Maya Laurent Photography

Trip Three: Seaside

2012-05-17T13:52:42Z

A long time ago I met this boy at college, emailed a high school friend to tell him I had met him and really liked him and her first response back was "now he has to meet all of your big brothers." See I don't have big brothers, just two younger, but my best guy friends from high school have always been like brothers to me. They teased me just like brothers, annoyed me like brothers and at the same time took care of me and we had a blast together. I was so nervous bringing Pat to meet them and the first time he did meet them I don't think he liked them very much. They acted like nothing had changed and didn't really give Pat the time of day. He was this new guy in a group that was so close. Over time Pat has gotten to know them and loves them too. I love that I can go so long without seeing them or talking to them and it's as if no time has passed when we all get together. I feel blessed to still call all of these guys friends and I absolutely have loved watching them fall in love and get married.

When Jay called to say he was getting married we knew we wouldn't miss it. When he told us it was going to be in Florida we really knew we wouldn't miss it! I ended up being the only girl from our group of friends to make it down there which everyone thought was funny because I was always close with all of the guys in high school. We were only in Seaside for 36 hours, which wasn't long enough at all. On Friday we had to change in the airport to make it to the rehearsal dinner in time. After the rehearsal dinner we went out to Bud & Alley's with Jay for a bit. You can't beat catching up with friends while the beach is right there. We still had not found the place we were staying and in typical Pat and Maya fashion drove around trying to find it. Turns out we could have walked there from the bar! Ha! It was right in the heart of everything.

We had most of Saturday to explore but first we slept in...till 9am! Wow I know. But that's kind of a big deal to us and to not have our boys asking us when we're making breakfast. We had breakfast at the Great Southern with some vanilla pancakes and fried green tomato benedict. Yum. Jay had told me that Pat and I would love Seaside because it was an art community and that there was an art fair in town that same weekend. When I hear this about beach towns I just think of those cheesy water scenes, over the top fish sculptures and the annoying beach shops filled with junk. But Jay was totally right...we loved it. There's no big brand stores like Tommy Bahama and the place is filled with locally owned shops, galleries and restaurants. For the first time we actually bought things to take home from a beach vacation.

Right after breakfast we saw a bookstore and record store (Sun Dog Books and Central Square Records) and headed there immediately. We ended up being there forever and the manager of the record store shared with us some new bands to listen to and showed us around. Pat ended up with a print that he got for his new office, we grabbed a record and some other things.

We then walked around the art fair, got some great ideas for an upcoming show Pat is in and found a couple of artists we really liked. We jumped in and out of local stores and found one store, Focus, that had Anthropologie-like clothes for a way lower price. The owner was awesome and I ended up walking away with two dresses for my Mother's Day gift from Pat but I could have bought the whole store. We then wanted to head to the beach so I jumped into Amavida Coffee to get a hot chai and walk on the beach.

It was super windy but we walked for awhile and just took in the fact that our feet were in the sand.

We worked up an appetite and decided to try some of the airstream food trailers lined up in Seaside.

Pat had a grass-fed, local beef hot dog at the Wild Bills Dogs airstream. I taste tested it and it was amazing.

I had a tomato, mozzarella, basil grilled cheese from The Meltdown. I would like another one right now please.

And then we napped on the beach.

We cleaned up and headed to the wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding underneath these giant trees. I kept trying to be sneaky to get some photos and not get in the photographer's way.

Emily and Jay! I looove Jay's smile in this...he's so happy.

We were all hanging out afterwards when Jay and Emily grabbed me to take a couple of photos on this big porch. I so wasn't ready so the photos have a touch of cloudiness from ocean spray that I hadn't wiped off my camera yet!

A photo of all of us high school buddies with Emily and Jay. Chad, Bryan, Emily, Jay, Clay and Jate.

Bryan and Jay were my two best friends in high school. We have so many photos like this so had to get one at Jay's wedding.

