Bake Cookies
This week’s nugget is a repost from Jess Sowards, who writes A Life in Season. If you enjoy this, look Jess up and subscribe. Adding this nugget to the Family section: My Wedding Advice, Selfish Reasons to Have Children, About Raising Children, Family Traditions, Adventure Vacations, Christmas Letters and Photo Books, and Bake Cookies (this one).
A wise friend, 25 years my senior and one who had already raised her children, told me once, “when you need to change the atmosphere of your home, bake cookies.” I thought it was silly at first, but years have shown me otherwise. I guess when tensions are high, emotions and hormones are raging, sibling quarrels are breaking out, and mom fills the house with a fragrance that invites them all into the kitchen, they begin to gather. They pour milk. They soften toward one another. I give them cookies warm from the oven and we talk at the counter. The atmosphere does change. The cookies do the heavy lifting, but the real magic is the presence of a mother who notices moods that need a boost and connection that begs to be made.
I’ve taken to keeping a container of fresh milled chocolate chip cookie dough, portioned for baking, in the fridge (with back-ups in the freezer) so I can bake a few whenever the need arises. I realize now, twenty years into mothering, how this advice carries out. When the atmosphere of your home needs to shift, bake cookies.
Your senior friends words of wisdom of filling the house with fragrant smells of food is reminder to me just how fortunate I was to have had home where homemade after school snacks were present everyday and holidays where kitchen counters were covered with ones favorite foods and birthday foods were no exception, these reminders left one teary eyed just to realize how blessed one was. Moms and dads meals were always the best and dining together always made for a better environment, even when guests joined in. I ditto this seniors recommendations. Food brings us together.