Control

For those who know me IRL - I am pretty much a control freak.

OK, it may not look like it, from the chaos,
  from the horrifying mess,
from the untidiness of my lovely home.

I am more of I need to know what is going on at all times and be able to find everyone and make what I am doing as perfect as I can do.  That is part of the reason we have an untidy (yep, gonna stick with that) home - no one wants to do things my way so I am just going to quit.  I know, very grown up of me.

So today Baby Bear was done with school very early and was totally bored.  Like sit in front of the TV and complain bored.  Given that I have a monster cold I was not in the mood to argue with said child that there was plenty to do around the house from crafts to cleaning.  Hmmmmmmm, what can I do that requires minimal physical and brain effort on my part but will fulfill some sort of learning on the part of the child....

So I decided that we could cook something.  I like to cook.  I can do many of my favorite recipes without even looking at them.  I just needed one that required attention for short periods of time.  Papa Bear has informed me that we are out of bread.  I can pretty much make bread in my sleep and it is very forgiving as long as one stays within some boundaries.  Perfect!

Unfortunately Baby Bear has caught on to the fact that I want things done a certain way and I am not very good at letting anyone else do something unless it is done to my specifications.  Well, since I don't feel terrific and this is for family consumption only, I decided to relinquish control and work on both of us learning something.  Baby Bear's face lit up with I explained that I was only going to give instructions but do none of the work.  I now have a batch of wonderful smelling dough in the middle of the first rise sitting in about the only warm spot in my house that I could find.  I have Baby Bear looking very proud.  And I have everyone caught up on their school work.  But the best part was listening to to the child tell me why we did things a certain way, and watch the light go on as a concept was realized.  I was informed, in fact, that baking bread with me has now become so much fun that the next lesson needs to be how to hand knead dough.  I think that is going to have to wait until I way over this cold!

While I may  be an old dog, and while I may be set in my tricks, it is possible for me to learn some new ones so that I can create Messy Miracles with my cubs.