Living in "The Circle Game"

I am really feeling the racing passage of time today!!

The 2009-2010 school year begins today.

This will be Matthew's final year of High School.

Becca starts her 7th grade year.

It will be a year full of decisions and changes, growing and releasing, test taking, filling out forms, meeting deadlines and waiting for news. I am not at all sure that I am ready for this year to be here.
I know that sister Becca, 5 years his Junior, is not ready for Matthew to go to college. They are very good friends. Almost daily she speaks of missing him. Matthew has openly stated that he is not ready- even though we as parents, know that he will be by the time we get to that point. We are all sensing big changes afoot and we are all not ready. We have had more than our fair share of major changes and it feels like we are just getting really settled here in Virginia.
Time will help and time will continue us on our journey and we will be ready whether we are ready or not!!!
Several of my blogger friends have been discussing Circles and Dots lately. Circles as shapes, circlesa s symbols, passage of seasons, continuity and continuance, never ending . I have been humming this song as a result.
The Circle Game by singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell has always been a favorite of mine. It certainly fits this situation.

Yesterday a child came out to wonder

Caught a dragonfly inside a jar

Fearful when the sky was full of thunder

And tearful at the falling of a star

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons

Skated over ten clear frozen streams

Words like, when youre older, must appease him

And promises of someday make his dreams

And the seasons they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We cant return we can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game.

When we have kids, we are always told to watch them every minute because "Before you know it, they will be grown and on their own." We mutter to oursleves, "It will never happen! They will NEVER sleep through the night!" or "They will never learn to do this or that for them selves.

What is that saying?

NEVER SAY NEVER ?????

Oh Yeah!

Then, WHAMO, here we are!!!

Pumpernickle Bread-Or Food As Art!

Last Monday, my 17 year old son Matthew came home from school requesting a donation for a brunch that was to occur on Friday the 10th in his German class. He explained that he had signed up to bring in Pumpernickle Bread and he asked that we try to make some together. Well TWIST MY ARM!!!! He went right to the computer and came back with a recipe. Pumpernickle is not an easy bread to create successfully. Since it requires the use of heavy rye flour, it takes a long time to rise and often results in very heavy dense bread. Then there is the issue of the flavor. I love good pumpernickle but I have never found a recipe that would yield loaves with the right sour zippy yet sweet flavor that true pumpernickle should have. The recipe taht matthew had found had reall promise. It had cocoa powder in it that would give both color and good flavor, it had molasses again for color and sweetness, there was plenty of yeast- to get it to rise and, of course, there were caraway seeds- a pure necessity!!
Above you see the results and the texture was perfect and the taste was really authentic. He was so pleased !! We had a wonderful tiem making the bread together- lucky ME!!! His treacher was in awe of the fact that we had actually made the bread and he even brought home a few leftovers for us to nibble on. I will definately be making this recipe again and adding some raisins and walnuts to one of the loaves next time!