Ages ago, well maybe not SO long past because this will age Squishy, I watched my mother prepare for a rare event.
She spent one whole day baking in preparation.
The next day all of her baked delights and delicacies lined the counters.
(I would show you a picture but someone, I won’t tell who but follow the direction of my link, did not steal it for me.)
Then Squishy invited her oh-so good friends over and they took all their yummy treats to the backyard.
As children we were allowed to play audience to their clever game but we were not allowed to participate (or shall I call it what it was…we were not allowed to interfere).
Ladies Only.
So instead, we stood on the sidelines and watched them take their sides.
We held our breath. What was about to happen was inconceivable in our small minds.
The moment came and they said, “GO!”
And it began.
All that heavenly, sugary, buttery chocolaty cake was flung across the yard. At each other. On each other. All over the yard.
It was the long-anticipated cake fight.
Cake was crammed into ears and smashed into hair. Chunks of it were dropped down shirts and smeared on faces.
And we children watched in awe because either our mother was truly insane or very, very lucky.
Now I am a mom.
I would NEVER do that.
If I’m going thru all the trouble of baking that stuff I plan on eating it all.
But the other day, there I was at the ending of it and I was struck by a thought.
I verged on waxing philosophical and I will share it with you.
Aren’t you giddy with anticipation?
Like when you smell dinner cooking and you’re not the one cooking it.
And you know something good is coming?
Another nugget of …something.
Here it is:
Motherhood is like being a cake-lover in a cake-fight.
Every day delicious cake is whizzing by me.
Sometimes it is even assaulting me.
I can smell it in the air.
It is under my fingernails and in my hair.
It is stuck to my shirt.
It is everywhere I walk.
But sometimes when I go to bed at night I think, did I relish a single bite of cake today?
And the day is done and the house is cleaned and I look at my cake all quiet and yummy looking and I think, “I will enjoy it tomorrow.”
And then tomorrow I am in that cake fight again.
It is flying everywhere and all around me.
I am distracted as I try to protect my sanity from flying chunks of cake.
So there you are:
I think motherhood is learning how to be a cake-lover in a really long cake-fight and not get sick of cake.
And learning how to be a cake-lover in a cake-fight and still LOVE cake.
And learning how to be a cake-lover in a cake-fight and still enjoy cake.
The moral:
if you have some cake, go love it too.
Need a tip or two on how to enjoy your cake? Try here.
P.S. Who can spot the Pixie?