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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.      

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