On Faith and Cake

I made a birthday cake today for the first time.  From scratch.  Don't get me wrong, of course I've made a cake before, but never for one of the girls' birthdays, and certainly never one of those fancy, two-layered things.  It was always, "I'll make the frosting but get a boxed cake" or vice versa.  But Caeley, undemanding and sympathetic child that she is, requested a "chocolate cake with turquoise icing."  And I, feeling guilty that we are having a kinda boring birthday, decided to acquiesce.  (She had that big surprise party a month ago, so I don't feel too bad!)

It wasn't until I was piping the number "9" on top of the cake that it hit me.  I thought, It has taken me NINE years to get up the courage to make a CAKE?  REALLY??!!!  As someone who likes to think she makes a lot of things from scratch, this was quite disturbing.  It was also a lightbulb moment for me.  If it took me nine years to make a cake from scratch, and I LOVE baking, is it any surprise that our faith journeys also take so long?  Is it any surprise that they all look as different as all the cakes might look if you asked five friends to come over and bake their favorite cakes?

(As usual, it occurred to me that there are some parallels between baking and a walk of faith.  Bear with me, as in my Stock post, I'm drawing some pretty strange connections here, but this is how I roll...)

The first task in baking is making sure you have the right ingredients.  In terms of faith, these ingredients include (but are not limited to!) proper formation/knowledge, an open spirit, graces that come from the Sacraments, prayer, and works of charity.  But sometimes you might not have buttermilk (let's call it proper formation) and there are substitutes (milk with lemon juice, or seeking out the information from reputable sources.)  Just because you are missing one ingredient, doesn't mean you can't make the cake at all.  It just means you might have to run out to the store (Church, or to friends who can help you along in the faith, etc.) and get it (or find a substitute.)

Then you have to put them together in the right proportions.  That's the hard part, I think.  But God does give us a recipe.  In some ways it's a difficult one to follow.  Maybe at times it seems like it's written in hieroglyphics, but He does spell it out loud and clear for us if we have the "eyes to see."  When we make our faith cake, and we choose to add "too much of this" or "too little of that" (or we so loosely follow the recipe that we really aren't) and the cake doesn't turn out the way we wanted it to, we can't say the recipe was faulty.  On the flip side, there are ways we can add to the "faith cake" recipe to make the end product even better.  (I'm thinking here specifically of special devotions to Mary or to a specific saint, extra practices in our faith life that uplift us that aren't spelled out as "necessary" for the recipe.)

It hit me as I was washing up the cake pans, that there are much scarier things than making cake.  The biggest one, for me and for so many people, is the journey of/to faith.  It took me nine years.  For a cake.  I was afraid of getting it wrong.  Of making something that wasn't good enough.  Of ruining a child's birthday.  Of falling short of what was expected of me in this little role I play in this world.  And taking steps towards God, towards Truth, is infinitely more terrifying.  You could get it wrong.  (But He's so happy to see you're trying.)  You could offer to Him, at any given moment, something that isn't good enough.  (He loves you anyway.)  And you could make choices that might ruin your day, your week, maybe your life.  (But He forgives you and waits for you to get up and continue the journey.)

Lent begins soon, and I will be fiddling with the ingredients of my "faith cake."  I will be adding some things and taking away some things, but still staying true to the recipe.  I might not make the perfect choices for this Lenten cake.  But I guess, like the real cake, the important thing is to just trust the recipe, get in the kitchen, and start baking.

God's Word

I found myself really inspired by the daily readings for mass this week.  It made me happy that we make reading the daily readings a part of our morning prayer time for school and that we're starting to get back to daily mass.  What a treasure we'd be missing if we left these pieces out of our day!

Here are some of the choice nuggets from the week that really stuck with me....ideas and thoughts for me to ponder as I get ready for Lent.
 
Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters,when you encounter various trials,for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.And let perseverance be perfect,so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.But if any of you lacks wisdom,he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly,and he will be given it.But he should ask in faith, not doubting,for the one who doubts is like a wave of the seathat is driven and tossed about by the wind.

-Jas 1: 2-6

Blessed is he who perseveres in temptation,for when he has been proven he will receive the crown of life that he promised to those who love him. No one experiencing temptation should say,"I am being tempted by God"; for God is not subject to temptation to evil,and he himself tempts no one.Rather, each person is tempted when lured and enticed by his desire.Then desire conceives and brings forth sin,and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.

-Jas 1: 12-15

When I say, "My foot is slipping,"your mercy, O LORD, sustains me;When cares abound within me,your comfort gladdens my soul.

-Ps 94: 18-19

Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?

-Mk 8: 17-18

Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God.

-Jas 1: 19-20

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgetswhat he looked like.But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres,and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts;such a one shall be blessed in what he does.If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tonguebut deceives his heart, his religion is vain.Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:to care for orphans and widows in their afflictionand to keep oneself unstained by the world.

-Jas 1: 22-27

However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture,

You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.

