Random Lizard Entertainment!

I am amazed at the amount of time Americans (both adults and children) sit glued to the idiot box (um... TV).  On the average... 40ish hours a WEEK according to the research. I have looked at research from a couple of different sources... and they all pretty much agree. In my opinion... that is just a waste of time. There are so many other ways to spend our time, I don't know why we would choose the "couch potato" route for either ourselves or our children!

Keeping TV viewing at a bare minimum allows our children to use their imaginations and I love to see the latest "game" they have created... which I'm briefly sharing about right now....
Lizard hunting!

Items needed:
a plastic lizard (or other type of toy)
nerf gun
nerf bullets

and a place to adhere the lizard....

I'm not sure who came up with the idea for this very entertaining game... but it really is addicting! We placed the lizard in a grout line of our fire place and took turns shooting at him with the single shot nerf pistol. (Which, by the way, is not sighted in very accurately). I think that if you had a nerf gun that held more than one bullet at a time, you would be more successful. But we use what we have... right??? Anyway, the first to knock down the lizard wins...

Just so you know... Mommy is currently the lizard hunting champion!  This has been great fun and the kids have added in more "targets": a plastic coyote and a Diego figurine.  What silly game does your family like to play?

The Passover... Why We Celebrate...

I did not grow up celebrating Passover, so this is a relatively new idea for our family. I have read about the Passover numerous times over my life, but I never thought about the rich symbolism, meaning, and memories celebrating it would bring to our family. I never thought about how celebrating the Passover would really make the scriptures come alive... both for our children, and for us.  (Gee, I wonder if that is what God had in mind when He ordained the feast in the first place.....)

We love traditions. We love thinking back on annual gatherings with fondness and looking forward to the next event with anticipation. We try to recreate our own childhood events for our children so that they have similar memories (just think of your Christmas traditions... we usually celebrate the same way with our kids as we celebrated when we were kids). This builds a sense of family heritage. And it is awesome.  But what about our spiritual heritage? Are we intentionally building family traditions focusing our attention God-ward?

Focusing on the Biblical feasts allows us to concentrate on what the Lord has done for us without the distractions of our commercially driven culture. I mean, I don't go to Wal-Mart and get bombarded by the "Passover Bunny", the "Shavouth Claus", or the "Omer Fairy". At least in this part of the Kansas, the rich meanings of the Biblical feasts have not been raped by retail predators trying to make a buck off of a holiday.

So why can't we just incorporate our family's spiritual heritage into one of the holidays that we already celebrate? Well, you can. And I hope you do. But it didn't work so well for us. Nearly every major holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) we are gathered together with extended family from both sides. Other than the prayer before the meal, there is very little talking about the Lord, or to the Lord. We have tried to intentionally steer the conversation towards spiritual matters and personal stories of God's deliverance... but it was not to be. We have some strong believers in our extended family, but there are others who are not interested in such conversations. So as much as we love and adore our relatives and spending holidays with them, these events weren't creating a heritage of spiritual traditions that we feel are important for our children. Enter in.... Passover.

Exodus 12:14 tells us that God instituted the Passover feast to be done as a memorial. A memorial of what? Of His deliverance of His people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. He provided protection to them (by the blood of a lamb) from the angel of death. Each family had to make sure they were under the protection of the blood of the innocent lamb by applying the blood to their doorposts. The Passover was to be celebrated each year with their children. Exodus 12:24 says, "And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever". It was a means of making sure your children (and each generation) would remember what the Lord has done for His people. God wants us to share about His faithfulness with our children. We are not to forget what He has done and what He continues to do. During trials, it is great comfort to draw on His past and present steadfast love and faithfulness! But I can't draw on this if I don't know the history of His character.

