It has taken me a long time to embrace the role of wife/mother/homemaker. I have a few other jobs too such as writing this blog and teaching many of you lovely people how to be more confident bakers,  but my primary responsibility is taking care of my family and our home. It is how I spend most of my time.

I resisted this role. If I am completely honest with you deep down I found it degrading and so menial. I thought I deserved a more “important” role. (Can you imagine not seeing the importance of raising children?!) I didn’t want this position to fall on me but it has and I now embrace it and can say, joyfully,  that I am a homemaker – except that I still don’t like that word – I think we need something else. Something more Martha Stewart-esque… hmm… I don’t know – we can work on that together.

I don’t bounce out of bed with a spring in my step every morning. My children don’t sleepily stumble down the stairs to find their mother serving them up a plate full of hot pancakes with a giant smile on her face and a lacy apron wrapped around her waist. More realistically they greet me at the side of my bed saying, “Mommy, get up! It’s time for breakfast.” I reluctantly roll out of bed and pray for patience and strength for the day.  And we begin.

But the difference is I find joy in the daily tasks. I find more in some than others, for example, there is very little joy in folding laundry.

What I do love is baking and cooking with my boys. Seeing them beam with pride as they dump the ingredients into the bowl and proclaim to daddy, “look what I made!”

I enjoy instructing and guiding them – watching them learn new things every single day. Two days ago my oldest was just drawing scribbles and yesterday he drew a picture of his “sister baby”. She had a big round belly and nice plump face with a giant grin. She is going to have the best big brothers.

And lately I’ve fulfilled a nearly life-long goal of learning how to sew. I look forward to learning much more about this craft but have thoroughly enjoyed creating useful and functional products from simple sheets of cloth.

When I heard the news that a baby girl was on her way, visions of pink flooded my mind. I’m usually not much of a pink girl myself but I am fully embracing this sweet little feminine baby inside of me and insist on having many dresses and maybe even a few tutus around.

I had way to much fun picking out the fabric for this simple quilt project. If you live in Seattle all the fabrics you see can be found at The Quilting Loft (prints) or Jo-Ann Fabrics (solids). I followed the pattern like I follow my recipes – not too closely – but I was immediately inspired when I found the pattern in the book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing: The Essential Guide to a Whole New Way to Sew by Amy Karol, who writes the blog, Angry Chicken.

This was a perfect first quilt for me. I learned so much throughout the process. I have yet to master the art of sewing a straight line but I’m sure my sweet little baby won’t mind the crookedness.

So while the laundry pile might not always get folded right away and toys may be scattered throughout the house you can be sure that there is a constant supply of fresh baked goodness, a small supply of home-grown produce from our little garden and now some hand-made blankets and clothing.

I have found my place in this new-ish role and I’m finding that it suits me quite nicely. Each day while I strive to instruct my children they teach me invaluable lessons that I am so grateful to learn – patience being one of them. 🙂

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Here is my plan for the Summer – me, comfortable chair, kiddie pool, feet dangling, kids content, green grass, flourishing garden, sitting, big pregnant belly and an endless pitcher of this mint, basil, cucumber and lime fizz.

So basically what we have here is a variation of a virgin mojito – if you aren’t growing a child in your womb currently then please add a splash of rum – it really does make it all the more delicious. But even without it, this little mock-tail has the power to wash away the Summer heat in one refreshing gulp. Fellow Seattleites – I know what you are thinking. What Summer heat?! It’s been rainy non-stop. Well, this pregnant lady is one giant furnace and I’ve started the Summer cool-down ritual already. Don’t ask me what I’m going to do with the temperatures actually get above 65*.

Really I couldn’t be more thrilled for Summer time. My boys are at such fun ages to just spend hours playing outside digging, splashing and examining our little garden. We have trips to the beach planned, incredible classes to teach, strawberries to nibble on right off the vine and at the end of all of that we will welcome our sweet baby girl into our joyous family. It’s the first time in my life where I am so excited to see Summer fly by – each day that passes is one more day closer to meeting my baby.

In the meantime I will anticipate her arrival and cool down with this fizzy beverage.

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