Rising and Shining

Hi Folks,

In 1969, Bing and I got married and moved to Coralville, Iowa, where Bing pursued his master of social work degree and I became a stay at home wife. In those days it wasn't the norm that the wife worked as it is today and I used my time to develop my cooking and baking skills which were kind of in a neonatal state , and so , incidentally , was our firstborn son, Bernie, who happened to join the family about two days into the marriage. He was born nine months and two days after our wedding. Bing and I were living on a stipend he received from the state of Wisconsin so we started our longstanding habits of frugality. He had worked for a flour company in Milwaukee. He delivered 100 pound bags of flour to the bakeries around town and struck up some nice friendships with the full time flour deliverers. The men said to come in any time for flour and so we did. We'd take a hundred pound bag back with us whenever we ran out. I had taken an elective cooking class in my senior year at Mount Mary college and the Betty Crocker text book was my guide to learning how to bake bread. A Kitchen Aid mixer with a kneading hook was part of our wedding gifts so the job was relatively simple. We kept getting the free flour so our bread kept being homemade. Now we have to buy our flour but we like the bread better than storebought so the tradition goes on. Today Bernie brought Kayla and Jamie over and while Bernie showed Bing how to work the Christmas gift that he and Shelly gave us, Kayla and Jamie and I mixed up a batch of Italian bread. The accompanying pictures show the kids and Bing brushing the risen loaves with egg white and water to help the sesame seeds stick. The dough was divided into three and Kayla, Bing and a team of Jamie and Bernie each shaped their own creation. Kayla made a nice turtle, Bing, four plump breadsticks and Jamie/Bernie an "0" loaf. The picture of the kids sitting is them watching the oven as the loaves baked. Then. the finished products! Rise and shine in the glory of creation - quite a metaphor for our lives.