My Little Tag-a-long!

One day this week, Blaze accompanied me during  a marathon day of visiting teaching. He is always soooo good at being quiet and entertaining himself though. Our Relief Society President happened to come along this time, and she rewarded Blaze the following day with a thank you note and some fun stickers! She was impressed at how well he held up during our visits.

I can't help but think about what a struggle it used to be to drag sometimes three of my kids along for visiting teaching, the grocery store, or car repairs! There just wasn't any other choice because Jackson was the only one in school when Blaze joined the family. And during those years, it seemed like I'd never again have time to myself or be able to go anywhere without barnacles attached to me. Those hours and days were long, but the years were short, and now I am relishing in the time I have left this year with Blaze being at home for half of the day. I now have a routine of going to the gym after dropping the kids off, showering without worrying that the house will be demolished by the time I'm done, and then a day of endless carpooling to countless activities between the four kids. I also wrestle with the idea of getting some sort of job next year when Blaze will be at school all day. Would it make my life and our household so much more complicated, or would it bring so much fulfillment and an opportunity to pay down our mortgage even quicker. Could I find something part time that would make the effort worth it? Do I have enough organizing and scheduling to keep me busy and fulfilled for at least the first year I'm a daytime "empty nester"? Oh the possibilities are exciting and stressful, but I am thankful to have such a happy life!

Updated, FINALLY!

Everyone is gathered around my new awesome laptop that James bought me for Christmas this year! His 5 year old laptop broke last year, and his other cheap laptop makes me want to curse every time I use it, and he somehow forgot the password to his desktop, so this was a much needed addition to my life! At first I didn't think I'd care about all of the "bells and whistles", but as with anything, I feel like I could never go back to a laptop without a touch screen, facial recognition, amazing sound system, amazing graphics, etc. We've had fun introducing the kids to some of our favorite songs from when we were teenagers and watching music videos on YouTube. And lots of Jimmy Fallon...never get tired of Fallon!

Challah bread...

This semester in our institute class we are studying the Book of Mormon. I've been so excited to learn from our teacher, Sally, who does so much research and has so much life perspective to help us apply the scriptures to our own lives! She shared that she recently returned from a vacation to New Zealand, where they toured as a group through National Geographic. She and her husband were the only members of the church in the group, so of course, they took the opportunity to share the gospel any time they could. They befriended a woman from New York, who was Jewish, and she'd never met a Mormon but was very interested in our religion. Sally began by telling her that as Latter-day Saints, we share much in common with the Jewish people. On the weekends, Sally even makes Challah bread, and this turned out to be a very relatable tradition that this New York woman shared.

I have heard of Challah bread before, but I didn't know it has such symbolic meaning. And being an obsessed baker, I just had to give it a try. I knew it was good if people who aren't even Jewish make it on the weekends! It was fun to make (a bit challenging to get the  braid to look right by the instructions on the blog I was looking at), and the family gobbled down two giant loaves right away! They do suffer from a "white bread' deprivation! More importantly though, I shared with them what I had learned about the significance of this beautiful bread.

Challah means dough, and refers to bread made from dough that has undergone separation. The head of the dough is separated and given to the priests as tithe. They take a portion of dough about the size of an olive and burn that separate piece in the oven as a symbol of sacrifice. This is usually eaten on the Sabbath, and is a rich egg bread, symbolic of making us "rich" on the Sabbath. The three braids are symbolic of the commands to observe Shabbat (Sabbath), that appears in the 10 commandments.

One braid represents the word "Remember", one "Guard", and another is for "b'Dibbur Echad", these commandments were said by God simultaneously and as one unit. The braids also are a reminder of three different concepts: The Creation, The Exodus from Egypt and the Messianic Era. The bread is not cut, it is torn, as to represent Abraham being tested by the Lord to use a knife on his son, Isaac. Different parts of the world have variations like adding a hard boiled egg in the middle, raisins in the dough, or caraway seeds and honey.

It is so enlightening to learn about other religions and cultures and see what commonalities we have in our beliefs! This is key to our missionary work in the church, and just as learning a new language increases our understanding of English, learning the beliefs of others strengthens our testimony of the Gospel. I'm excited to make some more Challah bread and continue to remind our family of its symbolic meaning!