What are the bread rules in your house?

Oh my goodness, I made a great. batch of bread the other day, and quite by accident. The bread was soft and lofty. The accident was I had put the bread (3 loaves) into pans and left them to rise while I went for a walk, took care of some harvesting, and paid bills/reconciled accounts. I forgot the rising bread dough was on the counter. It was my husband that called out to me that the bread looked quite high. I quickly got back into the kitchen and preheated the oven, popping the pans in while it was still heating up.

I was lucky the bread didn't fall back. Instead, it remained high. Once it cooled, and  as I was bagging the loaves up, I could feel these would be soft loaves of bread. Lately, my bread has been on the dense side. It stales quickly and has been overly dry when used for sandwiches on day two or three. This new batch was a welcome change.

Here's the difficult part of baking a superior batch of bread -- there were still some slices of the old bread remaining to be consumed. I so badly wanted to cut into one of the new loaves. But I also knew that if I cut into the new loaf while there were still old slices leftover, there's no chance anyone in my family would eat the old, stale bread, ever. 

Our general bread rule is that the old loaf needs to be eaten before cutting into the new. The exception to this is when I'm planning to use bread with dinner. Fresh bread and butter alongside a bowl of soup is magnificent. 

The next morning, there were still a couple of slices of the old loaf left. I would be breaking my own rule if I ignored those. But I wanted a piece of toast with breakfast made from this really good bread. I thought about it while I dished up some apple and crabapple sauce. In the end I went ahead and sliced off a pice of the new stuff, feeling slightly guilty that I'd be making my family members eat the older bread. Yeah, I felt guilty for breaking the "bread rule." In the end it worked out. My husband toasted up the old bread telling me he likes the denser bread as it doesn't tear when spreading butter or peanut butter. We both got what we wanted. But still, I broke a rule.

What would you have done? Do you have any bread rules in your house? How do you make sure you use up bread before it goes moldy?

The Forever Home

My husband is just a few short years away from retiring, and we're living in the only home we've ever owned. I don't think this is the norm these days, to only ever own one home for the duration of one's working years. Many folks are prompted to move when their family grows in size or when employment is offered in another city. Of course, my little family rented for the first 8 years of our marriage. So it's not like we've only ever lived in this house. Still, we've owned this one for almost 30 years. Consumer data indicates that the average length of homeownership is just under 12 years. So, yes, we've been in our one and only owned home for way longer than average.

I was thinking about this just this morning. My husband and I had been looking at properties in another area the last six months. One particular property had many of the features that we hoped to find. In fact, I'd been checking on this home several times per week, seeing if they'd lowered their price or if the home had been sold. Well, yesterday they accepted an offer and this house is now a pending sale. While I had a moment or two of sadness that this would not be our next home, I also began to think that God had put us in a good home that would meet the needs we reasonably expect for the rest of our lives.

Our house is a two-story, but it also has a full bath and two bedrooms on the ground floor. All needs are on this main living floor, including access to a deck and laundry. There is a single step up to the front door where a ramp could be placed, if need be. An aging couple could live easily in this house. 

Back in 2016 we had some work done on our house, and in talking to the contractor, he said that his own house was his forever home. He had retrofitted everything needed for aging in place for himself and his wife. Then he joked that the only way he'd ever leave that house was feet-first (meaning carried out of the house to his final resting place).

So here we are, still in the only house we've ever owned, and I'm contemplating all of the positives of staying here. For one thing, making a move is expensive. The actual moving costs, the taxes and fees when buying and selling properties, and the needed improvements for the next property all add up. 

The cost to move across the country average about $5000. Between capital gains taxes (after the exclusion) and real estate transfer taxes, we'd be on the hook for another $15,000 to $20,000. (Property transfer taxes are significantly higher than average in the Seattle area.) Even in a near-perfect new house, there would be several thousand dollars in upgrades that we'd want to make right away, from new carpeting to new interior paint. This could be $10,000 or more. 

By not buying the other house, we've likely saved ourselves $30,000 to $35,000, and I feel like I've been extremely conservative in these estimates. That's a substantial chunk of change. 

In addition to the savings in dollars, if we stay in this home, we avoid the hassle of moving everything and the pain of leaving behind friends and community. 

This was never in our plans, but I'm now thinking this could very well be our forever home.