Potty-Trainer by day, Baker by night.

How I have needed some baking therapy this week. After a gorgeous run to the neighborhood farmers market yesterday, it was hard to resist the lovely pastries I always make a beeline for, but I opted for a bucket of juicy Bartlett pears instead.  I have zero regrets about that. Those pears are delicious. But as I was looking at all the freshly baked goods, I was inspired to dust off my old school recipes and make Croissants, one of my all-time favorite pastries (to make and eat). Getting my hands in butter and dough seemed just what I needed to relieve the anxiety I have felt lately. This motherhood stuff is just hard. Add potty-training (which, of course, includes toddlers-a challenge in and of themselves) to the mix, and it’s hardER. The pressure just builds as I think about how I am responsible for these children learning these fundamental parts of life. ME! Being a human being, I sometimes release the pressure in ways less mature than punching my pillow when it feels like that all there is left to do. So, I think a little baking project was a perfect thing for me to put my mind elsewhere for a minute. Croissants require a little more love and attention than other quick projects. And I felt with a little focus, I had true control over the end result, which is not the case when dealing with stubborn, rambunctious toddlers. The process of making them was truly relaxing, but it wasn’t until the butter was puffing up between those layer and layers of dough in that hot oven, and that intoxicating smell filled the house that I really felt my spirits lift. There is nothing like a hot buttery croissant to melt your worries away, even if just for a moment. Along with delicious plain butter croissants (breakfast sandwich anyone?), I also made chocolate, and goat cheese-apple cinnamon jelly filled croissants. All so decadent and addicting.

I may be making potty training sound like the worst trial I have faced. While it definitely isn’t (though at times I do feel like it might be the end of me—thank heavens for Mom!), it is still enough to need to take my head out of all of it for a moment. I know it’s just a short term responsibility, and soon I will be on to something else equally fun, but I hope I can always remember to find an escape in the kitchen, where I have turned in the past many times in need of distraction. I wish I could be in there everyday filling my oven with every kind of dessert and pastry imaginable. I’d probably be the happiest, most patient mommy my kids could ask for if I could fit baking time into our crazy life. But time is precious, and I don’t think my waistline, nor my counter space will allow it. I’ll have to save these indulgences for when they’re really needed. Let’s not think about what the kids will be doing to me when I’m in the mood to make a wedding cake.