This was to have been about Monday morning and madeleines.
I was going to write about a quiet morning of baking with the kids. Time together and flour and sugar and hopefully a few good photos to add, too. I’d offer a new madeleine recipe – this time with honey and cinnamon and ground hazelnuts and I’d muse a little more about building memories for the kids.
But.
I guess it starts with Plum’s teeth. There are two of them growing in at an alarming rate. 5 months and we’re at that stage. Exciting and sore as can be, so the morning slipped past with almost altogether too much nursing and lots of lego with the bigger kids. I managed to get him settled for a bit and made pancakes and cranberry sauce for lunch.
But.
He didn’t sleep for long. Teeth are insistent. So everyone took turns holding the fussy Plum and singing him silly songs. When he drifted off in the afternoon, we bundled him in a blanket and popped around the corner to have coffee with friends. Their daughter is in the same class as Beangirl and, like us, they are far from home, so we chatted about what it’s like to be away from family and how it’s good to be able to Skype. We ate cake and roast almonds and drank mugs of instant coffee.
Coming home, I remembered my morning plans and reconfigured. The madeleines could go into the oven just after dinner. Just in time for a nice dessert photo shoot with the kids in their new Christmas pyjamas (thanks Oma and Opa!)
But.
I burst the piping bag. The kids got squirrely. The madeleines came out looking dark brown with sunken belly buttons. We decided they weren’t madeleines at all. Beangirl called them ugly mystery cakes. We ate them anyway. They tasted good. We didn’t take any photos.
Then we put on Bob Dylan and the kids had a dance party while I nursed Plum again.
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all
A pretty good way to finish up the year maybe.
Not quite perfect. Not quite as planned.
But a year of plenty.
