Today's not too bad a day. Of course, it IS only 9am. But I'll take that over yesterday.

Yesterday was one of THOSE days. The kind where you're SURE the children are plotting your demise, you feel completely invisible like you're screaming in the middle of a room and no one looks up, and the crumbs on the floor seem to multiply when you turn your back.

But TODAY is NOT one of those days. Thank God.

I went to bed feeling sad and alone and distant from everyone, but woke up with a resolve that TODAY was going to be WONDERFUL!

Okay, maybe I wasn't THAT enthoused, but I did think 'HEY, it can't POSSIBLY be as bad as yesterday' ... and that, my friends, is progress.

So I got up, even though Lil Miss was playing quietly and not disturbing the 3 other sleeping children. THAT in itself is enough to make me happy on a normal morning. I decided to get up and just get it goin, so I made the bed, opened all the windows, gathered the laundry and headed down stairs. I got the laundry separated and started and realized we had no cereal bowls clean so I would have to make some kind of REAL food.

Lately I have been baking ... A LOT. I've been experimenting with cheap ways to make healthy snacks and stretch the last of the good summer fruits and veggies. Today I decided I would FINALLY make the strawberry bread I've been promising the girls for weeks now. Tween was already up and wandering around complaining that her stomach was digesting itself, so I decided to put her to work.

I've been thinking a lot about my role as a mother lately. And I feel like I've been slacking for AWHILE. I feel like I've been doing things myself, like dusting laundry & cooking, so that it's done RIGHT (aka my OCD way) and doesn't have to done again. Instead I should be teaching my children how to do these things so they can do them for themselves one day.

So today I did just that. I asked Tween if she would like strawberry muffins for breakfast and she shrieked and said YAY! So I told her to get out the strawberries, clean them, and (GASP) cut them up. I decided it was about time she got her hands dirty.

So I continued with the laundry and by the time she was done cutting Flower Child was up. Flower Child has decided that she would like to be a "Cake Artist" (lol) and so of course she begged to help as well. So I got out all the ingredients and let them help. The whole time I was teaching them things like fractions, adding and subtracting fractions, the in's & out's of baking, and healthy eating.

I can not tell you the satisfaction I felt when I saw the look of understanding on Flower Child's face when she figured out what a 1/2 cup was and that 1/4 + 1/4 = 1/2. It felt so good when I saw that they were paying attention when I explained why I've been baking so much lately and how eating healthy is so important.

I think the fact that I still had their attention AFTER I said "this is a HEALTHY strawberry muffin recipe" is what shocked me the most.

I also loved the look of satisfaction on THEIR faces as they ate the food they created. Now, I'm not saying that I never let them help in the kitchen, but it HAS been awhile. And like I said, I feel badly about that. I'm thinking I might let them start helping with dinner too. When I left my mother's house at 18 as a WIFE, the first thing I cooked for my husband was sloppy joe's ... and I didn't drain the fat. And that was the FIRST thing I had EVER made. It took me a LONG time to really start to COOK, and even now, it's really hard for me to get into it. Mostly, because I feel like I SUCK at it.

I want them to have the confidence that comes along with having done it before. I want them to grow to love cooking and to feel good about experimenting and having fun with it! I want them to be able to take care of their families and make good nutritious meals for them so they are healthy from the get go. Hopefully, not at at 18.

I lot of other simple things have gone right today. I'm a firm believer that it's the little things that count. Today just feels good, and I like that. I needed that. I pray that all of you ALSO have a wonderful, WONDERFUL day! I'm going off to enjoy my yummy warm strawberry muffins now, and here's where you can find the recipe if you're interested!