 |
 |
| Make a Smilebox slideshow |
If any of you watch any of the regular shows on the Food Network, then you have heard more than one FN star comment that food is about more than just feeding the body, it can feed and nurture the soul.
Gabe hasn't been sleeping well at all this week and it has been hectic at work - on top of the usual pace at home. By the weekend, I was feeling frazzled and overwhelmed and a little lost. I had been craving the vegetable soup my Mom makes from scratch all week and had been talking to her about the right vegetables, soup bones and beef to buy in order to pull it off. I worked on the broth most of Saturday and then put the soup together on Sunday.
After church Sunday, and a trip to the Donut Bank, we came home and had a nice day together. While Gabe got in a nice nap, I worked on assembling the soup . While the soup simmered, Gabe napped, and the Colts made us nervous, the older boys and I got to work on some gingerbread men, and a home for them. We mixed and rolled the dough and the boys cut out their own little family made of ginger. Justin was commenting as we worked - as if they were being created in a hospital, "Ok, now that surgery is done and you are born, we will put you in the oven and it may hurt a little, but you will be a lot better after you are done..." As the family baked, we began working on their house. Yes, this year we went with the preassembled house and stuck with the decorating, and the boys had a ball. For a short while they got a long perfectly and we worked well together. It was one of those idyllic days that I'll always remember, and hopefully the boys will too.
When the decorating was done and cleaned up, I dipped into the vegetable soup, closed my eyes and for a moment I was sitting in a kitchen in Terre Haute - I wasn't a grown up with grown up obligations and responsibilities. The soup had turned out just like Mom's and it was like she was there when I needed her most. We got each other through a lot of times when the men in our lives were off doing what they needed to do and each other was all we had. Between the gingerbread house (I remember the one we made completely from scratch one year) and the soup, I felt calmed, comforted and renewed. Thanks Mom - miss you!
