One of the things that brought me the most joy this holiday season, was having a big container of peppermint bark on hand in the fridge. I threw it in Ball jars for co-workers, stashed it in a small bag with twine for a hostess, and walked it over to our neighbor for a simple Merry Christmas. It felt like a simple and abundant act to give those little triangles, all week long.
Let's pretend I haven't neglected to write about my youngest (and only) son's 1st birthday until today, shall we? Excellent.
Let the record show, that I had no intention or interest in having a big shindig for Porkchop's first birthday. In general, I am a big believer in a solid but simple celebration of birthdays (my firstborn's first birthday being the only exception). We hang a birthday banner, we light a candle, we have some cake, and we open some presents. Frankly, I was thinking that since our own little family is now made up of five people, that we had a party quorum already around the dinner table.
The girls DISAGREED. On the morning of their brother's birthday, they asked what time all the guests would be arriving for Porkchop's first birthday party. I explained, that there would be no guests, just our own (not so) little family, and we would simply be having some special Key Lime Cupcakes for dessert.
Um, they started to cry. Seriously, they started TO CRY that their poor baby brother was not going to have guests and lots of presents and a big party to celebrate his birthday.
So basically, I called everyone I could think of, and threw together an ambush birthday party. The girls and I went to Target, and they picked out birthday plates, birthday napkins, and some birthday presents for Porkchop. We got home and went to work at doubling my cupcake recipe, based on a recipe for Key Lime Poundcake from my grandmother's Easter Star cookbook. At 6pm, we had sixteen people show up at our house for our not-so-little, four-hour notice, ambush birthday party!
Whew, crisis averted.
I have written so many blog posts in my head this week, mostly at 3am while feeding Porkchop. I have found little energy to write them up.
I returned to working Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at CDC last week. It is so tempting to fill up a blog with the adventures of that part of my life. I realize it is probably more compelling for a reader, than the tale of putting together the snack for Sticky-Butt's preschool this past week, or making thumbprint cookies with the girls, during a small moment of reprieve from work and chores.
But it isn't compelling to me.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job and the brilliant people I work around. We do good work and it is very flashy, a good part of the time. But I figured out a long time ago, that it isn't EVERYTHING. CDC can easily become all consuming. I could easily return to the world of deployment, like my good friend Dave (whose girls' babysit my girls'), who is probably touching down in Haiti right now to help with the relief and find missing CDC staff who were stationed in Haiti. I have to remind myself, that although these things are so important, the most important mission I have been given, is the care of my little family, as crooked and imperfect as it may be at times.
It is my job to love these four people and do my best by them. It is my most important duty to make a home for them, filled with love and as little frustration and ugliness as I can possibly muster. (And being human, well, that is a very challenging order to fill on many days).
So, as I try to discover my rhythm in our home again, I hope to find the time for more words, and more cookies.
Because, as I always say to my colleagues, who love me dearly and literally cheered and clapped on my return to work last week, no matter how great it is around there, no one ever laid on their death bed and wished, "Damn, I wish I spent more time at work."
I suspect they wish they had spent more time smushing their thumbprint into almond lemon cookies filled up with jam.
Actually, I am quite certain of it.
creating cards for school friends :: making valentine's day candies for daddy :: giving daddy his cards
It has been forever since I have been on a regular blogging schedule. It is totally laughable to think that I entered into 2009 thinking I would try to blog EVERY day. So what have I been doing with all my spare time? Well:
Last week, Sticky-Butt and I embarked on a special adventure. We began making our own bread. Now, I have always wanted to be a bread baker, but the idea of making bread from scratch has left me completely awestruck. The kneading process alone has left me to think, I need a workout to ready my arms. I came to a full appreciation of bread-making when I made a French Bated, as part of a Daring Bakers Challenge. Although I was proud to accomplish that feat, it told me loud and clear that Great Harvest should be charging more than $4.50 for a loaf of whole wheat bread.
But then, I discovered this book at my favorite blog, SouleMama. If nothing else, the title “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” captured my curiosity. Luckily, my library had a copy, however, the waiting list was long. After three months on that list, I could wait no longer and scored a copy from Amazon.com. Let me tell you, this book is FOR REAL.
Assembling the wet dough can be done in a jiffy, assuming your assistant isn’t a toddler. :) It only takes about five minutes of active work to turn out great bread. But be warned, there is plenty of resting time on the counter and in the fridge to consider for anyone working outside the home. Unless you get up at the crack of dawn, I recommend that you hold baking day on the weekend. But for those of us who work from home or work part-time, incorporating home baked bread into your life on a regular basis is possible. It only requires about 30 seconds to take the tacky dough from the tub and work it up into a ball. Then you just throw it on the pizza peel (ideally) for its 20 minute rise, before tossing it into the oven (ideally onto a pizza stone) for its 30 minute bake.
But the best part? This bread blows away most breads that I have bought at local bakeries and even some bread I have had in Europe. I will admit, I am still a bit clumsy when handling the dough and overly tentative when tossing the water into the broiler pan at the bottom of the hot oven. But despite this, the bread has a crisp crust and a wonderful chew. Even writing this post, I still can’t believe the thick slice of bread I had this morning, smeared with some organic black cherry jam, was the product of so little work.
Unfortunately, the clean-up required after Sticky-Butt’s help, is a totally different story. :)
