Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wanna talk about chocolate chip cookies, please.

If ever there was a treat that brought back so many amazingly glorious childhood memories, it’s a good chocolate chip cookie.

My mom was that mom. The one that was known for her cookies. I remember a friend telling me once, “Oh my gosh, you’re so lucky – you can have these whenever you want.” Too true.

When the kids were first diagnosed with allergies, I tried to just kind replace the regular flour with gluten-free and use egg-replacer. It was a disaster. Honestly. I considered just throwing the cookie sheet away instead of scrubbing it kind of disaster. Oh man.

So a few weeks ago I was eating some Lucy brand cookies when I thought, “I want cookies that taste like these.” It was a bit of an ironic thought because we already have a gluten-free, vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that we enjoy. But who ever complains about experiments involving cookies? Nobody.

[Can I be honest and tell you the first time I made this graphic I spelled Crispy with an 'h'. Close call.]

These are crisp around the edges and chewy in the middle. But I do have a disclaimer. If you’re not going to eat them right out of the oven you might want to freeze them. They seem to kind of soften up and get a little sticky if you leave them out. Or, if you do like I did, you might put them in Tupperware and then be forced to separate them with a knife.

Um, disclaimer #2, these cookies are unashamedly gluten-free. Normally I try to make gluten-free baking attainable to all [i.e. buy this one flour or this particular mix]. But this recipe is saying, “These kids are gluten-free and proud of it.” Or maybe, “You know you’re a gluten-free mom when you have more types of flour than you do fingers.” And, you guys, I’m okay with it. Some times the little guy needs a win. But don’t get too sad because I’m going to share two more recipes below that are guaranteed to fill all your chocolate-chip cookie needs. Bake on.

Crispy, Chewy Chocolate-Chip Cookies [that just happen to be vegan & gluten-free]
Makes about 2 dozen

1/2 cup vegetable shortening [you can use coconut oil if you wish]
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup oat flour
1/2 cup garbanzo & fava bean flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup sweet white sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup chocolate-chips

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all of the flours, xanthan gum, salt, and baking soda.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, cream together the shortening and sugars. Add the maple syrup and vanilla and stir. Add the dry to the wet. It will be a dry batter. Mix in the milk. Add the chocolate chips.

The cookies will spread quite a bit so make sure you give them lots of room. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden around the edges.

Here’s my mom’s bake sale winning recipe, based on a 1970s version of the Toll House Cookie Recipe.

Kathy’s Chocolate-Chip Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen

2 1/4 cups self-rising flour*
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup palm oil or vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix the flour and baking soda, set aside.

Cream together the sugars and shortening. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Stir in the flour and then mix in the chocolate chips. Bake 375F for 9-11 minutes.

*If self-rising flour isn’t something you keep on hand you can use 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour with 3 teaspoons of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of salt.

And, if the idea of shortening makes you squirm [read: if you weren't raised in the South] here’s an old faithful Kitchen-Aid chocolate-chip recipe that uses butter.

Kitchen-Aid Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
6 ounces chocolate-chips

Preheat the oven to 375F. Mix together the dry ingredients and set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugars. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Add the dry in and mix well. Add the chocolate chips. Drop onto a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Whew, well what are you waiting for!? There are cookies to be baked.

Lucky Number Seven

A long time ago I met a reallllly cute boy and we went shopping for calculators together. True story. We fell in love under the stately columns of the University of Missouri. We got hitched, like real quick. The boy got under my skin and it is incredible to me that with each passing year he can woo me even more. When I think of all of the blessings in my life they all have him in it. He is my one true love. The companion I prayed for. He is the one I am blessed by and choose to share this life with. He took away my disbelief in love at first sight. He has shown me a love so deep it has brought me closer to my Heavenly Father. Chuck Baker, I love you to pieces. Happy Anniversary, my love.

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Lucy Lately

A few Lucy moments to brighten your mood.

[Looking out the window.] “Thank you, Jesus, for making it stop raining.”

Lu: “I am Ballerina Jesus!”
Me: “Um, do you mean a ballerina for Jesus?”
Lu: “Yes! I am Ballerina For Jesus.”

Me: “Take that costume off, we’ve got to take Landon to the doctor.”
Lu: “Okay!!!!!!!! Buddy you have to go to the doctor so that we can get lollipops!”

