lindsey’s baking adventures

So I I baked bread the other day, and it was seriously GOOD. I should explain that the bread I had tried baking the day before was a disaster. It didn’t rise enough, so it was dry and dense. I was pretty convinced that was a complete failure as a cook and told David to just buy a loaf of bread on his way home (something we have not done since we got married). David, always eager to find a way to make me not upset, looked on the jar of yeast and suggested that I might try adding the ingredients in a different order. My announcement the next day that I was going to bake bread was met with hesitant encouragement. David doesn’t like to see me upset, but he says he likes that I get so excited about things and understands that it means I am just that much more upset when they don’t work. He does, however, prefer that (if at all possible) I avoid starting activities that have a high probability of ending with me upset shortly before he’s supposed to go take a test. He also has a tendency to ask whether I have work that I ought to be doing instead of whatever project I have chosen that day to assist me in procrastinating.

On this particular day, David was preparing for a test and I was supposed to be writing one. But I wanted to conquer this project and stopping with my failed bread-making attempt the day before was discouraging. So David gave me a skeptical look and as soon as I started, I’m pretty sure started praying that he wouldn’t have to be up half the night making up for lost study time. (Once I start a project, he is nothing but encouraging.)

But the bread turned out great!

I got so excited that I made some honey-butter to go on it. It made two loaves and we’ve been eating them all week.

Yesterday I had SAA book club. Thursday is my last day of teaching for the week, and I am done by 11:15. On Thursday afternoons I usually fall asleep or cook, because the last thing I want to do is grade or do class preps for the next week. (I was the same way after my last class on Friday afternoons in college. By Friday night I was ready to work again, but I usually spent the afternoon doing something totally unrelated to school.) So I decided to make cupcakes. They’re chocolate with a peppermint cream filling, and they were a big hit with David and at book club.

Leave it to my mother-in-law, who generally hates to cook, to introduce me to the best chocolate frosting ever (thanks Lori!). Who knew the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa box contained such an important recipe?! It’s all amusing to me because my family is pretty sure David and I subsist on pasta salad (See! I can make other things!) and my friends here were intrigued of the fact that I got the cream filling inside the cupcakes. Being here is definitely better for my ego, but I’m there must be something beneficial about the dose of reality my family offers. : )

breathtakingly ordinary

So here’s what I’ve learned: there will always be someone who is better at what you do, who has done it longer, who knows more. It seems that when life is hard, there are plenty of people to encourage you that it will get better and a couple of people to point out that it will inevitably get harder at some point. This is expected. I have also found that when life is enjoyable–be it overwhelmingly exciting or just everyday pleasant–people feel the need to tell you that you ought to enjoy what you have now, because these are the easiest times. As if a reminder of inevitable and impending doom will help you enjoy the present better. People always talk about how being engaged is so much easier than being married. True, you don’t many of the responsibilities that come with marriage. But what married person in his/her right mind actually wants to return to being engaged? People tell you to enjoy the time before you have kids because life is never the same. Of course life is never the same! It’s not supposed to be! Circumstances change, people change, life changes. I hope nobody married wants to return to a state of singleness. And I hope nobody with kids would rather be childless again. All this doom and gloom causes people to live waiting for the other shoe to drop; they can neither enjoy the present nor anticipate the future. So here is what I have decided: enjoy now, look forward to tomorrow. The future has excitement and heartache. Don’t try to pre-live either. Be excited about the future can increase present joy, but living tomorrow’s excitement robs you of today. On the other hand, life has hard times, but you can’t gear up for them in anticipation; God gives you what you need when you need it. Worrying now is not going to make those hard times easier when they come.

The end.