Five Follows

 

It's been a minute since I've shared Five Follows but I have some fun ones for you today ;) 

Morgan's account is SO MUCH FUN and I adore how she documents the renovation of her chateau. Yes../ she's renovating an actual chateau. SO COOL!

Homemade Sandwich Bread

I've had a recipe for homemade sandwich bread screenshotted and saved on my phone for probably over a year and last weekend decided it was time. WHAT WAS I EVEN WAITING FOR!!! Using yeast intimidated me for years but it honestly couldn't be easier so if you've been on the fence or think bread is hard to make PLEASE JUST TRY! If I can do it so can you! And look at this GORGEOUS sandwich bread! This recipe makes three loaves and we gobbled up all three in a week. 

 

What you'll Need...

2½ tbsp active dry yeast

3 cups warm water (a little warmer than a baby bottle)

1 tbsp sugar 

⅔ cup honey

6 cups bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

4 tbsp melted salted butter

1 tbsp salt

What You'll Do...

• In a bowl, add in your warm water, dry yeast and sugar. Stir well. Let it sit for a few minutes or until there is a foam on top. If you don’t have a foam, start this process over. You HAVE to have the foam because that means your yeast is active.
• Stir in your honey, melted salted butter and salt. Mix well. (I use the dough hook on my stand mixer)
• Add in 6 cups of bread flour and mix until incorporated. 
• Add in the cup of whole wheat flour. Mix well until everything is incorporated. If the dough is still pretty sticky, add in another 1/4 cup of flour. Keep adding flour until the dough doesn’t stick to your finger when you poke it.
•  If you’re using a mixer, use the dough hook and mix for 2-3 minutes. 
• Place a dish towel over the dough in a bowl. Set it aside and let it double in size (mine takes about 45 minutes)
• Put the dough onto a floured surface and divide it into 3 parts. Form it into loaves and place then into greased bread pans. 
• Cover again with a towel and let them rise again. They should almost double in size (mine takes about an hour).
• Bake the bread in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

I typically slice up one loaf and leave it in a ziplock in our pantry and then leave the other two in ziplock bags in the fridge. It's MUCH easaier to slice when it's cool adn it's delicious for sandwiches, toast, or just on it's own.

If you try this out I'd love to hear what you think!

HAPPY Monday, friends!

Friday Favorites

 Happy Friday, friends! Erika and I are so excited that lots of y'all are linking up with us every week.  Make sure that you're grabbing our graphic, linking back to us and sharing your own Friday Favorites post ;)

First up on my list of FAVORITES is this cutie sunflower dress I wore last Sunday! It's old Anthro anad I forgot how much I love it!

Reading Recap

 I haven't had as much time to read as I would like BUT I have read a few keepers in the past few weeks that are worth sharing!

 The Husbands

Cards for Hospitalized Kids

 You can tell that this week has been a busy one because I'm resharing a few things BUT I promise I'll be back with new in the next few days!

In the meantime - I'll never miss an opportunity to talk about Cards for Hospitalized Kids because it's one of my FAVORITE organizations ever.  Today I'm sharing some Fall/Halloween ideas in case you need something fun to do with you and your kids/class/etc. this week/weekend to get you in a pre-Fall mood. We live on the surface of the sun and I am currently taking any opportunity I can to pretend that it's cool weather and coloring a few Halloween/Fall themed cards while eating something cozy may be just the ticket!

Attendance Questions

   I've mentioned before that my teacher achilles heel was ALWAYS attendance.  I was bad at recording it, bad at remembering it, just BAD at it.  Which isn't ideal since it's kind of a big deal when I'm grading, sorting out makeup work, etc. 

Two years ago, instead of just taking roll at the beginning of class and having kids say "here" I started asking a random question and then their response is their "here".  It's great because the kids don't let me forget! ;) hahaha

They look forward to the questions and it doubles as a fun little ice breaker as well.  

Blue-spiration

 I posted a few pics of Griffin on IG all dressed up in her house color on Friday and immediately got a TON of requests for links to her spirit items and lots of questions about her star want ;) SO HERE WE GO!

Friday Favorites

 Happy Friday, friends! Erika and I are so excited that lots of y'all are linking up with us every week.  Make sure that you're grabbing our graphic, linking back to us and sharing your own Friday Favorites post ;)

Well.... all the senior things have started and I'm absolutely loving the extra time with my FAVORITE senior. This Monday was Senior Sunrise...

Back to School Brinner 2026

 

We had our annual back to school brinner this week and it was just as sweet as ever. I MAY have cried when G asked if Luke would get to do this with us next year, but other than that it was PERFECTION!!!

Three Things - First Day Edition

 

- LAST ONE, BEST ONE-

Well. Here we are. I'm still processing #allthethings but as I was taking these photos Luke goes, "I guess this is the last time I'll take these pics" and for some reason that made it all feel super real. Forget senior sunrise, senior retreat prep, senior car window painting, painting his senior parking spot... this was what did me in. Bittersweet is really the only word I have for it!

Easy weeknight meals

   Today is the first day of school and it feels appropriate to share some of my family's favorite weeknight dinners that are QUICK, easy and yummy.  These are meals that I like to pull out on super busy nights where we have practices, church, games, etc. and there's minimal time.

Amazon Lately

 

This homework folder has been a back-to-school staple in our house for YEARS. My kids use it to keep homework papers in - it's an easy way to keep what needs to be completed/turned in separated from everything else and makes bringing things home a little easier/simplified.