[To Landon, while watching a slideshow of pictures] “Buddy, that’s me kissing you when you were a baby. I liked to kiss you ’cause you’re my brudder.”

[Chuck is outside mowing, Lucy is sitting with her legs criss-cross by the door, whispering.] “Daddy I want to go outside with you. Daddy I want to swing high up in the sky while you work. Daddy I want to go outside with you…”

Newest phrases: “Oh, my!”, “That’s awesome!”, and “It’s okay, Sweetheart.”.

“Bear Bear is my baby sister and she likes to eat cake with me. But then she got something in her eye and I had to take her to the doctor. But he fixed her up.”

[Lucy hiding under some pillows, watching Netflix on the Kindle. I can't see her but I can hear the Kindle.]
Me: “Uh, Lucy, where are you?
[Pops head up, completely scaring me.]
Lu: “Ummmm, noffing?”

Me: “Lucy, we need to clean your room today – it’s super messy.”
Lu: “Oh, it’s okay Mom. I’ll just mess it up again.”

[We're painting and Landon paints a streak down Lucy's face.]
Lu: “Landon, I am not paper! That is not the right way to share paint!”

Me: “Lucy, why do you watch Barney? What do you like most about him?
Lu: “Angelina Ballerina!”
Me: “No, what do you like most about Barney?
Lu: “Oh Mom, I already told you. Angelina!”

Fish Tacos

Chuck and I have been married for nearly seven years! And during those seven years there’s one food I’ve never made. One food that had me convinced it was not within my repertoire: fish! I was afraid, my friends.

But when I was visiting my mom early this spring she made some fish tacos that had us all begging for more and I knew I had to give it a go. Anybody else scared to make fish at home [let's be honest: it only takes one fishy fish experience to make you weary]?

So here’s our fish story: We started with some frozen tilipia from Trader Joe’s. I can also highly recommend the frozen mahi from Publix, but any white fish will probably work. De-thaw, either by bringing it to the fridge a day early or letting it hang out in some cold water.

Heat your grill to high. While it’s warming up, get a piece of aluminum foil a little bit bigger than twice the width of your fish. Put the fish on top of the foil, to one side, so that you can fold the foil over on top of the fish later.

Top the fish with olive oil and your choice of seasonings. Since we were going for fish tacos I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle chili powder, and basil. Once I’d sprinkled everything on I massaged the olive oil in a bit to make sure everything was covered.

Then you’ll want to fold your foil on top and roll up the edges. When the grill is ready, add your fish packet and grill for 10 minutes. That’s it! I used two forks to shred ours and make it taco friendly.

Do not fear the fish!

To top our tacos we had some gaucamole, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, black beans, plain greek yogurt [in lieu of sour cream], and salsa. I always overstuff my tacos and make a huge mess. Always.

We gave Landon his toppings in a bowl to avoid toddler taco frustration and he had fourths of the fish. Considering he’s the boy who wouldn’t eat any meat a month ago, I was beyond thrilled!

Lucy really wants to be like the adults so she did her best to eat her smaller corn tortillas like a champ.

Enjoy!

Still

We’re still here. I thought we were done, though looking back on it a voicemail from a doctor saying our kid was a-okay is a little bit like your boyfriend breaking up with you via text.

We still have peace. And we’re still dancing [maybe it's more of a sway].

About a week after Landon got the all clear that his EEG and Brain MRI came back “normal”, he had another seizure. We were riding home from Lucy’s dance class and he seemed more tired than he should have been. He was dozing a bit when sat straight up, his lips turned blue, he slumped forward, and his eyes begin to flutter.

This time it wasn’t as scary as the other times. I just kept saying over and over, “I can’t believe this is happening again.” The episodes only last thirty seconds or so and the doctors have assured me that even though his lips are blue he’s still breathing. They also tell me that because he’s not having the kind of seizure where he shakes and because they’re short, they’re unlikely to cause any developmental delays. Those seem like good things.

I went to church Sunday with a heavy heart. I just really didn’t know what to do. By the time Chuck had the presence of mind to get his phone out to video Landon, the seizure was over. And we felt like the doctors had told us there wasn’t really anything they could do without a video.

So I prayed. And I had other people pray for me. And I let people in on my struggle. And I cried, wept, and realized the shame I was feeling. Yeah, shame. Shame that I couldn’t get a video of it. Shame that I wasn’t taking care of him. And I accepted healing. And I rejected the shame.

