It’s summer. I’m on a baking reprieve, since I’m traveling and in my brothers’ bread baking territory. My two older kids are spending a week working at the bakery here in LA, waking at 4am to wrap bread and clean mixers and mold sourdough. I stopped in for a visit today, and here’s a bit of what I saw 🙂
250 pounds of sourdough on the rise
Dad, and my two growing teens, scaling the dough
A lot of dough on the rise
And flour everywhere...
I’m a tad bit jealous of their hours breathing in that yeasty air that I love… But I’ve been a bit unwell, and this time to relax and ponder the upcoming months, while they gain a bit of work experience, is needed and welcome.
As I reassess my days and think about new goals now that my health has recovered (yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I’ve made a list of those things in my life that I most cherish and that help me stay grounded and growing. Here are my top ten To Do’s:
Pray Write Walk Family Bake Garden Read Clean Knit Entertain
Now, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to fit all of the above into one actual day–it seems a bit much, and most days I manage about four out of the ten. But why not try for the whole lot! I’ll be trying this summer, with prayer, writing, and family time as absolute essentials. I’ll be baking, too, and giving. The giving has proved especially important during this time when I’ve only wanted to sink into a stupor and moan about my misfortunes… Summer baking, with the warm weather urging the yeast into super speed, is going to be fun!
Anyway, enough about me…. What about you, what would make the top ten on your list? I’d love to know…
The Woman and the Wheat 
Glad you are feeling better, Jane!
My first four are the same as yours, but after that my list gets a lot less, shall we say, domestic ….:-) I also have Clean, Read and Socialize/Entertain; but instead of Bake I have Sing, instead of Garden I have Decorate. That only leaves something to put opposite Knit….and for that I guess I would say Learn, including a number of possibilities coming up like getting into Tai Chi and turning tourist in my own town….
Blessed fast!
What a wonderful challenge! I have been feeling the need to do some reassessing of my priorities as well — feeling myself drawn too often to the mind-numbingness of checking email and fiddling on the computer rather than actual productivity and action whether on the computer or elsewhere. Goodness how I wish keeping my house clean would make it on that list because goodness knows it needs to be, but that I fear would be false. Thank you for the inspiration … I’m still thinking.
I recently found this great website called “The Day Zero Project.” It asks you to list 101 things you’d like to do in the next 1000 days.
I didn’t list 101 things but it was a fun exercise to think of a list of things I’d like to do or accomplish in the next year or so. Some of those are:
Watch the sun rise and set in the same day, go on a picnic, plant tomatoes, make ice cream from scratch, volunteer at a local homeless shelter, go kayaking, dance in the rain…
Glad you are feeling better, Jane!
I’m going to ponder this a bit. Thanks for asking the question… I’m not usually a planner and often spend my summers doing whatever comes.
ooh, I meant to add – I just love the photo of the bread. I love making bread, but summers are too hot here in the Mid-Atlantic. It will be an occasional treat.
Deb–later this summer I’m going to try to bake some bread out on the barbecue. In Santa Barbara, we will have, every now and again, a truly hot day when it’s just way too hot to turn the oven on… I’ll keep you posted on how the BBQ baking goes. It might be something fun for you to try?…
oh yes, let me know. I’d love to try that someday. I was just looking over a recipe that makes pizza on the grill today.
Pray- daily
Walk- daily
Garden-plant a tree and my pumpkin seeds
Bake-weekly
creative- knit, learn to sew, read, etc…
play- with my munchkins! 🙂
family- my sister-in-law and her family are moving shortly, so as much time with them as possible is SO important
entertain- weekly, but with out the pressure I normally put on myself!
clean
journal
I wrote this list on my own, but then looking back at yours I realize our lists are a lot the same. Thank you for the reminder to sit and re-evaluate. Maybe I’ll put this list on the fridge for encouragement. I am glad you are well! Happy summer. What is the name of your family’s bakery?
Caitlin–the bakery is called Etxea Basque Bakery and is not a retail store front. Right now they are just serving restaurants in the LA area. I’ll post a list of their accounts in a few weeks –and I’m trying to convince them to think about home delivery… For those who don’t bake themselves, wouldn’t it be awesome to have a bread box on your front doorstep?!!!
Thank you for the encouragement and inspiration to take a few minutes to think about my wish list for the summer. Having already had an amazingly restful, adventurous and inspiring vacation, I am ready to take on a few other things.
Connect with friends and family
Take walks (this could be combined with connect w/ friends)
Organize my office/studio space
Do some creative calligraphy work (just for me!)
Tend my veggie garden
So glad you’re feeling better, Jane!