Arwen has a reflection up at F&FL that I found was a good reminder:
“A mom with four kids five and under does not have time to bake her own bread.”
If someone had told me that before I was a mother, I would have agreed emphatically. That woman must be so worn out! She doesn’t need extra work. She should buy bread.
Well, guess what? I have four kids; the oldest is barely five; the youngest two are twins, for heaven’s sake. I am worn out and I don’t need extra work.
I still bake my own bread. (Not always, but regularly.)
If I find myself with ten minutes where both babies are calm and the older kids are busy, I pull out the mixer and dump in yeast, water, flour, salt. I keep an eye on it as kneading happens, add more flour as necessary, prep the dough-proofing container. Later I carve minutes out of my day to de-gas the dough, to form it into loaves, to bake it.
I do it because, as strange and possibly cheesy as this might sound, it soothes me.
Remember: One person's "OMG how can you possibly find time to do that, you must be insane" is another person's "thing that keeps me sane."
bearing blog 