Monday, October 24, 2011

happy faces happy tummies

of course when i muster the energy to write, blogger has changed the format/template. dear world: i don't like change. it is not helpful. regardless:

today was a good day.

i used to think that a perfect day would look something like a hallmark commercial. breakfast in bed, tidy, well behaved children always smiling and laughing but never actually making any noise, nice house that's perfectly clean and in order as the backdrop, yummy looking food that the mother either doesn't have to prepare or clean up after or that she joyfully prepares in her cute stylish outfit without nary an interruption from those quietly smiling children.

yah, that's just not doing to happen around here. tim tried to make me breakfast in bed once and the boys screamed from the dining room table because they wanted to be with me. when i gave in and let them join me, they stole all my food and something ended up getting spilt. not relaxing. i've come to accept that even the best of days, at this stage of my life, are going to involving preparing food, breaking up squabbles, wiping bottoms, and weathering max fits. because in case you didn't know, it's really hard and totally traumatic for max to have to get his own socks out of the drawer. not even put them on, just get them out. we had two of those meltdowns today.


i have this yummy yum yum to thank for setting the mood of our day. when i saw the recipe last night on angry chicken, i knew i wanted to make it today. this was the fourth recipe i've tried for something like this. for awhile i was stuck on trying to make them in a muffin pan as individual popovers, but they always got stuck and i hate cleaning the muffin pan. this recipe was perfecto! gotta love cast iron. ms. amy karol called hers a dutch baby. when max asked what i was making for breakfast and i told him a dutch baby, he seemed confused and suspicious. i decided to just call it a puffy oven cake, which is what my nephew calls this same sort of creation.


we put extra butter and a little maple syrup on ours after taking it out of the cast iron. the boys enjoyed watching it deflate but it always makes me a little sad. so lofty and then so flat. side note: i used whole wheat pastry flour and it was still totally delish.

i was a little nervous serving it to the boys because, like i've said, i've tried something like this before and i don't remember the boys loving it, but i think i put jelly on it once and blueberry sauce another time. plus, since it was super easy to make and fun for me, i figured naturally they would hate it purely to spite me. but oh happy day! they loved it! so much in fact that i made another one for our afternoon snack. i love how easy these are.


because the weather was absolutely beautiful, i decided we should have a picnic. puffy oven cakes are even better when eaten lying down soaking up glorious sunshine.


and a little kombucha because momma was feeling really wild and high on vitamin D.


ben wanted to use the camera and this pose was his idea.


while the boys played on the driveway and in the forest, i enjoyed this view.


last monday the wind blew from the north and it was cold and cloudy all day. max's behavior left me in tears several times, i was totally depressed mourning the end of sunshine and the approach of winter and tim and i had a huge fight.

today i spent my day washing windows, preparing food, cleaning up, doing laundry, and parenting. AND BASKING IN THE SUNSHINE. it was no hallmark commercial for sure. the moms in hallmark commercials certainly don't raise their voices or discover their darling offspring throwing wet, dirty rags at the freshly cleaned windows.

but today was still pretty great. thank you God for the sunshine. and the charming offspring who say sweet things like, "momma, i like your fancy hair."

8 comments:

  1. Aw, I'm happy for your great day. We had a great day yesterday as well (the first in awhile) and I talked to Erika and they were having a good day too. Praise God!!

    And maybe we need to get Mr. Max and Miss Gemma together, or at least compare tantrum stories, because I can totally and completely 100% identify with the sock drawer incident, ans the same thing happens here numerous times a week. aaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

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  2. Yay! I am savoring these beautiful days, also. We did our literature and history on the back deck yesterday, soaking up the sunshine. Our little wild babies were pretty great when you came over the other day, we will have to do that again. Or I can come to your house :)

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  3. Glad you had a great day! Sunshine makes everything better. For me, it can even make a bad day a little better. I can't imagine what having 2 kids is like, but I have a hard time with just one. Honestly, the idea of having another kid right now is terrifying to me.

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  4. Wow, those puffy cakes look dangerously delicious!! Yay for a happy day!

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  5. I love the good days! We need to figure out a way to bottle them up and use them on the bad days. :)

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  6. Erika, when you figure that out I will be the first to buy one of those bottles.

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