cooking soup.

I'm not exactly sure why I didn't think of this FOREVER ago. Lately Mad has been super in to cooking. She wants to help with everything, which is nice. However, I usually like to keep the cooking to myself. I feel terrible about it sometimes, but honestly, when Karl gets home he usually plays with the kiddies while I go into the kitchen by myself and try to just relax. I usually just tune everyone out and bask in the fact that I can make all the decisions while I'm cooking. It's the one thing I do where I don't have to try to negotiate with unruly kiddos, and (luckily) everyone usually eats whatever I make without complaining. However, lately I've been trying to let go and be more carefree when the kiddies want to help or get involved (notice the photo in my last post!). So when Mad came to me donning her apron and asking if she could cook the other day I said, "sure" and then I proceeded to give her a mixing bowl with water, a spoon, and few small shakers with inexpensive spices inside--the 'back up' salt and pepper shakers, and some candy sprinkle containers I filled with Italian seasoning and garlic powder, which I usually buy in bulk. She was busy "cooking" in the middle of the kitchen floor for hours. Maxi even got involved for quite awhile. It was the perfect quiet activity that day. A few days later she got the urge to 'cook' again, this time making 'unicorn soup' using up the rest of our cake sprinkles. After carefully measuring out the correct amounts of rainbows, moons and stars, she put it out on the porch, occasionally going out to check whether or not the local unicorns were stopping by for meals. What an imagination! I think my letting go is paying off.

:)