Baking with children

This post is dedicated to my mom...

Happy Pi Day! (Or, as I learned from the silly radio station we listen to on our way to school - Happy Potato Chip Day! And Happy Napping Day! - Who comes up with (and is probably paid good money for) these ridiculous celebrations of the mundane?! And more importantly, how can I get in on that gig!?)

Anyway, it's March 14th and Daniel recently discovered a love for apple pie. I'm happy to encourage any habit or interest that ends up with sweet deliciousness.

So this weekend I ended up with both children in the kitchen, baking.

I have some very sweet memories of baking with my mother in our little kitchen. My sister and I stood on either side of her as she guided us through baking bread or cookies or cutting out pastries. None of those memories include the amount of yelling, destruction or chaos that my own children experienced with me yesterday. I also don't remember my mom needing to pour herself a stiff drink afterwards, but perhaps she did...

Baking with children is one of those things that SOUNDS like a great idea, and will probably create the kind of sweetly scented memories we will cherish 25 years from now... but in the moment it's all:

Don't touch that!
No, NOT the salt! The sugar!
Put that down!
Don't use the knife to smash eggs!
HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!


But in the end, we did create a pie. A lopsided,  funky looking, unevenly moist, over sugared, but still delicious pie. The kids were thrilled. Actually, Daniel was thrilled. Lily wouldn't touch it, preferring her vanilla ice cream plain.
(Lily loves the idea of dessert, and always requests elaborate birthday cakes, but never eats a bite!)

Baking with children: not for the faint of heart. Just like parenting:messy, exhausting, surprising, and in the end, delicious.

Happy Pi Day!

Wordless

Summer is coming.

Tidying Up: Kondo style

You've heard of this book, right? (If you haven't- beware, hours of internet rabbit holes await you...) 

Anyway, I read it this winter, and her second one, "Sparking Joy".  And yes, it changed my life, as promised.

Okay, I'm half- joking, but only half.  I really did appreciate Marie Kondo's perspective on our belongings, and on how we engage with them.  She begins by asking the reader to deeply imagine how she would like her home to be. I immediately thought "Peace. Quiet." Then I remembered that I have two young LOUD children. So I edited to peaceful-ish.

So far on our decluttering journey we've gone through all of our clothes, all of our books, our art supplies, our kitchen supplies, our papers (so. many. papers!) our shoes, toiletries and outerwear.  We still need to go through our photos (digital + old-fashioned) and our momentos. (There are several boxes of my college notebooks lurking somewhere in our basement.) Those I think we will need to wait until this summer to tackle.

The most astounding thing about this process is that it forces you to confront the shear amount of stuff you own. Here are my clothes, all seasons, all sizes... waiting to "spark joy", or not. 

It can be hard to tell just how many 1/2 used-up art supplies you have scattered about your house. until you gather them all up into a giant heap. Then it's just embarrassing.

Those are some un-finished and un-sent Thank You cards from last year. Whoops.

But I did find some treasure:

I think this says, "Mommy look we don't like this juice. It tastes horrible. Sorry Mommy. I love you." Straight into the treasure box!   

Clothes that didn't spark joy: 2 huge bags. This left me with a rather sad, small wardrobe and the realization that yes, I had been wearing the same 4 things over and over again. So I went shopping, which I'm sure was not what Marie would recommend...

The kids both discarded about 1/2 their wardrobes, and Andrew moved his old size smalls to our son's closet. (My 9 year old is about to outgrow the children's department. Sob.)

This is our basement library/games shelf before.

And here is is after. We ended up keeping a large number of books, mostly because we want to have a home library for the kids to access as they grow older. So probably 1/2 the books are children's novels, comics and classics. Still not sorted out: the 4 binders of CDs and movies. 

So, have I mastered the Kondo folding style? (All clothes are rolled and folded to be laid out horizontally in the drawers, not vertically.) Yes, but the drawers are still a bit too messy for a photo-op.

Is our home more peaceful? Yes, definitely, if only because I don't spend precious hours searching for items all over the house.

Have you "Kondo-ed" your home!?