Musings on Life and Beauty Archives - Page 140 of 146

Cupcakes and Friends

August 1, 2009 jennifer Musings on Life and Beauty

My girls had some friends over earlier this week, and I let them loose in my kitchen for an adventure in baking cupcakes.

Part of me wishes that I’d taken pictures of them while they were making the cupcakes. They had a great time. But I think it was best that I didn’t get the camera out until the end of the project because I think they would have been a little intimidated by the camera. They would have felt more like they had to do it “right” and less like they could have fun. So it all worked out well, I believe. I just sat in the other room and listened as they mixed batter, poured it into muffin tins, baked, checked for doneness, mixed up frosting, decided how much sugar they should add to the frosting to make it thick enough, and on and on. It was great.

And in the end, the cupcakes they produced were great, too.
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The icing set well, and they were very cheerfully decorated. The cupcakes themselves even tasted good.
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Best of all, we had five happy girls who were very proud of their creations.
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We also had an amazing kitchen counter when it was all said and done:
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Have you ever seen a batter bowl like this?
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Yep. We had a pretty decent mess.
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And some scrubbing to do.
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We even had a few cupcakes that had been forgotten.
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But more importantly, we had happy faces.
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And a fun memory, not to mention sweet treats.
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I also think they learned. This was a building block in their baking skills experience.
It will help them get better at it. (In fact, my girls baked some miniature cakes the next day for their dolls, and they did it in less time and with much less mess.)

Sometimes I forget that learning makes some messes. But we get better at it, if we keep trying.

It gets easier to clean up, and we make fewer messes as we learn and grow. But isn’t it wonderful that we can try?
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I know that I make a lot of messes, both in my kitchen and in many other aspects of life.
I’m grateful I can keep trying and make fewer messes as I improve.
And hopefully, in the end, I’ll have some yummy cupcakes to show for it.

Leave a comment 8 kids, baking, cupcakes

Look up!

July 24, 2009 jennifer Musings on Life and Beauty

This afternoon I decided to brave the heat (yes I’m being a wimp but I have a good excuse) and clear my front porch of all the kid clutter that they’ve left behind.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, I’ll list some of the items I found there: socks, toys, empty cups with spoons in them from yesterday’s snow cone adventures, trash, jewelry, and a selection of Dad’s tools from this morning’s skateboard workshop.

It’s nice to get things put away, swept up, and looking a little more inviting.

As I was walking around the house to put something away, I looked up.

And something wonderful happened.
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I was instantly struck by the beauty of the sky: the gorgeous blue and fluffy white clouds everywhere.
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It reminded me of a quote I memorized years ago:
“The sky is the daily bread of the eye.”

I paused to turn around in a circle and drink in the beauty in every direction.
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I realized what a blessing it can be to look up in life.
My day was enhanced by simply absorbing a bit of beauty that had been there for the taking for who knows how long.
I’m so glad I didn’t miss it. I wasn’t aware that my heart was hungry for such a sight.

I realized how often I get my head down, focusing only on the task at hand, on getting through or just enduring.
Sometimes all it takes is a few minutes to look up and drink in the big picture, remembering that there is much of beauty and life and happiness to be enjoyed.
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Much of our experience is a matter of perspective.
In raising my eyes today, my perspective was enlarged.
I felt more appreciative of the simple abundance around me, more aware of the gift of life.
I walked inside feeling like a happier person than when I walked out.
I wonder how many times a day God has gifts like this just waiting for us? How often has He prepared something of great beauty to buoy us up on our journey? Do we notice? And if we do, do we let it change us?
How can we receive his gifts if we don’t see them?

My invitation today: look up! Look around! Notice the simple gifts that are waiting for you, and partake.
Have a wonderful day!

Will I miss it?

July 20, 2009 jennifer Musings on Life and Beauty

As a disclaimer at the beginning of this post, I will freely confess that I am not finding the last month of pregnancy particularly enjoyable. Mostly I’m feeling like surely it’s already been nine months and this whole state of existence should have ended by now… but that’s obviously not the case, as anyone can plainly see.

This morning I took some pictures of my 18 month old trying to do a forward roll. She’s really good at getting her head on the floor, but cannot push herself over. Still, she tries and she laughs and she does it over and over again.
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It was cute enough to me that I managed to get the camera out, and even crouch down on the floor in an attempt to get a photo I would like.
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Then she found a pair of my shoes that I didn’t put away after coming home from church yesterday.
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So we took some pictures of her trying to do a somersault in her mom’s heels.
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Little moments like this, I know I will miss someday. I’m sure I’ll wish I still had a baby rolling around on my family room floor, babbling and laughing without a care in the world.
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Yes, I know I will miss this.
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But there are other things I wonder about.

I just finished watching a slideshow of our vacation pictures, which I turned on to help that same adorable 18 month old snap out of a tantrum she was throwing. Thankfully it worked, but I ended up with her sitting on top of my pregnant stomach, with my three year old sitting on what is left of my lap, and my four year old sitting on my shoulder, wrapping her legs around my arms, neck, and so forth.

Let’s just say that I felt a little smothered during that 30 minute experience. And we’ll say that I felt a little bit warm with about 80 extra pounds sitting all over me. But I just sat there and told myself that I should endure it because the children were enthralled, because we were together, because aren’t mom’s supposed to handle moments like this without complaint?

And the question came to my mind, “will I miss this?”

I honestly don’t know. Given how I feel at the moment, I would think that the answer is NO WAY! But what if I’m wrong? What if I miss the feeling of having so many bodies so close to me that I want to scream? It happened yesterday at church, too. I had this moment when I wondered if I would be able to just sit there with so many people scooting closer and closer…or if I would just stand up and scream. Gratefully I survived without causing a scene.

But really, will I miss it? Will I miss the feeling of being the bottom of the family dogpile?
Barbara Kingsolver wrote, “It’s surprising how much of memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.”
Believe me, I noticed this one. But if I wasn’t 8 months pregnant, I might not have noticed it so much.

My guess is this: I may not particularly miss the feeling of being smothered by lots of wiggly little bodies, but I’ll probably miss what it represents. I think it represents a stage of life when all of a child’s problems can be solved simply by closeness, by being near their parents. A time when the world really is as small as the walls of your home and you can still keep everything unwanted out of their sweet little lives. A stage when their needs and their hearts are so uncomplicated, when all they need or want is love. A time when I really can fix most of their problems with a kiss and a hug. I’m pretty sure I will miss that.