Sunday, April 8: You may recall that Leah was a crab on Easter Sunday. Our friends have a boy who is a year younger than Leah. Watching them play together was like watching an old married couple bicker and argue. They were quite the match to be made!

Monday, April 9th: Taken with my iPhone, some pretty lilacs from our lilac bush!

Tuesday, April 10th: Someone once told me that they worried when they saw a child still sparkling clean at the end of the day. They feared the child didn’t get to explore and play that day like a child should. Anyone who has that rationale can come see my kids at the end of each day, especially their feet. If dirty feet at the end of each day is a sign of a fun day, then my kids seem to be doing just fine!

Wednesday, April 11th: My dear friend Sandie came over today to do a fun photo shoot for a project she’s working on. I love watching other photographers work… Sandie is a pro and a class act. It was a fun time!

Thursday, April 12: This big, comfy chair in my office was calling to me all day for a nap. (Confession… I finally gave in for a 20 minute snooze!)

Friday, April 13: Today I picked up my packed and race bib for my first 5K tomorrow. I also snagged up a new pair of Notes to Self socks, hoping that the message would soak in! Feeling very sore and tired from my workout yesterday and nervous about running the 5K off of the treadmill. We shall see! (I now know I successfully completed the 5K! Will share more about it later in the week. In a word, it was fantastic and my socks worked!) Taken with my iPhone.

Saturday, April 14: The Daddy Daughter Dance was tonight at school. It’s such a special night for the girls and Nick, but poor Leah is not old enough to go. She did pretty well with the fact last night, but did insist on taking some cell phone pics to commemorate the evening (in her swimsuit, of all things).

That’s it for this week! I hope you’ll share some good things that happened to you last week. Have a great one!

The post Project 365 2012 – Week 15 – A Photo a Day Journey appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I was in charge of the dancing girls. My husband (I will preface this post by saying I do love him dearly) was in charge of my 8 year old and the baby. As I was running out the door to get the girls to their dance recital, I said “Make sure when you stop by the store to pick up their flower bouquets, you grab some snacks for the baby.” “Snacks? Like what?” he questions. “You know…crackers, blueberries, pretzels… just something that will keep her quiet. Oh – and don’t forget a bottle.” With that, I was out the door and on my merry way.

Fast forward to just a few songs into the recital and Leah is already getting fussy. “Hey… did you remember the snacks for her?”, I whisper to Nick. He hands me a bag and I reach in to find no crackers. No pretzels. No bottle. Instead I find a box of Mike & Ike’s and some Twizzlers. What??? She is one year old! Calmly I whisper, “No… where are the snacks for the baby?” He replies, “Those are the snacks for the baby.” Needless to say, with no snacks and no bottle, the baby was not hip on sitting through a 3 hour dance recital, quietly, for very long.

About 4 songs prior to Kelly’s performance, Leah started squawking. I decided to take her out some doors on the side of the auditorium. I slipped by some ushers who were sitting right by the doors, and went out into a quiet lobby area to let the baby walk around and wear off some of her extra energy. I had my ear up to the door to listen for Kelly’s music. Finally, after several minutes had passed, her performance song came on. I scooped up the baby and went to open the door and it.was.locked. Locked!!! All five doors that lead to the auditorium from that lobby were totally locked. Remembering that there were ushers directly inside, I started knocking on the door. Then as panic started to ensue because I was missing my daughters dance recital performance, I started shaking the handles on the door. Nothing happened. The doors stayed locked and I slipped to the ground in a puddle of tears feeling like a complete failure of a mom.

I didn’t have the heart to tell Kelly that I missed her performance. I know I’ll get to see the video when it comes out, but it still will not be the same. I know that the doors being locked was completely out of my control, but I couldn’t help but feel like I had somehow let her down (even though she has no idea… do you see the kind of stupid pressure moms put on themselves? Rationally, I know it is non-sense, but I still feel this way!)

The only way I know of how to tie this recipe into this story is to tell you that the first time I made it, I was supposed to bring bread to a teacher appreciation luncheon at school. I was running behind and only had a few hours to make a couple of loaves of bread. When I looked into the oven and saw bread dough that wasn’t rising, it hit me that I totally and completely forgot to add the yeast to the recipe. As my son would say, “oh snap!”. Remembering the yeast this time, I am happy to tell you that this recipe is no longer considered a failure in my mind and instead has become a recipe that I love. Just like the hugs and kisses I received from my sweet 6 year old after her recital let me know that even though I had unintentionally screwed up, she was going to love me anyway.

Rosemary Bread (adapted from AllRecipes)

The post Dancing Queen Gone Unseen (Recipe: Rosemary Bread) appeared first on Dine and Dish.