?srsltid=AfmBOooLyV-GBbzWxoGXYeCkystF_k6vg8f-eiejs88o655ZRLojIO1q

We should always be striving to 'put on' Christ and 'put off' the things of this world. There's no shame in changing direction; it is what we're supposed to do the more we learn and the closer to God we get. And we are each accountable to God for our own actions and decisions. We can't follow outward rules that aren't in our hearts and please God.