My Thursday Morning Miracle

A man died in front of me this morning; the victim of a single- vehicle crash. Myself, along with several other drivers, scattered quickly on the freeway to avoid a similar fate. We watched helplessly as his truck, which was on its side, was quickly engulfed in the red flames spewing forth from the undercarriage.  Because of the intensifying heat, the threat that the gas tank would blow, and with the ever-increasing flames blocking all forward escape, we quickly retreated our vehicles along their prior  path; inching along the berm, dodging the incoming gawkers who were now as trapped as we.  All attempts at rescue were met with and rebuffed by the unrelenting flames.  We could only wait helplessly for those with rescue tools to arrive…and I began to pray.

Dismay and disorientation faded as the sirens blared and those with authority arrived and took charge. 

What seems an eternity was actually less than 15 minutes; the dense black smoke changing  to white steam as the flames were quenched.  In minutes, the fire was doused and all thoughts of rescue were replaced with efforts of recovery.  We silently watched as a sheet was carried from the squad car and the officer’s profile disappeared as he bent to cover the remains.  The surreal feelings were replaced with reality as we were asked to relive and recount our experience to those in charge.  Walking around the high-speed roadway upon which we drive each workday, many of us called loved ones and employers to let them know we were well, but would be unavailable for a while. 

We began to count our blessings of the morning, re-playing “if I had only” or “if I had not” scenarios that may have placed us closer in harm’s way.  Less than 15 seconds became the consensus of the difference in time between being involved and being a witness. 

It was heartening to hear  a number of people thinking well of the driver, lifting their voices to God for his loved ones who did not know yet of his passing; that he would never again be there to speak with them, hug them, or share their joy.  The unbridled sentiments for these people unknown to us was refreshing until I realized what I didn’t hear…nobody spoke of the inconvenience they felt at being stuck on the freeway, of being late, of missing work, of _______; you fill in the blank with what you would have complained about, because I can’t.  I didn’t hear it; I didn’t think it, and I don’t want to think about it now.  More than one person stated aloud that our inconvenience was nothing compared with the fate of our brother in the truck and his family.  I didn’t hear any complaints.  Instead, the curse of construction was now a blessing because there was a porta-potty in the center divide that we could use; the early hour was heralded because the heat of the day was not upon us and it was not yet humid; the threatening cloud cover and thunderstorm predictions were held at bay and regaled as a blessing for those tasked with clearing the scene and we were free to walk around rather  than be trapped in our car, windows up, air conditioning running.  Each and every person I encountered was finding the sunshine and sharing their find so that we could all enjoy it’s warmth. 

I witnessed a miracle this morning…the unselfish goodness of my fellow beings.

I haven’t had many of these moments in my lifetime.  I want to cherish it’s memory for as long as I can.  So, I stop writing here for today because I want to end on that lovely note; before the real world creeps back in and shatters the peace that I feel.

My day began as any other.  I then found myself among strangers who quickly became kindred souls.  I am sad that my brother will never know the profound effect his passing had on dozens of us.  His misfortune allowed us to be surrounded by others who seek for the sunshine in life’s lemon storms.  I encourage you to do the same.  Live as if it is your last moment; make sure those you love know how you feel; be well, and, as always,

 

Vicki

How-to (because of pet peeves) tie a perfect knot or bow

Pet Peeves…We all have ’em. Some of us just have a more visceral response to them.  Unfortunately, my #1 pet peeve seems to be all the rage these days, especially where I live.  My #1 pet peeve actually deals with pets, as luck would have it, and makes my teeth hurt because, when I encounter this peeve, I clench my jaw as a visceral response.

#1 Peeve: Animals dressed as humans
What is up with that????  Rover  has got to feel completely stupid when he gets primped and dressed.  He certainly looks stupid.  I’m sorry – A Yorkie Superman?  A Harry Potter Shi Tsu?  Really???  Yuk, Yuk, Yuk!!! It was bad enough when we had talking horses; now, we have to dress them too??? It’s just not natural for animals to wear clothes.  Why do we humans suppose other species want to dress like we do? Could it be because we are taking our fashion clues from the people of WalMart with their cutting-edge fashion sense??? Do we actually think cats are lying around in all their scorn for anything human and thinking, “Gee, if I only had a feather boa I would be abject perfection”…Really??? I guess it should be expected because so many of our prodigy are trying to dress like animals…spiked collars around their necks, prodigy being taken for a walk on a leash in airports. Ok – I may be beginning to understand this one. No-not happening. I watched in disbelief as some pooch barked “yes” to her wedding dress on a popular Friday-night TV show and who was later assisted down the aisle by her owner to greet her tuxedo-clad poochie pal. The Boss of all Cakes actually did a TV show making dog-edible cakes as a symbol to celebrate yet another pet wedding.