But why single out a special event to share this? Shouldn't this be done in our everyday lives? Well, yes.... and yes! Absolutely, we need to be teaching about God's character and deliverance each day: Deut. 6:4-9. But isn't it exciting to look forward to a special day? A day where we do things a bit differently than normal days? A day to dress up, bring out the fine china, cook a special meal, and plan extra special activities? My kids have been anticipating this event all year! They remember much of the symbolism of the Seder plate and matzo from the previous year's celebration. They are excited to search for pieces of leavened bread by candle light (symbolizing searching for the sin in our lives), to drink from the 4 cups, to wait in anticipation of Elijah to come, to taste the parsley dipped in salt water (symbolizing God bringing His people forth from bondage and crossing the Red Sea.... but also the bringing us forth from the bondage of sin), etc... This isn't meant to be an exegesis of the symbolic nature of the Passover, so I won't talk about every detail... but you get the picture. But we also remember, that about 2000ish years ago, during the Passover feast, our Messiah came and was sacrificed as the innocent lamb of God. He broke us out of the bondage of OUR sin... if we have come to faith in Him. He drank the bitter cup of God's wrath and came out victorious over death and the grave. This is worth remembering... it is worth remembering in a symbolic way.

I recommend this book if you are interested in finding out how to celebrate the various Biblical feasts with your family. Celebrating Biblical Feasts does a great job explaining the symbolism and telling you how to participate in these exciting feasts. Are we 100% kosher in our celebrating? No, we are not... but you can be if you want to. Our position has been that we want to teach principles and concepts.... not regulations.

I hope that you take time this weekend to truely meditate on what was at stake at Calvary. To examine yourself to see if you are truly in the faith, and to worship our risen Lord. May you have a blessed Passover (which was last Tuesday) and Resurrection day.  He is risen.... He is risen indeed!

Have you celebrated Passover or any of the other Biblical feasts? What is your favorite part?

Countertops: Cubic Zircon or Diamond?????

I love to cook. I love to bake. And it is a good thing, because I spend a large part of every day cooking for our family. So in gutting, redoing, and adding on to an old farmhouse that will eventually be our home, I have put many hours of research and thought into the kitchen layout. I have to admit, at first I didn't know if it was even possible for the existing kitchen to transform into something that would be functional for our family. I was pretty skeptical. But it really has been fun seeing it all come together. But then came the decision of what to use for countertops. At one time I thought it would be neat to someday have concrete slab countertops. But I have never met anyone who had them or anyone who knew anything about them... so I basically dismissed that notion. Granite or marble was completely out of the question because I'm too frugal to even consider it. So we decided that we would do laminate even though I wasn't exactly thrilled about that option. However, not knowing any better, I chose and bought my sink: a beautiful, large, double basin apron front farmhouse sink.... which also happened to be an undermount sink. I didn't know this was a problem. My contractor said something like, "I'm gonna have to think about this one...". Come to find out... I guess you can't use an undermount sink with laminate countertops because of the potential of getting water into the laminate seams and thus ruining the countertop.  But my position is always: where there is a will, there is a way! So that got me looking back into countertop options. I began to wonder about concrete again, so I did a google search about concrete countertops in Salina, Kansas.  The search introduced me to a "new" product which became the answer to my countertop problems.  The product is iCOAT. It is NOT a concrete slab. Rather, it is done by skimming a thin coat of a special concrete over an existing countertop (you can do it right over laminate). After the concrete is troweled on, then it is colored to whatever you want! It can take on the look of granite, marble, concrete, metallic paint.... whatever. Then, it is sealed with a 2 part epoxy that is heat resistant up to 500 degrees and never needs maintenance! It sounded too good to be true, so I called the guy who does it and I got to see some sample boards and even visit a client of his to see the finished product. We loved what we saw and decided that it was what we wanted to do.  The other cool thing about it is the price: $35ish/sq. foot.... labor included!  So for the price of good laminate, you get a product that is even better... with the high end look of granite, marble, quartz, or solid surface! Kind of like buying the cubic zircon, but letting everyone else think that it is a diamond!

