Growing up ---- as a Mother

Today I was napping, while my kids were watching TV. Randy had taken Leigh to her volleyball tournament.

Sooooooo . . . . . . I was a little bit alarmed when Kara woke me to ask me where the baking soda was. (Very puzzled look on my face).

Mom: Why do you need baking soda Kara?

Kara: For the Triple Chocolate Quick Bread I'm making (of course).

Hmmmm.

Mom: Why are you making that? Mommy did not give you permission to do any baking right now.

Kara: Well, I'm bored. So where is it?

(At this point, I'm so tired because I had worked the night before, I explain to her where it is and then doze back off to sleep). She comes back again to ask me another question (don't remember what it is). Then I realize she said chocolate.

Mom: Kara, did you use the bag of chocolate chips that we have?

Kara: Yeah, I needed them for the recipe.

Mom: Oh Kara, we were going to make chocolate chip cookies out of those. Well, I needed them.

(Big sigh of resignation from me). Kara marches back off into the kitchen. I lay there thinking, "I'm afraid to go into the kitchen to the possible horror of mess." I calmly get up to check on her. She's in there stirring away at a concoction that looks more like a soup gone awry than a quick bread batter. (Another sigh, the kitchen's not too bad). I walk away and come back.

The concoction looks more like cookie dough now.

Kara: I added more flour because it seemed like it needed it.

Mom: Kara did the recipe ask for more flour?

Kara: I don't know. There's a lot of things in this recipe I didn't know. Like what does 1 slash 2 mean, and the other numbers?

At this point, she's done throwing all the ingredients together. I think trying to explain what "1 slash 2" means was a mute point. I try not to look alarmed and think, "Well, this should be interesting." She put it in a bread pan, helped her with the temperature settings and baked it. When it was done baking, it actually looked pretty good. I was honored to have the first taste. I'm sure the recipe was not followed to a "T" to say the least, but it did taste good. Kara was very proud of herself and so was I.

I was happy for my daughter's little accomplishment today, as well as my own. I'm not perfect by any means, but I'm getting better, I think especially in the patience department. I still lose my cool sometimes, but I do feel that I've gotten better about not getting worked up over little things and letting my kids enjoy their creativity, instead of focussing on the big mess that was made.

Here's a little secret I've found (which maybe many of you already know). I find when I don't get impatient and upset about situations like this and just praise my kids for the creativity part, they are so much more willing to help with the clean-up part. They are also more humble about the reprimanding part about the rules that were broken, and do follow the rules next time around.

I love growing as a mom. It makes me appreciate my kids so much more!

*** I did take a picture of the last piece of bread, but I am having trouble uploading from my phone.