The next morning I tried to pray for Landon. I love those blissful moments before the kids are awake. The air is quiet and draws out your thoughts. Coffee seems to warm your soul and words seem clearer, thoughts less crowded.

There was one verse that came almost immediately and stuck with me that day.

“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
[Psalm 46:10]

Hold on. So you’re saying all of this stuff is happening with my sweet boy and I should do nothing? Huh. And you’re saying You can be exalted in a situation like this? Wow. [A friend actually prayed that over me a few weeks ago. It's crazy to me when prayers are later affirmed through God's Word.] So… I didn’t do anything. And the craziest thing happened. One of those friend tells a friend about her friend’s friend kind of thing and before we knew it we were in contact with the Neurology Department from the other children’s hospital in St. Louis. They asked me a serious of questions about Landon’s episodes and asked me to transfer over the other doctor’s notes. The told us there was a three month waiting list for appointments and gave us the next available on July 10th. I felt thankful that the last words the nurse said to me were, “We’re going to help you find answers.”

And then, mercifully, the next day we got a phone call that there was a cancellation and an opening the following day. YES, we’ll take it.

The morning of the appointment came and I felt God once again speaking to me in the quiet.

“I rejoice, because I have perfect confidence in you.”
[2 Corinthians 7:16]

Confidence that God will direct us to the right doctors. Confidence that His hand is at work. Confident that if I put my trust in Him and try to trust and follow Him, He will direct our paths. He loves us and longs to care for us. And so, rejoice I will. Dance I must. Life is full and infinitely blessed.

So we saw our new doctor and I really liked him. Better still, Landon really liked him [kids are great character judges]. He asked me super specific questions about the “spells”, but unlike last time it didn’t feel like the doctor was trying to catch me in a lie. He told us the episodes Landon’s having are definitely seizures. They’re not ready to diagnosis him with epilepsy yet, but they gave us two options. We could either start him on anti-seizure medications now or wait until after the next seizure. We chose to wait. We’re also having another EEG done, which should give the doctors more information about which anti-seizure medicine would be most helpful.

They gave us a lot of statistics and a lot of information [also different from our last experience]. Six out of every ten EEGs of epileptic children come back normal, so the test is not a great indicator. But on the bright side, the kind of seizures Landon is having are the ones children most often grow out of. Only 0.5% of adults over the age of 25 still have them.

I left the appointment feeling hopeful. Feeling taken care of. That this, these seizures, aren’t something that can control us. They don’t mean we aren’t taken care of. I cannot let them make me feel like less than a loving mother following after Christ. Seizures will not hold us captive. We will not let fear steal our confidence.

Grilled Veggie Egg Scrambler

We live in an old house where the kitchen ventilation system consists of me opening a window. It’s true. So in the summer when I turn the oven on in the afternoon, it feels like the Fires of Hell are concentrating their heat on my workspace. Not to be dramatic or anything…

If it all possible, when the temps tip up into the melt my kitchen [and my heart - I like it hot!] range on the thermometer we’re finding ways to keep the oven off. This little number fits the bill, and it packs in two veggies, a fruit, and some protein.

Grilled Veggie Egg Scrambler
Serves 4

1 head of cauliflower [olive oil, garlic powder, chipotle chili powder, paprika, salt, & pepper]
3 small zucchini, diced
3 to 4 Roma tomatoes, diced
6 eggs, whisked
Parmesan
salt & pepper

Start by heating up the grill. Next, chop up your cauliflower into bite size florets. Put the cauliflower in a bowl or bag and add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Sprinkle on the other seasonings and stir or shake to coat.

Your grill should be pretty warm. Mine heats up to about 500F when I set it between 4 and 5 but I know all grills are different. I should also note that our grill uses infrared heat so you might need to put foil under your veggie basket to try to distribute the heat some.

I want to be real with you. Sometimes the wind blows the flame of the grill out and the gas stays on and builds up under the dome. When you go out to open the grill and the gas has been building, you may open the dome and release a small fireball. Because of this, I didn’t have hair on my right forearm for most of last summer. So now I diligently check it. And, when he’s available, I send the husband out first. Men don’t need eyebrows…

Even better if he’s wearing a tie while grilling. I’m getting off track.

I usually give cauliflower about 15 minutes, stir it, and then give it another 10. It doesn’t have all of the thrill of oven roasted cauliflower poppers, but it certainly comes close.