Being a researcher, I looked for reviews of the product.... but I could not find any. So I had to go on the guy's word and the testimony of his clients who had their countertops done 3 years ago. This is a great option if you want to give your kitchen a facelift without tearing out your countertops.... it goes right on the top of the existing laminate. And unlike concrete slabs or granite, you don't have to reinforce your cabinets to hold the weight of it.  In our case, there were no existing countertops to coat with the concrete. So we had countertops built out of MDF and then had them coated.

So what are the drawbacks of this product? So far, the only drawback is the "curing out" time of the epoxy. Once the epoxy is put on, you can't touch it for 24 hours. After that initial time, you can touch it, but can't put anything on them for an extended amount of time for 2 weeks. In other words, you can wash dishes and set them briefly on the countertop, but you wouldn't want to let them set there overnight. After that 2 weeks, you can use them as you normally would. (I probably will give it a month before I set a crock pot on them for overnight oatmeal).


I'm posting the before and after pictures of my kitchen (which is still a work in progress). Please note that the pictures do NOT do it justice!!!!

These first 3 photos are the "BEFORE" pictures which show the MDF countertop.







Note my undermount sink which led me to search out other countertop options!!! I actually could have mounted the sink higher so that it was either level with the countertop, or even raised above it some... but since finding out about the iCOAT, I was able to leave it as an undermount. (Note that the 5 gallon bucket in the second picture is not a permanent fixture in my kitchen...!)

 



This is the butler's pantry. It used to be a bathroom. The upper cabinet was sitting in an upstairs bedroom in the house. I love reusing and re-purposing old stuff!!!










And these are the after photos. Again, they do NOT do it justice at all!

The glare is from the kitchen lights.

 The other cool thing about iCOAT is that you can get your perfect, custom color! I'm sure that if we had gone with granite, we wouldn't have gotten this perfect of a color/design!








 

The epoxy is very shiny... like glass. But you can buff it down if you want.

 Is it the "real" thing? Or not???? You would never be able to tell! The other great thing is that it really has a lot of "depth" to it. Who would have thought that it is only about 1/8ish inch thick? It looks like you can look into it forever!!!!!

So if you are wanting to update your kitchen or are in the market for countertops, I would HIGHLY recommend James from Blueline Construction in Salina, Kansas. He did a great job and was awesome to work with! His email is: james@bluelinesalina.com and his phone number is 785-643-0799.

Family Time Picks for January and February

A.W. Pink once said: "The Bible is not designed for lazy people.  Truth has to be bought (Prov. 23:23), but the slothful and worldly minded are not willing to pay the price required. That "price" is intimated in Proverbs 2:1-5: there must be a diligent applying of the heart, a crying after knowledge, a seeking for an apprehension of spiritual things with the ardour and determination that men employ when seeking for silver; and a searching for a deeper and fuller knowledge of the truth such as men put forth when searching for hid treasures - persevering until their quest is successful - if we would really understand the things of God.  Those who complain that these articles are "too difficult" or "too deep" for them, do but betray the sad state of their souls and reveal how little they really value the truth; otherwise they would ask God to enable them to concentrate, and reread these pages perseveringly until they made their contents their own.  People are willing to work and study hard and long to master one of the arts or sciences, but where spiritual and eternal things are concerned it is usually otherwise."

How true his words were and very much still are today. How many times have I been told: "I've gone as deep as I want to go," or "I don't have time to read the Bible," or "I have other things I have to do," or "Look at all the ministry things I do and how I serve at church... that is how I serve God", or how many people simply read the Bible without meditating on its truths or even think about what it means to apply it to their life? Today's culture has lost the love of simply being alone with God and seeking Him.

Does it take time? Yes. Does it take discipline and determination? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Is the wisdom gained worth as much as gold and silver? It is worth much more!  Sadly, convincing others of that truth is not easy. Even though (as the western church) we say we are christians, where we we prioritize our time paints a much different picture. Statistically we are spending 40+ hours a week watching TV (and that doesn't include the time spent on the web, playing video games, reading novels, sports, etc...). Jesus takes a back seat to our other priorities. Where our time and money is... there is where our hearts are.

