Baking and Breaking Bread

A post about effort. The picture above looks like bread but don't be fooled. What you are looking at is pure effort in bread form.

I've been attempting to expand myself in various directions lately. Trying to buy less and make more is one objective. It's better for us: financially, health-wise, environmentally, skill building-wise (i.e. patience building wise). It helps me learn to respect the effort that goes into the things we use/consume/want. It helps me to teach my children to embrace hard work, to be informed consumers, to understand that quick doesn't always equal good. Plus, it feels good to know that you did it. And it's empowering to learn how possible it is to DO most things.

Today it was bread. 4:30 pm found me dumping flour, eggs, butter, water, salt and yeast into the bread machine. Jon was grilling and we needed hot dog and hamburger buns.

Yes - it took longer. Yes - they weren't the same texture as store bought buns. They had flat bottoms and were a little too big. And shaped oddly.

But - they had a total of seven ingredients (8 if you count love) and were Fresh. They weren't shipped from Illinois and were only touched by one person before we ate them. I have only myself to blame if they taste horrible or contain multi-syllable stabilizers or fillers.

Effort. Let's be honest: the bread machine expended the most physical effort. My contribution was the mental effort, the shift to think, "we can do this". The push to get up and just do it. The refusal to just accept 'normal'. I'm a big proponent of not accepting something as truth or good just because our culture defines it as 'normal'.

This is my little plug to try. Try not to be afraid of effort. It might not be baking bread. It might be trying not to take the 'shortcut' at work, even though your boss holds you to a deadline. It might be reading the whole book - not the cliff notes. Thinking the thought for yourself...not taking the easy route of agreeing with what all your friends say. Staying strong when your kids demand fries an offering green beans instead - every single time.

Don't give in to the easy. Put in the effort. Because the long term benefit will far outweigh the momentary sweat.