Hanging In There

2012-05-14T19:06:53Z

I took a week off of personal blogging as we have been beyond swamped. We're trying to get The Blank Space ready as well as my new office there too. Plus we're trying to keep up with our businesses and family at the same time, which all are at their busiest right now. We had a refreshing weekend in Seaside, Florida for one of my best friend's weddings but on Mother's Day I started feeling sick and I'm totally down and out with a massive head cold. Trying to get some rest so I can at least keep up with sessions today.

All this to say...more coming soon on everything. A couple people contacted me last week to make sure everything was okay because I was so quiet on social media and on this blog. You all are very sweet...just trying to catch our breath over here. Plus we have to keep up with this crazy child of ours who is climbing up onto everything and causing some trouble!

April Family Self Portrait

2012-05-03T17:51:25Z

Somehow we skipped the month of March in the family self portrait department. I'll go ahead and blame a lot of things for that but we managed to squeeze in our April one early in April. I just forgot to share it then! By now you've seen my mile long posts about our Cincinnati trip. Everyone has laughed when they have found out we were there for the Reds' Opening Game. They compared it to the Indy 500 here. Oops...oh well we still had fun minus the canceling of several things we had planned due to the game. Mental note to pay attention to sporting events next time.

I've decided the boys could care less what we do, the fact that we stay in a hotel is enough excitement for them. I'm glad we did a little mini-trip as our first with both boys. It prepared us for some future trips we'd like to do with them and Zane is begging to take Jude to see New York City so he can show him "what he couldn't see when he was in my belly." Somehow Zane has the city bug we have...love that.

Here we are huddled on the hotel bed and jumping on it...because that's what you do on hotel beds right?!

Your Best Next

2012-05-03T02:26:49Z

I am so proud of one of my best friends, Megan. She has such a knack for decorating and rearranging homes to make them look so good that you wish you could figure that out for your house. She finally decided to start a company doing just that! Megan was asked to help out so many people in her neighborhood as they prepared for a baby's arrival and what that meant for their homes. Not only did she help arrange and decorate but she helped out with registry items and even packed hospital bags! Having had two boys she's been through it and has some great advice...she's kind of an expert. :)

If you know of anyone having a baby and needing some extra help send them to Megan at Your Best Nest and on she's on Faceook too! Megan, I am so proud of you!!! You are such a dear friend and I am so thankful for you in my life for this many years (way too many to name...makes me feel old!) Go get them and best of luck with what I know will be a success!

Megan came over one morning after dropping off her boys (our boys have the same wonderful babysitter) and we laughed a ton as she attempted to be normal in front of the camera. I kept some "bloopers" so she could share them with her husband Bill as I know he appreciates Megan's goofy side too!

Trip Two: Cincinnati Part 2

2012-04-27T13:01:09Z

Here's Part 2 of our family spring break in Cincinnati.

After sleeping in a bit we started off with breakfast at Mokka and the boys entertained themselves with books and making the paper from straws into super hero traps. All they ended up eating from their waffle was the blueberries and whip cream but I took care of my creme brulee French toast.

It was then Newport Aquarium time. Can I be real honest here about this place? It was a little under whelming. It’s not exactly cheap to get in and then you funnel into an area that is super packed. It’s so fun to let the boys explore places like this and we couldn’t even move. We got to the first section where you can touch some starfish and crabs and I fought my way up to the front with Zane to give him a chance to touch them so we could get out of the crowded area. It cleared out slightly but it was so crowded the whole time and we only had pockets of time with room enough to move without hitting someone. It didn’t live up to the Atlanta Aquarium but Jude was in awe the entire time. We hung out in one of the tunnels for a long time and his neck had to hurt afterwards because he sat looking up for so long as the fish and sharks swam over us. The coolest part was seeing some of the workers diving in the tank. Zane thought that was really cool but decided he wouldn’t want to get in there.

