Friday, December 28, 2012

My Season to Bake


At a time in my life when I was newly married, and my teenage brother was living with us, I was trying desperately to give him a stable home, though I felt incredibly inadequate to care for him.

One day I stopped by the home of a friend, and saw that she was baking cinnamon rolls, from scratch, in her vintage 1950's oven, using freshly ground wheat from her supply of food storage.
  
Photo via Pinterest
I took one look at those freshly baked cinnamon rolls, and before I could stop the comment from escaping my lips, I said with a gasp, "I don't bake."  As if seeing the cinnamon rolls, caused me to realize my own inadequacy in that area, and thus think that I was somehow gypping my husband and brother from having fresh baked goodies in our home.


She saw my worried, self deprecating face, and gently said,
"It's not your season to bake."  Her comment caused a light-bulb to go off in my head.  What a relief, what a load lifted of of my shoulders.  I was doing enough.  I did not need to beat myself up, for not having the time and energy to bake things from scratch.

(Photo used is from an awesome recipeon an awesome Blog via Pinterest)
She after all was a stay at home Mom, and at the time, I was not.  She had already raised several children, and had only a few left at home.  I was struggling to care for one who was not even my own.  She had found the rhythm of being a housewife long ago, and was good at it.  I was struggling to figure it out, and was not good at it yet.  But this was my season to do exactly what I was doing, and that was to be there for my brother, to work to help my husband support our family, and to keep trying to find my rhythm.

So I kept that experience in the back of my mind for several years, and now as my life as changed, my baby brother is all grown up and out in the world on his own, I have my own little one, and I no longer work outside of my home, now it is my season to bake.  And though I have a long way to go before I feel like I am good at it, it is so nice to now be in the baking season of my life.

I think it is important to remember that as women, we need to be patient with ourselves as we strive to reach our potential emotionally, spiritually, physically, and as wives and mothers.   Clearly I am all about self improvement, this blog is after all called The Trophy Wife In Training.  But it is important to remember that we don't have to be good at everything right now, there is plenty of time to grow, and develop our talents, and learn new skills, as our lives and commitments evolve and change.

Skills like grinding wheat for example.  Yeah, it's still not my season to do that one yet.

Linking up here today:

4 comments:

  1. This is such a neat perspective on things. I love baking but haven't done any in a long time. I hope to someday get back to baking (and learn to love cooking, because I've never enjoyed that) someday soon.

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  2. I feel this way all the time! We just got married and I feel a pressure to be a perfect housewife. But it's not my season yet. I'm in the work-full-time-to-put-my-husband-through-school season. Thanks for this!

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    Replies
    1. I totally hear that. Sometimes we all have to spend a season, or two as the Sugar Mama, bringin' home the bacon. But that's what Pinterest is for right? So we can take notes on all the sweet perfect housewife stuff we think we will do when we are in Housewife season.
      Keep on truckin' sister.

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