We want our children to grow up with the mind of Christ, with a insatiable love for the Word of God, with a love FOR God which translates into habitually spending time with Him, meditating on and memorizing His word. We want them to see the world how God sees it, to love people how Christ loves people, and to humbly serve Him with their lives. We want them to know about and study the great minds and missionaries of the past (Baxter, Bunyan, Bradford, and the puritans, Edwards, Calvin, Waldo, McCheyne, Murray, Augustine, Brother Andrew, Brother Yun, Mueller, and countless more). We want to teach them to work hard, study hard, and to be men and women of virtue. We want to pass the truths of the faith on to them through a lifestyle of discipleship which is what we see illustrated in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Home schooling Discipleship allows us to pour our time into our children, molding them, training them, teaching them, and demonstrating the love of Christ to them.

Do we struggle and fail? Epically and every day. We constantly have to repent and seek forgiveness from our children and our Lord as He sheds light on our shortcomings. We constantly "examine ourselves" to make sure we are in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). But is that an excuse to give up? No. Is it hard? Yes. Is it exhausting? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes! Do we have it all figured out? No we do not. With much prayer we seek to know how to raise our children in this manner as we plow through this unbroken ground hoping to pave a family legacy for generations to come. We read books and follow blogs by others who had this vision. We seek other families and listen to teachings from Godly men who are leading their families, pouring into their children, and washing their wives with the water of the word. But we also thank God for the resources that are available to us. Especially, because in the eyes of this culture (and EVEN in the eyes of the typical western church) we are extremists who "take the Word too far.."  Our "friends", family members, acquaintances, and even those within the typical church see us as that family: You know, the weird, unsocialized homeschoolers who eat weird, take the Bible too seriously, have a ba-jillion kids, reject dating and encourage courtship, make-people-want-to-sin, etc... you know.... we are THAT family. So to have a community of believers who have the same vision is invaluable!

But while we are serious about God's Word and giving them a Biblical worldview, it does not mean that it is a "dry" and super-serious undertaking that bores our kids to death... quite the opposite. There is so much wonderful, biblically-founded media out there and we are always looking for more things to learn from. But finding a place to start can be overwhelming, so I wanted to share some things that have blessed our family time so far this year! We are fortunate to have resources available to help immerse our family in the truth of God's Word and the application of it to everyday life! These resources have been so fun the last several weeks, and while we don't do them ALL EVERYDAY, we have routinely used all of them the past couple of months.

Balancing the Sword - This is a 2 volume set that gives questions/answers for every chapter of the Bible. It is filled with awesome illustrations and quotations from a variety of Christ followers of old. We use it to ask the kids questions about their daily Bible readings from their chronological reading plan and their monthly Proverbs reading plan.

Trial and Triumph - This is a book with several biographies of people in church history. It has been a great family read-a-long spurring many great discussions. From Peter Waldo, Augustine, Anselm, Bunyan, St. Patrick, etc. there are 46 biographies and you are sure to learn a lot!


Dangerous Journey - This is a great retelling of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress with AWESOME illustrations! Another great read-a-long stirring great family discussions!

How A Spider Saved A Man's Life and 51 Other Spurgeon Stories - We love C. H. Spurgeon and this little, fun book of children's stories is just great! They are concise, interesting, and keep our kids wanting us to read several at a sitting. There are great lessons to be learned from each story.  There is also a 2nd volume by the same author that we will definitely be getting!

The Peleg Chronicles - This series of 3 books is set in post-Babel times where paganism abounds. But there are some who still believe in Noah's God! The Bible speaks of huge beasts and giant people... what would it have been like to live back then??? Join us in reading about dwarfs, dragons, giants, and the faithfulness of a few in this series. These novels are packed with scripture and action. My 10 year old and I are reading them now. My 7 year old will begin soon. We are loving this series!

How to Disciple Your Family - a 200 Year Plan - I got my husband this DVD series for Christmas and we are carefully working through it. It has been great in giving us a model for family discipleship, prayer points for our kids and generations to come, a family catechism, etc... Doug Phillips and Geoffry Botkin are the presenters on the DVD's. Both of them are great teachers and examples of fathers who are raising godly children. I would definitely recommend this series (and almost anything that Vision Forum sells)!

