We live in the Midwest

We live in the Midwest. We have gorgeous warm spring days sandwiched between cold, snowy ones.

Saturday gave us weather from every season – rain, hail, snow, wind and then blessed sunshine. Sunday gave us a sunny and warm afternoon and evening – and we filled it with church and playing with neighborhood friends until dinnertime. Sunday also included a visit from these guys. Notice the sunshine reflecting off the chrome!

 

But by Monday, it was blustery and snowy again. On Tuesday, still dreary and quite cold, my girls and I decided it was a perfect day to bake all day – in between schooling.

My eldest quickly is showing an interest in cooking, baking and photography. It is fun to have her learning by my side. She decided to document our day with my camera, so, together, we took photos of everything we made today:

·      creamy baked potato soup

·      one batch of plain scones

·      one batch of blueberry scones

·      two loaves of bread

·      two liters of iced tea (OK, we didn’t take any photos of this)

Baked potato soup might be my most favorite soup, particularly when there is a chill in the air and a fire in our fireplace. {Thanks for making one, honey. Yeah … I know it is April.}

Scones are a big deal in our family – light, fluffy and rich. The girls love to make them ~ and eat them. They are super easy to make and take hardly any ingredients at all! It is a great dessert when you need to whip up something at the last minute.

We also ran out of sandwich bread, so we worked our hands into some bread dough, kneading it over and over, until we could watch the loaves rise and then bake in the oven ~ freshly baked bread might be my most favorite smell in my home!

Baking and cooking are such an important part of my life. They weren’t always ~ they sort of became a part of my heart as I felt my way through this job called motherhood. I never dreamed just how much I would love it! It feels good to feed people. It feels good to put home-cooked, nutritious food on the table for my family and know that they are fed. It feels good to bring a special treat for the women at my Endow study just to show them how much they are appreciated. But it feels even better to have my girls enjoy making food for others as well.

We all have gifts. Some of us are natural nurturers, some have the gift of spontaneous prayer, some know just the right things to say at just the right time, some are quiet listeners, some are artists, some are athletes, some save lives.  I hope my girls know that cooking also can be a God-given talent we can use to show others how special they are in our lives.

But the most important thing I want them to know is that we don't all have to do extraordinary things, we can find the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary.

~Never underestimate the power of one's simplest gift; it could make the most profound difference.