-Jas 2: 8

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

-Jas 2: 14

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,take up his cross, and follow me.For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,but whoever loses his life for my sakeand that of the Gospel will save it.
-Mk 8: 34-35

Listening to what God wants of us as individuals sometimes seems so hard, but I think He leaves us enough clues between the covers of the Bible.  It's also easy to think those words were left for "those people" back then, and that they have no relevance to us today.  But "in Christ we find the fullness of revelation.  In his word and life all that God willed to say to mankind is contained."
- Francis Fernandez (In Conversation With God )

January: Highlights and Lowlights

In the past, January has been a notoriously hard month.  Holiday hangovers.  Kids struggling to return to the normal routine. Bodies in withdrawal when all the sugar (cookies) are officially gone.  This year has been different though.  I think, by far, it has been the best January I remember having in a long time.  Here's a quick peek at our highlights and, to borrow a phrase I first heard from my friend Alexis, the "lowlights" of our month.

Highlights

#1: Food  

January is always about returning to healthy eating for us.  I realize how much better I feel when I remember to feed my body well and do simple things like take my vitamins and drink water!

Homemade Refried Beans

Beans ready for the freezer

Broccoli Spinach Quiche

Gluten Free Carrot-Date Muffins

Spinach-Feta Pizza

My favorite breakfast: Spinach, Onions and Sun-dried Tomatoes sautéed.  Then two eggs cracked on top and put under the broiler (over the veggies) for 2 minutes.  Served with farm sausage and steamed broccoli.  YUM!

#2: Birthday Celebrations

Due to a staff training exercise for Daddy's students, both my oldest and youngest daughters celebrated their birthdays this month.  The surprise party held for Caeley in the middle of the school day was super fun.  She truly had no idea.  

I love this kid.  

And this one.

And my baby turned two, but you heard all about that already.  :-)

This is how she feels about Elmo.  All the time.  Every day.

We had to save the candles.  She plays with them still!

#3: Witnessing Creativity

There's nothing else to do in January but host circuses and play dress up and paint... 

Circus folk.

I refuse to name the college kid in this picture in order to respect her privacy and prevent her utter humiliation.

Captain Ailin to the rescue.

She's also obsessed with paint.  And playdoh.  And water.  And anything else that destroys the house in seconds flat.

#4: Getting Outside!

The weather this January was just ridiculous.  In mostly a good way (see below for my caveat.)  We had a touch of snow, but tons of sunny days that were nice enough to really go outside and enjoy.  What a treat!

I feel like I should have a bowling ball to knock these pins over with.

One morning we went out for ice cream.  Just because we could.  It was WARM.  And SUNNY!

Shooting hoops at the ARCC

#5: Feeling the Call of the Chickens and the Garden

The warm weather has me tricked.  I'm afraid to admit that I would be happy for winter to be over, especially when my farmer Will told me that the chickens will be laying in mid-March.  I'm ready!  With the days growing longer, and the temps hovering way too close to fifty for this time of year, I'm ready.

They are getting so big and pretty!

The white Leghorn and her obnoxious tail crack me up. 

Letting the girls start bug control before I plant the hoop house.  Soon?  But you know the minute I put seed in the ground, it will snow 85 feet.

This is a close-up of Elizabeth's neck feathers.  She truly is a gorgeous chicken, and her feathers are  nothing like her sister's.  She's our hands-down favorite, though it seems that the others pick on her for being so docile.  I'm already envisioning that she will be our most faithful layer.  :-)

#6: Hitting the Half-Way Mark for School

Eighteen weeks have come and gone.  We are in week twenty-one of school.  We have fifteen left.  We can do this.  We're in the "post-holiday groove."  The normalcy of life after the holidays, and getting the school work really done is wonderful.  It's such a short window, I have to seize it and hang on with tooth and nail.

#7: My friend Mary

You might've seen in my recent post that I'm focusing more of my spiritual life this year on Mary.  It's been a shocking experience for me.  I won't bore you with some long treatise about it, but by far, she has been the best part of 2012.  I feel like my life has changed in a month, and the fact that prayers are being answered in my life in a way they never were before is not something I attribute to coincidence.  

Lowlights

#1: The Almost Superbowl

It was awesome to have our football season as Ravens fans last as long as it did.  But so hard to swallow the loss to New England.  What a great game, but one that I wish we could've won!  Next year is our year, boys!  (P.S.: Kinda happy NE lost to NY.  Okay, not kinda, VERY!)

The students had Ravens cupcakes for our biggest football fan!

#2: Running Over a Chicken

I stupidly decided to move the coop during the day when the chickens were down in the penned area.  And I ran over the foot of one of my Speckled Sussex chickens.  She YELPED like a dog.  I felt terrible. Her foot turned purple and huge the next day.  She hobbled around like a sad little thing for days.  But lo and behold, it wasn't broken and she is fine now.  Lesson learned.  Only move the coop when they are locked in the house.

#3: The Weather

Okay, I know I put this in a highlight too, but let's be serious.  Not enough cold weather means that not enough bugs will be killed off over the winter.  As a gardener, this makes me super nervous.  My husband thinks I'm a nut case and that I'm imagining this problem.  But I got bit by what I could almost promise you was a mosquito the other day, and there was a YELLOW JACKET on our kitchen floor yesterday.  We get quite enough bugs around here for my taste, and I could use a little bit of winter to set things right.  Not to mention, having FOUR seasons is a really nice thing.  It makes you appreciate each one so much.  I want to be excited when I see my garlic popping up in the SPRING.  But it's already popping up, along with my chives, parsley, and mint!  

#4:  The HHS Mandate

I don't have it in me to get into this in this post.  I was in such a good mood looking over all our highlights from January that I don't want to end on a sour note.  But a sour note this is.  Sour.  Sour.  Sour.  Blech.  

Is it February ALREADY???!!!!