My train of thought derailed. There were no survivors. - anon

We never got out of the 30's today. I spent most of it inside, going out to feed the animals and to do a 4-mile run. Our nights will stay below freezing for the next week but starting tomorrow daytime highs are back into the 40's.
We're going through firewood like crazy but I'm thankful these temps aren't a budget buster because of a heating bill.

Today while discussing Pam's Bible study lesson on the 10 plagues we talked about the word inscrutable. As in, how is it that God hardens Pharaoh's heart yet Pharaoh is still responsible for his bad behavior? (See Romans 9 for Paul's explanation of this specific circumstance.)
Inscrutable is a good word for people to know, especially husbands.

I'm on the Veneta Community Facebook page as a way to learn about our community and keep track of what's going on. We actually live 5 miles away from Veneta, 3 miles outside of the unincorporated town of Elmira. But because those two are next to each other with only a mile between them folks seem to consider it one community.
One of the administrators for that Facebook page posted a message reminding people to play nicely, including avoiding political harangues and mug shots. (There's a fair amount of crime in some areas of Veneta and people have frequently posted mug shots of the bad guys who get arrested.)
I responded with the following pic and the comment: "Sorry. I couldn't resist."

That page administrator just happens to own the coffee shop I frequent. Which is how I know she didn't get it. She thought it had something to do with politics.

Today I learned the difference between baking soda and baking powder. The former is pure sodium bicarbonate while the latter adds cream of tartar (which is a powder and not a cream at all). It sometimes also includes corn starch as a stabilizing agent. Both react with acids and moisture in the baking mixture to produce bubbles of carbon dioxide. That is, they're leavening agents that cause the mixture to rise because of those tiny bubbles.
Baking soda is more potent than baking powder; it makes more bubbles. So you can substitute powder for soda but you have to triple the amount.
All of this comes because my batch of snickerdoodles came out as flat as a pancake instead of slightly rounded. Marsha, the gal who bakes all of the beautiful and delicious pastries and desserts for several local food places, including the coffee shop, helped me learn all of this.

Interesting story: when I asked her last week, "Why are my snickerdoodles so flat?" she said, "I don't know, but when you find out tell me, because mine are the same way." This morning she said my question spurred her to do some experimentation. She showed me a pic on her phone of four snickerdoodles side by side with various adjustments to the ingredients. "A" was the recipe, "B" had added gluten, "C" had a shortened blending time, and "D" had half of the called-for baking powder replaced with baking soda. Sure enough, "D" was nicely rounded while all the others were thin and flat.

If you didn't see the comments posted to last night's blog entry you should go back and read them. It will give you some insight into what happens when Pam has input on raising our children.