On the delight of minor victories

I made pancakes today.



That may sound fairly ordinary, particularly for a weekend morning, but it most definitely is not. When I say that I made pancakes, what I mean to say is that I made pancakes that both looked and tasted like pancakes. And that, my friends, is more than a minor victory in my books.

I have been trying to make pancakes for years. But I just have not been able to conquer them. But my wonderful son, Bear*, found a recipe on http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/ a while back. I liked the taste, but it was a little thin, and a little unmanageable, to be honest. So we modified it this morning, and it worked! We increased the flour and baking powder slightly, decreased the milk, and added vanilla extract. Oh yeahhhhhh. Here is the amended version:


INGREDIENTS:
(almost) 5 oz all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3.5 oz milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp melted butter


STEPS:
1. Mix the first four ingredients in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg.
3. Add the milk, butter, and vanilla.
4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
5. Whisk it up really, really well.
6. Let it sit for enough time to fry up some bacon........and then MAKE PANCAKES!


In fact, it was so delicious that I might make some more tomorrow morning. At that point, I might actually think to take some photos of them, in all their glorious fluffiness, and then I can add them to this post. Or I might be too busy stuffing my face.....we'll see.



*Just to clarify, Bear is not my son's actual name. And Belle isn't really my daughter's name. Gotta give the kids some privacy!

On The Agado Tree

There is just so much life packed into any given day.....


......Of course you remember the main stuff; for a while anyway. But the fleeting dynamism of daily life is a fragile, beautiful thing. And when three out of the four members of your family are schooling (and the fourth is a one-year-old) there's more than a slight chance that great big chunks of memory will be--- misplaced.

Thus was born the blog. This was, of course, something I had been planning for (=obsessing over) for many months before writing the first word. Obsessing is kind of my thing. But I so eagerly wanted to have a record of my kids' (mostly-unschooling) adventures; let out my eager, jump-on-a-soapbox issues (like how possible it is to stay in school while parenting); and help manage the general chaos that is Agado life, that I'd say this blog will be pretty useful. For me....well, maybe for you, too.....but definitely for me!

With any luck, it will document our journey...as we grow into the family we wish to be.