Pat and I then had a surprise for Zane. He is such a boy and loves his arcade games. We saw one when we went to dinner the night before so took him to GameWorks to play a few games. This is when we realized that it was the opening game for the Cincinnati Reds. Oops! Poor planning on our part! I quickly realized some of the things I had planned for the rest of the day weren’t going to happen - like the Freedom Center, right next to the stadium or the Mexican restaurant in the heart of downtown. And it hit me why the hotel prices were so expensive during that time too.

After time playing some games we headed to Tom + Chee for a massive variety of grilled cheese sandwiches. It ended up being more eventful than planned as wind picked up the umbrella at our table and sent it launching into a window, bouncing back and almost hitting a lady in the head. The manager came out and was apologetic to everyone and of course Zane thought it was the coolest thing ever. Zane also didn't want any photos taken. He was done with that part of the trip. We took some quick photos of the skyline and headed back to the hotel for Jude’s nap time.

After a quick swim Zane wanted to do something else. Jude was in desperate need of a nap so I grabbed Zane, let Pat rest with Jude and we headed to Eden Park. He ran around with some new friends he made quickly and blew off some energy. We didn’t get to explore the park a ton because he was pretty tired after playing.

After picking up the other half of our family we headed to Findlay Market which I had heard such great things about. In my quick change of plans for the day, because of the game, I didn’t pay attention to the hours of the market. I forgot mornings/lunch time is the best time to visit so it was pretty deserted when we were there. We still grabbed some cookies and hung out for a bit. We really wanted to try Taste of Belgium and get some chicken and waffles but all of us had stomaches that were hurting. We don’t really eat out that much, let alone the kind of food we had been eating, so our bodies were not happy with us. We ended up back at the hotel with the boys snacking on raisins and whole wheat crackers I brought and I ended up in bed with stomach pains. Pat got some Sprite to soothe my stomach and it helped me sleep a bit better.

Our last morning in Cincinnati was filled with packing up the hotel room we had trashed or I should say Jude had trashed. He took everything out of our bags, put it in his pack and play, piled it up around the room and threw things in the bathroom. This is Jude...taking things out and putting them someplace else! We played for a bit, packed up and headed to IKEA for breakfast. Gotta love the IKEA breakfast. We checked out some things we are thinking about getting later, bought some replacement cooking pots and then headed to Jungle Jims. Talk about an overwhelming place! We had so much fun going through the produce aisles that were filled with an international section of unique fruits and vegetables. The main reason for hitting up this grocery store was the England section. There was some English junk food that Pat and I have been craving since having it before Zane was born in London. We stoked up, I grabbed some tea and we ended our trip by heading to the lake to be with Pat’s parents. We took the scenic route to the lake and actually really enjoyed our drive through the country of Ohio and Indiana.

Introducing The Blank Space

2012-04-24T19:34:43Z

When I was pregnant with Jude, Pat and I sat down to talk about what our future looked like with two kids. We laughed a lot and then Pat got real serious and told me he wanted to pursue his art full time and not be part of the photography team for weddings and shoots anymore. It was funny timing as I had been feeling pulled towards just photographing high school students. Pat then said he had a dream to open a space for high school students to come, create artwork after school and in the summers and have them be part of a community. We walked away from the conversation with a lot to process and came back to each other in a number of days and said "Okay let's do this."

One could say the timing wasn't exactly perfect. You don't decide to completely switch your business focus when you are about to add another child to your family. Oh wait, you really don't switch two businesses up plus think about starting a non-for-profit! We soon found out we had to take one thing at a time and focused on switching my photography business to high school students and Pat's business to more of an art swing. It didn't happen over night for either of us, we had some pretty rough times but stuck with it feeling God's pull in those directions. In the back of our minds was this space though and it kept coming up, we kept talking about it and feeling God reminding us not to forget about it.