As a left-field aside, let me clear one thing up right now…Yes, our website, Battinburgcakes.com displays some of the sumptuous treats we make and yes, we make specialty cakes, and yes we have made and will continue to make specialty birthday and party cakes in the shapes of and decorated as various animals (in fact, I am making a “pigs in the mud” cake for a July 4th party – go check out the pictures on our Battinburgcakes.com website after the 4th. It will be really cute.)  Having said that…we reserve the right to refuse to make a cake if we think it’s stupid…and pet weddings cross over to that side, I’m afraid.  Now, I’m all for fun…believe me…we once made a naked male birthday cake for a female stripper; (how did we do that, you are wondering?) c’mon…nude male cake…think chocolate-covered banana and coconut, and nope…not gonna find the pictures for this cake on our website!!!  Strictly a family show, G-rated, sorry. 

OK – I got that cleared up…now back to my animals dressed as humans rant.

Across the globe, the blogosphere seems replete with blog after blog celebrating website after website dedicated to humans posting preening pet poses, when in fact, the poor animal looks like it is embarrassed and merely enduring this very human practice of wearing clothing (yes, the websites are really there & yes, you really can submit a photo if you are so inclined…I won’t give you the website names because I don’t want to contribute to that behavior, but feel free to Google it…I’m sure Google knows all about it.)  What has happened to us??? Are we really so bored with our own lives that we have to live vicariously through our pets???  I don’t get it and I hope I never do. ‘Nuff said.

My #2 pet peeve has nothing to do with animals, thankfully, though #2 for me is like nails on a chalkboard when I read it.
#2 Peeve:  People who misuse or mix up two words…”you’re” and “your”.  Okay, it has been a while since I was in grammar school learning this great language of ours, and yes, I am too old to have seen the TV show called “Conjunction Junction” or something like that…did they also teach contractions on that show or do we no longer teach contractions?  This “you’re” contraction is so bloomin’ easy – I mean, c’mon…prime time TV taught it a decade ago when, in the immortal words of our “Friend”, Ross Geller, [quote] You’re means ‘you are’…your means ‘YOUR’!!! [unquote]. My youngest prodigy believes that everything in life relates to Friends. She wins a point.  Every single time I see the word ‘your’ used incorrectly, all I hear is the screeeecccchhhh of the fingernails.

So – why am I displaying my pet peeves on the Kidable LIFE!!! Blog; a blog dedicated to bettering myself, my prodigy, and sharing the things I have learned ???  Because my #3 peeve is actually related to princess prodigy and one with which I can help spread some of that lemon sunshine I love so much. (This one has no effect on my teeth or my fingernails; thus motivating me to fix it.)

#3 Peeve is the mess that is created by incorrectly tying bows and knots on the back of a dress, especially when it is on the dress of a little princess prodigy. Those twisted, uneven, and unsightly knots and bows seem to be 100% adult failure in my never to be humble opinion…failure to have ever learned how to do it correctly; failure to notice that it’s crooked; and/or failure to care about either of the other two failures.  There are only two things worse to me (and you know what those 2 things are)…only 2 things worse than seeing a primped and prancing princess prodigy, smiling sweetly as she slowly strolls down the aisle, carefully casting clusters of beautiful blossoms before the blushing bride; only to have her pass so you can now see the mess that is the sash haphazardly tied around her waist. So, I’m going to tell you a story and then teach you how to tie a perfectly flat knot or perfect bow every time.

The story:  I have the most wonderful cousins in the world; more like sisters. One of my cousins is brilliant; actually earned her advanced math degree in college. Well, she has a little girl prodigy who is always impeccably dressed like a princess and who, because she is so poised, is regularly asked to be a flower girl in weddings.  My cousin, unfortunately, has a perfect blind spot where those pesky bows and knots are concerned though. I have shown her again and again how to tie the perfect bow; she has actually performed the task with me watching, but then the knowledge promptly falls right out of her otherwise steel-trap skull. My cousin actually called me from across the country once to talk her through tying a bow as her prodigy was lining up for a wedding!!! SUCCESS!!! I consider that a very bright sunshine moment because cousin dearest noticed that the bow was a mess!!!  Success!!!  So, this tutorial is dedicated to my wonderful cousin…now she may continue to call me any time for help…or just look online if she has the time…I am empowering her (and you).  The power is now hers.

I hope you both find this useful and that you enjoy it…and, as always,

  Vicki
HOW TO:  Tie a perfect knot or bow Steps 1 through 3 for both knot and bow:

Step 1:  Left tie over right.

Left Over Right

Step 2:  Take the tie in your right hand, go underneath the tie in left hand; up and through; bring out on top; tighten against the body.

