Spring Lessons in the Works

Happy Spring Everybody!

My little posies. :)

Oh, my dear month of April. Every year it's here and gone before I know it. I've had to take a little detour on my path to learning. It seems that while you can learn something new every day and tackle spring cleaning and write a blog and keep up with all the everyday stuff . . . it usually comes with the price tag of a 2 a.m. bedtime.

My husband keeps offering to build me a padded Velcro wall so I can put the kids in little terrycloth suits and just, ya know, stick them up there. "They'd think it was fun and just think of all the stuff you could get done!" Every time he mentioned it I always chuckled and thought how funny my husband is and what crazy and unique ideas he has. Until I learned today that Velcro walls actually exist.

And you can rent them. 

I gotta say, that looks pretty fun . . .

"Why do you need a Velcro wall?" you might find yourself asking yourself.

 (If you are the sort that would ask such a thing of yourself.)

Well, I will give you the example of my daughter's recent birthday.

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I Learned to Laugh "Today"

I set out to make a layered birthday cake. It was on my to-learn list ever since my lesson on how to make a cake from scratch. Of course, I was also running around trying to get the house prepared for the Par-tay that night. What a bustle of activity! I whipped up the cake from a box. Although I am a new fan of scratch cakes, I still have a few boxed ones to use up. I planned on putting my extra time into decorating the cake, anyway. Most girls I know that are her age want ponies or princesses or butterflies on their cakes. And their parents buy beautiful works of art from the local bakery. Because of Waybum's food allergies we can't get a lot of bakery items. And it's alright because those cakes cost more than the presents we bought for her.

Waybums wanted a dinosaur cake. A pink dinosaur cake.

So, I got started . . .

Mmm. Strawberry cake.

I put the cake in the oven and set the kitchen timer
and bustled about on the preparations.

Like clearing off the table.
Which on that day was a hefty order. . .

AAAAAHHH!

I had started sorting the kids' clothes and downstairs toys on top of the table and somehow other things layered on top and before I knew it, FEMA showed up and asked if I needed some help. . .

I worked on it for awhile and was ready to throw my hands in the air and have people eat their hamburgers on the driveway. And then I started scolding myself. Out loud. Why did I volunteer to have a party when I am in the midst of an ongoing, massive organization project? Am I crazy? What was I thinking?

-BeeP!-

Cake's done.

I took the cake out of the oven and put it on
the rack on the back of the counter to cool.

I figured, "I'd just let Super Hubby clear the table when he gets home and I'll work on the bedroom."
Because the biggest design flaw in this place is that you can only access the main floor bathroom by going through the master bedroom. So I was in there reclaiming it from the laundry (again) and pondering that I don't know who remodeled our house, but it seems to me that they didn't really think it through.

Here is one example of their throw-it-togetherness:

Let's put an arch in the bedroom - wouldn't that be cool?

Oh, but there's a window frame in the way.

Ooh! Let's just cut the original 1900s window frame to accomodate

the cheesy plaster decor. But we'll paint it after we put it in....

I mean, really?

Anyway, I was contemplating this when Waybums came running into the bedroom.

"Mother! Come to the kitchen quick!! It's an EMeRGeNCY!"

I ran to the kitchen, going over the possibilities in my brain on the way there.

Fire? Don't see how that could be. The oven's off.

Flood? Sink's off and dishwasher isn't running...

Tornado? Well, it may look like one hit. . .

I got to the kitchen and realize that the natural disaster was . . .

Little Sister.

I had taken the precaution of pushing the cake to the back of the counter, but it seemed that I underestimated the ingenuity of a little person that smelled
strawberry cake and wanted to sample it. On the sly.

Little Koda, tiny thing, had dragged a chair to the kitchen and climbed up onto the counter and was leaning over a decimated layer of cooling strawberry cake.

AAAAAAAHH!

LoL! Ok, so I can laugh now.

In fact, it didn't take me very long to laugh then.

(And now you know why a Velcro wall would be so handy for me.)

I guess what I learned from this experience is that

things get stressful it sometimes and make me want to . . .

 . . . well, you know.

But I am trying my hardest to take everything in perspective.

It's just a cake.

It's just a messy table.

It's not going to ruin life as I know it

and I am sure that we'll all survive.

Super Hubby picked up another mix from the store

and instead of a two-layer cake . . .

Waybums got a three-layer cake.

Tah-dah!

She said it was the most beautiful cake she ever saw.

(Of course she also thought the apple-flavored potato-starch Easter grass was yummy,

so there's no accounting for taste, there.)

And because she's just such a sweetheart,

she had insisted that Koda should get her own cake, too.

That is, after she served her sentence in time-out.

And as for the table . . . it got cleared off.
(Thanks to heroic measures from Super Hubby.)

Although I found it amusing to see what it looked like after the party....

What was all that fuss for again?

You'll be pleased to know that it has fully recovered since then.

When something seems overwhelming I am just learning to stop and evaluate.

My new motto is

"If it's going to be a funny story someday, why not laugh now?

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Just one of the many lessons I've been learning. Anyway, with April being such a busy month, I plan to take a brief hiatus until after the first week of May. I have been lining up some pretty cool learning experiences, so I'm excited to keep you posted!

Until then - Get out there and learn something fun! :)