Cooking at the Castle

Good Morning. It's Friday do you know what the means? Monday will be here soon! I love Mondays because it's the day everybody goes back to work and school and I have a 'Jacki' day. I do whatever I want. I didn't get a 'Jacki' day this past week so I'm past due, LOL.

This has been a week for me. The kids were out of school so peace and quiet were out the window. I enjoy having them here but I've been a little distracted this week. On Monday, I took two of my girls ( my daughter and my like-a-daughter) to two college visits in one day. Yes, two in one day. I thought it was a little crazy when I planned it, but it wasn't bad actually. We went to Georgia State first had lunch on the campus, and then got in car and drove the short distance to Georgia Tech. The walking tour on Georgia Tech's campus was no less than two hours, but I was very impressed. I've been to GA State's campus many times but this was a first for me at GA Tech.
After all that, that night I went out of town for the funeral I told you about in the last couple of posts. Tuesday was the funeral and on Wednesday and Thursday, I resumed my shuttle service along with the cooking and cleaning etc... Needless to say, I'm looking forward to Monday.

I wanted to show you these pictures of my youngest son from Wednesday night. He's just getting interested in baking at 10. It's time for me to do another scrapbook layout. I had to take pictures of him while he was measuring because his approach was very scientific and precise... unlike my cooking style. I showed him how to level off the dry measuring cups and spoons and he was so careful. We were making Friendship Bread. He was given the responsibility of keeping up with the starter all week. When it was time to bake, he read and added all the ingredients while I supervised. I decided it was time to take pictures and do a scrapbook layout paying tribute to his scientific approach. The last time I did a scrapbook page about baking with my kids, my other son( aka The Boy) was three. He'd "read" the box of whatever mix we were using and tell me what to put in. I let him help as much as possible. He's been baking on his own for several years now. He and my daughter do most of the baking these days. It's nice to see that The Other Boy is now interested in cooking and baking. My goal is to make them self sufficient so that when they go to college they can cook if they need to and do their own laundry without ruining their clothes. And then at some point, they can be a resource for their friends at college who don't have those skills.

Here is the page I did several years ago when The Boy was three. He was baking brownies from a box. The camera was doing a funny thing and the pictures were nearly ruined. I cut off the dark areas and decided to do a crazy quilt layout. I used a light box to determine the shapes and a glittery white gel pen to draw in the the stitching. I also used a regular white gel pen to doodle in the kitchen appliances. The cooking bear was from a coloring book. The egg punch was used for the eggs-- it's intended purpose-- instead of flower petals which is why I bought it in the first place. :)

Thanks for taking this trip down memory lane with me... Have a blessed day!!

Choosing Joy! Jacki

O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8