Little Chirp just headed to his room to read the rest of the first book assigned for reading in his English class. Funny, he did the same earlier this evening, and then returned when I called down the hallway that dinner is ready. He told me with matter of fact honesty that he could have finished the book in the time he had before dinner, but he got distracted with Amazon.
While Little Chirp reads, the important duty of getting the pie out of the oven rests with me. In about three minutes the oven timer will call me to duty. I hope that I do not somehow screw this up.
Little Chirp spent the last five days with his dad. I surprised him on his return with all of the ingredients to make a key lime pie, one of his favorite of all desserts.
We decided that Thursday would be the best day to make the pie as he would then have a three day weekend to eat the pie. I asked if he wanted me to prep the pie making in the morning by juicing the key limes, zesting the limes, and separating the eggs. His response melted my heart; he said, ” Can’t we do it all together?” Usually, when Little Chirp bakes he flies solo in the kitchen. Nothing that he ever baked before required prepping like the juicing and zesting of key limes.
We proceeded with our normal Monday evening activities. We played some dominoes. I finished some last tasks for work, and he did homework. Then our plans altered when the dinner that I made, did not exactly pan out. We both liked the sauce and the shrimp. Little Chirp did not like the noodles. He asked if we could go ahead and make the pie tonight.
I separated the eggs and zested the key limes, while Little Chirp did the lime juicing. We are already wondering how different bottled key lime juice would be to juicing the little limes as it is a bit of an undertaking. We feared we would accidentally knock over the little measuring cup of Little Chirp’s laboring to juice the limes. We did not realize our fears. All went to plan, and the pie is now in the oven.
<Pause – I get up to check the oven. With five seconds left, I turn off the timer before it chimes. I remove the pie from the over. I notice how flimsy the tin pie pan is, but I manage to carefully set the pie on the cooling rack.>
I return to finish my blog post. Little Chirp comes into the kitchen. He never heard the timer, and he is wondering what is going on. He finds the pie resting safely on the cooling rack, and he assures me that he never doubted my abilities to safely move the pie out of the oven. That makes one of us.
The house is now so warm, that the AC with the thermostat set to 80 degrees just kicked on. Little Chirp just popped back into the kitchen to do the final clean up from the pie making. The pie now needs to cool, and then it needs to be refrigerated for a half hour. He asked if the pie would be ready for him to have some tonight. I said that I believed so, and then I reminded him that the pie is all his. He can slice into before it is properly cooled if he wants.
I am not sure how he feels about his only child status, but I know that Little Chirp and I are enjoying our time together. Little Chirp, Brainy Bird, and I are all loving this chapter of life. Everyday is special, and the three of us are seizing everyday. The key limes are just one of many zests of life that we are enjoying.
It is the little things in life…