Our grandmothers and their mothers before them had a good idea. Women used to schedule their household chores throughout the week, Mondays for laundry, Tuesdays for baking, Wednesdays for cleaning floors, etc. I always thought this notion was kind of cute and kind of quaint but it wasn’t until recently that I thought this simple approach could actually work for my modern day life.
Yesterday we had a “baking day” here. With a large family party coming up this weekend, I gave the kids a light day of schoolwork and devoted the rest of the day to baking food for the event. I gathered recipes and ingredients, cleared the kitchen counters, and got to work.
It was very liberating. Little bodies pushed chairs to the counter and climbed up to watch, but I didn’t mind. We were baking. The laundry piled up and the older kids disappeared to play outside, but I didn’t mind. We were baking and that was all I had to do- I didn’t need to chase down kids and make them do schoolwork and I didn’t need to think about other chores. Today was for baking and that was enough.
Soon the house was filled with delicious smells and the counters were lined with lovely things like homemade rolls, pumpkin bread, soft pretzels, cookies, and pie. When my father-in-law dropped by unannounced, I felt compelled to apologize for the state of the rest of my house but then decided just to keep quiet.
“You’re busy!” he said as he surveyed my crowded countertops.
I wiped my floured hands on a dish towel. “Yes,” I told him. “Today we are baking.”