Baking From Scratch

In addition to being the Sabbath, it was also my nephew's birthday yesterday. The day started out special, with our electricity being off all through the house for several hours, due to a power line down, causing a wide neighborhood outage.

Knowing I should have made time to ask this earlier, I thought to ask my nephew what his favorite cake was for his birthday as he was going out the door with a friend. Angel food cake, I was told. Well, I had a whole afternoon ahead of me and a trusted recipe an elderly friend gave me long ago (she always brought one to potluck). So I proceeded to collect the ingredients and get started. I had made it once before myself, I think. I remembered how delicious it had been.

I knew instantly what a labor of love it was going to be, after the first step though. Sift the flour four times. Then add half the sugar and sift another four times. Even the counting was a challenge. The next steps weren't any easier. Separate about a dozen eggs, beat them until foamy, then add the sugar 2 Tbl. at a time with the mixer. THEN fold in by hand the flour and sugar mixture 2 Tbl. at a time too. Only the almond and vanilla flavoring scents wafting up gave me the strength and energy to continue mixing and stirring.

The end product was again delicious. But I can certainly understand why cake mixes have become so popular now. Imagine making all your cakes before we had electric mixers. (I thought of our power outage.) You could afford the extra calories from eating them. You burned them off by working so hard. I still say baking from scratch results in tastier treats too. But, they'd also be eaten in moderation. Who's going to let anyone gobble up something that you put so much work into?!

Like life, the more challenge it is to achieve something, the more rewarded we are for the effort. God knows that we need trials in our life to make us "good". God started us from dust. I'd say that's creating from scratch too. And He knows we're going to be worth it in the end.

Shock from the Electric Company

The most distasteful part of my day was having to call the electric company and ask them why I was given a disconnect notice yesterday. I was totally positive it was all a mistake. I looked up my last two months' check stubs for the bills I had paid. They were both paid in full and on time. So, how could I possibly get a bill for over two hundred dollars and be disconnected?

To my dismay, I learned that I missed one payment last fall. I vaguely remember a check coming back in the mail as undeliverable for some reason. But I must have assumed that it would be corrected on next month's bill. Unfortunately this caused me to go off the budget plan (where I only paid about $60 every month) and get charged the actual amount of usage for last month.

So, my advice is don't mess with the I.R.S. and also don't mess with the electric company. But really and truly, my advice is don't assume you're right, even when you think you are. Period.

And the same goes for God. You may think you are right and good in His eyes. But give Him a prayer call. He just might have to set you straight on a few things. It's a humbling experience.