The Kingdom Series - Wow... what can I even say about this series to do it justice? This is a series of 6 books (we purchased the audiobook version) that is a medieval parallel to the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Be sure to click on the link to read more about the plot... but I highly recommend this! The audio (drama) books are SOOOOOO well done! Because our family tends to spend a lot of time on the road, we listen to it in the truck during our hour long trips between here and out west. The story has ALL of us captivated and sitting on the edge of our seats! It is really worth the money! I love how the audiobook allows us all to enjoy it together! Even our 2 year old begs us to turn it on!

Well, there you have it! These are the resources that are blessing us at the moment! What are your family's favorites????

The Gold Mine in Your Own Backyard!

I really thought that I would have a lot more time to blog when I decided to create one... however, it seems like maybe once a month I actually get the chance to sit down and type. But, several times a week I find myself blogging in my head.... those blogs just never seem to make it to my fingers! However, I have been meaning to share about this topic for a couple of months now... Your local thrift store!

Yes.... this is probably OLD news to most people. And NO, I am not a "name brand" snob who only shops at Gap, The Children's Place, Old Navy, Dillards, etc...(In fact, my favorite things are hand-me-downs!)  But I haven't until recently made it a habit to make it to our local thrift store. In fact, I have lived here for nearly 13 years and my first time frequenting it was 2 months ago.  Why? I suppose that it is because I heard some rumors about it 13 years ago and it tainted my expectations of the store and I never revisited the thought of going there.

Well, I could not have been more wrong in not shopping at the thrift store. It is a GOLD MINE! It is very well organized, they are very picky about the clothing items that they choose to sell, the volunteers are great, the prices are great, and they even have great sales!

So what kind of treasures have I found? First and foremost: kids' clothes (especially blue jeans). Just a side note here... I'm not sure how a kid is able to actually outgrow a pair of jeans without getting a hole in the knee... I don't know that I have ever had that happen... and if it ever did, the next kid to inherit the jeans would certainly "do them in"... So blue jeans are a constant need in our family. If I have to pay full price for a new pair of jeans, then the holes in the knees really don't bother me. But if I can get a pair for $1.50 or less, then SOLD!  So, my favorite thing to browse through is kids' clothes....  But that is not all!!!

I recently have been wanting a few long denim skirts (A-line and tiered), but I have been too cheap to buy any online at $25-60 each. My first trip to the thrift shop yielded me FOUR long, denim skirts all in my size... 3 were A-line and one was tiered!!!! And the price? Less than $8 for all four of them (Gap, Maurices, and Lands End were the brands).  Then, we were in the need of 2 pairs of snow pants for our growing kids.... I actually could have gotten by with one, but my 4 year old son really didn't want to wear the pink pair that was passed down to him from big sister... So, back to the thrift store I went and I found just what I needed. And even better, it was "bag" day where a bag full of clothes costs only $3. I have also gotten 2 down vests (Lands End and Cabelas), a pair of insulated work bibs for my 10 year old, a pair of Keen mary jane shoes, a bread machine for my mom ($2.50), a RED crock pot that is perfect for overnight oatmeal (my recipe eliminates the last 4 ingredients of hers... we sweeten the next morning with raw honey), a like-new pair of camo waterproof, insulated, hunting boots, gallon and 1/2 gallon jars, drinking glasses, etc... In fact, my husband has never been there and it is his new favorite store!