The beginning of this year started and we knew we could not wait any longer to move this space forward. After we had shared the idea with a number of high school students they started asking us constantly about when it would be open. We didn't even have a space yet! So we started the search for a space and quickly became frustrated...everything was just so expensive and not fitting our needs. We finally found a space and it actually had room for me to have Such Great Heights there as well. Perfect...problem though, we didn't, and still don't, have the funding completely for it. After we spent about a week in prayer and asked others to pray for us as well we felt an overwhelming push to grab the space. Several others told us they were thinking that we just needed to keep moving forward too and that God would provide somehow.

Can we talk about scary? It is all scary but the day after we officially got the keys we grabbed donuts with our boys and took them to the space for a picnic and for them to see it. Zane and Jude ran around the building squealing with joy and not wanting to leave. It felt like the final stamp of us feeling we had done the right thing.

So we now introduce you to The Blank Space! What exactly is it? The Blank Space is a space created for high school students to create artwork, explore new forms of art and learn about the business of art. Students involved in sports, music and theatre have a place to go in community after school. With funding being drastically cut, students interested in the arts have fewer and fewer places to go to explore and be part of a community outside of the classroom.

Students can bring in artwork they are currently working on to develop further or explore different mediums. The Blank Space plans to bring in artists specializing in different mediums to teach and mentor students interested in that area. Being an artist involves having an understanding of business and the students will have opportunities to learn this via gallery shows, possible art fairs and online stores. The Blank Space will try to help connect students with someone in their area of interest to help understand that medium as a career.

The Blank Space plans to keep in touch with local high school art teachers to expand on what they are already teaching the students in the classroom and to provide additional resources to enhance the students’ creative experience. The Blank Space hopes to get teachers on board to be part of the staff during the summer hours or after school to help further develop relationships with the students and help in some of the areas such as AP Art students developing their portfolio. In a team with the teachers, The Blank Space will help juniors and seniors develop their portfolios and hold portfolio reviews to help them apply for arts schools. The hope would be to have funding to give scholarships to some Blank Space students for college as well.

So many of you have been asking how you can help out. Thank you! We cannot tell you how much that means to us! There are several ways you can help out honestly. We will be getting a blogsite up soon but while that is in progress we are going to send people here to see a list of needs.

Ways to Help

Getting The Space Ready:

We need some man power to get the space in working condition. It needs some fixing up a bit. This Friday, Saturday and Sunday (April 27th-29th) we hope to get some laminate flooring down and next weekend tackle the bathrooms which need a lot of help (Friday, May 4th and Saturday, 5th). We can also always use some help during the week but we know so many of you work too! So if you want to help out getting the space ready leave a comment or send me an email at mayacrev at yahoo.com.

Things We Need For The Space:

We need lots of items to fill the space and provide some things for the students. If you happen to have any of these things that you want to get rid of, sitting in storage or know of someone who has them we'd love to know!

- Rectangle Kitchen Tables

- Stools - think the type you had in science/art class

- IPOD Player

- Book shelves

- Casual Seating - Couch, comfy chairs

- Fridge with freezer

- Microwave

- Lockers of some kind

- All kinds of art supplies - you name it, we need it!

Funding:

We are going through the process to become a 501(c)(3) and do not see any glaring reasons we shouldn't be able to get that status for The Blank Space. Any donations made before we get approved the non-for-profit status are then made retro active and can be a tax write off for you. We eventually will have an online donation area but in the meantime, if you are feeling compelled to donate to The Blank Space you can make checks payable to The Blank Space and mail it to 206 W. Main St., Westfield, IN 46074.

A huge thank you to those of you who have been by our side guiding us, praying for us and for this impactful space for students. Thank you in advance to those of you who will become involved, will donate and pray. We see this as a true community and that includes all of our supporters.

