There’s nothing quite like a fresh start, is there? I think that’s why New Year’s resolutions are so tempting. A New Year – A New You. Each and every time I open my mailbox, it is full of flyers from various companies salivating over Resolution People and their Willingness to Spend Money on Fresh Starts: fitness clubs, diet and nutritional programs, exercise equipment outlets, and health food stores. Today I received a four page flyer advertising various cleanses. Have you ever been on a cleanse? I once tried the Wild Rose 12-Day Cleanse and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say it was one of the poorest decisions of my life. Really, what good can come of a cleanse, unless you exclusively eat KFC, Coke and gummy bears? And if that is your particular diet, then perhaps a cleanse isn’t going to solve all your issues.
But I do understand the concept behind resolutions: there is a feeling of openness, of new beginnings, of unlimited possibilities. I’m just a little cynical about the actual keeping of resolutions, especially when they are of the “complete lifestyle change” variety. People, if I were to make a resolution that said I was going to a) take up jogging, b) eat liver on a daily basis, and c) wear shorty-shorts and crop tops, you can bet that I would also not make it to the middle of January with resolutions kept. I would not likely make it one day.
So what I’m saying is I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions. Which is not to say that my life has no room for improvement. I do tend to make resolutions, but they are more daily resolutions, such as “Today I will play dinosaurs for at least one hour without becoming distracted and needing to leave the room after being violently killed and eaten by my fellow dinosaur players.” Or, “Today I will have a snack prior to picking the kids up at school, rather than simply drinking eight cups of coffee and having a blood sugar crash together with a caffeine high and then becoming incensed after tripping over the backpacks that have been left in the doorway and stepping with my sock foot in a gritty puddle left by the discarded snowboots and screaming at the boys for leaving their things lying around while they are themselves irritable and ready for lunch.” Sometimes I keep those resolutions, and sometimes I do not.
But I did make a New Year’s resolution, and it was to start baking bread. Hold onto your hats! Baking bread! I became inspired after reading this, and thought, I like baking things, and I like bread. What a great resolution!
There is a drawback, however. I bake all the time, I bake cookies and muffins and quick loaves. I bake those things because I like to send them in the boys’ school snack bags. It makes me feel like a Very Good Mother, to send them a snack that I Baked Myself, along with some cut-up Fruits and/or Vegetables. Very Good Mother. Also, no matter how many of those items I bake, I am not overly tempted to actually eat them myself. I can pretty much take it or leave it when it comes to most baked goods. Except fresh baked bread.
I love fresh baked bread; yesterday I made my first loaf of herbed cheese bread, and it was so delicious that I ate piece after piece, fresh from the oven. So, I am wondering, if I keep up with this whole “bake bread” resolution, will that necessitate a “stop eating the bread you bake” resolution? We’ll see.
I’ve been baking all our bread for a year and a half now. And at first I was a little bread piggy but now I slice it and stick it in the freezer and only eat as much of it as I would normally (i.e. for toast and sandwiches).
When I do have to buy bread occasionally my family looks at it rather askance. Homemade is just so much better.
Yeah…the eating part would be a problem for me, too…although maybe happygeek has a point (or better self-control than I have)!
But…well….YUM!!!