Things are tight financially these days. The twins went to driving school. Eight hundred dollars. AJ's specially adapted shoes are $175. My gas bill is $200 a month from driving all three kids to different jobs in three different towns. I really don't mind, Dear, you know I don't. My kids are my Joy and my reason for being on this Earth. I learn so much from them and would give my life for them if called upon. But these days, my LIFE is easier to produce than $100!! 

Here, let me pour you some iced tea! Don't the lemons look lovely and add so much! Such a small thing, yet they give a Zing to life! We must get it where we can!

Well, now I am an entrepreneur. My products are food from my hands and heart. I have established a little clientele for my baked goods. Yes, the very ones you have shared with me over the years! Little Gingerbread Loaves are yummy and stuffed with juicy raisins. Kids love SnickerDoodles and Scones are going through the roof.  But my very best and most popular product is Irish Bread.

In my quest for some income, my pay has come in a much more valuable coinage than any dollar ever printed. It has been said if you do what you love, the money will follow. Yes, You're completely right, My Love, I have always adored feeding people. Whether one special person or a hungry horde, it is an activity that leaves me satisfied! And now, I have been able to translate that love into a form that puts food on my children's plates AND feeds my soul as well.

My recipe for Irish Bread comes from the Irish family of a most special man. This man is someone who was in my life briefly, only long enough for me to recognize him as one of my SoulMates, an Anam Cara.  He brought me, among many other joys, the recipe that had been used by many, many generations of women in his Earthly family. There were no daughters who wished to continue the tradition, so I believe it was given to me to carry on.

You should see me when I bake! You DO??  Of course you do! Silly me!  I invite You in all Your forms and You are ALWAYS there! As I prepare to bake, there is always a prayer from me to the thousands of women who came before me, women who baked on heated stone rocks, and grew their own grain, milked the cows and churned the butter. Women whose families' very survival depended on their ability to turn mere ingredients into nourishing food. These ladies were farm hands, chemists, veterinarians, inventors, waterbearers, botanists, dishwashers: all in the name of putting food on the table. This didn't even begin to touch on their skills that were necessary to be mothers, wives, lovers, even warriors. They, as well as YOU, are with me as I bake.  I am one of them.  I am connected by the so-simple act of baking with thousands of years of tradition. I am part of a Whole. I am a woman with worth as every thread in the Tapestry, every link in the Chain has value.

Such a simple act. I crank up my CD player with beautiful Celtic womansinging. Go raibh mile maith agaibh as bhur gcunamh!   I have learned enough Gaelic to pick out some words here and there.  I hold my rosary of 3,000 year old bogwood in my apron pocket and I talk with all those strong, glistening women. I am embraced by the women of my dear friend's family and by those of my own family and all women of all time. All of them, My Lady, My Goddess, are You and You are Them. We share the same spirit and heart and desires and loves.  The Universal acts of flour flying, women singing, eggs cracking and strong muscles working, oh yes, these are Our bonds and OUR promise of continuity through the ages. As long as there are women baking and men needing to be fed and children snitching out of the bowl, there will be You, My Dear One. You, the Eternal Food Provider.

So once again, one of life's littler tasks, baking, becomes a Joy and a Privilege.  Through You, My Friend Goddess, my life is a bit more secure and I am less afraid and I am VERY much stronger. With the encouragement of You, millennia of women and my special Anam Cara, I am whole and independent and a strong and valuable Thread in the Tapestry of Life. Go raibh mile maith agaibh as bhur gcunamh!  Thank you very much for your help!

I look rather well through the flour, don't You think? Have another iced tea! I'm going to! I'm beginning to glisten!