Trip Two: Cincinnati Part 1

2012-04-20T00:53:50Z

We took our boys on trip two of hopefully ten trips to celebrate our ten year anniversary. We haven’t really been anywhere besides the lake and family’s houses since Jude was born. We always said we’d travel with the kids as much as we could but then that money thing kicks in and it’s just not as easy as we were hoping. A friend also pointed out to Pat that we’ve always gone to visit friends on our previous family trips with Zane and haven’t truly done a vacation just with our family alone. So where did we pick to do this? Cincinnati, Ohio. While everyone else around here went to the warm beaches of the south we headed to Cincy because we’ve been wanting to explore the city for awhile and it was a short enough drive after having our nephews that it wouldn’t make us go crazy with Jude and Zane along for the ride.

We got a ton of advice from friends and those of you on Facebook and Twitter of places to eat and visit. Thank you! We didn’t get to even half of them but it was so nice to have some choices. I somehow wrote two parts to our trip...mainly because this is serving as a log for the boys of our trip. Sorry if I bore you to death!

So here’s our recap of our three day, two night stay in Cincinnati. We traveled for two hours and came into Cincinnati just before lunch time. We really wanted to go to Ault Park and let the boys run around and burn off some steam but after driving around for 20 minutes and not finding the park we decided pizza was in order. We headed to Dewey’s Pizza and were floored by their salads! The pizza was amazing too but I think Pat and I could have ate their salads all day. Jude won the pizza eating contest, or so he thought there was one, because he ate more pizza than the rest of us!

We then walked to King Arthur’s Toys down the street. This was an important toy store visit as Zane had his first amount of allowance to spend. We kept telling him he could keep it and spend it later in our trip but he was determined to get rid of it as soon as possible. We all walked around the toy store, stopped to play with things and Zane sees them - the hot wheels cars! Seriously...the kid has sooo many of these and the hot wheels may have been the smallest section in the store but he found them. And this is what he choose to spend his allowance on. We kept trying to convince him of some cooler items but he insisted on the set of hot wheels cars.

Two shops down was Blue Mantee Children’s Bookstore. This place was super cool! A book store all for kids and Jude was in heaven! He ran from shelf to shelf yelling “BOOK! BOOK! BOOK!” and of course took down a lot of books as he ran. They decorated this store so cutely and we loved exploring the small little sections they had setup. They have a cafe that is filled with kid-friendly items but we had just stuffed ourselves with pizza and salad and planned for ice cream later so we didn’t partake in it.

We heard over and over that we had to hit up Graeter’s Ice Cream while in town. This was the only thing that got the boys out of the bookstore and it did not disappoint. We all got some version of the “chip” ice cream...with strawberry, chocolate chip cookie dough and coconut chip. Yum!

With our stomaches full we headed to the Cincinnati Art Museum. We have been taking Zane to art museums since he was super little but we’ve only taken Jude a couple of times and with the stage he is in right now I was a little worried about it. There are some art museums that kind of stick their nose up to kids being there and some that are super excepting and understand the need for children of all ages to be exposed to art. Jude did great but enjoyed hearing his voice echo in each new gallery and tested it out in each one. We got a lot of smiles instead of glares so that’s always good. The art museum had a good collection but a super small contemporary art section. They had a Monet exhibit and Picasso drawing exhibit so that was just perfect for us. In the Monet section the museum personnel came up to remind us, mostly talking to Zane, that we most stay behind the white line when viewing the paintings. Zane looked at me and said, “Mom, we know that!” Ha! Love that kid.

Pat was checking out a couple of things on our way out so I took the boys outside to get some fresh air. Zane decided to play Spiderman on the front steps of the museum. He was jumping around “sticking” to the steps! As we left, we took photos in the front and then walked 10 steps and it started pouring. We jumped under some random tents that were setup so I could cover my camera and then waited for it to die down because our car was pretty far away (we avoided paying for parking though). It finally came to just a sprinkle and we took off in a slow run to the car. Half way through it start pouring again! Zane held my hand as we sprinted through the ran and Pat sprint pushed Jude in the stroller. Zane yelled “I’m soaked! I’m soooo wet!” while Jude squealed with glee, clapping his hands together and yelling “YEAH!!! YEAH!!!!” as he got soaked. Hilarious!

