The End of an Era

The end of one stage of my daughter's life is coming to an end, and a beautiful new one is beginning. My Natasha is now 8 and is nothing like a baby girl anymore. She reads chapter books and does multiplication. This week she made us baked apples in the oven. They were so good. Somehow, in recent weeks it dawned on me that she was ready and able to start using the oven. She has enough maturity and safety-mindedness that I thought, "Hey, why not?" So, she made up her own recipe, and it was so good.

Now I did core the apples and cut them in half for her, and I did get them out of the oven. Other than that it was all her. She looked up recipes and then just picked which parts of which recipe she liked, and then made up her own (just like mommy).

I taught her how to make Ramen noodles on top of the stove the other day, and today it was frozen pizza. I know, I know, it is a lot of processed junk, but hey, you gotta start somewhere....and she already knows how to make Spaghettios for her brother and sister in the microwave, too, ha ha.

Anyway, back to the apples...she put the halves skin side down and put some margarine on each one (we were out of butter or she would have used that). Then sprinkled on sugar, cinnamon, and then drizzled on some honey. Then she put them in the oven, preheated to 350 degrees, and baked for 45 minutes. After that, I turned the apples over, skin side up, and baked for 15 more minutes. We ate them after they cooled about 10 minutes or so. All the butter, sugar, cinnamon, and honey, made a yummy syrupy glaze in the bottom of our dish that we spooned over the apples.

You are probably not surprised, but there were no leftovers :). I can imagine that they are very good with homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I also know that she will be making this again :).

I am also finishing up nursing my youngest child. He is very close to the age the girls were when they weaned themselves. It is going to be a new thing for me to have no babies to nurse and change. He is totally potty training himself, too. I know that there is the possibility, slight though it is, that there will be more children, someday...But for now, we are saying that we are done. There, I officially said it. For now, we are done. Whew, that was hard to say. I am not sure I really meant it, either...








It won't be long til all my children are school-aged too. I am spending this time dreaming about the future. What new things does God have for me to do? Don't get me wrong, we are a homeschooling family, and I don't see that changing any time soon. I am not wishing away my children so I can go and do something else. It just dawned on me one day that there are ways for me to grow as a person and keep learning at this point in my life. I thought, Hey, that's pretty cool.