Cooking Class

Hello! Hello! Hello! How does the life find you today? Personally, life today finds me excited and moderately focused...and wanting time to reflect on a few details that have escaped my attention for some time. Think, keeping all the plates spinning at once. Yeah....

In the mean time, I found some fun inspiration at Sketches In Thyme last Thursday morning:



I really like the clean lines of the sketches that originate from Creative Scrappers. I'm pleased that I've finally stopped being shy and started digging in to have some fun. Here's my take on the sketch:



Now, if you find yourself thinking this is a beautiful page.... Well, first of all, thank you, BUT the real credit goes to both Creative Scrappers (for the design, of course) and Graphic 45 (the makers of the patterned paper. The vast majority of this page was created with the Domestic Goddess line. Okay, so Mr. Holtz is responsible for the Distress ink on the edges, too.

One of my favorite details is thanks to my friend, Steffanie, who created this flourish on a transparency:


She has the patience and artistic talent that I lack so I was happy to snag many flourishes from her Etsy shop. She's also brilliant at making paper flowers (an eternal love of mine!).

And for the fluke files, the Distress Stickles (glitter glue) in the center of the Prima flowers dried in a perfect bubble. That never happens!



Lest I forget, the photos are my son and my Mom. It was a special day -- chicken and dumplings from scratch. It's a family favorite and absolutely amazing. My son enjoys the dish so much that he insisted on "helping" us put it together. In our house (to a reasonable and safe extent) that is absolutely an option. He gets to make his own peanut butter sandwiches. He gets to help pour the cereal into his bowl. Occasionally (if the jug is empty enough) he gets to participate in pouring his own juice. He helps us stir and dump measured ingredients into a bowl. He gets to read the numbers/quantity linked to the ingredients we need. He gets to mop up if he helps us make a mess, too.

Cooking is a family event that he truly enjoys. It's something we love to do together whenever possible. Sometimes we use the time to talk about life and thoughts and dreams. Sometimes, we just have fun and laugh. It's part of who we are as a family and what we do. To have him WANT to participate and know this aspect of our love feels good and right.

I share all this because I know that it would be easy to assume (just by looking at these pictures) that we might be crazy. My mom is slicing celery beside him in one photo; and standing beside her at the stove for the rest. He was so intent to practice "slicing" with his dull children-size knife that he didn't care about her plate. He's also received over a year's worth of stove and oven safety lectures from us and knows to keep his hands off....and the burner below the pan was off -- they all were. We did not turn the stove on until he was back to his toys in another room.

I believe that's all I wanted to cover for now. In a few minutes it will be time to wake my son. *sigh* I'm really going to miss these naps much more than he is someday, aren't I?