We had plans to hit up another park and head to the Contemporary Arts Center but we were now completely soaked. We stopped by the park to see the view and decided we’d come back but opted out of the Arts Center because of how wet we were. I guess it gives us another reason to go back! Instead we headed to the hotel to jump on the bed and swim.

After lots of jumping, a long swim and some drying off we were starving and headed to Hofbrauhaus for dinner - think German dining at huge tables with huge beers and huge portions. We got pretzels to share as a family and Pat and I tried some different beers. Best of all...I had spaetzle which I love. Zane’s tiredness ended up hitting him at the end of the meal and he had a breakdown in the restaurant but the waiter handled it really well, not as well as Pat and I.

Unfortunately that night was filled with Jude coughing so much that he made himself throw up a couple of times. He also had a diaper rash so bad that he had welts on his booty so we ended up giving him a bath at 2am. It wasn’t exactly the best sleep and made us super stressed out. Of course he gets sick on our trip! After some arguments (I can admit that right?) we all finally fell asleep.

I Don't Dress My Boys Cute

2012-04-13T12:02:48Z

I have had this blog post sitting written for awhile and read this yesterday. It made me realize I wasn't the only one feeling this way. There is this problem with the way us moms use the internet. We use it to connect with one another, get advice, feel normal, laugh with other moms and cry with them. But then there's the other side...looking at photos, reading about their "perfect" lives, seeing them juggle 4,000 things when you can only seem to keep one thing going and the comparing goes on and on.

I am constantly reminded of this when I say something to Pat about what so and so is doing or how they baked this or that and created some craft that I can't even get Zane to sit and concentrate on for more than five minutes. And Pat has such a way of getting to the point, "Who cares? You do your own thing with our boys and they love it." Who cares? Apparently I do since I let it get me down so much. And don't get me started on Pinterest. I have a love/hate relationship with it in that I get some great ideas, mainly cooking inspiration and diy stuff for our house. But it also makes me feel like a failure a lot. Who has time to do these things, photograph them in the perfect light and then blog about it?! Does it mean I've tried some things and have failed miserably? Most of the time. How can a picture look that good and my cooking resulted in nothing that should ever be photographed and put on the internet? Or that anyone should eat, which again, my honest husband will tell me when we probably shouldn't have that for dinner again, and I usually agree.

Then there's the way everyone seems to dress their boys. Where are you people shopping?! And more importantly, for those with older boys, how in the world are you getting them to wear cute things? A friend the other day explained on Facebook that her son likes to dress up. I think that gene did not get passed down to Zane at all. It's character T-shirts from the grandparents and pants with holes in them. He falls so much that I literally bought a new pair of khakis and within two days there was a hole in the knee. So I refuse to spend a lot of money on clothes for him. I bought all these adorable button up shirts with plaid that were "rockstar" looking thinking he'd love them. Nope...including the cool shoes I bought him. Instead he prefers the Spiderman ones he saw when I was trying to get Converse-like shoes.

And then poor Jude doesn't have a chance. He has all hand-me-downs that survived Zane's wear and tear. There are some days I just look at Jude and laugh in realizing what one of us has put him in. Like the photo above...does he not look a gym teacher? Look again, you know you see your fifth grade gym teacher! Tight T-shirt tucked into work-out pants. Yep, I dressed my son like that.

I hope that they develop their own styles as they get older and I think that's part of my problem. I don't want to decide that for them since they have such unique personalities and anything I try to convince them of they'll always choose the other. Jude has started too! He has one Elmo shirt and two pairs of Elmo pjs. He will shake his head no when I pull something out, go to his dresser and start pulling things out saying "Elmo." Maybe it's because I was so stubborn about no character stuff when Zane was little that it has come full force into my house and the boys love it.

