Adventures in Homemaking...

In my new status as full time homemaker I am trying very hard to treat this as my full time job. Part of the ideal job description as written by a certain June Clever are to be up and ready for the day at 7am complete with hair done and pearls on (If I had pearls I would...) have dinner on the table by 5:30, provide baking and preserves to one's family, provide engaging learning to one's small children during the day and throw in a life lesson here and there with thoughtful music playing in the foreground... I struggle with the baking. I do not like things that have no wiggle room. WHY does it have to be 3 and one forth cup exactly of flour...why can't it just be 3??? I will it make it 4 just to rebel against the recipe book. Again and again my baking fails and it is endlessly frustrating. When mentioning her strawberry pies in passing I commissioned my friend Cheryl to come over while the babies napped and teach me to make pies... This is easier said then done it seems.

Before long I had ruined 2 batches of pastry while Cheryl finished cutting up her bright white perfectly sliced and uniform apple slices making my brown hacked to pieces Spartans pale in comparison...She watched in horror as her pathetic student did not drain the lemon water from my apples before adding the remaining ingredients creating a goopy mess, poked holes in the top by gouging the pastry with my nails and had flour everywhere. I eventually quit pie making forever...unfortunately I had 5 topless pies remaining when I made this declaration. Cheryl in her kindness strapped Ruby (who napped for a total of 20 minutes...Ben 4 hours, leaving me with no real excuse) to her back and made enough of her pastry to finish my pie tops. Wow Cheryl Cleaver...you are something! By the time Jon got home from work we (I use "we" loosely) were 5.5 hours into the pie marathon and Jon got put on baby duty. We did eventually finish and when Jon took one of my (and Cheryl's) pies to work with him on Friday I (Cheryl) got rave reviews! Maybe pie making isn't so bad...I am sure Christmas baking will go better...