Cooking Up Some Patience

Man am I tired!! We are finishing up our last week of school before Christmas break, Mike is working like crazy getting ready for Christmas Eve and the four services that are to be, basketball is still going through this week, and the kids and I have been doing a ton of baking.

We are finishing up our three week mini unit on non-European ancient cultures, with our focus this week on the ancient Americans. Lots of reading out of some great books, history and literature, but not a lot of cool activities. So I thought why not spend our activity time this week baking for Christmas. The kids love to bake. I love to bake. Confession time.

Okay, I don't have a lot of patience for helpers in the kitchen. I don't just mean children. But children definitely fall into the category of ones I don't have patience with in the kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I want to have them learn with me and I do have the serene image of the kids and I working together in the kitchen them gently stirring a bowl of batter while I smile and crack eggs. But let's face it that isn't how it happens. The batter never stays in the bowl, the ingredients usually get strewn from one end of the kitchen to the other and what child can resist licking fingers in the middle of cooking? EEWWW!

While they were little I convinced them that you learn by watching. That worked for a little while. But now that they are all older not so much. Faith luckily stuck it through the "learn through watching" stage and is a really great cook now. She can make snikerdoodles like nobody's business!!! But she has unfortunately also inherited my "lack of patience in the kitchen" gene.

Okay, I got off the subject there. I did, even though it nearly killed me, have them all help out with the baking this week. Seth and Kylee helped with the chocolate cookies with Andes mints melted on top, Faith and I both worked on fudge and Faith made her famous snikerdoodles. Josh and Seth dipped the crackers in the melted chocolate to make the thin mint cookies- I can't even describe what the kitchen looked like when they were done with those- and no they were not allowed to lick their fingers. Tomorrow we go for another batch of Carmel corn, since my first batch ran into a little problem I like to call "I need new cookies sheets", and probably some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to finish off the baking week.

So enjoy some baking this week and earn some patience.

Kristen