But I can't let it bother me...why should I? I can't look at all the other moms and compare myself. I love what the article I referenced said..."your children need you." And that is what matters. That I'm me, their goofy mother who trips while chasing them as they trip and rip holes in their pants!

Keeping Four Boys Busy

2012-04-13T01:10:45Z

Our two nephews came to stay with us the beginning of last week while their mom and dad enjoyed a much needed vacation. The night before they arrived I knew I had to have some activities in my back pocket in case all the boys got bored or the weather was bad and they couldn't run around outside. It was nice outside and on each day there was a point that I thought I had to find something for them all to do instead of them fighting over the same match box car. My attempt at making an indoor race track with masking tape that went on the floor and onto the couches didn't work so well. Jude kept trying to pull it up, which made the older boys angry. Then Camden and Zane were arguing over who got to race first, who was winning and where the finish line was placed.

I'm proud to say my second attempt went over much better though! I mixed some cornstarch and water, added some of the food dye we have in our house (because I can't use it for anything else since Zane's allergic to it). This was a hit! All four boys flung the "chalk paint" all over our back deck and of course all over each other. It was brilliant to watch and the giggles was worth the mess of cleaning of them up.

After spending some time with these four boys I realized how much stinkin fun they are going to have growing up! They are all in age ranges that they can enjoy one another, and yes fight over toys too, but they'll have such great memories together and that's a pretty wonderful thing to share with your cousins.

Here's how the mess started.

Ethan was pretty happy about getting messy.

The little guys painting each other.

Zane was doing a "paint dance." I have no clue...he's Pat and I's child, that should explain the weirdness.

Jude was the only one who sat for over an hour and painted. Daddy was proud.

The older boys were covered.

But Jude won for being the messiest.

Bread: Vermont Cheddar

2012-04-10T18:57:47Z

This is some good bread! I say that about all of them though don't I? I got the cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and have really enjoyed some of the recipes. Here is the recipe below. I have added in a bit more cheese and I think next time I might add some minced garlic.

Vermont Cheddar Bread

3	cups lukewarm water (85 to 100 degrees)
1 1/2	tablespoons instant yeast
1 1/2	tablespoons salt
1 1/2	tablespoons sugar
6 1/2	cups flour
1 1/2	cup grated cheddar cheese
	Cornmeal (for dusting)
	Flour (for sprinkling)
1	cup hot water (for the oven)

1. In a large bowl or food container, mix the water, yeast, salt, and sugar together. Stir in the flour and grated cheese until just combined; you may have to use your hands to incorporate the last bit of flour. Alternately, use a food processor with a dough attachment or a standing mixer with a dough hook to combine ingredients. Do not knead the dough.

2. Cover the container loosely with a towel or plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at room temperature (65 to 75 degrees) for 2 hours or until the dough rises and collapses.

3. The dough is now ready for baking, but it's easier to handle after refrigeration. Refrigerate in a loosely covered container for up to 7 days.

4. When ready to bake, have ready a pizza peel or baking sheet dusted liberally with cornmeal. Sprinkle the dough generously with flour and cut off a 1 pound piece (about the size of a grapefruit) for each loaf. Sprinkle the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom as you rotate the ball in your hands. Place the ball of dough on the pizza peel or baking sheet. Let rise at room temperature for 1 hour (40 minutes if you're using fresh, unrefrigerated dough).

5. Set the oven at 450 degrees. Place a baking stone or baking sheet on the lowest rack and an empty broiler tray on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising bread.

6. Sprinkle the loaf generously with flour. Using a serrated bread knife, quickly slash a cross or tic-tac-toe pattern across the top of the bread.

7. Slide the loaf of bread off the peel or baking sheet onto the hot pizza stone or baking sheet. Pour 1 cup hot water into the hot broiler tray. Quickly close the oven door.

8. Bake the bread for 25 minutes, or until it looks deeply golden and firm. Smaller or larger loaves will require more or less baking time. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.