Katie and I had a beautiful day with Daddy at home! With the sound of college football in the background, we made banana cream pie together. Katie helped to make the pie crust, adding the salt and butter and some of the shortening. She is good at turning on the mixer to the right speed. We talked about the chemistry of pie dough and why it is important to keep the fats cold and the flour gently mixed and how these elements will react with a superhot oven to produce flakiness. She also helped use the rolling pin to roll out the dough. The kitchen is a perfect context for chemistry and math. She also helped make (and sample) the custard, and we whipped the cream together. She is such a perfect little helper, and I want the domestic arts to come naturally to her---which I think they will, if I make cooking and baking a constant part of her life.
We also brought out some white lights and strung them around the patio right off of the kitchen. They look absolutely autumnally magical right now, and best of all, we can see them from the cozy chair and from the kitchen. Katie helped hand me the hammer and nails and seemed intrigued by the process.
We enjoyed a long, cozy reading session on our couch together. We managed to fit in a trip to the store and also returned some books to the library. It has been a busy day!
This morning, before my two loves rose from bed, I read 140 more pages of my second real estate course...5 chapters worth. While Katie napped this afternoon, I took all 5 quizzes! It is getting a little easier now, of course, because I have learned so much vocabulary on which to hang any new concepts. So I am 1/3 of the way through my second course.
Other than that, not much else is new here. We are prepping the pull-apart brown sugar and butterscotch bread for brunch with Amanda's family tomorrow and I suppose I should wrap up this blog now and get my pajamas on.
Good night, all...and Happy Autumn!
