if I don't succeed, how many times must I try?

As children we were all plagued with sayings like "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again or practice makes perfect". For some, that is a source of anguish, remembering how they hated some activity that they were forced to repeat at length as a child for others it was a blessing as they enjoy the leisure of the activity. Yet strangely as an adult no one makes me do anything at length, now that I am a stay at home mom. No one forces me to do laundry or encourages me to clean the showers better but oddly I am getting really good at doing domestic things. Take for example my new hobby, baking bread. I began one week ago and have so far made wheat bread, wheat dinner rolls, banana bread with orange and spice and pizza dough. Honestly though, although my husband smiled, the wheat bread was not a raging success, while the dinner rolls were alright, the first pizza dough on Ash Wednesday was  better than store bought but the dough on Friday was great, and of course my banana bread which I have been fixing for years was a big crowd pleaser. I sat and thought about this after the dismal wheat bread came out of the oven looking all nice and loaf- like and thought "what gives? I spent all day kneading the dough and letting it rise, then kneading again and letting it rise again, following the recipe to the letter, yet blah! It tastes like nothing special." And faint words from childhood came to mind. My breads need me to meet their needs, that is why my banana bread is always good because I have made it so many times. It then made me think of my children. Poor Vince, my 2 year old, should have gotten a mulligan with us as we were trying to do what books had told us rather than what Vice told us. There is a recipe to life but ultimately we practice and get really good at what works for us. We forget this as adults, maybe our parents should remind us!