The kitchen is closed...for a few days

All of the cake balls have been dipped, the tarts have been filled and the flour stored away. All of the dishes are washed, dried and put away in neat little piles. The island is bare. I think about it and can't recall a time when I wasn't in the middle of a project or thinking of what to bake next.

I'm packing to go away for 9 days.

Mr. Man isn't too excited. He'll be coming home to a quiet home every night...well, at least for the next 9 nights.

I'm heading North, to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to visit my Honey Girl, son-in-law and my darling grandson, lovingly referred to as Mr. Squishy.

I call him that because he is large, very large for a 20 month old. At birth he weighed 9 lbs, 6 ounces and at 18 months was a whopping 29 lbs. Thus...Mr. Squishy. He can't help it - he's corn fed.

So I will be playing with and squeezing and hugging on that little boy for the next 9 days and not baking. My KitchenAid mixer will miss me and I it, but we will survive. And I will be better for the time away.

This time will be embraced, enjoyed and soaked in, because at some point Gigi will be boring for this little man who currently loves me and smiles when he sees me. And I will savor every moment I have with him.