Give us this day

It’s Statewide Exams Week for the high schools in Snowstorm Region. Classes are canceled so that high school kids can take these tests. Of course, most kids take their exams in June. The January ones are make-up exams. The week ought really be called Chance for High School Kids to Play Computer Games While Their Parents Are at Work Week. With-a-Why has had a relaxed week at home.

I suggested to him that since the rest of us are busy with work and classes, he ought to do all the housework this week. He gave me an incredulous look at this suggestion. Housework is not his strong point. The youngest child of the family, he’s very used to having a crowd of older siblings to do that sort of thing.

But he has been on a bread-making binge. He’s made a loaf of bread every day for the last couple of weeks. He can only make one loaf at a time because he uses a bread machine, and often the entire loaf is eaten within ten minutes of when he removes it from the machine. All my kids love homemade bread.

When I came home today, driving through strong winds that were swirling white grains of snow across the road, I walked into the scent of baking bread and the sound of piano music. I never get tired of that smell. The kitchen hadn’t been cleaned and the living area of the house looked as messy as it had the night before, but I felt content as I settled down on the couch with a cup of hot tea and watched my youngest son’s fingers flying across the keys.