Life is such a mixed grill, as Anne Lamott would say. I love the sun, but I hate the wind. It seems they are married these days.
I finally have some sharp knives but then I went and cut my finger again. Waterproof Band-Aids, I’ve learned, are about the best invention in the whole wide world.
As happens with kids who clean up their room by stuffing things in drawers, Story’s desk became filled to the brim, so I made her take everything out of all the drawers a couple days ago, and then we had to go through this mess! We filled a trash bag and wore ourselves out.
Sailor’s allergies are the thing wearing her out. We have her on Zyrtec and Flonase, plus some eye drops as needed. If we keep her inside, she’s a lot better. Outside there is the wind the wind the wind the wind.
We are big fans of the library and of the Puffs brand of tissues. Let me tell you how these two things connect. You know what it’s like to open your washing machine and find that someone left a Kleenex in their pocket and now it’s all over the wet clothes? Well, multiply that by 200, and that is what I found the other day when I opened the washing machine lid and realized I had run a library book through the wash. A little sleuthing led me to the discovery that an Encyclopedia Brown paperback book of Story’s was on the floor under a pile of her dirty clothes, and I picked it all up together and tossed it in without noticing the book. After the damage was done, TJ and I had to spend thirty minutes shaking out each and every item outside to try and get at least some of the book debris off the clothes before letting the dryer finish the job. It was a mess. But the mess and the time spent shaking out laundry in the wind (yes, the wind) made me so thankful for washing machines and for TJ. The only remains of the book were this, and the library let me off easy with just a $6.99 lesson plus our time. I’m still a big fan of the library and Puffs. And at least Story had already read the book.
I’m learning again and again that it is the hard things that make life fully good. It is the obstacles that help me grow and make me a better person. I just want easy, safe, warm, and convenient. I still want sun and no wind. I want cooperation and organization from my children without the training. I want to have my cake and eat it too.
So I made a chocolate cake. I’m not a baker, so that’s why making a chocolate cake is noteworthy. I also made homemade cinnamon rolls a few weeks ago. TJ’s love language is cinnamon rolls, so I did my best with this Sally’s Baking Addiction recipe. I was pretty happy with the turnout, as was the man.
These are in the fun category, I get that. But even in small ways like new challenges in the kitchen, it is when I push myself and stretch my skills and do new things that I grow into a better baker.
Life isn’t all cake and cinnamon rolls. You know why?
Because our chickens are giving us a million eggs and they are gorgeous and so good to eat.
But also because life is a lesson, and the lesson is this book TJ is reading. It is about the most true thing I know these days, and I am doing my best to let the lesson sink in. I hate it about as much as I hate the wind, but just because I hate it doesn’t mean it’s not good.
I have to deal with the hurts and the cuts and the discontentment and the boring and the busy. It is all part of the process. I have to train my children, and I have to train myself. I have to get up and out. I have to stop and stare. I have to take the sun with the wind. I don’t always get to pick and choose, and maybe that is the secret to happiness if I can have a perspective shift in those moments.
Let me bring it home to myself. I had to take the little girl with the allergies (heck, I WAS the little girl with the allergies, so I do feel bad for her) shopping with me the other day, which meant I had to listen to her sniff and sniff and sniff and sniff. BUT I also got to take the little girl with the allergies to Great Harvest and get her a cookie and watch her smile and smile and smile and smile. It’s the good, the bad, and the pretty.
