Gratitude.

There has been so much for me to be grateful for recently. It seems as though I am living a charmed life.

It is amazing how one person's small kindness can radiate out goodness. Take for example this lovely pile of extras that my wonderful friend J gave me. This spill-over from her garden seems to have blessed our whole day.

(Note: this is probably less than a third of all the cherry tomatoes she gifted us. We've been eating those by the fistful for two days!)

Like many gardeners this time of year, I think Jana might be swimming in zucchini. Which is lucky for the rest of us. She gave me more than I could eat in pastas and stir-fry before it spoiled, so I thought today would be a good day to break out the old Kitchenaid and make sure it survived the trip to Omaha. (It did.)

There is nothing better than baking with a toddler. Normy has entered that magical age where he wants to help. He wants to do whatever the big people do. This is such a precious time; when every mundane household chore holds fascination. There is no concept of drudgery clouding his opinion of doing the dishes. (More on that later!) I have, however, done my parental duty and made him fear the stove and our knives. When I told him NOT TO TOUCH the knife I was using to cut the zucchini with he said,

"Too dangerous!"

TOO CUTE.

"Z is for zucchini!"
I'll tell you what, it was like a Montessori preschool over here all afternoon!

Stirring the dry ingredients was a hit. But nothing captured his interest like washing the dishes. To me this is pure genius. If I start him now, I wonder if this could grow into a life long love of his? I would never have to scour another pot! Am I dreaming to big? This all came about as I was trying to show him how, when cooking, it's best to clean as you go... and that you are never done in the kitchen until everything is washed. I'm trying to preemptively head-off the freak-out I know will ensue ten years from now when he makes a sandwich and leave crumbs, or worse, CONDIMENTS on my counters! Do I have a prayer?

He is also a big fan of laundry. Me too. That's my favorite chore.

He was not a big fan of dinner.

Thankfully Georgia was.

I loved it too. I took all of those amazing garden fresh veggies from my friend and created a lovely and easy eggplant/zucchini spaghetti. It was heavenly.

SO I wanted to share three more things I am thankful for right this minute:

Clean dishes: didn't Norm do a great job!

Fresh Baked Zuchini Bread: breakfast is DONE for tomorrow!

My AMAZING new home: the kitchen is finally starting to feel like my own.

The good life.