Meanwhile...

While life continues at the aforementioned hectic pace, here's a little something to tide all my readers over: I've got a guest post up over at Catholic Mothers Online today.  Go on over and read about 4-H: is it 4-U?

I should of course mention that I could have written so much more about 4-H.  We're supposed to keep it under 900 words, so I did, but I had to trim like crazy to even meet that.  How do you sum up something that shaped your life so dramatically?  Something that has given you a substantial number of the skills you are proud of, many of the friends you hold dear, and the lion's share of memories from your childhood?  We, of course, were probably a more-than-typically involved 4-H family.  We didn't "do" team sports, and 4-H was our substitute.  The year turned according to the 4-H calendar: monthly meetings, Sheep Camp, Addison Field Days, VT State Fair, Eastern States Exposition... events that I attended nearly every year for almost 20 years, and that now, several years later, I still miss, and yet can picture with incredible clarity in my mind.

Anyway, check out the post.  Yes, the photos are vintage shots of me, circa... 1998, from actual sheep show events (reason enough to check it out!).  But seriously, if you have 4-H-age children, or even if you don't (it's never too early to start planning ahead!), I encourage you to think about whether this is a program that might fit into your family's life.  We loved it, and I bet you would, too.

Cake: day one.

11 boxes of cake mix, 3 dozen eggs, a couple of pounds of butter, one trip to the store for more supplies (after the first layer I baked split in two coming out of the pan), and some 8 hours of work later.. the "pieces" of the cake are in place.  I've constructed the three different layers, leveled, put the filling in, put the support pillars and cardboard circles in, and now they are sitting in my fridge overnight, waiting for cake: day two (i.e. frosting and decorating). 

A few (very few, as I am *exhausted*) thoughts from today:

- I definitely used every skill I ever learned in 4-H, and I don't just mean baking and decorating.  I used my sheep fitting skills, my carpentry skills, even my "stay calm under extreme pressure and adverse circumstances" skill.  I'm not sure which was harder - smiling at the sheep show judge as a teenager, after about ten gallons of water dumped on my head as I entered the show ring (the tent let go of a whole pocket of water that had been collecting), or smiling at my husband as he went out the door to party it up with the guys for the bachelor party, leaving me home alone with a cranky one year old and three layers of a cake to bake (I'd already been at the task for over four hours at that point).

- As I predicted back when I made LW's birthday cake - the weather was hot, humid, drippy, sticky, and awful.  I've been told that it is supposed to be cooler tomorrow, which is good news, because otherwise either the frosting, or I, am going to turn into one big puddly mess.

- My kitchen is clean again.  But I will post some "truth-in-blogging" photos that will hopefully scare the rest of you away from ever volunteering for a job like this.  It's for your own good that I will do this :)

- Deciding to bake the cake two days before the wedding, and frost it the day before, rather than doing the whole thing the day before, was a very. good. idea.  In fact, this entire escapade would have likely ended in disaster (or an all-nighter worthy of any procrastinating college student).  With the extra time, though, I really do have a hope of pulling it all together.

- "Baking the cake" sounds so simple when you say it, or even mentally envision it.  That's because you confuse "baking a cake" (i.e. the regular process for a regular cake) with "mixing up 11 boxes of cake mixes and repeatedly baking, and baking, and baking, because you only have three pans and you need six layers, and don't forget some of them will break".  In reality, there is a world of difference between those things... or more accurately, about 7 hours difference.

- No lunch, random bites of "discard cake", and one grocery store serving of sushi doesn't really cut it for a nursing mom as far as food intake.

- My daughter really, truly, was an angel baby today.  She was patient beyond belief on a hot day.  That is her small, or big, success for the day.

And now?  It is past time for bed.  Cake: day two awaits me tomorrow; fortunately, I am taking the day off from work, so don't have to (as I did today) work three hours and *then* tackle 8 hours of cake (plus all the nursing and putting down for naps and changing of diapers, and just plain loving that LW needs to thrive each day).  Prayers would be much appreciated - I am going to enjoy such a sabbath day of rest come Sunday!