Baking Bread and other Resolutions

I have decided to make a few different resolutions this year.  Many are the same ones I make every year and I am telling myself, "This is definitely the year that I will follow through!"  Others, I've never made before but feel pretty passionately about.

1) Get my family on a budget and keep it!  Included in this will be pay down debt and clean up medical bills that I've incurred recently.

2) Start consistently eating at home.  I'm hoping to do this through stocking the freezer with meals using OAMC ideas and using Fix, Freeze and Feast; one of my favorite cookbooks.  If I have a meal ready to go or meat already marinated, I am much more likely to take something out and use it.  The kids have always enjoyed have homemade burritos and homemade waffles in the freezer, lunch and breakfast ready in minutes.

3) I want to make all of my families bread products, from sandwich bread to rolls, hamburger buns to pita bread.  I have found many cookbooks and websites to help me do this.  Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is one of the cookbooks that I've gotten from the library and am really enjoying reading.  I have also found a few fun websites but Little House on the Prairie Living has been the most recent one that has caught my attention.

I made bread today using this recipe here.  I substituted 1/2 wheat flour in, probably should have added some Vital Wheat gluten to help it rise a little more, but it still tastes great!

4) Get my pictures printed out and actually hang some of them.  I have none of my own photographs in my home....NONE.  How crazy is that?  I love the pictures I take, they may not all be technically correct or even close to technically correct, but who really cares!  I need to get a lot of them framed and hung.

5) Of course, the ever present resolution, LOSE WEIGHT!  I am very unhappy with my body shape and have a very negative body image.  I weigh more now than I ever have, I mean ever; even 9 months pregnant.  I weigh 181 lbs and am not happy about it.  I intend to exercise more, including the daily 2 mile walks we take with Ginseng and eat healthier.  I hope to drink more water, but I am not making that a resolution; I hate water.

Here's a couple of pics that I took today.  I know everyone is probably tired of pics of the dog, but he's so darn cute; I just can't resist.

 How silly is this little girl, the hat just begged for a sepia treatment. 

Christi