Swimming and Bread and Stock, OH MY!

As always, Maddie goes first.

On Saturday we had her first swim lesson.  I will call it a giant fail.  We went in the pool in the shallow end for her to play for a few minutes before class started and after five minutes she was already pretty cold.

Class started out in the shallow end and the kids were given cups to get themselves wet.  Maddie already was, lol.  They practiced kicking with their legs and scooping with their hands.

Then it was time to head to the deep end.  We made it through swimming for frogs and the popcorn song (where you dunk them under water) before she was just too cold, too blue (yes, her arms and legs were blue, along with her lips), and shaking too hard to continue.

I was pretty bummed that we didn't even get to stay for the whole class because it was too cold.  I plan to call the aquatics manager on Monday to see if that's the normal temperature of the pool.  If it is, I'm going to have to get a refund and find somewhere else to take her because she can't stay in that pool.  So, in the end....giant fail, lol.  She did seem to be having a lot of fun while we were playing in the shallow end in the beginning, but then I think she got too cold to enjoy anything.

After swim class, we came home to warm up and take showers, then we went to eat lunch and grocery shop.  Afterward, Ryan and I started two dueling chickens in the Crockpots.  One was 5lb (for dinner that night) and one was 11lb (for leftovers to freeze).  We managed to get an amazing chicken dinner last night with mashed potatoes, gravy and beans!  And we got all our diced chicken to make chicken noodle soup, all of our shredded chicken to make enchiladas, and plenty of extra to make chicken salad and other things for lunch.  Then we started two Crockpots simmering to make some delicious chicken stock.

I also decided I wanted to make some bread.  I came across a yummy recipe for 1.5lb cinnamon raisin bread and wanted to try it.  

• 3 cups whole-wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup warm water
• ½ cup oil (I used coconut oil)
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 cup raisins

Then you just follow the instructions for your breadmaker.  We have breadmaker, so it was like destiny ;)  I mixed all the ingredients into the breadmaker, set it on whole wheat loaf, and started it.  And nothing happened.  We messed around with it and couldn't get it to work.  So, we decided to go buy one....but on one, I mean NO ONE sells breadmakers in-store anymore.  We came home sad.  And Ryan started tinkering with the machine and somehow got it to work.  So, this morning we had this for breakfast:

Maddie gobbled hers up with some coconut oil spread on the top.  I figure this is a great way to help get some healthy fat and calories into her.

The stock was also finished this morning, so I portioned it all out...9 cups for chicken noodle soup, 1 quart, 2 cups, 2 cups, and 1 cup.  All in all we ended up with just over a gallon of chicken stock!!!

The bonus of all this was that the chickens were on sale!!!  So, we paid $16 for chicken and another $10 for organic veggies.  We already had all of the spices.  So, all of the chicken and stock only cost us $26!