Stay at Home Mom

In the past (mostly in my early years of motherhood) I had people ask enquire when I told them what I do, "What do you DO all day?" I used to become a bit defensive, because of course I didn't have much to show for my days beyond playing with, reading to, feeding, entertaining, comforting, keeping clothes, children and the house clean, etc. My days were filled with baby and toddler things and I often felt trapped in the house. Now things are different as all three children are in school for at least a portion of most days. I should have more free time, or time to account for.

And yes, I have been able to accomplish some things. I just completed master's degree this week. I've learned to cook better. I interact with more people on a daily basis. I'm even part of two book groups. But some days simply disappear into the busyness of being a mom, even now.

Tomorrow is my oldest daughter's 8th birthday. When I asked her what she wanted for breakfast on her birthday, she answered with certainty: cinnamon rolls. OK, I said, I'll stop by IKEA and pick up a package (yes, we like their food). Oh no, she didn't want store bought cinnamon rolls, she wanted "Mommy cinnamon rolls." I have our years in Japan, where we couldn't buy good cinnamon rolls, to thank for this request.

I started baking this morning as the children were eating breakfast and gathering up their things for school. I heated the milk, set the yeast in luke warm water and stirred sugar and butter into the luke warm milk, before blowdrying Daughter's hair and then shooing everyone out the door. My hope was that the milk would cool off enough to be mixed into the yeast without killing it by the time I returned. Fortunately, it was, so I was able to make the rest of the dough before showering myself and dressing Youngest Son. After completing a few household chores, I punched down the dough before leaving the house at 10:30.

First we stopped by a toy store to purchase gifts for Oldest Sister from her younger siblings, but we were unsuccessful. We had to give up quickly though as we were on a schedule. We stopped by Dunkin Donuts to pick up a couple of dozen donuts for the classroom birthday celebration on our way to pick up lunch. We made another quick stop at a second toy store and we were in and out in less than 10 minutes with presents in our hands!

Then we went through the Burger King drive thru while the two little ones (3 and 5) could not get over their amazement at this wonderful thing that we could order, pay and pick up our food without ever leaving the car! It was so fast! And's it's called fast-food?! Amazing!!

We made it back to our town and the elementary school by 11:30 to pick up Daughter and 2 friends to take them home for lunch. This was followed by scarfing down chicken fingers and french fries ("Look - this finger has blood on it!" - french fry/ketchup) and sugar cookies before I took everyone back to school at 12:15. Oh- and I had to punch down the dough again - no time for anything more. I dropped off the donuts, and then Daughter2 to kindergarten and drove Son to preschool.

Back home, I rolled out the dough and cut the cinnamon rolls and did some emailing and file organizing on the computer while waiting for the rolls to rise. Baked the rolls, cleaned the kitchen, just got the rolls out of the oven, and then returned to preschool for the "holiday sing." I had barely enough time afterwards to dash back across town to pick up the girls from elementary school and then to have Daughter2 change for dance. We watched her for a while (it was open house day) but then had to take Daughter1 to the store for some Christmas shopping as this was the last opportunity to go while Sister was otherwise occupied. We picked up Sister from dance and quickly drove to the video store to choose a movie for the evening (I usually choose the movies myself from the library, but today was a special treat due to Birthday). That took a while, so we only had a few extra minutes to stop by home to turn on the Christmas lights and have Daughter1 change for dance and everyone ate a Clementine each (the one healthy food for today).

THEN, we all traipsed back to dance to watch Daughter1's class and finally arrived home at nearly 7. My cinnamon rolls were still sitting under wax paper on the counter. Did I mention that I was cranky at this point? It suddenly occured to me that all I had eaten since breakfast were some french fries and a chicken finger. Yuck!

Around 8pm I started making Daughter1's birthday cake, only to realize that I only had one egg left when I needed two. I called our neighbor, who was only too happy to lend me one, so that crisis was averted! Now (9:30) the kids are in bed, and the house smells deliciously like chocolate cake. I need to make the frosting, and I need to transfer a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, but then my day will be over and I will have to make a decision: should I read my book (Son of a Witch) or watch my Netflix moview (Garden State)? Decisions, decisions.

Gingerbread House

Last December I bought a gingerbread house kit at IKEA but then had no time or opportunity to make it. I dug it out of the back of the pantry last weekend and checked the expiration date, and lo and behold it was still "fresh" so we proceded to assemble it according to package directions.

The box told me to melt a cup of sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan, stirring constantly. I have little experience in candy making so needless to say, this made me a little nervous. I put the pan of sugar over medium heat and stirred and stirred and stirred. (Did I think sugar would burn instantaneously?!?!) Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (5 minutes perhaps) we started to smell cotton candy and the sugar began to melt and turn light brown. As soon as it liquified, I started the assembly process. I worked on a big plastic tray (also from IKEA) and used a spoon to spread the sugar-glue onto the sides and roof of the house.

All the while, the kids were telling me how LAST YEAR (when they made gingerbread houses at a friends' house) Friend's mother used frosting as glue and it didn't take as long and it wasn't so messy. They eventually conceded however, that the melted sugar method was more effective as it STUCK and did not easily slip. Part of the roof is still crooked because the glue dried so quickly!

I was worried about clean up - both the hardened sugar in the pan and on the spoon as well as the drippings and "sugar hair" that ended up on the stove-top and counter. I thought it would never come off, but soaking the pan and spoons in water overnight did wonders, and I was able to rinse them off and send them through the dishwasher!

The frosting directions on the package were also a little different from what I had seen before. It called for powdered sugar, an egg white and a little lemon. The egg-white part was new to me, but after a little internet research I've discovered that this is called Royal Icing and is used for such purposes as decorating houses and cookies. I piped the icinging onto the house using a makeshift bag made of folded up wax paper with a small hole cut in the corner, and the kids started attaching candy to house. Some of our candy choices were too heavy and started to slide, but the frosting hardened pretty quickly and became ROCK solid! Thank you egg whites!

The best part of the whole experience was the delicious smell that permeates our house: gingerbread! I didn't think that was possible without actually baking the gingerbread! The end result of the house looks like children made it, but that was the point - to give them ownership of it. The love it and ask to eat it every day! I had to return to IKEA to buy Anna's Pepper-kaker just so we could have some to eat!