During the first 15 minutes of cauliflower cooking, I chop up the zucchini. Heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of your pan. When the oil is hot, add the zucchini and season it with salt and pepper. After you’ve pan seared the zucchini just a bit, you can add a little water [very little, like 1/8 of a cup - the squash will release water when it cooks] and cover it with a lid. Stir it a few times. When it’s fork tender, set it aside in a bowl.

Next add your whisked eggs, salt, and pepper and scramble them up [move the spatula around to make sure none stick to the bottom. Cook them until they're as runny or dry as your heart desires, and then add the zucchini and chopped tomatoes.

I usually cook the eggs when my cauliflower is just about finished. When the cauliflower comes off the grill, I add it in and top the whole skillet with some Parmesan cheese. So good.

If your grill is big enough, you could grill the zucchini in a separate basket. I'm not sure if it's because we hadn't had scrambled eggs in almost two years [for real] but we inhaled this. It was simple, quick, and satisfying.

If you want to go vegan, I think this would make a good tofu scramble. If you want to go in the opposite direction, I think sausage would be amazing in here. Either way, everybody wins.

Advice From My Dad

My dad is a pretty smart guy. He’s that guy that can hold a conversation with juuuust about anybody. He works super hard. He’s pretty much the first call I make when something breaks and Chuck can’t fix it [that's right; Dad trumps Google]. He’s been on my mind lately because he just accepted this awesome job to be something super important sounding [Global Director of Energy, I think]. But really, I’m most excited because the job is bringing my parents closer to us. Still far, but closer. So here are some nuggets from my Dad.

*Don’t play like a girl. Play like that girl all the guys are afraid to play.

[My mom is going to kill me when she sees this picture. That's my mom in the purple (she's always been my biggest fan). That's my brother at the front with the navy mesh shirt. My dad is the mustached Arabic man whispering words of encouragement. And there I am. The only gal on the tug o' war line sporting the orange tank.]

*Math isn’t that hard. Get over it. [Said with love while I cried over a C on an Algebra test.]

*No blood, no foul. And no crying, even if there is blood. I only want to know about it if you think you’re going to die or are in need of serious medical attention.

[I feel like these all sound cold-hearted but I'm cracking up thinking of them. My dad is a big teddy bear. A big, no-nonsense teddy bear.]

*Don’t write negative things. You’ll only write it once but there’s no limit to how many times the receiver might read it. Or what they might do with it. Or how they might interpret it.

*In a “Get Well Soon” greeting card: “Dear Beth, You are so beautiful. Braces are not the end of the world. You won’t have them forever. Love, Dad.” [Talk about sandwiching the compliment!]

*Your mom is the smartest, most beautiful, and hard working woman I know. And she’s the reason I am who I am today.

*If you don’t like it, change it.

*Don’t complain about things you can’t change. [This was in the same breath where he told me it was interesting to have thick, frizzy hair because that's how they used to judge humidity.]

Love you, Dad! I am so appreciative of your wisdom and so proud of you!

When You Feel Like Dancing

You guys, I don’t want to pretend life lately hasn’t presented us with a few challenges. It has been a whirlwind, for sure. But, and it always come back to this for me, having faith that this life is bigger than us has been the fuel for my soul. Better still, being surrounded by a community of believers to share faith and life with is major.

Wednesday nights we meet with our small group. A group of people from our church who we are learning and living beside. They’re sharing in our trials and our triumphs. They’re giving us meals and words of encouragement. And, they’re praying for us.

This Wednesday they surrounded us and laid hands on us. I held Landon in my arms while they prayed for him. He picked my nose and pulled my hair while they lifted him up to his true Father. And you know, at the end of it all, I just had this deep sense settled in my bottom of me. This sense that this, whatever it was that entangled him, was done. That it was taken care of. Honestly, I didn’t think much of it because I’ve felt a strong sense of peace through our whole endeavor with Landon’s seizures and consequent testing. Peace.

And so the next day when my phone told me that I didn’t have any missed calls but I did have a new voicemail [I reallllllly need a new phone], my breath caught as the voice of Landon’s neurologist came on.

“Mrs. Baker. I’m calling about Landon. All of the tests came back completely normal. We don’t even need to schedule a follow up visit. Everything is normal.”