OK, I'll stop going on and on about my finds right now.... but in case I'm not the ONLY one who is fairly new to the thrift store shopping experience, I wanted to give a few hints on what you might need that your thrift store "probably" has... Coffee pot carafes... Haven't you ever broken one? and when you went to Walmart to replace it, the carafe was more expensive than a whole new coffee maker??? Try looking at a thrift store instead! Our local store has a whole basket full of various carafes just waiting for a new home. What about soccer shoes for your kids? Instead of buying a brand new pair for the 6 week season, you might find a whole selection of shoes that were only used for 6 weeks the year before! And what about kids' dress shoes? I can't tell you how many times I have bought new black dress shoes for my oldest's piano concert and they were only worn one time (because ALL of his other dress clothes are earth tones which doesn't necessitate a pair of black shoes). Well, judging by the selection of black dress shoes, I'm guessing other moms have done the exact same thing! Other barely worn things that tend to abundantly find their way to the thrift shop are: snow clothes, holiday items, vases, glass ware, glass tea trays, dress clothes, small appliances, special occasion shoes (snow boots, dress shoes, soccer shoes, etc), purses, wallets, duffel bags, yarn, sheets, material, etc...

I don't want to down play Goodwill stores because some of them are very nice and I have found a lot of good things there too. Our local Goodwill is also great, but honestly, their prices are higher than our local thrift store, and they aren't as picky as to what they sell. That means that I have to "dig" harder to find clothes in good condition than I do at the thrift store. But if Goodwill is all you have, by all means go treasure hunting there... but don't discount your local thrift shop just because they don't have the advertising dollars.

Well, there you have it, my two cents worth on thrift store shopping! What is your favorite thrift store find????

Part II: Bosch vs. Kitchen Aid

OK, I have played around with the Bosch Universal Plus mixer for a few weeks now, using it for a variety of mixing needs, so I feel that I can give a (somewhat) educated opinion of how it measures up.

Bowl - The professional Kitchen Aid (KA) comes with a stainless steel bowl that has a handle (yeah... we love the handle when we are transferring the contents to another dish). The smaller KA had a palm-sized "foot" that you used to lock it into the mixer... the foot was very handy to hold on to when I dumped the contents out... even though it wasn't a true handle. The Bosch came with a plastic bowl, but the ss bowl is also available. Since my husband is so great, he also purchased the ss bowl. I love ss, but unfortunately, the Bosch ss bowl does not have a handle which did make it tricky holding on to it while I was scraping out the contents. The plastic bowl already had a couple of strikes against it in my mind (because it was plastic), but after using it, I have to digress. It has a bit of a different design than the ss in that it has a lip that goes all around the top edge of the bowl. This lip makes it super easy to hang on to when transferring contents. Also, even though it is plastic, it is a nice, heavy duty, plastic that is not flimsy at all. The one weird thing that I will mention, is that the Bosch bowls have a "cone" that sticks up from the middle of them. This is where the beaters attach and they are controlled by the motor which is underneath the bowl. The cone really isn't a problem cleaning, but it is different and it takes some getting used to.

Splash guard - I purchased a splash guard for my smaller KA, but the professional one came with it. It is a clear plastic that sits on top of the bowl and has a spout that allows you to pour ingredients into the bowl while mixing. The splash guard does not attach securely to the bowl, making it very easy to dislodge. It also doesn't do that great of a job preventing splashes. In fact, when I make butter, I have to take a large tea towel and drape completely over my mixer and splash guard to keep buttermilk from spattering all over my kitchen. The Bosch motor controls the beaters from underneath rather than the top of the bowl. Because of this design, the splash guard that comes with it is actually a lid. It is clear plastic and it fastens securely on top of the bowl. There is no mess, no splatters, and best of all.... it guards against any little fingers getting ripped off and mixed into the batter.... Only by the Lord's grace have my children escaped "helping" mix without losing some fingers because of the race to be the first one to taste the cookie dough!

Multi-tasking - Because of the beaters being "exposed" on the KA, I can not really turn my back on the machine because of keeping a watchful eye on my kiddos and their fingers... In addition, if I am working with any kind of "stiff" dough, the machine will "walk", so I have to be aware of it walking off of the counter. Of course, you could prevent this by setting the mixer in the sink...  With the Bosch, it does not walk, the beaters are not exposed, and I am able to get other things done around the kitchen without "babysitting" the mixer.

