Homemade Bread

Well, Emerson had a pretty rough night last night. She went down at a decent time (around 7:30), but then woke up around 1:30 a.m. with a fever, and wanted some water. And then she didn’t want to go back to sleep. Jeff was up with her for about 2 hours, just sitting in the pitch black living room, with her chatting and talking and getting the dog, and just generally fighting sleep. I got up around 3 a.m. to start my “shift,” and was actually able to get her to sleep around 3:30 a.m..

But then by 6:30 a.m., she was awake again (I got up to get her), and still had a fever. So I got her diaper changed, and gave her some meds, and we quietly watched Instagram stories together in the dark. (She likes watching IG stories with me.) And while watching Brooke @nestingwithgrace make her 4-ingredient homemade bread, I got a wild hair and decided I needed to give it a go today! I’ve seen her do it probably 10 times before this, but today I was just feeling it! So we were at Publix by 7 a.m. when the doors opened (which by the way, is the perfect time to go to the one on the college side of town on Ocala, since we were like, 2 of the only 5 customers), to grab some stuff for the bread, and some stuff for dinner.

Emmie even shopped in her cute jammies.

And we grabbed some donuts for breakfast, so that I didn’t have to cook breakfast at the same time I was making the bread & our Crock-Pot dinner.

This homemade bread is just: flour, salt, water & active yeast. That’s all. You can find it on her blog here (plus a few other varieties like cranberry hazelnut, yum!), or she made this cute little printable you can save for the basic bread recipe.

And even though she has over 300K Instagram followers, she was sweet enough to message me back when I mentioned her in my stories this morning! (Which I was impressed with.) Plus, she answered me again tonight after I finished it. Super sweet girl.

And as for the Crock-Pot beef stew, that’s. a 12 Tomatoes recipe I found on Pinterest a few years ago. I made it once before and remembered we liked it, and it was just as good tonight! I added more carrots, green beans & broth than the recipe calls for, and I used fresh rosemary (because I have a giant bush in my front yard) instead of thyme (because I couldn’t find fresh or dried at Publix this morning).

Emmie was a bit more playful today than yesterday, but unfortunately, her fever persisted pretty much all day.

These little blonde ringlet curls just kill me!

She took an early nap around 10:30 a.m., but it was just barely long enough for me to have a fresh cup of coffee and take a shower, before she woke up again at 11 a.m.. (Also, I forgot to mention, Jeff still went to Sunday school and church like usual today, so it was just us girls at home for a while.)

She was being silly and putting her tiny toes in against my toes, and just sitting there hanging out.

After some play time, Emmie and Mommy had grilled cheese for lunch. (That’s the bread dough “resting” in the silver bowl back there.)

Then Daddy came home and we played for a while, but we were all exhausted, so we attempted another nap time (for all three of us) around 3 p.m. Emerson stayed in her bed till about 4 p.m., but I’m pretty positive she wasn’t asleep that whole time, since I kept hearing her make some noises here & there.

Once we all dragged ourselves out of nap time, after 8 hours of resting the dough, I got the bread dough into a greased and floured pan to rest for one more hour.

And then this photo came up in my Facebook memories from one year ago today! She was seven months old, 12 pounds, and still wearing 3-month size clothes. And she’s barely grown since then, since she’s now 19 months, weighs 18 pounds (or maye 19 by now), and wears 9-month size clothes. Tiny little Tater Tot!

After baking the bread for 40 minutes, and finishing up the stew by adding n flower and tomato paste for the last 30 minutes, it was finally time to eat this delicious food we had been smelling all day long! This little soup ladle is something Jeff got me a few years ago, and looks like the Loch Ness monster scooping out your soup from the pot!

And you guys! The stew and the bread we’re both so delicious! It felt like a very nice, comforting, hearty meal after a long night and day taking care of a sick fussy baby. We both really enjoyed it, and I’m already looking forward to the leftovers I get to take to work for lunch tomorrow!

Y’all I’m just so proud of myself for deciding to make this bread today. I know it’s not rocket science or anything, but this is not something I usually would choose to make, but I’m really glad I did! It was actually pretty easy, and it came out really well. And I’m sure I’ll do it again in the future!

After getting everything cleaned up and put away (and changing Emerson out of her messy jammies into some clean ones), we read some books in the living room before her bedtime.

Then we went back to her room and did our normal bedtime book routine, followed by prayers and loves, and then Jeff was able to put her down in her crib after only a few minutes. Since she didn’t sleep well last night, tonight we’re extra hopeful that she sleeps through the night. Or at least most of it. We are already planning for Jeff to take her to see the doctor first thing in the morning, since her fever never really broke today, and that kind of worries me a little bit…

Thank you to all our friends and family who have been praying for her (and us!), and texting and messaging to check on her. Hoping she can kick this soon!

We ended up making it through about two hours of “The Green Mile” last night, so we have one hour left to watch. We’re going to watch that now, and then I’m considering going to bed a little early, which I think would probably be a really good idea.