I got a Job

I really love being a stay at home mom. I'm not so good at the keeping of the house, but I love staying at home with my kids.

Money always seems to be tight. Every once in a while, we feel so strapped for cash that I go ahead and put out a few applications. Just after Christmas, I applied for a position at Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts. Everyone in the family thought I would be perfect for the job. If I'm not reading a book, I'm crocheting or cross-stitching or beading. You get the idea.

After two weeks, I kinda gave up. I wasn't disappointed. I love staying at home with Lily and Johnny. Then, last Monday, I got a call to come in for an interview. It wasn't so much an interview as a job offer. You see, the Jo-Ann's in Coeur d'Alene is moving to a new location and the were hiring people to help stock shelves at the new store to get it ready for opening. They explained that the job would only last between 2 and 4 weeks and would be part time minimum wage. I took it. Part time, temporary minimum wage is perfect for catching up on bills. It gets me out of the house long enough to remember why I prefer to stay home.

I start the second week of February. The hardest part will be bringing my paycheck home and not spending it before I get it.

A History of Cake

Today I will be discussing the history of cake. Sort of. I will be sharing pictures of the cakes I have made over the last 6 years. 

The first awesome cake I made was a frog. I threw a 6 month birthday party for Johnny. It was an amazing first shaped cake. Regrettably, I cannot find any pictures. I'm sure they are around, I have just misplaced the disk.

The second cake was for Johnny's first birthday. It was a Noah's Ark. I am also missing pictures of this cake, but that's alright. I had the cake all made, complete with a bowl of blue jello under the cake stand, when it started to fall apart. It was a 3D cake and I did not glue the layers together well en

In January of 2009, Larch turned 30. I cranked out these two awesome cakes:

Two thousand nine was the year I discovered Bunco and so threw myself a Bunco Birthday Party. We ate ice cream cake for months. But, if Johnny every wants a Transformers birthday party, I can always make an Allspark cake.

After the Noah's Ark catastrophe, I was a little wary on Johnny's second birthday. I was just not up to creating a cake that looked like Elmo. So, I put Sesame Street cut outs on a sheet cake.

In 2010, for Johnny's 3rd birthday I had my confidence back, and created a 3D racecar.

January 2011 I got to create my first girl cake. I constructed an amazing pink and purple castle. Unfortunatly, I am unable to locate any digital pictures of this cake.

Johnny decided his fourth birthday would be a dinosaur party and that he wanted a cake from the store. His loss.

Last year, for Lily's 2nd birthday I formed this adorable monkey.

Johnny's 5th birthday was all about camo, he got cupcakes with little green army men on top.

This year, after only 24 days, I have built my two best looking cakes yet. For all thier simplicity, you can tell my skill is increasing.

Lily requested a Frosty the Snowman party. With Christmas decor on clearance, this party was really inexpensive to put together. And the cake looked amazing, if I do say so myself.

Here's my January run down: My nephew Emmett was born Jan 8, Lily is the 16th, Larch, my mom, and my dad celebrate their birth on the 18th, my Nana was born on the 19th, and Joe was born on the 22nd. AND Casey Joe joined us this year at 1:22pm on 1/22. Yep, Joe got a baby for his birthday and I now have 8 birthdays to celebrate in two week time span.

With Larch and Joe's birthday's being so close together, and not as big a deal as the kids, we generally throw one event for the two of them. This year we went bowling followed by tacos and cake at my house. Since Larch and Joe are both into military aircraft, I spent three hours planning, cutting, and frosting this masterpiece:

I can't wait to hear what Johnny plans for his 6th Birthday. I am up for almost any challenge he can throw at me.

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Why Mental Health and Gun Control Bothers Me

It is really too bad that mental health is headlining in the media in the context of gun control. I think this sends some bad messages:

1.) Crazy people kill people and therefore should not be trusted with guns.

2.)If you are seeking treatment for mental illness, we're not really going to protect your records, we're gonna put them in a background check.

3.) We only care enough about mental health to do something to make care more accessible when something really horrendous happens. If crazy people aren't committing crimes we don't care.

This is why I'm so upset every time the talking head on TV discusses new gun control measures and mental health. I feel discriminated against and judged simply because my brain is wired differently.

A Little Imagination

I am in a group studying Richard J Foster's Celebration of Discipline. This last week, as we were examining the discipline of Study, the question was asked, "Outside of the Bible, what book has had the most profound impact on your own life? Why?" (pg 35 Richard J. Foster's study guide for Celebration of Discipline)

There are 4 of us in the group: my mom, 2 of her friends, and myself.
As I struggled to formulate an answer, the other ladies gave answers that had crossed my mind. The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, books that I would loved to have said had an impact on my life. However, I read these novels in my teenage years when I didn't always see the depth of meaning in my recreational reading.

The first answer I came up with seemed weak. When I read the middle books in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I saw myself so clearly in one of the characters, that it opened my eyes to the type of man that I needed to marry. (Larch is that kind of man for the most part.)

My own well loved copy.

About the time that we were ready to move on, it struck me. Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess.
That was my favorite chapter book as a child. In some small way, I think I still hold on to the belief that dolls move when we are not in the room.

Part of me wanted to latch on to the idea that all girls are princesses. That's one of the strongest lines in the movie. That theme never appears in the book. The idea of a princess comes from Sara Crewe's wealth and her mannerisms. She often imagines herself as a princess as a motivation to treat others kindly and to put others before self.

The real message of the book is the power of imagination and seeing the values in another despite their circumstances. As Sarah imagines herself as a princess, she is able to show kindness and charity to those who are even more destitute than herself. Through her imagination she is able to forget her dire surroundings and to gain strength to fight through adversity and to see the joy in the simplest things.

A Little Princess impresses upon young girls the virtues of charity and kindness and the power of imagination. I cannot wait until Lily is old enough to read this book with me.

P. S. As I scanned the book for a line about all girls being princesses, I realized I do not remember the story is clearly as I used to. I am planning to reread it this month.