CAKE! and the Nature of Memories

I'm not going to start posting recipes here because I have lots of friends(jessieheaviland.blogspot.com) who do it much better than me, but I HAVE to share this recipe. It is my new best friend...I mean favorite (I don't find emotional comfort in chocolate, really). It is from the Betty Crocker cookbook I got when I got married. Here it is:

Double Chocolate Snack Cake

1 2/3 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar or white sugar (I use brown or mix half and half)
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. white vinegar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional)
Powdered sugar (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt with a fork in ungreased square pan, 8x8x2 inches. Stir in remaining ingredients except choc. chips and powdered sugar. Sprinkle choc. chips over batter.
3. Bake 35-40 minuntes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
4. Don't eat it all at once!

That last instruction I added for my own sake. None of you would actually do that. Okay, but because of my disclaimer about not posting recipes, you absolutely have to try this one! It is so good and sooo easy! I have made it 4 times in the last 2 weeks (blushing slightly)...don't worry, 2 times were for birthdays and one was for company. I have made it as cupcakes (excellent--I left out the choc. chips and only cooked them for about 18 min.), I usually double it and have replaced half the oil with applesauce and reduced the sugar and they still turn out great. It doesn't sink in the middle, which is good for a recipe at high altitude. Oh, and I don't mix them directly in the pan because I don't think that washing ONE bowl is that big of a deal. I have started using more recipes with cocoa and less with chocolate chips since Jeremy's grandmother pointed out how much more cost effective it is to use cocoa. These have just a few choc. chips, so they last longer (or there are more for me to eat by the handful when the kids aren't looking).

Here is a picture of Evan enjoying the chocolate cake in cupcake form.
See, he is a chip off the old block--getting drunk on chocolate.

In other news, I had been second-guessing my decision to not to put Sam in any kind of school this year. Here's a downside to having 3 kids at home together all day:


Here's the upside:


And this:


It is so fun watching Sam and Evan become such good friends. I think it shows what is special between siblings...they are best friends and often don't know it. It might take them a long time to recognize it, but they are one of God's best gifts to each other. I have one of those gifts, too.
(Check out the wallpaper behind us. Yes, that's my room and I had that wallpaper up until I got married. That's why you don't let a junior higher choose their own wallpaper.)


So, I am sad that Samuel isn't at school with his friends and has to be in the lower age Sunday School class at church, but in the long run, I think it is better for him and Evan to be closer in school and have mutual friends. I'm tempted to be the pushy mom and try to get special permission for him to do the things the kindergartners are doing, but I think I will sit back and see what happens.

Another upside to having all the kids home together was having a morning like we had yesterday. It was nothing extraordinary...it was rainy and started with a dentist's appointment for Sam, but then we decided to go for a drive until the library opened. We talked a lot in the car and went past where we used to live when Sam was 2. We stopped and picked apples at the apple tree that he used to play under and shared memories. (The tree seemed to be growing well after Sam's watering over 2 years ago. He's was potty training, wet pants were the only other option.)
(On the grass outside our old apartment)

We went on to the library and saw a friend from college, a church friend, and some MOPS friends. It reminded me of an old Girl Scouts song about old and new friends being like silver and gold. We were having such a nice time, we stayed for storytime. We even found a book about a little girl with BROWN hair named Annie. Evan carefully carried it all the way to the car. I felt really blessed.

I suppose these events aren't really worth reporting...and they actually sound more exciting in the retelling (picking apples, for example, was looking for apples in the tree and then realizing they were all too high to reach, so we (I) found some good ones on the ground). But, I guess that's the nature of good memories. I think they grow more "good" in your mind over time, but I don't think that's a bad thing. It's why my boys enjoy going to the library so much. They don't remember the times we left early because someone pooped their pants or that I was impatient with them because I just wanted to sit on the chair and read a magazine. They love telling their Grandmas and Grandpas on the phone what they did that day, and only then do I often realize how special the time really was.

So, I guess that's why I write this blog entry with (literally) 6 piles of laundry and an unpacked suitcase in the house. I don't want to forget these ordinary memories, and I want to record them so they can grow more golden over time. I wish there was a way to record in writing the wonderful sound of the giggles I heard coming from the bathtub earlier this evening. I'll just have to treasure that one in my heart.