Step 3: Holding tension, place ties directly on top of one another; smooth as flat as possible. 

TO MAKE A KNOT:

Knot Step A: Take the tie underneath, go around the top tie from right to left; then back underneath and through the hole.

Knot Step B:  Fuss with the middle part until you get it nice and flat with the ties coming out fully on both sides.  This should be very flat against the body at this point.

TO MAKE A BOW:

Bow Step A:  From Step 3 above: On the bottom tie, make a loop by pulling the tie up from the bottom so that the end of the tie remains hanging down, e.g. use your thumb to “gather” the tie together. DO NOT loop the tie upwards so that the remaining tie is on top of the loop.  This is critical to a perfect bow.

Bow Step B: WARNING: The picture above in Step A shows the left-hand tie over toward the left. This is only to demonstrate the loop.  Note in the picture below that you will now take the left-hand tie and go clockwise around the loop; over the loop, around the loop from top to bottom clockwise.  DO NOT go around counterclockwise.

Bow Step C: Keeping the ties as open and flat as possible, make the second loop by pushing the tie from left to right through the hole by the body.  Fuss with it; pull the edges of the loops, smooth the hanging ties, until you have the perfect bow.

This is a correct bow; flat, loops the same size, ties hanging down & open; knot square. This picture looks funny because my wonderful prodigy had put her dress on backwards and had her arms outstretched when taking the picture and the lighting was really bad.  I stink at photography and can’t be trusted to get the object into the shot.

Vicki

PS – Thanks to my youngest prodigy for putting her dress on backwards so she could film this while I did it. She’s a trooper!

A Day to Honor Fathers

Ok – It’s Father’s Day and I would like to pay homage to all of the men who have served as father figures in my life and in the lives of my prodigy by asking a few simple questions…especially since men really like to solve life’s problems for all of us…the little dears!!!

Why is a necktie still a popular gift when businesses usually only require men to wear casual clothes to work?

How come Father’s Day is the only time tools, especially the powered ones, go on sale?

When mom’s get breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day, how come we don’t serve dad his Father’s Day breakfast on the lawn?

I will leave you to ponder those imponderables for a moment while I give a little advice to all parents…having been a child once myself and subsequently having had my own prodigy, I know one thing very keenly…children spell love with four letters – T.I.M.E.  Children don’t care how much money parents have, how attractive they are, or whether they live in a mansion or an apartment.  All they know is that if we love them, we spend T.I.M.E. with them. T.I.M.E is the stuff from which memories are made.

My father would have loved those imponderables (and probably would have tried to provide a ready answer).  Unfortunately, he is now in the next world and can’t answer them.  He had a wickedly sardonic wit that I grew to share. He would hear a funny story or joke and, out of the blue, would call me to share it.  We would laugh until we cried!!!  Now, when I hear a funny story that would have made my father “bust a gut” (e.g. his way of describing laughing until you cry), I wish I could share it with him…so I call my youngest brother instead as he also shares that wickedly sardonic wit!  Together, we take the T.I.M.E. to keep my father’s memory alive. 

So to my bio father, and all of those other wonderful father figures who have shared their T.I.M.E. with me and with my prodigy in the absence of their father, I say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.  You unselfishly gave of yourselves expecting nothing in return and on this day to honor fathers, I honor you. 

Hallmark has yet to make a card big enough to express this.

As always,

Vicki

 

BattinburgCakes.com

We launched our desserts website today (www.BattinburgCakes.com) and received our first online order!!!  We have been baking and catering for about 8 years now…and decided it was time.

Getting my arms around all of the busyness of this online world is quite hectic to be sure!  It’s very time consuming to figure out tags and how to attach pictures and videos…the prodigy of course has already got it all nailed…who do you think built the website??? How did prodigy today get so incredibly computer savvy?  Didn’t our generation invent computers?  I know I didn’t invent them, but I did spend hours and hours playing pong and Dungeons and Dragons.  I remember when the first “floppy disks” came out…they were actually floppy.  They were the size of a half sheet of notebook paper and we spent so much time worried that we would crease them – because then our game was destroyed!  My first “hard” drive was REALLY EXPENSIVE and consisted of a whopping 10K of space…you read that right – not 10 mb – 10K of space.  That was HUGE back then – and it was hard, didn’t bend, and I felt so very secure because of it!! It was a very extravagant purchase (and I was quite the envy of all of my friends and roommates). Ah; the 1980s. Except for the hair (and the clothes and the music and the movies) – good times!

But I digress…

The goal of this blog is to work in conjunction with the new BattinburgCakes.com website so that I can share what I know, what I learn, and thank those other people who have been awesome enough to help me along my way.  Yes…I want to share with my prodigy (so they can race past me again, no doubt, and then beat me at my own game!!!), but mostly I want to share with you, my friends.

