Skip to main content

High Tea


 I got into a bit of a battle with our eldest today.  He was being a little too big for his britches, and I was trying to show him that he still had some lessons to learn.  The tables turned on me, and I discovered that I'm going to have to work a little harder if I'm going to stay in the game.  Dang these smart kids.    

It started innocently enough, as things typically do.  The boys and I decided to have a tea party and invited my mom and aunt to join us.  "Tea" isn't exactly on their radar for super cool boy things to do, but it was an excuse to practice some cooking skills and some social skills and some manner skills.  I gave them each the responsibility of picking out a snack to make for the party.  Fischer chose fudge.  Spoiler alert: it didn't turn out.  Sawyer chose chocolate bark with crushed candy cane on one batch and coconut flakes on another.  

The morning of the tea party, Sawyer let me know he was going to need my stove for a lot of the day and began listing off ingredients he would like to use.  I quickly stopped him with a, "Whoa, Buddy.  This is going to be a collaboration.  I'm going to give you a lot of freedom, but I'm still going to be in there helping and guiding."  He scoffed at that.  He put his "I know what I'm doing" face on and got a little too full of himself.  Naturally, I felt it was important to humble my all knowing eight-year-old by a degree or two.  

"Buddy," I began, "You're going to have to temper the chocolate.  Do you know how to temper chocolate?"  I paused, ready launch into an explanation that would reveal to him exactly why he still needs his mother when working in the kitchen. It's my space.  

Before I could impress him with my own candy making knowledge, he responded, "Yes, you have to put a little water in a pot and heat it up until it's steaming, and then you put another pot over it with the chocolate in it and stir it until it melts."

My face dropped, my personal pride, dashed.  But my mom pride was overflowing.  I swallowed the gall in my mouth, humbled myself, and told him he was absolutely correct.  

And then I told him, he would still have to let me watch over him because I'm the boss.  (I win.)

He wasn't super excited to share the kitchen with me, but we made it work.  It probably helped that he still got to be chief taste tester.  It was a good lesson for us both.  It's all about balance and dark chocolate.      

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tough Love

 We were on our way home from a birthday party not long ago, and Fischer began complaining from the backseat that one of the kids had tripped him and laughed about it.   Ross looked at him in the rearview mirror and responded, "Life's hard, Buddy.  You're going to have to toughen up."  To which his brother responded, "Yeah.  You have no idea.  Just wait until you're eight."  At that, they both sat back in their booster seats and contemplated their life situation for the remainder of the drive home.    Evidently, life is smooth sailing in those early single digits, but once you reach the ripe old age of, "I can mostly tie my own shoes and reach the kitchen faucet," it's all hard knocks and rough living.   I know this must be true because Sawyer also told his aunt the other day, "It's time to get on it and get myself a car.  I'm going to get a Cord Tacoma."  I think what he wanted to say, but didn't have the words  was,
Post a Comment
Read more

All I Want For Christmas...

  Christmas time is such a fun season.  I love focusing on the birth of Jesus with the kids and recognizing the true reason for celebrating.  I also relish the magical part of the season that gives so much life to our kids' imaginations and innocents.  They are always precious, but I feel it even more so this time of year.   Even our oldest hasn't completely given up on Santa, although he has a lot more questions having been around classmates and friends who coolly deny the existence of Santa or Christmas magic.  We know it can't last forever, but I'm going to milk it for at least one more season.  He is still more or less on board.  I think he wants it to be real, so he doesn't dig too deep.  Consequently, he and his siblings were all excited for a trip to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus last weekend.  I was excited too.  I love their reactions, and last year Carter was too sick to go, so this was her first opportunity to meet Santa face to face.   The trip didn't di
Post a Comment
Read more

Christmas Miracle

 For better or worse, I don't have a lot of pride.  I used to have some, but after the third and fourth child, what little I had vanished.  I'd like to be put together.  I would like my kids to be put together.  I have come to terms with the fact that, 99% of the time, that's not going to happen.  When we leave the house, I consider it a win if everybody has on an appropriate amount of clothing and two shoes that match.   The first time we visited the orthodontist in preparation for Sawyer's braces, I showed up with four kids in dirty play clothes and one child with mismatched shoes.  It just so happens that the orthodontist's wife is the mom of some of my former students, and she was working that day.  Luckily, I also hadn't brushed anyone's hair before we left the house, so we made quite an impression.  I've been trying to raise the bar ever since, but I seem to keep failing.  The next appointment we came straight from the barn and smelled like it, but
Post a Comment
Read more