Freedom, in all its shapes & forms

There are many milestones in all of our lives, marking the rights of passage and the passage of time.  I include degrees of freedom in those milestones, and slowly but surely freedom is creeping back into my adult life.  For instance, when child number three no longer required diapers and went to full-day school, or when our daughter was older enough to babysit her brothers, my husband's vasectomy nine Valentine's Days ago, and most recently - our panini maker.  

It is a big hit with the kids, all three of them create after school snacks, hypothesize about the feasibility of certain ingredient combinations, and the reason I bought the thing in the first place - they are making their own lunch sandwiches!  Bingo!  Another degree of freedom attained.  I was making a lot of lunches: school lunches, weekend ski lunches, March Break ski trip lunches, soccer tournament lunches etc....  My daughter even has the choice of buying hot lunches from school, but prefers the homemade versions.  I am hoping that the interest in the panini maker doesn't wane and that I will have gained a full twenty three minutes every morning because the kids are just that much more autonomous.  When it comes to freedom, every little crumb counts.