THE CAKE

   THE CAKE

    This past weekend we celebrated our oldest granddaughter’s ninth birthday. We had the four grandkids who live nearby over for the entire weekend. I have an unusual relationship with them due to the limitations my health issues place on me and them too. The hardest one to overcome is my hearing loss. It’s very hard to listen to little girls and a growing boy with their soft voices and decipher what they want. Of course if they scream that helps. Around our house voices are always raised but not in anger, thankfully, but so granny can know what’s going on.

    I had already made sure she wanted the kind of cake I had mix for as well as the frosting. She was very happy with yellow butter recipe cake and lemon cream frosting. After dinner Friday night I asked her if she wanted me to bake the cake or did she want to do it. She started jumping up and down while yelling, “Me, Me!!” so I figured she wanted to do it herself with just a little help from granny. Then the first problem arose. The other two girls wanted to help too. So I said it was up to her to decide that. She said they could help. Good, we were over the first hurtle. All the time I kept on praying, “Lord, please let this cake come out fine”. We read the instructions and got out the ingredients and baking equipment. First problem here was the need for three eggs. All of them wanted to get the eggs so I told them that it calls for three eggs and there’s three of you so that’s one each. They each got one egg from the fridge.  The birthday girl decided she just had to grease the pan but didn’t know how so I explained while she followed instructions. She did a good job too.

    Now we needed those eggs. Each girl was to crack her own egg. The first two did just great but the “little one” didn’t want to get her fingers dirty with a raw egg. She’s only six but she plays with everything else under the sun so I don’t understand this thing about the egg.  With encouragement from the other two she finally got it cracked and into the cup. Then she had to wash her hands again.

    My kitchen is very small. Having a granny  with a walker plus three small girls in it was a wee bit much. Toes got stepped on and they tripped over me and the walker. I was surprised when we finished and nothing at all was broken except those three eggs! There was lots of laughter at this point. They took turns using the electric hand mixer and scraping the bowl. When it came time to put the cake in the pan the birthday girl insisted that she had to do it all by herself. “OK, go right ahead,” said granny and she did. She did it just fine. It took both of the older girls to get the 13X9 pan in the oven. Granny set the timer and war broke out.

    Three girls and two beaters to be licked wasn’t acceptable until granny made the observation that there is also a bowl and spatula. There was some quick alliances made and they settled down to licking the bowl, beaters, and spatula. When they were finished I took a couple of minutes to decide if the bowl needed to go into the dishwasher or not. It did look spotless but the dishwasher won out.

    The cake came out perfectly. My little birthday girl did the frosting on Saturday morning and she did it all by herself. She let her little sister do the candy hat decorations. No one could have done it better, not even me, AKA granny. (It's so hard for me to believe I've raised three kids and now have these grandkids plus two more who live too far away from home for me. In my head I feel like I'm still a newly wed. I won't say what my body feels like.)

    When these children grow up and look back to their youth I want them to remember me not for my handicaps or illnesses but instead I want them to remember me because of all the good times we had as well as the things we learned.* Times like baking cakes, going on picnics, learning to sew, talking about “stuff”, attending church, and just being together. These good times still have to be balanced out with teaching them right from wrong when necessary and I hope they will remember that as well. It was a wonderful weekend in spite of all the physical pain.

Wanda

    *”Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven....Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish”.   Matthew 18: 10, 14. KJV

Comments

[Sam Hoffman]

You have no need to worry!
I am 44 years old and that is the way that I still remember my "Nan-Nan". It gives a warm fuzzy feeling to feel like it was just yesterday.
Painless days to you and all!