So share I shall…Evidently, a good baker never gives up her secret special recipe…it’s kind of like Coke not coughing up their ingredients list for Pepsi to steal – I don’t drink that stuff anymore, so it mattereth not whither Coke & Pepsi goeth.  As I pondered what to share first, prodigy and I decided to share one of our best secrets – THE MOST AWESOME BUTTERCREAM RECIPE EVER!!!

Okay – that’s not a completely true statement.  What this recipe makes isn’t really a “buttercream frosting” at all. Technically speaking, its an old-fashioned butter and confectioners’ sugar icing that’s been around for a loooonnngggg time…we just tweaked it a bit to make it work every time perfectly.  At any rate, we think this is the tastiest, creamiest frosting we have ever tasted.  We use it on many of our cakes and cupcakes.  It crusts well, pipes well, and holds it’s shape well…just not in high humidity or high heat. The only thing we don’t use this frosting for is to pipe figures…it’s just not quite stiff enough for that and to stiffen it would wreck it.  So, we enjoy it as it is.  One bit of advice when making this…to achieve the desired creamy texture…be absolutely sure that you beat the frosting for the amount of time called for in the recipe.

BattinburgCakes Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups 10XX sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cut the butter into chucks and place into a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the 10xx sugar; then add the milk and vanilla straight away. On medium speed with an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes each), until the icing is thick and has a spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the 10xx sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly.

This frosting will set if chilled (which is perfect if you have to ship it), so use it and store it at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Try it.  I know you will love it.

Oh…before I forget…please check out our website http://www.BattinburgCakes.com.  Like us; Twitter us (or whatever that’s called! I think “tweet” sounds stupid and I refuse to use it).  BattinburgCakes.com has a beautiful pictorial of our latest and greatest confections.  You can also find BattinburgCakes on Pinterest and Facebook, too.

Now…go forth, smear buttercream frosting on everything except the cat, enjoy the rest of your day and, as always,

Vicki

What is a Kidable LIFE!!! ?????

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. ” Calvin Coolidge

• Where did KidAble LIFE!!! come from?

A prolonged lemon storm….literally.  It seems I have been on my own as long as I can remember.  I have been forced to find ways to streamline the most mundane or complex things.  As a result, I know a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff; and for the stuff I don’t know, I figure out how to figure it out. I grew up being told that “can’t” is not in my vocabulary.

Over the years, many friends have told me that I needed to write a book….Then one day, my father came to my home for the first time after I was a mom of an 8 year old.  He saw and experienced many of the things I was doing in my home and he said I had created a KidAble LIFE!!! (definition: a life that is intelligent and workable for adults, but one that enables prodigy to have success; hence, kid able).

KidAble LIFE!!! stuff is just stuff that makes sense, but that most people don’t seem to think about doing because it hasn’t been done before.  My father surprised me unknowingly echoed the same sentiments of my friends when he commented that I should write a book.  That was 13 years ago (I’ve been a little busy being a working single mom).  I thought about the book over the years, and even went so far as to jot down some concepts that I would want to put into the book.

Let me level with you…I have had a fundamental/visceral problem with writing a book.  I don’t believe I have any creds to substantiate anything I do such that people would want to buy a book.  Many of the things I do I either scalped from a friend or I saw what a friend was doing and I adapted it to work for me, or I did a LOT of research to find a simpler way.  All the research over the years…and yes, I’m still researching, but the Internet sure makes research much MUCH simpler than going to the library like I did for all those years!!!  Anyway, I just didn’t feel “right” about publishing a book, but I couldn’t stop thinking something about the concept of sharing what I’ve learned was right…my lemon stories may benefit someone else.  After all, I am a devout follower of Christ and believe it is my duty to serve my fellow humanoids.

Fast forward…right before he passed away a couple of years ago, my father out of the blue said to me, “You know, Vic, you really should write that book.”  No other frame of reference.  No other details.  No discussion before or after his statement. He obviously had been thinking about it too.  So…shortly thereafter, I sat down with my now 13 years’ older prodigy and together we brainstormed a table of contents. With the surge of blogs and web pages that are taking the world by storm, we decided to go electronic instead of bound text.  This gets me through my visceral problem, except now instead of just sitting down and writing, I have had to learn a whole new technology for delivery.  But I am happy with the direction we are heading and I’m so very happy to be doing this.

I hope you find something of value for you that will help to answer a question, ease a burden, or just give you a ray of sunshine on an otherwise gloomy moment.

I know me and I’m sure I will continue to morph as I rapidly approach my empty nest and move into my grandKidAble LIFE!!!….so stay tuned and grow with me.

Thanks for reading.  Hope this brought you a smile and please,

Vicki