It's just after 8am, and I have already had breakfast, done the dishes and made banana muffins which are baking as I write. I'm not as lazy as one might think. I just choose to do different things on my "to do" list.
I am often asked why I bake so much. And, sometimes, I don't know the answer. However, in the last two years, I have really started baking more so now, than over my whole life. And I think the reason is; because I'm good at it. And who would keep themselves from doing what makes them feel accomplished, right???
To know the outcome is divine. To share it with others is bliss. So, I say, go for it. Also, I happen to have all the tools necessary to make it happen.
When you do something enough, you tend to acquire the things needed to accomplish them. So, I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer, tons of pans, and most importantly, all the ingredients to make a plethora o'baked goods. I buy chocolate chips in the 5lbs bag from Costco. I'm ready!!!
I do believe it has a lot to do with stress relief and feeling like I have done "something". However, sometimes it is merely because the banana's are dying and I refuse to throw them away. (That I get from my mother).
I find I am entering the phases my mom has already passed through. I hate throwing food away, and as I get older, the tougher decisions seem a bit easier to make.
Getting older is difficult. You can't wait for the hard years to pass, only to be met with harder ones. However, as you are older, you are more able to deal with them, which is just a little bit sad if you ask me!
Friday I baked my friend who's with her dad in the hospital. I was going to deliver my baked goods to her but I wanted to make sure she was ready to receive visitors. When I called, she said, "If you are in the area, okay...but if not; don't make the trip". I told her (sarcastically) I'm never in that area...cuz I'm not, and so she told me to not worry about it.
For a moment, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was Friday, the traffic goes in that direction, and I had two hours to get down there, drop off and then turn around to get my daughter to dance. It was a tight squeeze anyway.
Then the adult in me started creeping in. There was no way, I was NOT going to deliver a meal to one of my best friends who has been in the hospital (hasn't even left to shower) for a week. So what if I sit in traffic, I'm taking my mom for good conversation, and the girls can give her a hug to lift her spirits. I'm going!!!
I did not call her back; I simply showed up. And when I walked around the corner, she was standing outside the waiting room, making a phone call. When she saw me, she said, "Oh Thank GOD" and came over and hugged me long and hard! THAT was worth a FIVE hour drive!!!
Turns out, she was trying to call me so she could vent her frustrations, and disclosed that she regretted telling me not to come, which made me feel so much better!! She dipped into my bag of goodies and we chatted for a few minutes before I had to rush off to the next.
Had I been twenty-something, I wouldn't have thought twice about it. I would have been considered dismissed and gone about my day without a second thought. However, now that I am older and wiser (or so I say), I am able to think a few steps ahead and evaluate possible scenarios. I do appreciate that about getting older.
I'm starting to realize that many of the things I do have a payoff. Some are deferred and some immediate, but there is a payoff.
And though baking doesn't seem like a huge payoff, I must say. When I'm stressed, and things are not going well or right in my life; it is nice to turn to something, mix a few things together, having complete control, and end up with something exactly as you set out to have it.....and then share it with those you love!!!
Works for me!
Happy Sunday!!!
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