Wednesday, September 1, 2010

helping hands

Lately I've found myself thinking about how easy it is to become frustrated by the limitations inherent to having three small, dependent people as your daily companions (do the dogs count? let's make that five, then). It's something I hear in chorus from my sisters and friends with young children... there just aren't enough hours in the day. And it's true; few days find me accomplishing all I've set out to do, but it's usually welcome distractions that pull me away from my "to do" list.
I work to remind myself that this is what we've chosen, to spend our days with our children, offering them a chance to discover and learn alongside us. When the day feels like it is spinning away from my desired goals, I often find I can reset my course by including the children in my work. They are always eager to help, and I soon find that the things we need are getting done, and so much more is taking place.
That's how it felt today. We've been baking our own bread for a while now, and it's usually a pleasant task I look forward to. Today, it just wasn't working for me to get into that rhythm. So I didn't. Enter Daniel and his eagerness to help.

With a little help reading the recipe, he measured and mixed,


kneaded and worked the dough,


shaped the loaves,



and helped us accomplish a delicious success!




It felt good to check that one off our list, and he felt so proud and confident to have done all that work.

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