Mistakes

I make mistakes, a lot. Thankfully most of the mistakes I make on a daily basis are minor, and do not have horrible and lasting repercussions. This past week seemed to be filled with a bunch of those minor mistakes, and I tend to get down on myself about them. Unless of course I focus on learning from them instead of dwelling on them.

Here are a handful of this week's mistakes:

1) I decided to use my dining room table as my ironing board earlier this week. My sewing station is currently there as well, so it just makes it easier. I put a towel down to "protect" the surface of the table. All was well until I started using the steam setting on the iron. It did not take me long to realize that I had steam burned a giant white mark on my nice black dining table. I was so distraught. Thankfully after searching online I found a way to remove the mark, which surprisingly involved using an iron again! It worked like a charm and the white spot is now black again.

2) I let my children take pictures with our camera from time to time. It has never really been a problem, until yesterday. I sat down to upload some great photos when I discovered that they had all accidentally been erased. UGH! Stupid me!

3) Friday morning I made some killer peanut butter frosting. It was so good I basically ate it for brunch, which is so not a good idea. Lots of sugar + the morning time= a super cranky mommy. And cranky I was! How many times will it take for me to realize that sugar, in excess, really cramps my good parenting abilities.

4)  On Saturday we had a BBQ over here with some family that came in from out of town. I had the "great" idea to make the hamburger patties from scratch, make the hot dog and hamburger buns from scratch, make the cake and frosting from scratch, make a salad, and make Grandma's goop (a condiment that is a family tradition).

Now I believe in trying to make most things you eat, with your own two hands as much as possible. But there definitely is a limit. While not everything I made ended badly, I am writing this to remind myself to not over do it! Pick a couple of your favorite items and make those from scratch. Delegate out, or just buy the rest pre-made. I know it sounds like a cop-out, but sometimes it is worth keeping your sanity and saving your energy.

Because of my over-zealousness, on Friday night I was surrounded by 4 dozen buns that turned out like hockey pucks, and 4 cake rounds that were broken into pieces. The rolls could not be salvaged, so I just bought some instead.  I won't waste my time with that again in the near future.

However! My amazingly-talented-artist-husband was able to take all of my broken, but delicious tasting, cake rounds and sculpt them back into looking like a three layered round cake. I was SO happy! The cake was a success, and the homemade peanut butter frosting covered the cracks of the mended cake beautifully. If you love PB and chocolate you need to make this cake, I will post the recipe soon.

I am continually grateful for mistakes that help you learn lessons gently. The kind that you are able to find solutions for. The kind that are forgiving. The ones that have no solutions seem to teach the toughest lessons, and I am thankful they come around less often.