Cupcakes

I know I am not the most gifted cake baker in the world.  I have friends who are far better at it than I am; especially the part that involves making them look pretty.  I guess that's the bit where it moves from cookery (where I'm not bad) to art (where I'm a bit ropey to be honest...). 

Still, there's something really great about baking things with and for your kids.  It's Nathan's 4th birthday tomorrow (I know, where does the time go? My baby starts school in September... A post for another day...). He asked if we could take some cakes into nursery, and we did it today - as he won't be there tomorrow.

So here they are:



I know they could be neater, more glamorous and generally more artistic, but I think they're great.  Behold the glorious Rainbow Buttons, marvel at the little marshmallows, but above all - salute the Dolly Mixtures.  King of sweets.  Glorious variety in one little bag.  Marvellous.

You could understandably look at these and see blobs of cholesterol... 

But I see time spent with my kids, where we weighed stuff out (their favourite bit of the process...); where they cracked eggs without me freaking out about the shells going in (this has been a learning curve for me - I did fish a couple of little bits out...); Lots of stirring - without me having to hassle them to keep it in the bowl (a minor miracle! Tip - use a BIG bowl...), Blobbing of cake mixture (into the cases - I know, another miracle...), and counting down the minutes till the cakes were ready.  Not to mention, decorating the cakes without eating all the sweets at the same time. 

Miracles really do happen every day.

Meet the veggies!

Since my last blog and strawberry related discussion, I can report that our new strawberry plants in the garden are doing well, and actually now have something resembling strawberries on them.  Nathan is, of course, very suspicious of them - as they are tiny and not even red.  Ah well, at least I know he won't try and pick them before they're ready.

In other garden related news (I know, scintilating stuff this gardening!), the great tits in the bird box definitely have some babies.  You can hear them tweeting away (yes, real tweeting - not social networking...) just by standing in the garden.  I'm hoping to catch sight of them at some point...

And finally for this little blog post, something (also garden related - I know - it's seemless isn't it?!) to hopefully make you smile.  Any of you who have to spend a certain amount of time each day with CBeebies will hopefully recognise this...

Toxic Strawberries

Before getting down to the point of this blog...  Does anyone think 'The Toxic Strawberries' would be a good band name?  I just wrote it down, and immediately thought it sounded like a rock band.  Ah well, I digress, and before I've even started...  Could be an ominous sign...

Anyway, carry on!...

Yesterday, Nathan and I bought some new strawberry plants, along with a few others, and planted them out in our garden.  We've been attempting to grow our own fruit and vegetables with limited success over the last few years.  Last year we managed lots of potatoes, a heap of green (should have been red) tomatoes which ended up as chutney, a few dodgy looking carrots and parsnips, and three baby corn-on-the-cob...  We did also grow some impressive looking courgette plants, without courgettes on... Oh well, never mind.

My motivation for trying again, was Nathan's appalled reaction to the shop bought strawberries we had recently.  Although Nathan happily eats other strawberry (OK...  jam) based products, he obviously hadn't eaten an actual strawberry for a while; and thus had decided that they were not just unpleasant, but down right dangerous.

Of course, the fact that the rest of the family were happily tucking into the strawberries didn't seem to help.  You would have thought I was trying to make him eat a raw oyster, or some sort of creepy-crawly from a bush-tucker trial.  The strawberries were, in fact, toxic - and no amount of cajoling was going to convince him otherwise.

In the end, I did what a lot of parents do.  I told him he couldn't get down until he'd eaten the strawberry; and in the end he did eat it.  I think, despite all the angst, he did actually like it in the end. 

Thinking back on Strawberry-gate; I am thankful that we have incidents like that relatively rarely now.  Nathan had a very difficult food phase (by phase, I mean year...) after being ill for a month with a bug, and then an ear infection when he was 18 months old...  He hardly ate any normal food for a month, and afterwards, he seemed to have forgotten how.  Out of nowhere, almost all foods had moved from the 'OK' category in his head to the 'probably toxic - avoid at all costs' area.  We spent the next year slowly re-introducing foods, until he was finally eating something resembling a normal diet.  It was a very difficult and stressful time, and I'm so thankful that we are basically over that now.

And so, we will grow our own strawberries.  Water them.  Talk to them.  Give them straw beds to sleep on, etc. etc.  And hope that by the time they are ready to eat, a certain person will have decided they are not toxic after-all...

In the mean time, I might buy some more from the supermarket.  Let the desensitization commence!

I was made for this

What do Bruce Springsteen, Steppenwolf and Vin Diesel's character xXx have in common?

*Obscure connection alert*

They all know what they were born to do. 

They were born to run, be wild, and 'for this ****' (ie jumping off tall buildings whilst shooting at random bad guys etc...) respectively.

I know it's sometimes difficult to know what you were made to do.  Sometimes it's difficult to know what to do from one day (or hour) to the next.  I know that life with small children can make it very difficult to see beyond the end of your own nose, and that actually - just keeping everybody fed and clean, and not so sleep deprived that they are constantly crying (this applies to both big and small people) is enough to be managing, without thinking about anything more long term.

I know young people (I know this makes me sound like an old bag, but bear with me...) find this whole thing particularly stressful.  From early on at secondary school they are expected to be making choices with an eye on their future career path.  Just studying History because you like History isn't seen as good motivation... You have to know where you are going with everything.  It's easy to feel completely at sea.  Like you're drifting aimlessly with no real purpose.

It's at times like this when I cling onto the promises I find in the Bible.  Things like:

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."  Jeremiah 29:11-12

I find it amazing that God has even given me a single thought.  After all, He does have quite a lot to be getting on with.  But there it is in black and white; He doesn't just think about me - He has plans and purposes for me and my little life.  Amazing.

In his time on earth, Jesus was passionate in his desire to help people become all they were created to be.  He claimed:

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10

It's reasonable to state that this is still what Jesus longs to do for every person.  I'm sure that it is. However, sometimes I wonder if I would recognise 'life to the full' if it jumped up and bit me...  I can be so preoccupied with other things.  So easily distracted.

And yet, sometimes I catch a glimpse - a tantalizing taste - of what life can be like. 

I had one of those moments on Sunday evening at church when I was leading the worship.  All the elements of the service had come together as if we'd spent hours planning it (which we hadn't!), and we were singing a song that I just knew was going to be right for that moment.  The band and the congregation were altogether as one unit, singing about the amazing God who we have come to know and love, because He first loved us - and gave everything for us. 

And I just felt like God whispered in my ear...  "I made you for this".  In that instant, I knew there was nowhere in the world I'd rather be, and nothing I'd rather be doing.  I was 100% me, living life to the full, and loving every second.

I felt humbled and yet so joyful that - for that moment in time at least - I was doing exactly what I was created for. 

I guess that's maybe how it works.  We don't always see the big picture, or where it is we're heading.  All we can do is try to offer up each moment to the God who has the plans, and do our best to walk where He's leading.