The Best Smell in the World

A month or so ago, Rachael’s daughter Kate, who is Malia’s age, made bread almost entirely on her own. Rachael shared a picture of Kate and her amazing loaf with all of us. Malia thought that was pretty neat stuff and not wanting to be outdone, decided she had better get her act together and learn to make bread. We set aside this morning as bread day and with only some guidance and instruction from me, Malia crafted some delicious loaves of her very own. I have a Bosch so she didn’t learn to knead it by hand, but that’s the next step.

Malia’s interest in helping in the kitchen has waned quite a bit over the past few years and I’ve actually missed having some helpers. Knowing Kate is becoming a cooking whiz has rekindled Malia’s interest and I love it. Not only do I love having her help, but I love knowing that she wants to learn to be a proficient cook. That is something I’ve worked to teach all my kids and I’m glad she is once again a willing participant in Mom hosted cooking lessons.

The house smelled amazing all day and the boys were terribly happy to sample Malia’s success. To be honest, I was terribly happy to be a taste tester as well. Warm bread is the ultimate comfort food and always brings to mind feelings of safety and security, thoughts of home.

 

Hopping Down the Bunny Trail

None of the big holidays would seem complete around here without some fun food. With Easter on the horizon, our family home evening treat was destined to be Easter themed. The kids are on spring break this week, so they were on hand to help create this evening’s delectable dessert. Malia was the only one who helped me shape the cookies, but Matthew hopped on over to help when it was time to decorate. The cookies were very easy to create. The hard part was making everyone wait to sample them. They turned out super cute and just as tasty. Hooray for fun food!

 

It Looks as Good as it Tastes

Of late I’ve discovered that I really enjoy having something decorative on our dining room table. We’ve done a lot of flowers which has been great except for the times when I pick something up and then have allergy issues from the flowers. Sneezing and having itchy eyes kind of takes the enjoyment out of the blooms. With that in mind, I decided we needed something fun for the Easter season and hit Pinterest, of course, to find some cute ideas. Once I had a plan, Malia became my cohort in crafting. We shopped the dollar store, the craft store and the grocery store to find just the right elements and then she helped me create a masterpiece. Malia and I are both pleased with the results of our afternoon’s work. Now the kitchen smells like marshmallows and chocolate. It’s a pretty appetizing alternative to flowers. And although the Peeps are going to get hard pretty darn quickly, my family is looking forward to eating the Cadbury chocolate eggs after Easter has passed.😉

 

A Hunting We Will Go

With a recent announcement from our stake leadership, weekly youth meetings have finally resumed. One of the very first activities the young women planned was a COVID safe Easter egg hunt for all the primary age children. We have not been given permission to hold primary meetings of any kind as of yet, so the young women went to every house that has primary aged children and did a small egg hunt for each family. What an amazing service for the little ones who have had no primary of any kind for over a year. Malia was so thrilled. My mama heart is full of gratitude. These girls and their leaders are amazing. 

Dulce de Lightful

With my current food trend focusing on cheesecake, I was unable to resist a cookbook called “The Cheesecake Bible.” This tome contains three hundred ways to make my mouth happy. After poring over its pages, I selected my first experiment. My latest delightful cream cheese creation was a luscious dulce de leche cheesecake. I could eat this stuff all day. It’s probably a good thing I’m required to share with my live-in taste testers. 😉 

Let the Band Play!

Tonight was an exciting evening. After a year of cancellations and disappointments, Matthew finally got to participate in a band concert. Due to the C-word, this was only his second concert ever. He was in beginning band last year and beginning band is not ready for a concert in October, so his first concert was in December. His next concert was scheduled for last March. In fact, it was scheduled for the week that things shut down. It went from being a normal performance to a streamed performance to being completely cancelled in just a couple of days and was one of his first COVID related disappointments. After a year of no performances and streamed concerts during the normal band class period, it was amazing to be back at a concert. No matter how good the recording or the stream, it can never come close to imitating live music. There were COVID precautions in place, of course, including each band having their own performance time rather than having one big concert, required masks and social distancing, but despite all that, it was glorious. Matthew is in the intermediate band and enjoys that, but he loves the jazz band. His joy in the music and the opportunity to perform were evident in his face. It was so fun to see his face light up with excitement.

This is a baby step toward normalcy. Sometimes it feels like things are never going to be the same again and in reality they may never be exactly the same, but every time we regain a bit of our lives, it feels like a win. I had not realized just how much I had missed the live performances and being able to support my kids as they get back some of these events brings me joy.