30 Days With a Grateful Heart: Books & Bread

Days TwentyTwo and Twenty Three

It's time to return some of my new favorite books to the Austin Public Library.  I'm so grateful for public libraries.  I've always loved them. (Though I haven't always been the most conscientious borrower.)  As a kid, my Mom took us to the library all the time.  There is something enthralling about them.  I could spend hours wandering through the aisles, the smell of old books wafting through the air.  Somewhere in the mix of hand painted cartoon murals, decimal coded order, and tenative silence, magic is made.

I just started my year end tradition of shedding old things to make room for new ones.  I've listed a few things on Ebay that I don't use any longer, and am grateful to already be packing up boxes and printing ship labels.  There is something exhilerating about shedding cumbersome junk for pocket money.  Every box that goes out the door brings me a little closer to something in exchange, like a camera lens, a new dress or a coveted kitchen gadget. 

Thanks to one of my library loaners, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, I've begun the glorious adventure of home bread baking.  My first batch of dough, a basic boule, was a simple success. Though I ran into a little conjoining trouble when baking multiple loaves, the bread tasted great.  I'm looking forward to moving on to whole wheat loaves, bagels, and seed breads!