in the kitchen

I envy those moms who let their kids help in the kitchen and do other chores around the house without worrying about things not going their way... and just have fun with their kids.  I am too fearful to do that.  Crumbs, kitchen messes... they stress me out (what doesn't?) and I'd rather not have a toddler "help" me so I can just get things done my way.  But more than those kinds of messes, I fear the emotional messes...as Ari often ends up getting frustrated with things and it becomes hard to have fun.

I would like to let go of this "fear" of messes a bit.  Today I let my toddler girl help me make a big pot of lentil soup while Ti surprisingly napped for three hours in the afternoon.  (Naomi, if you're reading this, I used your opened bag of dried lentils...hope that is okay!  It's so hard to see food we've missed and not eat them! :( )
She usually tries to do EVERYTHING herself but today she was pretty content watching me getting the veggies ready...so I guess it wasn't really a big "test" for my attempt at letting go.  It was fun and I hope to do this more often.

eating a carrot piece

cooking "Korean style"

enjoying frozen strawberry smoothie I made this morning