Beaters - The KA came with metal beaters, dough hooks, and whisks. The Bosch came with metal whisks and dough hooks. Cookie paddles are sold separately and the attachment for the paddles is metal, but the paddles themselves are plastic. My great hubby also purchased the cookie paddles.... ummmm probably because he really loves cookies he really loves me. I was skeptical about the cookie paddles because of them being plastic... but I have to digress again, they are super sturdy and do a great job. The thing with the Bosch, is that the design allows for a 2-sided dough hook, 2 whisks, and 2 cookie paddles. The KA has one of each. You wouldn't think that it would make a difference, but it really does. The whipping, mixing, beating, and kneeding with the Bosch is fantastic... and YES... I could tell the difference. They say in bread making that the double hook helps really develop the gluten (whatever that means). The motor handled my dough like a breeze and the bread rose wonderfully... despite it being like 20 degrees outside. So maybe there is something to this "gluten developing thing". I also made some brownies (heavenlyhomemakers.com has a great, healthier brownie recipe that I've used for quite awhile now). Mixing it with the Bosch made them even better than they were before. Probably because I mixed them up a lot longer because I was distracted multi-tasking, knowing that little fingers weren't getting in the beaters! I also made butter the other day with the Bosch. I've been making butter weekly for about a year now. I've tried every tip out there to get it done faster, but no matter what, it is going to take about 20 or 30 minutes to turn the cream into butter. And then, I have to clean up the thoroughly splattered, red, mixer.  I really didn't expect the Bosch to decrease the time for butter making, but I was excited that I wasn't going to splatter up my kitchen because the lid is really a LID! But, the butter was done in about 10-15 minutes! I am attributing this to having a double sided whisk... but what do I know? All I know, was that it was much faster and the clean up was quicker!

Attachments - I can't speak much about this, as I don't have a lot of them. I have the pasta making attachments for the KA, and I love them. Bosch also has them available, but I don't have them. I have the blender attachment for the Bosch and I love it... but there could be some improvements. First, it is a clear plastic... for the money, why can't it be glass? Also, there isn't a pour spout. However, it does pour out smoothies just fine. The metal blades are quite sturdy and sharp, and the base that the blender fits in to is also a metal attachment. However, at the bottom of the blender (that has the part that fits into the metal thingy that will spin the blades) is not metal. It would seem that it should also be metal. But so far, so good. I haven't broken it yet and smoothie making with ice tends to give blenders around here a run for their money.

I have read reviews that say the the KA is better for small batches of whatever and the Bosch is better for large, however, I used the KA for large batches of cookie dough all the time and it did fine. However, I have tried the Bosch with a small batch just to see if it was true and I would have to disagree. It did just fine on a small batch. That being said, on my smaller KA, whenever I did a larger batch of cookies or bread dough, the dough would climb up the beater and wrap itself around that little springy thing that the beater attached to and it did make it a bit of a bear to clean up. I also noticed that my smaller KA would leak oil or some type of black stuff from where the beater attaches. I've read reviews where others had similar problems. I did not experience this with the larger KA.

So there you have it... my not-so-professional opinion of Bosch vs. Kitchen Aid. Which one would I recommend? Probably the Bosch. However, if you have a KA already, that doesn't mean chuck it to replace it. I have enjoyed my KA throughout the years. However, if you plan on making a lot of bread, the Bosch definitely wins... hands down. But if you don't have any kind of a mixer yet, I would encourage you to check out the Bosch. Money-wise, the professional KA and the Bosch are similar in price (unless you count a possible trip to the ER to attach a finger that got caught in the KA.... then that makes the Bosch much cheaper)!

Part I: Kitchenaid vs. Bosch... One Mom's Opinion....

I think that it has been about one year since I started making all of our family's bread from scratch.... and from scratch I mean gathering the wheat, cleaning the wheat, grinding the wheat, and THEN making the bread. I do not use a bread machine, but I'm all about utilizing a mixer to mix up the dough! I have owned a Kitchen aid mixer for about a dozen or so years... and I have loved it. However, its bowl was only about 4 quarts which was becoming a challenge for my ever-expanding family. But honestly, the real reason I wanted it to die was because I wanted a RED one! However, my faithful mixer would not die. But as my bread making expanded, my little mixer was not keeping up: the bowl wasn't big enough, the motor wasn't powerful enough, (and it wasn't red.... because I know that the color really makes a difference on performance). So last spring, I decided that I had a good enough reason to upgrade my mixer.

