On Friendship, Preschool and Baking

In my mind, I write beautifully elegant blog posts.  When I sit down to write one, it never ends up so eloquent but I will give the description of this picture perfect moment my best effort.

 

I have been blessed, throughout my life, with great friends.  Really, really great friends.  Friends who support me, encourage me, laugh with me, inspire me, sweat with me (running buddies, you know who you are), amaze me, comfort me and listen to me.  When Carter was little I had a group of friends who approached me to do a "joy school" (preschool co-op) with them.  We joined and it was great!  I realized I loved teaching and planning and I loved Carter getting social interaction and the weeks preschool was not at my house, I loved the break I got.  It only lasted a while because I sent Carter to a "real preschool" once he was old enough and Claire didn't ever get the joy school days.  Last fall, my friend recommended the book Teach Me, Mommy to me to work with William while both kids were in school.  I really like the curriculum because it is very simple and basic.  It is not learning letters and numbers, it is learning about plants, animals, ourselves, jobs, etc.  In the fall, I would hold "Mommy School" a few times a week with William and would also have it with friends when they came over and with my sister-in-law April before her second baby was born.  In January, I decided to enlist some awesome friends to join me in the co-op.  We have had a blast!! 

 

I love preschool because it teaches cooperating, sharing, taking turns, patience, listening to someone other than mom and the love of learning.  The picture above is from a day we learned about bees.  I asked William what he wanted for snack and he said cookies.  Also in January, we started a real food diet.  It has been a journey and there have been some concessions I've made (Cheerios and Go-gurt simple, namely) but the blood, sweat and tears have been worth it. I still love to bake and adapt recipes to make it a whole food.   So, on the preschool morning, we decided to make peanut butter cookies, with honey to fit our theme.  The recipe is here.   I changed the flour to spelt flour as it is a whole grain.  As we made the cookies, we counted, took turns and talked about the different foods that went in to it.  

 

As I snapped the photo, all the thoughts I just wrote down swirled through my head...how much I have been blessed with good friends, how much I love these adorable children and teaching them, how preschool is of divine origin, how I love baking and adapting it to our new and improved lifestyle and how lucky I am to be right here, right now.