Updates

Today I went to the computer to watch an episode of Parenthood, a fantastically wonderful show about real families with dysfunction and all that makes me want nothing more than a great big weathered wooden table, outside to host giant family dinners at (definitely how they should be marketing the show), instead I got "lost" for three hours with my new favorite friend, The Pioneer Woman. That's right folks, I am now an official blogging geek, obviously due to the lack of updates at my own personal blog, I myself can not be considered a blogger, but oh these other woman that I would love nothing more than to cook and talk with, they are bloggers, Ree and Deb over at Smitten Kitchen are topping my list. I blame them for my lack of blogging. You see I come to the computer to work on my blog, work on the bakery's website, the bakery's facebook, anything that can be considered productive, instead I'm swept up in a cowboy love story, or Jacob's adorable baby curls. You're welcome to visit their blogs and complain to them about how they've stolen me from my own blogging community, I'm sure the four of you would really get to them.

Either way, I'm back, armed with to do lists that stretch out into the next four years, I'm ready to get down to business. First things first, I haven't left my house since I got into it on Sunday at 4. Pause. I know its shameful. But, I was putting away laundry and making soup, and tuna melts, and cookies, and more cookies and more cookies, until finally I had reached a total of 34 dozen. I sure love this bakery business. I do. I repeat it because people may hear me complain from time to time about the progress of the bakery, I don't want you to doubt the love and appreciation I feel for the bakery. Its just that I'm stubborn, and bull-headed, and a know-it-all, what can I say I'm the oldest of seven and "got every strong trait my parents had," so when people told me that it would be hard, that the bakery would take time to grow, when people repeated statistics like, most small businesses don't post a profit for two years, I chose to not believe any of them, I knew better. If anyone would like to call and tell me "I told you so" I'm expecting it. Don't get me wrong, it's not that the bakery is doing well, it is. The thing that's driving me crazy is the cookie club.

Oh the cookie club. First, coming up with 36 cookies, tasting 36 cookies, okay, that wasn't really the challenging part, six months later, done! Second it was the shipping, costs were going to be exponentially higher than I had anticipated, solved that, if it fits it ships! Third, packaging. Packaging, and this is where the trouble begins and is stuck. First choice, tins, too expensive, Second choice, plastic containers with wonderful shrink wrap bands to promote freshness. Found! Right price! Yay! Can I get a sample before I buy 400 of these lovely containers? Can I?... Perhaps my powers of persuasion have been over estimated. Finally after searching for two months, I have found some packages, I have received some samples, I have discovered that they are too small... Back to the drawing board. Needless to say, that second batch of cookie club samples we're sending out, look for them in 2011... hopefully :).

Other things that have happened since I've been gone? We got snow, a lot of snow, a lot of snow in one day, as in 8 inches, overnight. I love the snow, for one whole solid day, if I don't have to leave my house. At this point I'm just counting down until May, June to be safe. My other half? My POLAR opposite. He had a call of duty battle, outside, from 9 at night until 2 in the morning, to celebrate the below freezing temperatures... and to mock my security blanket that I have not been without since the temperatures dropped to below 50. We also celebrated what is quickly becoming my most favorite holiday. This year's Thanksgiving was slightly different than last year's. For one I didn't cook, I also wasn't getting ready to make dessert for 300 people. In other words this year was far too calm, so I made a second thanksgiving for Kenny and I because my mother has instilled in me the crazy desire to make Thanksgiving every year. I'm planning on next year's Thanksgiving being huge, 20-30 people! I can't wait!

I didn't realize how much joy Thanksgiving brought me. I have never been a huge present person, I feel as though most of us have plenty of stuff and rarely need anything else, which isn't to say I don't enjoy the small, well thought-out gift, I just prefer not to buy into the Christmas hype of big presents for everyone!! However I do adore the noise and chaos and general merriment that comes with getting giant groups of people together and feeding them, Thanksgiving is my calling! I know it was a long post, congratulations on getting through it, I promise not to leave you loyal readers for such extended periods of time again.

Homemaking

When Kenny and I were at the ripe old age of eighteen and beginning to seriously discuss getting married, his wonderful mother said something that shocked me to my core. Kim mentioned that Kenny would want to find a job that would be income enough to support us so that I could stay home and be a wife and mother. Psshh! I was appalled, I didn't need a man to take care of me, I could pull my own weight and take care of whatever needed to be done at home just fine. You see, I come from homes where strong women reign. We work, we clean, we cook, we do it all... we try to do it all. My mom works, my step-mom works, I will work. And for a long time, work has been wonderful, I love to be busy, love to be working and "being productive." My dad is a big believer in becoming a productive member of society, it's ingrained in me.

