I sulfur when you argon

Valentines day is so much fun for kids and big kids. I love decorating boxes, writing up valentines, and the best part...getting valentines. The girls tore into their boxes and meticulously sorted out all their valentines. Some were treasured (Sarah got Lego stickers that she loved) and the candy was quickly eaten. Erik bought me roses which he does every year. They are beautiful red roses! Jenna even bought ribbon (with her own allowance!) to tie on the roses to make them even more beautiful. To celebrate Valentines day, we all went out to Graeters and got ice cream cones..... yes cones. Graeters has the best ice cream cones. They have a chocolate dipped pretzel cone. I had peanut butter chip ice cream in a chocolate dipped pretzel cone. That's happiness right there. Sarah had difficulty with her cone since she doesn't eat it fast enough and ended up covered in black raspberry ice cream. Jenna had a blue face from her cotton candy ice cream and Matthew just walked around Graeters and played with the water faucets. 

Erik has become suzy homemaker and is making soap. He used bacon fat and lye to make soap for us. Now we can smell like bacon! The soap turned out great and I'm excited he is experimenting like this.

Erik's soap!

 I am also experimenting. Our house is like one big chemistry lab! I love to make bread and have always wanted to make sourdough. However it requires a starter which must sit for 2-10 days. I made two types of starters. A plain sourdough starter and a sour cream starter. I found a recipe for German beer starter that uses rye flour. I think Erik will like this one but I'm going to try these first two and see how it goes.

Two sourdough starters

Don't ask

Books I am reading:

1. We are in the middle of Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson in our book club. This is the last book in the Mistborn trilogy. I love these books and am glad we are reading them. Brandon Sanderson is a writing machine!
2. A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond Feist is the last book in the riftwar saga. It's amazing how this series has progressed. Just like the protagonist each book gets more complex and interesting. I really like this series.
3. No Longer a Slum Dog by K.P.Yohannan. Our church is having a speaker from Gospel For Asia coming this Sunday. This is a book written by one of the missionaries and it is powerful. It has stories that melt your heart. 

This semester I have had little time to read so I'm going through my books slowly. I'll be submitting a paper to a conference shortly and once that is finished along with this semester's classes, I'll have more free time. 

Erik said I eat too much nutella so I decided to give up both nutella and coffee for Lent. Lent started on Wednesday so no nutella or coffee for me until Easter. Maybe I'll have nutella flavored coffee on Easter?

77 points on quiddler today.