Weeks of waiting and wondering. Weeks of close watching. Seconds of conclusion. Inexplicable [to some] healing. It’s done. We don’t need medical answers. We have The Answer. We don’t need to understand what caused the perfect storm of electrolyte imbalance, acidic blood, increased blood sugar. We just trust. And do a little dance. And say a prayer of thankfulness to all of our friends who lifted up a prayer for our son.

And life goes on. And life is good. And God is great.

So here’s our meal plan for the week. Honestly, I’m sort of surprised we ate at all, the whole week was a bit of a blur.

Sunday: Leftover Sausage & Chard Soup from last week.
Monday: Our friends knew Tuesday was gonna be a long one so they fed us dinner and let Lu sleepover at their house!
Tuesday: Roasted veggies. We were all spent, but chopping up some broccoli and carrots was quick and satisfied everyone.
Wednesday: Chicken & Wild Rice. Sounds fancy, but it was a quick one. I picked up a rotisserie chicken and cooked the wild rice in my pressure cooker.
Thursday: Cheesy Pasta & Veggies [check out the recipe below].
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Carrot Cake Waffles

If you want to get your kids to eat tons of veggies, roast them and then cover them with cheese [Am I right!?]. Here’s the Cheesy Pasta and Veggies we have most often.

Roast some veggies [we used broccoli, zucchini, peppers, and onions but you can add whatever you've got]. I usually cook them in a 425F oven for 35 minutes or so after I’ve sprinkled them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

While your veggies are roasting, cook up some penne. For the cheese you can either make mac and cheese with your penne or dump in a brick of neufchatal [or cream] cheese. We like it both ways. If you’re using neufchatal you’ll want to add a cup or so of broth to make it a little creamier.

So I would add:
1 package neufchatal cheese
1 cup broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette [sun dried tomato dressing is also tasty in this]
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried basil or 1/2 cup of chopped fresh
salt and pepper, to taste

When it’s all stirred together I add in a few sliced Roma tomatoes [you could roast those too, but it changes their acidity so we like them raw]. To serve, we top it all off with a little Parmesan.

So simple. For summer we’ll stop roasting the veggies and throw them on the grill so we don’t heat up the house.

p.s. How great do the carrot cake waffles look!? You’d never know they were gluten-free and vegan [we use Pamela's bread flour and brown sugar].

Oh and we quadruple the recipe and add about twice the milk that it calls for. You heard me…

Eat-In Kitchen [Before & After]

I still remember the first time I saw our house. We’d looked at a lot of… questionable places and when the realtor was driving us through the neighborhood Chuck remarked, “There’s no way we can afford to live here.” As soon as I stepped through the front door I was sold. It’s small by anyone’s standards [really, anyone] but it has so much character. Only one family owned it before us. Gary and Dolly [as we affectionately refer to them] built this house. Lived here all of their lives. Raised their four children and lived out the rest of their days. I get to benefit from their green thumbs each spring. It’s just a good house. It’s got the kind of character you just can’t buy. Buuuut… it doesn’t have a dining room. Which is super sad for someone who loves to entertain. So rather than complain about something I just can’t change, I bombarded my husband with pins and websites filled with images of built-in banquettes. Hehe. So this post is definitely dedicated to him. For both his crazy amazing handyman skills and for the way he works so hard to give my heart all its little desires. Thanks, hubs. And now, on to the pretties.

Here’s the before. Lots of high chairs and only room for four adults.

And here’s the after! Like your favorite booth at your favorite restaurant!

We’ll start from the top. I took the sheers down [the kids were using them as napkins anyway...] and bought one grey panel. Luckily the bottom was hemmed the same as the top so I was able to cut away the top and bottom to make the one panel into two valances. For some reason all the valances I saw at the store were kind of a weird faux silk material. As a bonus, I saved $5 over buying two separate valances and I have enough material to add a couple more pillows if I want. I did have to add the tabs on the back of the second panel so that they looked the same. But even that was easy enough with some ribbon and stitch glue from the craft store. A good rule of thumb for valance length is that they shouldn’t be longer than 1/3 of the window.

We also wanted to add some overhead lighting for the area. There should be a light over the table. Unfortunately, since the eat-in area is a bump out from the rest of the house, the roof over it was enclosed and there was no access to it. To solve that problem we bought a plug in light kit from Lowe’s for about $15. We might have to enclose the wire later to keep it away from inquisitive hands but that would be pretty easy. And all of me loves this golden lampshade with flocking on it from Target. All of me.

