This week, I made Challah.  I made a few practice loaves in September, but I knew I wanted to make it for a giveaway now that I felt I had perfected my recipe.  I had really good intentions to be productive and make the giveaway loaf Sunday once we got home from our trip last week, but I just couldn’t.  And I gave myself permission to not.

I made mention of the seminar I went to last week, and by the time we arrived home last weekend, I was exhausted mentally and physically.  After several days of not drinking anywhere near the usual amount of water, staying up too late and having a few drinks with friends after the days’ heavy topics, sitting for hours in lectures and then a lengthy tour on a warmer day in a Marin County prison, followed the next morning by a four hour drive home, well, suffice to say my body and mind were in full on rebellion.  I haven’t had swollen feel like that since I was 9 months pregnant.  And, as I was decidedly sure that was not the cause of them this time, I prescribed myself a serious day of nesting and staying home.  Honestly, I took two naps and may have languished in bed more than is right for someone with still youngish kids at home.  However, they didn’t seem to mind, and I know my body and mind was thankful to just.be.home and not doing.

As the beginning of the week rolled around, I began to feel a little better and more mentally and physically rested.  My mind was still processing all the things I had seen and heard, but my body was rested and being home had helped me start to digest my experience.  I found the routine of the week comforting, and I resisted the urge to be hyper-productive and busy as much as I could.  It even took me until the end of the week to get back to the challah I had planned, but by then I was more than ready to get my hands back in some dough.  Making bread feels comforting and natural, but also maybe as close to magic as I can get.  You put all these simple ingredients together, you add some time and heat, and voila, you end up with something else altogether, something elemental and nourishing.  And I was not making just any bread, but a six braid challah.  The steps to accomplish such a loaf are a series of simple, repeated moves.  Second from right, over, far right to the middle, second to left, over, far left to the middle, and back and forth over and over.  It shouldn’t be so magnificent when it is done, but I find it rather breathtaking in its intricacy and simultaneous simplicity.  (Sidebar though, I would recommend not tackling it in the middle of a family birthday as it is a little easy to lose your place.  You would never dream of doing that?  What can I say?  Sometimes I do weird things.)

When the bread was finished baking, it was glossy and beautiful and my house smelled of that familiar homemade bread smell that wraps you up like a hug.  All that was left was wrapping the bread and the giveaway which I accomplished neatly the next day.  This giveaway came with a little drop in visit with a dear old friend and her beautiful daughters.  She had been hard at work all day, but when I texted rather mysteriously that I had something for her, she decided she could take a break too.  I think it was fitting that her youngest was in her pjs when I showed up, given we have countless photographs of both of us and a gaggle of others in pjs from our numerous slumber parties over thirty years ago.  Getting to pop over to her house in the evening and catch up continued the theme of my restorative week.  There is just nothing quite like the company of old friends and the luxury of catching up with them.

And that is really the point of all these words this week.  I continue to love that my bread journey is affording me these opportunities that I have always had available but seldom took advantage of because I was just so busy doing the typical productive, busy life things.  The bread gives me such a good excuse to reach out and connect with friends, neighbors, and even strangers.  It is the combining of simple things into something much more, and it is restful and soul nourishing.  Magic I tell you.