Now, enter in the blogging world of information.... I can't say that I wasn't warned. In nearly every blog of faithful breadmakers, it was recommended that the best mixer to get would be the Bosch Universal Kitchen Machine. Their expertise was that the Kitchen aid would not keep up with the 800 watt motor of the Bosch. Problem: the Bosch isn't RED.... and quite frankly, it isn't really attractive either... I told myself that I had to get the Kitchen aid because I had the pasta attachments for a Kitchen aid (and it comes in red). I mean, the professional model has a 575 watt motor... surely that is good enough right? And it's RED!

So, I saved my pennies and dimes, and for an early birthday gift my generous mother-in-law pitched in and bought me the beautiful, RED, professional model Kitchen aid about 6 months ago (and I gifted my little Kitchen aid to my friend). WOO HOO! Let the bread making begin! I have made dozens of loaves of bread since then with the Kitchen aid, and I hadn't really given the Bosch another thought... until December... when my Kitchen aid DIED right in the middle of my batch of dough! So how did it handle all of the bread making? It was mediocre, but all that was masked by the fact that it is red.  My recipe makes 4 loaves, and I do 2 batches at a time (actually I'm doing 3 batches at a time now). Before I consistently soaked my grains overnight, the Kitchen aid handled the dough OK. The motor did get hot and you definitely could hear it struggling at times, but it always managed to conquer the dough and we were on our merry way to fresh bread. I did have to stand by the mixer and "baby sit" it because if I didn't, it would walk its way off of the counter.  But after I started soaking the grains (which tended to yield a "stiffer" lump of dough to initially work through the next day), the Kitchen aid really started to bog down... culminating in dying right before my very eyes! I was horrified!  Thankfully, Kohls didn't need a receipt to exchange it and my DH was going to town that afternoon anyway and he graciously exchanged my mixer for another, beautiful, RED, Kitchen aid.

Funny thing is: as I unpacked the new, RED, Kitchen aid.... there was this little green card on top that said that the motor had a protective sensor that would shut the machine off if the motor overheated... and if you waited 20 minutes, it would again start..... OOPS.... maybe my first Kitchen aid wasn't broken after all... Oh well. So I continued with my bread making ventures! The very FIRST time I used the NEW Kitchen aid, I was mixing up my second of three batches of bread and it DIED... just like the first mixer! GRRRRRRRRR! This time I figured it was that protective sensor, so I waited 20 minutes.... still no power... 30 minutes... still no power... 40 minutes... 45 minutes... FINALLY, it turned on again. This was not exactly my most efficient experience in bread making! All this time I am lamenting that I didn't listen to all of the wise women's advice on the Bosch! I briefly mentioned to my husband that some time in the far off future, it would be nice to have the Bosch...

Little did I know, my DH decided to surprise me with a Bosch mixer for Christmas!!!!! I was super surprised!!!!  And now that I have used it a fair amount, I thought I would share my opinion of how the 2 mixers "match" up! My DH also got me the blender attachment for the Bosch, so I use the machine nearly every day in some fashion. The blender gets used for kefir smoothies, and I've used the mixer for cornbread, bread, cookies, etc...  It does a fantastic job. It effortlessly mixes stiff bread dough, developed the gluten (my bread did a fantastic job rising... even in the cold of winter), I love the lid that REALLY keeps everything contained while mixing... i.e. - there is not flour flying out over the top of the bowl... and it is easy to run. My 7 year old made double chocolate whole wheat cookies all by herself tonight using it.

So all-in-all, I am loving my Bosch even though it is not red... I will be writing a more detailed side-by-side comparison of the Kitchen aid vs. Bosch in part 2 of this post... coming soon!