Blissful rest & bread

We arrived back home from the airport a little after 1:00 am. I had spent over an hour circling the airport in the minivan, waiting for the au pair and her friend to get their luggage. It was swamped.

The boys woke us up around 7:00 as usual, but my wife was kind. The au pair had to drive her friend to the train station around 7:30, so she was kind as well, beginning the day when she returned.

Blissfully, I was allowed to return to sleep until 9:30, a real treat I assure you. I slept well, dreaming of my 39th birthday and our 10th wedding anniversary, both coming up this year. When I finally awoke, I was a bit confused what day it was. That's sleep!

I rose and entered the kitchen, where my wife had kindly taken the bread dough from the fridge, and set it to warm on top of the stove. I've been experimenting with freeform loaves, trying to emulate the bread we ate daily in Central Europe, since we've not found an appropriate bakery in the area. I shaped it, and left it to rise. Now it is in the oven. I'm hopeful. The first was too flat. The second used more flour for a stiffer loaf, which would better hold shape. But it was too dense. I used more yeast this time, as well as a sourdough starter I grew myself.

These are little pleasures. Things that serve to leaven life. I find, when I'm full-time dad, I sometimes wish nothing more than to be somewhere else, doing something else. Yet, today, as I sit still at home, puttering and blogging, I smile at all my boys antics, wishing nothing more than to be just where I am.