Join us for coaching, starter help, and encouragement to try! "Making Room to Try" is happening all week inside the community. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate! Coming next: Find Your Bread Rhythm! After Make Room to Try, we’ll take the next step together inside Premium: making bread and finding a baking rhythm that fits your real life. More details soon. For now, keep making room to try. Wednesday at 11 AM Central Premium Coaching Call on Zoom Bring your questions and join us for live coaching. Can’t make it? Replays are available! Upgrade to Premium to access all BBW benefits (upgrade to join us) We will be discussing milling your own flour & things to consider in a mill, milling best practices & recipe adjustments. Wednesday at 1 PM Central Is My Starter Ready? Live Starter Workshop If you are still trying to get your starter healthy or are doubtful. Join Sandra Brenes on Zoom to learn whether your starter is alive, active, and ready to bake with and how to get it there and maintain it without the overwhelm. Save your seat for the Starter Workshop

You came to The Bread & Butter Way because you want to make bread. Maybe you have flour in the pantry, a starter in the fridge, or recipes and videos saved for “someday.” But life gets full, the kitchen gets busy, and bread keeps getting pushed back. That is why we are doing "Make Room to Try" next week. From Monday, October 5, 2026 through Friday, October 9, 2026 I will share one small, practical invitation each day, right here inside this free community. This is not a full bread course. It is not a kitchen makeover. It is not five days of baking. You do not need a perfect kitchen, an active starter, special tools, extra money to spend, or a free afternoon. We are simply going to take the pressure off, make a little room for bread in real life, and take one small step at a time. Over the five days, you will make a little space for bread, gather what you already have, choose one clear path, and decide on a realistic next bread step. Because I am a firm believer that bread should fit your life, not take it over. If you are planning to join us, comment “I’m in” below as your little promise to yourself to come back here each day next week for one small bread step. I’ll be here cheering you on. Be sure to turn on your community notifications so you do not miss the daily invitation. Day 1 begins Monday, October 5. I’m so glad you are here. Sandra

The smell of homemade bread does something to a home. I cannot fully explain it, but you know it. The smell of toast before school. A loaf cooling on the counter. Warm bread waiting at the end of a long day. It changes something. Maybe it slows things down for a minute. Maybe it reminds us that someone cared enough to make something by hand. Maybe it becomes the kind of memory our kids carry with them long after the kitchen is quiet. This week, bake something simple and notice what changes; not just in your bread, but in your home. Then come back here and share it what you noticed. (maybe you have already made this observation)

Today is Day 2 of Take 2 on my starter. I believe I killed my 1st starter. It didn't do anything for a week. I fed and discarded daily. It looked weird and I was not sure about the smell. May it rest in peace. ☠️ Day 2 on starter 2! It is looking so much better then the 1st starter at this point. Has a nice smell to it. 🤞 that this one's a keeper!

Have you ever bought a cookbook, loved all the recipes and not once cooked from it? There was just something that always kept you from it. I have a shelf of cookbooks that I have and rarely have cooked or baked from them. I may browse them for inspiration once every 3 years, but it got me thinking, why is it that we don't do the things that we really want to and still have a hard time to make room for it. My husband has been tracking his food intake with an app that literally all he has to do is take a picture of whatever he is eating and it calculates all the things (calories, protein, fiber, fat, etc...SO EASY)! He suggested to me that I keep track of my intake (to my surprise, I am not getting enough calories) but I am not consistent. I literally watch him log his food, and I never register that I should do the same (it would take 10 seconds). But instead, I finish the day feeling a little disappointed and manually logging everything...and just like that the thing that I thought would help me has become cumbersome. It's not the tool. Its not the intent. It's something broader. There is just something in the way that I am wired (maybe a lot of women) that we just keep our list of "one days" and when we don't get around to it we feel like we failed. Then we are a little embarrassed because we have this innate (and incorrect) idea that we need to know how to do everything or that we should make time for everything, I mean, it would take 10 seconds to scan my food. As I was sharing this idea with husband, he shook his head and was like "just do it!". But "It's not that easy." What's the hold up then? Reasons it really doesn't take 10 seconds. 1. My phone isn't near me, actually I don't know where it is. 2. I am busy tending to serving the meal for everyone else. 3. When I opened my phone to scan it I had five unread messages. 4. I'm hungry...just let me eat! Then I was thinking about you. Maybe you know you want fresh bread for your family. You want to learn. You may have all the tools & ingredients, But life is full, and the next step feels surprisingly hard to take, because its not as simple as "Just do it!" There are other factors at play...and ones that are unique to you and your life.