The booth-style bench is really the belle of this ball. Chuck used a combination of a couple 2x12s and a sheet of birch cabinet-grade wood. We found the legs at Home Depot. We were looking for something a little ornate to match the styling of our vintage table [gifted to us by friends!]. The color is a Miniwax Polyshades Bombay Mahogany, if you’re a fan.

The built-in storage underneath is still awaiting the perfect combination of low-cost and functional. Maybe some galvinized buckets. We’ll keep things like our cloth napkins under there. We also keep the books we read for morning devotion under there. I love that because they used to just sit cluttered on the table all day.

The bench in the back is long! And I see some dinner parties in our future. Small ones, though. Let’s not get crazy.

And one last time. Just for fun.

[p.s. look at that weird shadow on the ceiling that looks like I took this post-kitchen-fire. Weird.]

That’s My Kid [And Our New Outdoor Play Kitchen]

I was sitting in the parents’ lounge this weekend watching my sweet Lucy girl whirl and twirl her little heart out in her Creative Dance class. She’s the youngest in the class by a few months but she holds her own… usually. Sometimes I have to peek my head in and remind her that it’s not time to make faces in the mirror but it is time to listen to the teacher.

She makes blaring declarations like, “I have a baby sister at my house!” which gets all the parental focus turned towards me. Um, no, everyone. She’s talking about Bear Bear, whom she decided is now her baby sister and treats her as such. I am not hiding a baby at my house. Or when she made up an elaborate story about the spring break vacation we took the beach [a girl can dream].

We are definitely in the edge-of-our-seats-waiting-to-see phase, earnestly wondering what that sweet little mouth will declare next. Her imagination is expansive, to say the least. Each day brings new scenes created in her room. New menus created for her play kitchen. New fort houses and tea parties. I had to laugh a few weeks ago when I went in her room and first thought she’d made this huge mess with a pile of clothes on the floor. But when I asked her about it she explained that it wasn’t a mess, it was Rapunzel. And it was true. Right down to a scarf used for hair she’d created a sculpture on the floor of one of her favorite princesses.

She creates new personae each day and really sticks to them. Like, “Mama, today I am Lucy Ms. Mimi Teacher [from Angelina Ballerina] and I need you to come to dance class.” Ms. Kris, who comes each month with the Parents as Teachers program, tried to ease me into this a few months ago by saying, “I just want to prepare you. Children who tend to have a flair for the dramatic often have extremely imaginative play.” No kidding. Woah.

So we live in this world. And I try to balance going to her Ms. Mimi dance classes and tea parties with taking care of my other household duties. There is a direct correlation between her need for attention and my lack of availability. It’s also not totally how my mind works. I’m a muser. A thinker. A ponderer. I like to have conversations in my head, with myself – but realistic ones. Conversations that process [over process?] things that happen. I was the kid that liked to do worksheets. I enjoyed extra homework and long sports practices.

I’m adjusting. Steadily. I love the way her brain works. I love the amount of her day spent drifting between worlds. But it doesn’t leave us a lot of time to hit the books. She’s not going to be the first of her friends to write her name. In fact, in dance class last week she was the only kid that couldn’t visually recognize her numbers when they played hopscotch. She’s not interested in sitting down to learn them. And that’s such an adjustment for this milestone-loving, checklist-preparing mama. No kid… I want you to be, like, the smartest person ever. I get swallowed up in what I want for her.

But God has gifted me with this strong-willed child who’s not interested in my checklists. She’s a free-spirit and it’s becoming a little more than contagious. So she doesn’t recognize her numbers. Last week when we were baking together she counted up to twenty. So she doesn’t want to learn her alphabet. Not too long ago we were driving in the car and she gave me the best little rendition of Jingle Bells [a few months late :)]. In thinking of all the lessons she’s missing, she’s taught me a great one: Let go. Calm down.

I need to parent the child she is, not the child I want her to be. There will be time for all of that other stuff later. For now, let’s go make some mud pies in our new outdoor kitchen and surprise ourselves with how quickly the afternoon can slip away. Is that a segue? Why, yes it is, my friends.

I took the kids out in the rain [who's crazy now] to the thrift store’s half off sale with a very specific shopping list in my mind: real kitchen utensils for L+L’s outdoor kitchen. I spent $13 and, if I have to say so myself, it is fabulous.

I used galvanized nails to hang the utensils to the inside of the playhouse under our slide. A ten minute project yielding hours of fun.