Still Here

That title means…we’re still at home. I have not left our house, other than to play in the yard, since bringing Owen home from school on Thursday. The snow came on Friday morning and has stayed in the yard ever since. It’s been lovely and I am such a home-body anyway…it doesn’t bother me much to be stuck. Today the roads are much better, though very wet, and we may drag our pasty selves to the church for open gym day.

Sunday was a little odd. Church was canceled. I haven’t stayed home from church with my entire family…ever. I considered inviting the neighbors over but there was a list of small reasons we didn’t do that. Kris and I sat in the living room with the boys and they brought down their little percussion instruments so we could sing together. Kris told them a Bible story and Ivan’s wide eyed amazement at the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was truly worth the snow day. We did have our neighbor come over and play cards in the afternoon. Had a great time chatting and snacking and laughing together.

I had a productive day yesterday. Got some four loads of laundry done and the kitchen cleaned up with a little help from my friends (Owen and Ivan). I made bread in the afternoon, I’ve been trying to get back into that. I get discouraged when things don’t go like I think they should. My bread recipe is my mom’s recipe and it’s full of variables and things that can go wrong. I hadn’t made any in a long time and then decided I should try again. Even when it isn’t perfect, it’s good, I just want perfect. I want it to be just like mom’s was…and she isn’t here to coach me on what I may be doing wrong. Talk about an exercise in futility.

I decided yesterday to just make it for the joy of making it, not for the end result and I really had fun. I was, once again, letting my ideals get in the way of the fun of practice and missing the point of all of it. I’ve made many loaves of bread…most of them were even edible…in my adult years, but few of them were fun for me because I am so result driven. I will be making bread with a different heart in the future and I don’t really care if the texture isn’t perfect or the crust is a little too thick. I am just going to enjoy the smell, the process, the waiting and the wonder of watching my little chefs enjoy it with me.

Even my picture here is of the process…not the result. The bread is rising in the pan before placing it in the oven. See…I had fun! I also decided to experiment a bit with freezing it. Mom’s recipe makes four loaves. I’ve had better luck dividing the recipe to make two loaves for some reason. So…I froze one of the loaves and will try thawing and baking it today to see how it turns out.

I am enjoying my morning. I have had so much trouble getting up lately. I think it’s the cold, but I am typically a pretty early riser and have little trouble waking up to my day. Since Christmas though, I have not done so well. The boys are their usual bright and bushy tailed selves so the combination isn’t good. My days have been upside down because I haven’t been able to start before they do. So…I did something today that I rarely do. I set an alarm. It helped. I feel like I have a much better handle on life in general when I am prepared to meet my charges with my eyes unglued.

God put some great stuff in front of me in my brief quiet time this morning too. It’s so good to find His grace in the midst of a troubled world. He is not impressed with anything the world throws at me…so steady is His hand and so faithful is His heart toward me…and you too, in case you were wonderin’.