Rollercoaster January

Ah the rollercoaster of January...

Ups include a great start back to school. I am so proud of the growth my students have shown. Many of them are really digging into learning and take strides forward. What a delight to be a part of that. I am also feeling like a valuable part of the teaching staff. It is incredibly encouraging to have your administer drop to let you know you are doing a good job. I have to remember that a few words of praise go a very long way.

Today was a great 'up' in feeling the peace of being where we ought to in God's plan. Not that my plan is quite the same, but we are where we should be. And we are learning lots. We had a wonderfully encouraging service in Grassy this morning with an amazingly talented family leading worship. Father, mother and son playing and singing with incredible skill. They had a time of testimony and several to the people sharing their faith journey sang in response to God's work in their lives; while they were often taking lots of interpretive prerogative with the music, the 'band' was very adept at following the changing pace of each singer through their piece. And they can do country, blues, and contemporary worship styles! Then we came home and A. stayed after lunch for a jam session of our own. It made me remember times of singing with Arjenna after school to let out the crankies after a rough day. What power to calm the savage breast there is in music! (I think I get Saul in a new way).

Downs include temperatures which dropped into the -40s during the day last week. Everyone was inside all week, and cabin fever was just starting when the temps. rose and are hovering around 0 today! It looks to be a balmy -9 tomorrow! What a treat. I am excited to be able to walk to school again. LK and Jo are making plans to play outside tomorrow afternoon.

LK celebrated his birthday this weekend and was tickled to received lots of TLC from friends and family long distance. Thanks for your love, all. He often doesn't realize how special he is and your words this weekend were a great lift.

In honour of the birthday I tried to make a cake from scratch (not doctoring a mix- which is my usual method). I had a great chocolate cherry cake recipe and all was well until I discovered that the batter makes far more than a mix. I filled the cake pan 3/4 and then used the left-over better to make almost a dozen mini muffins. Unfortunately I didn't think clearly about baking them together in the oven and so was opening the oven to check on the muffins every 5 minutes. Our oven light only goes on when the door opens, so that it the only easy to check your baking.

After the first check all was fine. The second revealed that my batter was rising above the limits of the cake and muffins pans. So my solution was to put a cookie sheet on the lower rack to catch any drips (I didn't want a repeat of my angel cake disaster of several years ago). Multiple checks revealed no drips, but an odd gelatinous movement in the centre of the cake. Then an hour later muffins were out and the top of the cake was getting too brown, rather a bit black so I pulled it out. It was a bit fluid looking for my liking, but I could not think of a way to cook the inside more without blackening the top further. So I set it to cool on the counter with a lovely convex top.

In the morning I came down to a concave cake surface and was rather disappointed with myself. This was Saturday morning, there was no time (or ingredients) for another cake and I was ready to throw in the towel. Instead I decided to use the crater as a bowl for chocolate mousse and top the whole thing with a decadent icing of fresh whipped cream. While we were in town I also picked up some chocolate covered cherries that would tie in with the cherry pie filling in the cake. Brilliant, I thought, in fact (here goes my pride...), I have singly-handedly saved the cake.

After careful whipping and decorating the cake looked lovely. After dinner LK blew out the candles on the table, as mousse doesn't really hold candles well, and we cut into the cake. I could have cried. The center where the cake had fallen was still, somewhat, well, raw. It could have been interpreted as pudding cake in the middle.

My pride was in tatters and I was determined not to let anyone know what a disaster I was at this cake thing. However, that would leave 3/4 of a birthday cake in our fridge- too much temptation. Despite the blow to my pride we served the cake to our friends who were brave enough to eat it after the kids were in bed. We had a good laugh and Storm even had three pieces. It tasted pretty good, and I have a reason to try again. I am sure that fully cooked it will be positively scrumptious! Whose birthday is next?