Only, now, work may not be what I wanted. I've noticed this past year and a half, a big change crashing down on my idea of ideal. The art of homemaking is a job in and of itself. How many people sew, knit, can, garden, cook, clean? I'll be honest, the only thing on that list that I can do well is cook, but I can learn to do the others. I've decided that Kim was right, homemaking is my calling. To knit scarves and mitten for my family to wear, keep and clean an inviting home for them to retire to at the days end, make them food in the garden and then prepare it, these are my new ideal.

However, putting away that workaholic self won't be easy and to be honest, would be denying a large part of myself. Which is where the bakery comes in. Kenny and I have big dreams for the bakery, we want it to turn into a small company, as in four employees small. I need to have work, need to have that making money successful part of my life, I'm just looking forward to the options in homemaking that it will open up for me. New goal for the bakery? 1000 cookie of the month club members. Big giant number yes, but a number that we could still do in our own little bakery (with an oven and mixer upgrade). As the bakery starts to pick up, therefore allowing me to be home more often, hopefully in January, be on the lookout for new adventures in what homemaking means for our little home.

Too much time vs. too little

As some of you may be aware... I like to be busy. I thrive on the constant scurrying from one place to the next, late, always, always late (my apologies to the punctual people... and my many employers). Kenny is not this way. Kenny needs downtime, he likes schedules and order. Ah the delight of the opposite. This is a good thing, he calms me, centers me, slows me down. I'm not sure if I have the opposite effect on him; for some reason pulling someone along doesn't sound as nice as centering someone else.

Recently I have come to realize that time is something that can be harnessed and controlled, not something that I am constantly running after. Thanks to my incredible boss, and future gardner, I have been granted a SET SCHEDULE. For those of you not in the restaurant industry, this is amazing and rather unheard of. However with this schedule comes the ability to plan my own life. Alas, here I sit, "wasting" time; checking out food blogs, facebook, wedding photographers, cute overload and people.com (please withhold your judgement) with plenty of "to dos" on my list. The problem is that I know I have today off, and tomorrow, and next week, SAME THING WILL HAPPEN! Time management has never been my strong suit.

Here's the thing, I started a bakery. I live in a house that isn't quite decorated to my exact liking. Halloween is around that corner and my tutu hasn't been created. My p90x dvds have not been used for a month. The fridge has nothing in it. We got the movie channels. My carpets are in desperate need of a deep cleaning. To top it all off, fall/winter has hit Idaho, meaning I do not want to leave my house, at all. Which leaves me trying to find a balance between Kenny's relaxed spirit and my mad dashing self that collapses after a week. In other words, the option of having time leads me to feel like I have less of it than ever before.

Disneyland

Vacation time! When Kenny and I moved out to Idaho I told him that this would be the end of our vacations because from now on time off would be spent visiting our family.... well, true to our word that is what happened. Now, don't get me wrong, I love all of you family members a great deal and miss you terribly, but here's a secret I didn't even fully realize, I miss Kenny more. So after over two years of vacations with family, to see family, about family, we took off on our own and headed down to Disneyland... to spend time with other people's families :). We understand that since we now live far from our own family, its always a vacation from the Redding clan, still it was great to spend time with each other and not worry about the dogs or the laundry or work or anything except getting to space mountain when the wait was less then 70 minutes.

I've decided to grace you all with a couple photos from our trip and while the iphone is an incredible phone, since I hate asking other people to take all the touristy photos, the quality of self photos is not amazing. Please excuse the fuzzyness, especially embarassing when the family is now full of incredible photographers.

