But before I tell you about that, I should explain that my sourdough pizza crust recipe is right here.

While this post is really about all about how to encourage our children to discover what they’re passionate about, our family’s brick oven in our 200-year-old farmhouse is a supporting character in the article. But if you’re just here for the pizza, you’ll want to go here.

If you want to know more about our farmhouse? Maybe you’d want to hop over here. And interested in knowing what items I couldn’t live without in my farmhouse kitchen? The things I think every kitchen should have? That list is right here.

But back to what I was saying…

Relishing the Hard Work

It’s really hard work being a parent and helping our children discover their talents and pursue what they’re passionate about… But sometimes it just requires watching and listening. And it winds up being oh-so wonderful.

She systematically, almost professionally, pulls out items from cabinets, pantry, and fridge. She lines up the flour, oil, and salt while telling me how happy the smell of yeast makes her feel.

I crinkle newspapers and arrange small logs in the brick hearth oven, to get the brick warmed and ready to bake her creations.

This post contains affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.

She kneads the thick dough on the wooden board. The dimming evening light filters through the wavy old glass of the kitchen window, dancing in warm auburn flashes across her diligent fingers.

Coals in the hearth are red hot; heavenly scents of freshly risen and rolled out dough are intermingling with the smoky smells wafting from the brick pizza oven. She asks if I know that sugar is in bread recipes as food for the yeast. As the yeast eats the sugar, the yeast becomes more active, which speeds up the rising process.

The fact sounds vaguely familiar. I realize it’s an informational tidbit I learned from her last year. She goes on to explain the details of  a scientific study that truly confirms that the smell of yeast gives people joy.

She also loves making pies, using my grandmom’s perfect crust.

And she has an amazing recipe for easy-to-make, quick-to-be-devoured freezer biscuits that I share in this post.

Feeding A Child’s Passions

I watch her work and listen to her humming as she smooths sauce and scatters cheese on her homemade-from-the-hearth pizzas.

I think of how much joy baking gives her, and I’m thankful that as a parent I have a few brief years to help my children discover what their latent passions are. I have a few years to feed their abilities, so they will become active and good at whatever it is they are passionate about.

The more I can help feed their passions, the more effective they are, for today and for eternity, with all the lives they will touch because they are experts at something they are passionate about. And then, oh the joy they will give others with the pleasant aroma of their daily lives.

By the way, through 20 years of homeschooling my daughters, I had to learn this lesson myself the hard way… Sometimes feeding a passion means putting away textbooks and–dare I say it–getting off schedule.

Read here if you have a child with an interest in building a website or learning to blog.

Read here if you’d like to know why I only have 2 goals for my daughters’ education.

Being Filled with Joy

It’s a difficult job, being a parent. Striving daily to make sure each child’s unique talents have room to grow and thrive for the short time God has entrusted them in my care.

Because I’ve seen it happen, way too quickly in this momma’s opinion, I know they will rise to adulthood. Her older sister did. They graduate from more than a dozen years of homeschooling. And one hot August day they fully take on the responsibility of their own education at a college campus hours away.

But if they can step on that campus with profound passions, convictions, and talents that they have had time to develop and grow deeply, at their own pace, over the years, oh how much that will fill us with joy.

Enjoying the Results

For tonight, I’m going to revel in the immediate, delicious results of one daughter’s amazing aptitude at baking over a brick hearth. Light from an overcast New England evening falls over her loving efforts that are about to deliciously bless our family, quietly putting an end to a beautiful, blue-sky day.

Maybe you’d like to see some fun things a few of my daughters are up to today?

Here’s one’s youtube channel (lots of fun insight into homesteading as a teen there).

And here’s another’s etsy shop: Farmhouse Quilted Co. (There’s crazy beautiful quilting going on there!)

The items I can’t live without in our farmhouse kitchen? That list is right here.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. I Corinthians 12:4-6

p.s. Take a few minutes to join us in last summer’s garden, meet some of our farm animals, and join us on a ride down the dirt road. Then take a second to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making. Surely something there could help you encourage some fun pursuits that a child might love.

I’d love to connect!

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The post Homemade Pizza in our Beehive Oven (and the parenting lesson it taught me) first appeared on Souly Rested.