Not only were we celebrating the resurrection of Christ but we were officially OFF our no-sweets Lenten fast and could indulge!
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Hence why I took the opportunity to make something SUPER SWEET for Easter breakfast!Enter one of my favorite childhood memories... MONKEY BREAD!
The' favorite memory' is compliments of a babysitter that my brother and I used to stay with when we were in grade school. Mom and dad both worked full time so during the week they would drop us off at the babysitter's house before school where we'd stay for about 30 minutes before walking down the street to the bus stop. Then after school we'd head back to her house and anxiously wait for mom to pick us up and take us home. I say anxiously because this woman was totally heinous. I'm sure on the surface, and to any parent, she seemed like a total dream. A good Christian woman, she was a stay at home mom to three kids {that were all older than both my brother and I} and she cleaned houses on the side. Sounds harmless, right?
WRONG
It was all a facade. She was pretty nice most of the time but would have these odd shifts in her personality. For example, on days when we didn't have school she was known to take us with her while she ran errands. I kid you not, this lady would scare the fluff out of me by threatening that if I touched ANYTHING in the store I would have to pay for it. A-KNEE-THANG. And if I didn't have the money to pay for said contaminated item, they'd put me to work to pay it off. Let me remind you that this was early elementary school so we're talking between the ages of, oh, 7 and 10. The idea of work was not only unfathomable but truly frightening. So you can imagine how carefully planned each of my steps became as we walked through whatever store she decided to take us to. And don't even get me started on how hard walking through a clothing store was, especially trying to shimmy my way in between those circular racks of hanging clothes without brushing a shirt or pair of pants with my shoulder.
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NOT FUN.OOH, OOH, here's another one:
One morning I got sick at her house before school. Not totally abnormal for a babysitter to have to deal with but I did happen to be sitting on her couch. {oops} Needless to say, it wasn't a good day. That beast got MAD AT ME and YELLED AT ME for dirtying her pillow case. A pillow case which she easily UNZIPPED and tossed in the wash. And then she went on and on {still yelling} about how she couldn't understand why I didn't take the initiative to go to the bathroom. HELLO. I'm 7. At that age, any unintentional bodily function usually comes as a sudden shock. Total horror. Total beeotch.
And remember those three kids I mentioned her having? THEY WERE SATAN'S SPAWN. The two younger ones were total heathens. The only nice one was the hot older brother who was in college and never around. But the younger two relentlessly picked on us. Mama bear would make us have "bible time" in the morning.
Yes.
Bible time.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed hearing the scripture and all but then she would MAKE us go around in a circle and send out a prayer request. Think about this for a minute. If you could make a list of the things the average 7 year old would most likely be praying for, what would it include? Well, my prayers were for things like my dog, my soccer team, that my mom had a good day at work and that my math teacher wouldn't give me a question that was too hard. Typical. Totally acceptable and quite cute.
NOT TO THE DEVIL CHILDREN!
They would laugh in the middle of my prayers and then proceed to make fun of me from the first step out the door all the way to the bus stop and the ride to school.
It was humiliating.
Do you feel bad for my terrible adolescent years?
You should.
But not really... because the rest of life was great AND when babysitter was feeling exceptionally gracious she would make monkey bread. The most ooey gooey monkey bread in the world and for those few days throughout the year, I didn't hate going back to her house after school.
You know those people that spend 20 minutes telling you about something that really should take only 2...
Guilty as charged.
So anyway... back to my sweet Easter morning.
I was dumb enough not to take pictures of the whole monkey bread process but you can find the SUPER SIMPLE IDIOT PROOF BAKING FOR DUMMIES recipe here.
And then you can stare in awe at my ooey gooey creation. Which was demolished immediately.
Yes, that plate is from Macaroni Grill. No I am not a thief.
It was so incredibly delicious and tasted like cinnamon, caramel and biscuit dough got together, did a naughty dance and had a beautiful baby bunt. MMMMM.
My sweet tooth hurts.
Until next time...
What would your 7 year old prayer list include?