Our one shot at asking someone else to take a photo. We took turns, "you take a picture of us, we'll take a picture of you." They couldn't figure out how to work our phone, we couldn't figure out how to work their camera, awkward all around.
Getting completely drenched on Splash Mountain, head to toe soaked. The best thing about our visit to Southern California? The massive heat wave that struck while we were there. I feel as though God must just really love me, because He tends to enjoy my love of high temps, you all remember our wedding day correct?
Captain EO tribute!! Kenny is a good and dutiful husband, allowing himself to be dragged to all the shows when I'm sure he would have rather camped out at California Screamin' and Tower of Terror. I only wish Captian EO was as incredible as I remembered from when I was 10. I waited 14 years for Disneyland to bring back Michael Jackson in all his 3D glory, too bad special effects have grown by leaps and bounds and left him in the dust.So there it is, a summary of our Disneyland trip. Despite the 100 degree weather, 7 am flight, terrible hotel room, last minute hotel change, getting stuck on Indiana Jones (behind the scenes tour!), blistered feet and missed shuttles we had a great time; after all, we have never been a smooth sailing couple, why should vacation be any different? Crazy to think that we aren't planning to be back until we have kids in tow, can't wait to pass on the love of Disney to another generation!

Cookie Club

We have asked for hours upon hours of help and support from our family and friends as we undertake the starting of our own bakery, and we are now going to ask for it once again, but you get free cookies for this one! As some of you may know, Lovin from the Oven will be offering three different cookie of the month club memberships: Cookie Club, Deluxe Cookie Club and Biscotti Club. Cookie Club: 12 different varieties of classic cookies, chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, peanut butter, shortbread, etc. a bakers dozen of each cookie will arrive between the first and fourth of every month for a year $15/month. Deluxe Cookie Club: Cookie Club plus 12 different varieties of cookies such as smores in hand, rocky road, etc. a bakers dozen that will arrive between the fifteenth and nineteenth of each month for a year $30/month. Biscotti Club: 12 different varieties of biscotti such as chai spice, lemon pistachio, chocolate dipped, etc. a bakers dozen that will arrive between the seventh and eleventh of every month $15/dozen.

We need help with testing our shipping and shelf life of all 36 varieties. I need friends and family to sign up to receive cookies and be our test group. This is not just a way to get free cookies. This is a very important step in our bakery and there are certain rules that will need to be followed to be a part of this test audience.

Testers will need to:

-have a refined palate, if you don't like something, please be able to describe and pinpoint what it is, you must be able to pick up on nuances and slight differences in taste and texture.

-test two cookies, one biscotti, to cut down on shipping costs, we will ship three varieties in one box, this means you must taste test one of every variety cookie every day for seven days, in other words three cookies a day. You may choose to have different members of your household test different cookies, whomever fills out the questionnaire must taste the chocolate chip cookie every day for seven days. By no means do you need to eat three whole cookies every day, but you do need to have a bite.

-have the time to fill out a brief questionnaire every day.

-Be able to stick with this for seven days.

A sample questionnaire: Write the date of arrival on the questionnaire.

1. How did the box look upon arrival? Any large dents, stains, peeling labels, etc. on the box?

2. How did the cookies and cookie bag look? Are any cookies broken or smashed? Does the bag have cookie smeared on it?

3. Taste the cookie. How is the texture, how does it compare to the description on the questionnaire of what the cookie should be like?

Days 2-7: same question as #3: with addition of how does the cookie compare to the day before?

To be a part of this cookie test audience, please send me your address and any allergies that you may have that have to do with nuts to lovinfromtheovenbakery@yahoo.com

Welcome

Welcome to our blog! We've created this blog as a way to keep up with all the family and friends that are flung out across the western United States. I'm hoping it will also force me to take some more pictures of our lives together so that when my kids ask to see family albums I don't have to send them to someone else's family.

So... what's new with us you may ask? Lots and lots. The bakery has finished completion and has its first major client. In about two weeks you can find our chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cup cookies and sugar cookies at Dutch Bros. in Caldwell. Our website is in the middle of being constructed, hopefully another two week thing. This weekend we also have a cake tasting appointment for a wedding in October.

On a more personal note, we are headed to the happiest place on earth in 10 days and I could not be more excited. If I am to discount the cake decorating, bridesmaid role playing, political "discussion" (I have a flair for the dramatic) Redding trip, then my last vacation was to beautiful McCall in July, much too long ago. This is going to be our last Disney trip for a couple years, seeing as how next summer will be the five year mark for our marriage and that means time to start our own little family that moves beyond a menagerie of cats and dogs. In other words, we aren't such Disney crazed fans that we will be traveling the 1500 miles to Anaheim with either a giant pregnant belly or a crying infant, so we need to make this trip count, i.e. fill up on the corn dogs and churros.