for whom the cake was baked

 It was a warm spring day twenty-three years ago. In my mind's eye I see an image of Witt wearing shorts and a tee shirt while watching his bare feet run through the green grass. It was the early evening of Maundy Thursday. The redbuds were gloriously in bloom and it was time for my second child to be born.

After his birth just shortly after midnight, (making his arrival on Good Friday), I remember being extremely hungry. The nurse brought me some Rice Krisipies. That was the best bowl of Rice Krispies I have ever eaten. Through the snap, crackle and pop, I smiled all under.

I am still smiling today.  So mature is this young man.

Alan is my child that is satisfied with excursions in the pursuit of new cake recipes. Every year I enjoy baking his birthday cake; of course, we do have our favorites. This year I baked a Hummingbird Cake,  bananas and pineapple, with lemon cream cheese frosting.

frost and turn

One day I shall take a cake decorating class. I will go to the store with my list to buy the needed supplies to decorate cakes. Then I will bake cakes, lots of them I hope, wrap them in saran wrap, place them in a basket and tote them to my specially selected class to decorate with flowers, curlicues, ribbons and such.

Maybe, just maybe, one of the items I will purchase will be a turntable.

But I find my Lazy Susan works remarkably well for frosting cakes, especially cakes with fluffy cream cheese frosting.

pretty contrasts

  There have been times these past few days that the thoughts of stoking a woodstove seemed desirable, but today Spring burst forth and decided to warm us up once again. On my afternoon walk, under cloudless skies of blue, the redbud blossoms were dazzlingly enchanting.

The blue and pink theme reminded me of babies and their cuddly soft blankets. Yet no baby announcements are presently coming across my desk. Instead I am seeing creamy invitations from brides-to-be with approaching wedding dates.

Then as part of our afternoon, we have the matter of girls in pink boots building forts by the creek.

And maidens fair that walked amongst the woody lushness.

I melted under such warmth.

the peepers

The peepers sing,

in the dusk.

      Out of the mud,

       Their song drifts

        Sweet and green.

                                       -Kathleen Tenepas-

Actually, the month-long, haunting song of the peepers has ended, and I am missing it. But the girls find them skitting across the shallow creeks beds, ready to make acquaintance.

a moment in time

While I was sitting, and sewing on white linen,

Rose stopped by with my camera and caught me at that particular moment in time. She likes to pick up my camera every once in a while to practice manual focus.

 I love the gentle blurring and glaring sunlight.

pay it forward

I know I mentioned before that so many blessed me with providing meals when my father died. It was  appreciated, beyond measure.

So today when I found out someone in my church had lost her father just this week, I was able to help by providing a meal for her family.

The girls helped me prepare lasagna, green salad, french baguette, and chocolate cake.

Then we placed the food in baskets and carried it in our arms to their table.

We know how it feels, blessings extended.

risotto

There was a time that cooking risotto seemed out of reach. For the life of me I can not imagine why I let it take on such a daunting air. Now I cook risotto quite regularly, especially since my husband gets big smile on his face when he knows it will be on the table.

The only thing to remember is that it is not a crock pot sort of dish. You must stay nearby at all times, stirring and adding broth. (Now that I think of it that was the daunting part.) Anyway, I've matured now and staying nearby is good.

And today I snipped some parsley from my herb garden and tossed it in for good measure.

think green

The concentration of green has not gone unnoticed today. I find myself looking for green things as I go about my busy way.

• Green traffic lights while chauffeuring children here and there.
• Green street signs as I traveled along side streets
• Green, spring green, grass...oh, it is so lovely
• Green sweater thrown on as I was to review children for geography, and I know they will pinch
• Green pesto in my spaghetti sauce

And sightings of prisms, over hues of green and blue.

play for me

With both girls taking piano lessons the piano certainly has its daily enterprise.

Federation pieces were practiced so proficiently that even I could have played them in my sleep.

And all the stopping by throughout the day to play their pieces over and over paid off.

Superior ratings!

a needle in my hand

I consider myself a jack of many trades, a master of nothing. 

Too many interests, handcrafts and arts I like to do or at least want to learn how to do. With the varied projects laying around my home, sometimes I get discombobulated just attempting to decide what I want to work on:

•  the hemstitched napkins for Claire, 
• the knitted tea cozy, 
• Charlottes' Easter dress, 
• the pencil case birthday present for Charlotte's friend, 
• or embroidering on the crazy quilt table runner.

 I will not even go into the new projects I am planning to begin.

Today I went to a fabric sale and could not refuse the opportunity to add to my stash of gorgeous fabrics, it only makes the projects grow to even higher realms, and to add to this, a friend gave me a stack of some old Sew Beautiful Magazines. 

More decisions. 

Daydreaming never seemed so good.

Friday thrills

Thrilled that Friday has arrived.

This morning I began a pot of  tomato soup to be served as Friday lunch. One of the good things about this soup is all it really requires is a can of tomatoes. Any other type of produce can be thrown in and will produce a tasty soup. Though onions are probably weighty too. I like to always toss in a cube of basil from my freezer at the end of stewing, and allow it to simmer before processing.

Alan will be returning for spring break either later today or tomorrow, and since his bed was dismantled for Daddy's hospital bed, the room had to be put back in order.  Clean sheets were stretched across the mattress that had been resting against the walls in the office.

A normal day of schoolwork with Classical Conversation review and being assured Rose had completed her week's assignments.

And  beams of sunshine gushed into my sunroom this morning creating a warm sense of lemon drops after two days of cloudiness and torrential bouts of rain yesterday.

And did I mention it is Friday?

Have a fantastic Friday and supper weekend!