Under the Snow Pile

This is me. . .

Peeking out from the snow pile of life

and birthdays . . .

and birthday parties. . .

Two children with birthdays two years and two days apart

{there are no new comments to make about this phenomenon, believe me}

and you know. . . just stuff. . .

So much work and life and stuff.

I get bogged down in the details and I want to stay in the moment, see the gifts, not the mess.

I don't succeed very often.

My sister drew this picture of me; the title is Hayley doing a good deed with a bad attitude:

 

I about died laughing looking at it. . . how can that little puppy dog be the dead on image of me. . . in a birthday party frenzy, a get to church on time frenzy, a get your chores done so we can go sledding frenzy?

 

 

More than half the time my frustration is caused by good things, things intended to bless people, things I want to do. 

 

 

I'm reading Anne Morrow Lindbergh's beautiful little work A Gift from the Sea.  She writes to weary women, burdened, burned out American women and though the original publishing date is 1955, the words ring true to my soul today in 2013. 

 

Here is a strange paradox.  Woman instinctively wants to give, yet resents giving herself in small pieces.

 Chapter 3, Moon Shell, pg. 40

 

I know that this is true.

I want to give, but I do resent being strung out in so many places. This is a problem with no obvious solution to me. 

The other day Eli was throwing Cambria's crayons from his perch on the coffee table, awaiting my reprimand with challenging toddler eyes and  a little jutted chin.

Cambria was completely exasperated.

Ugh, we should like, have , like, a little jail for Eli!

I wanted to laugh because sometimes I'm tempted to feel the same way. . . could we just lock up all of our distractions and focus on one thing at a time?

That's not my option though and that's not what God has called me to.  He has called me to a home to open and to children to love, a man to help and little people to teach.  He's called me to give.  When I run out of things,

energy

time

resources

to give. . .

He still is there to draw on.

I'm thankful for that well that never runs dry.

#mondayquotes

"Those who lived in villas never spoke to those in huts.  Villa-dwellers pretended no one else was there.
 

. . .How easy it is to let lives go unnoticed.  Lord, keep me from letting any life slip by."
 

from Behind the Veils of Yemen

Audra Grace Shelby 

 

Grandma's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This morning was just one of those golden mornings, the kind you wanna circle on your calendar and paint with glitter glue. . .

Eli and Cambria were blissfully playing together and I decided to sneak in a shower. 

I tiptoed to the bathroom with perfectly brewed Starbucks in my favorite MFD mug, iPad belting my Pandora Marry Me (Train) station tucked under my arm and shut the door.  I need a shelf in the shower for my coffee.  It's truly the very best way to wake up, a hot shower and hot coffee.  It'll make anyone a morning person.

Anyway, I knew everything was way too good to be true, and sure enough, it was. . .  my mug fell in the shower and shattered everywhere. 

Yup, there we go, that's more like real life.

Anyway, the day wasn't ruined, because we had Grandma's sour cream coffee cake to enjoy all day.

This is just the best. . .

I called Grandma tonight to see if she remembered where she got the recipe. . . thought maybe there would be a great story. There wasn't anything earthshaking, just simple neighborly kindness that is such a thing of the past.

"It was Mary's," she said, and Mary lived behind Grandpa's greenhouses and would bring this coffee cake every once in awhile to them over their breaks.  I love stories like that and I never would have known if I didn't ask. . . *go call your grandparents*

Sour Cream Coffee Cake [Blackberry Lemon 2/7]

1 stick butter (use butter wrapper to grease 9x13 pan)
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 t. vanilla


Mix together.

Add:

2 cups flour
1 t. soda

Fold in 2 cups of fruit, fresh or frozen {apples, strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, peaches, blueberries are all amazing}

[today I used blackberries and grated in lemon zest]

Sprinkle with 1/3 sugar and a little cinnamon if it complements the fruit you choose.

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.  You don't want to over bake. . . it's meant to be very light brown with a whitish crumb. 

Why are there coins on the counter?  I don't know. . . they're Cambria's. . . probably a long drawn out story. . . 


Yay. . . it's almost Friday people!!  I can't wait!  I can barely make it to the weekends these days.  Is it too soon to be counting down the days to school being out? 

No, no, it's not.  :)