waffle bliss...

We have a darling and delicious food truck here called waffle bliss. Well on a family outing we saw it the girls wanted to eat them badly!! Well after the most amazing birthday weekend filed with shopping and dining out, we weren't in the mood to spend $50 bucks on waffles. No offense waffle bliss :/ So we headed to the grocery store to get a couple ingredients so we could make them at home. 

With a new waffle recipe in hand, and scrumptious nutella and fresh local peaches on my counter, I began the recipe. And like magic, my girls came flooding in the kitchen to watch/help. As much as I LOVE spending time with my babes, and as important as I feel it is for my girls to be in the

kitchen with me learning and experimenting, I  have a hard time with new recipes and curious little ones. 

 Usually cooking with my babes is a task bigger than almost any other in our home. Keeping ALL of them feeling involved and important and giving each one the same amount of "important" jobs and also trying to keep things OFF of the floor and out of our hair and fingers out of mouths is exhausting.  She I cook with them all it takes the very last drop of patience I have. There have been times when I have NOT enjoyed it at all. Times when I know I didn't smile once. Those times make me sad. I want to be happy each time i spend time with my girls but DANG! Its rough!! 

So this time two of my beauties came in. Moved a bar stool over closer and began with the questions. Remember...this is a brand new recipe I was trying. So I had to actually pay attention. Oh and I was doubling it. SO. As I began, things were fine. Then my husband asked in. He was trying o be helpful. So I put him to work. I began reading and measuring again. He began talking. NO! You can't talk yet. I'm focused. He didn't get the memo. I answered his question. Then the babies started talking to me. Boo. I used 2 TABLEspoons of baking powder instead of 2 Teaspoons. gag. So i calmly started to scoop it out. Trying to re measure and not waste. But then someone else asked a question and opened the fridge door and moved a barstool right behind me and BAM! It happened. I lost it. I lost my count. And my cool. I dumped the entire bowl of dry ingredients into the sink. My husband thought I was nuts! I yelled. I told them I need them to respect the fact that I have asked nicely over and over to give me minute to think and count but NO ONE gives that to me. I said you all want so much from me at the same time and I just can't do that! {D} scooted to her room and started cleaning it. HAAAHAHHAAHAHAHAAHAH!!! She knows when mama pops to start cleaning! Sad...but SO funny, too. The husband just quietly started doing his task again...without questions. And my little {L} stood faithfully by my side as if nothing happened. She was SO excited about the waffles she dint even care. 

I opened the waffle iron. WHAT.

It was dirty. The last time it was sued (for cinnamon rolls) it wasn't cleaned. Uuuuuuuuuugh. I literally had to scrape each and every square on that thing. I wanted to cry. My old OCD self would have just thrown it away. I have done that. But this was my favorite expensive waffle iron. I knew I had to clean it. And still, sweet {L} sat there watching so proud of me for figuring out how to clean it. She even offered to help because she knew how sad I was. 

Once it was clean I finished making the batter. {D} came back in by this time and said her room was spotless. Smile. Hug. Thank you dear. Let her mix the batter. Then gave precious {L} a turn. {D} left again. Husband was gone, too. I wanted so badly to just do this on my own. I wanted to be able to focus and do it quick and quiet. But I still had this cute little shadow. I have absolutely NO CLUE where it came from,  maybe a back up emergency hidden dose of patience, maybe straight from Heaven above, but a desire to be FUN and sweet and good to my baby girl who was STILL happy to be with me and totally interested came over me.


I was so caught up in my frustrations. So caught up in anger and stress. And yet this perfect little smile and sweet disposition was happy to be around me. I showed her how to pour the batter. Right in the middle. I showed her how to close and carefully turn the iron. She LOVED it. She quickly became the turner that night. As she waited for it to beep, I cut the peaches. I let her eat one. BEEP. She slowly turned and opened the waffle iron. I used every single bit of that Heavenly patience while she learned to turn and peel and drop the hot waffle on a plate. Then repeat the process again.  She watched me intently as I took just one scoop of nutella (just in case it burned we didn't want to waste it, she said) and put it in a small pan to melt it down a bit so we could drizzle it on our waffles. Just like waffle bliss. BEEP. She turned, peeled, and dropped the waffle on the plate. 

We decorated a very late so we could get a photo...duh. She asked for the pretty plate as she always does. I old her yes. She thought she was the queen. 

We ate dinner. EVERY mouth was full of the scrumptious waffles topped with the whipped cream daddy just made, the peaches and nutella. It was a WIN.

 It was my night for dishes. word. 

It was {L's} night for table. 

Floor and trash were the big girls chores and they went there so I would need to do those, too. So while I JUST got through what I thought was a completely exhausting hour (although I did love that my babe was with me...believe it or not), I now had just about the entire kitchen to clean. I thought I was about to drown. BUT my sweet little one STILL stood by my side. I wanted to crawl in my bed. I wanted to be in silence and try to recover from the stress. But I had so much to do. I had to keep going. And little {L} wanted to help me. So...more patience was granted. As she came to the sink to help me with dishes she said, "do you want to wash or load mommy?" I chose wash. She began loading. Water dripped on the floor and down her little arms. I said out loud, "Oh {L}." I was over it. Now my darling had a mess on the floor for me and was getting dirty dish water on her. My face started to scrunch like I was about to cry. She looked at me like she had done something wrong. all she wanted to do was be with me. All she wanted was to help. And I was being  brat. Quickly I said, "I'm so glad you are helping me." She asked if I was so happy I was going to cry. I said yes. She felt like a million bucks. And I felt like i=I was being run over by a bus...over and over. How was this happening??!! All I wanted was to be alone and sulk. But her sweetness just kept on sticking by me ...making me crazy!! And getting me love. 

FINALLY kitchen was done. I could sit down. Yeah right. she wanted me to helper in the shower...wash her hair, listen to her funny stories, get a new bottle of conditioner. Yes yes and yes. By this point I realized how selfish I was being. and how lucky I was to be overwhelmed with her love. After her shower she reminded me of her sea animal poster we needed to do. Yes. We searched for the encyclopidia that had jellyfish in it. We learned new facts. Wrote them down. Made the poster. Colored the poster. Re wrote the facts on the poster. When it was finished, she thought we had just created our very own Van Gough. She thought I was the greatest artist. She was so proud. She was SO happy. 

I had just spent THREE straight hours with {L}. Frustrating. Stressful. And then complete BLISS. How did I get so lucky. 

All because if these delicious waffles.

And this adorable girl.