The Ugliest Cake and a Lesson on Forgiveness

The day before MaryElise turned three I wasn't feeling good. I knew I needed a cake and I was debating whether to make one or pick on up at the grocery store. Tom and Josiah were headed to the store so I enlisted them to find a cute pink cake for MaryElise's birthday.

Sometime later Tom called from the store describing some of the cakes. He told me about a "Diner Cake". I had no idea what he was talking about. I heard the lady in the bakery talking about a "big cupcake cake" or a Cinderella cake and then Tom said, "Okay, I think we got it covered" and then he hung up. I felt secure knowing he would come home with something cute with the help from the bakery lady.

He entered the house carrying a cake box and I took a peek inside to see what kind of a cute cake he chose. The cake he came home with looked more like a jelly doughnut explosion than a birthday cake. The sides were smeared with strawberry jelly and the top had mounds of icing and globs of jelly. It was the ugliest cake I had ever seen. I responded by going into my room and crying. (Really mature I know) Much to Josiah's credit, he came in and apologized and said it was his idea. He thought the cake looked great.

Throughout the day I couldn't get over my disappointment. I rehearsed the situation over again in my mind and the frustration began to grow. "How could he be so clueless? This cake is ugly. It isn't even pink. Maybe I'll get lucky and the cake will accidentally fall on the floor and I'll have to get a new one. There is no way I want to take pictures of my cute little girl with such an ugly cake!"

I didn't realize how far I had let the situation go until dinner. I can't remember exactly what it was that I said, but Tom's reply was, "Oh, that really sounds like forgiveness". I realized from his tone that I had not forgiven him. I was choosing to wallow in the disappointment rather than forgiving and letting go. God convicted my heart. How many times have we as parents spoken to our children about the importance of forgiveness and here I was holding on to something silly!
In Colossians 3:13 it says, "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." I had a choice to make and I chose to forgive. (Needless to say, I did take pictures of MaryElise with the cake that we still fondly refer to as the Jelly Doughnut Explosion!)

Good Friday

In honor of Good Friday, the children made a Garden Tomb. I got the idea from the blog A Holy Experience. The children planted some herbs in a flower pot we had on the deck and put a large stone in the garden to represent the garden tomb. Another rock was placed in front of the large stone to represent the stone that was rolled in place to seal Jesus' tomb. A candle is in our garden because Jesus is the Light of the World. On Easter the stone will be rolled away and we will celebrate the good news that the tomb is empty!

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said,
'Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here; he has risen!"
Luke 24:1-6

Ingredients Matter

In honor of Courtney's 18th birthday, and because she has gone vegan, I decided to make her favorite German Chocolate Cake " vegan style". I found a great recipe online and baked the cake. It smelled delicious baking! The frosting however, was a different story. I mixed the ingredients and put it on the stovetop to heat. After awhile the frosting doubled in size and was foamy. I transferred the frosting to my biggest pan and was a little amazed when it continued growing in size. Finally it bubbled out of my pan and onto the stove. I was mortified. I so wanted to bless Courtney, but I had made a mess of the frosting and the stove.

When she came home I told her what happened. She said, "Mom, you did use corn syrup or cornstarch?" I looked up in the cabinet and saw the cornstarch on the shelf and realized I had never taken it out of the cupboard. I had used Baking Soda instead! Oh my. No wonder it acted more like the boys' volcano science experiment rather than frosting. By the way, Josiah fondly calls my concoction "frothing" rather than frosting! With a quick trip to the store and all the right ingredients, the cake was completed. But I sure learned a lesson. Putting something in that doesn't belong can spell disaster. Ingredients are important!

What is your recipe for life? Is your life bubbling out of control like my "frothing"? What kind of ingredients are you putting inside of you? Are there things in your life that you are compromising or substituting for the ingredients that really belong? I know that listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit are so vital in life. Sometimes I ignore what God might be trying to tell me thinking, "Oh, this is no big thing" but God knows what is best for me. He designed me (and He designed you too) and He knows what is best to make each of our lives perfect in His sight.

An Incredible Tool to Help You Understand The Heart of Your Child

Discover Your Child's Heart with the
Kids Flag Page

This is a resource created by Tim Kimmel and Mark Gungor. "Consider this the operating manual that SHOULD have come with each of your kids...BUT DIDN'T."

Having seven children you think I would have figured out this parenting thing by now...but having seven children has shown me just how much I still need to learn! What works for one of my children does absolutely no good with another. What motivates one, frustrates another!

I found this resource and thought I would give it a try. It is a "game" for a parent and child to do together. At the end, you will have a great handle of who your child is and what is needed to motivate them. The guide says it works best with children from 6-11, but I used it on my 14 year old as well.

This is the best parenting tool I have ever used! What I learned from doing this one on one with each of my children has opened my eyes up in a way to understand them and their unique personalities and how to parent them individually.

To begin you find a quiet place to play the game one on one with your child. They look at each of the cards and decide if it is Always Me, Sometimes Me, or Never Me. The cards say things like, "I think it's possible" or "I like things to stay calm" etc. All the cards reflect one of the four "Home Countries" (The Perfect Country, The Peace Country, The Control Country, and The Fun Country) The child puts the cards in one of the three piles according to how they see themselves (not how mom or dad sees them). Then they choose their top 6 from the Always Me pile and then out of the 6 they choose their favorite.

From the way they place their cards the parent tallies them up and finds out the "Home Country" and the "Adopted Country". There is a book that goes along with the game that helps to explain what each country means and things you see from children that belong to the four different countries. The thing that was extremely insightful was understanding how the Home Country and the Adopted Country play out together in how children act and respond to situations. This was the so eye opening to me to help me see into the heart of my children. It was an incredible blessing and has helped me in parenting them according to what motivates and encourages them, rather than what could hurt my relationship with them.

You can find this resource at Family Matters. There are four flag pages in each game, enough to do with four children. If you need more flag pages you can order additional pages separate from the game itself. If you use this resource post a comment and let me know what you think about it!

A Wonderful Challenge

When I was younger memorizing God's Word came so easily for me. However, as the years have passed it has become more difficult. This year I have been challenged by a friend to not only read but to memorize the book of Colossians. Want to join me? Riann even shared a link to a wonderful tool to help. I'm a week behind, but it's only two verses a week. What a blessing!

Living Nativity 2010

Two of our little "angels" are pictured in this article!
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Advent Wreath

Our church has an advent wreath at Christmastime. The wreath consists of 4 taper candles (3 purple and 1 pink) and a white Christ candle in the center. (Our wreath is missing the white candle right now.)

The word "advent" means "coming". The during Advent, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, we stop to remember that we are looking forward to the coming of Jesus to earth.
Over the years we have used several different Advent Devotionals, some kid-friendly, others a little challenging. One devotional that I have used the past several Christmases is Looking Forward to the Nativity. It isn't an "Advent" devotional that speaks directly to the meaning of each candle, but it is a great devotional that begins with creation, speaks of sin entering the world, and our need for a savior throughout the generations. Another book we have used is Christ in the Carols. It is a great devotional too that tells the meaning and the history of the various Christmas carols. I usually just read one devotional, and then use the other to sing carols with the family. (Courtney and I made the wreath many years ago from a wreath, picks, candle holders and ribbon. She picked out all the pieces as a 2 year old and we've been using it ever since!)