Today was my day to catch up. My day for getting everything done(funny how every day is like this). When I stopped working Friday afternoon, I promised myself to check out of my home office for the weekend, stay off of my phone, away from my email, and just enjoy the family time. I promised myself to hit the ground running today, Monday, and make up for lost time. Start early, work late… and then I got a text from our nanny last night she was stranded because of storms and wouldn’t be back for the kiddos today. Always wanting to spend time with the kiddos I shrugged it off, assured her it was ok (because it was) and worked some last night.
This morning after an early WOD I got home from the box, fried some of our home cured bacon and sat down for work. My kids never sleep that late- it was after 7:30 but somehow the universe was conspiring to give me work time before I had to turn full attention to them. Hitting the ground running I logged on and finally had a reply from a support ticket pertaining to a data feed I have been fighting with for weeks. Finally, the answer I had been waiting for that would enable me to complete this task and move on… Alas, the answer was a crap stock answer similar to one I had received almost a month ago. Knowing I could do nothing else regarding the matter I replied calling them out on giving me a crap stock answer and moved on. I was able to answer a few other emails needing immediate attention just before Cal woke up.
Busy morning, running errands, helping M build out her own sacred space beneath her bed for a little peace and quiet, a trip to Home Depot to solve an issue with our hose spigot and home in time for lunch and a good nap for the bubba. We found the perfect rug for M, a simple, inexpensive solution for the hose, and made it home in plenty of time for lunch and getting Cal down for a solid nap. After tucking Cal in, M decided she needed attention and despite my best efforts to convince her otherwise she ended up laying across my lap while I tried to work on my laptop and answer and make phone calls- not very conducive to productivity but I worked some none the less.
Post-nap off to swim lessons. Good lesson, fun times with friends, physical exertion for the monchichis… Sunshine for all of us. Off to the car to load up and Cal gets knocked over by big sis and tears open both knees… Pick him up, brush him off, cuddles, move on…
Home after a great dinner with good friends where the kids happily played. I popped into the kitchen to flip a flourless chocolate cake I made for my sister-in-law. Today was her birthday, and it had been a long busy day for her. Wanting to show some love and acknowledgment I wanted to run the cake and some cards with the kids across the street before bedtime. The cake looked awesome; we did the cards without a fight. I flipped the cake pan and it ALL FELL APART… What to do? Looking back on all the day, the week, my life, history as we know it… I did the only thing I could. Hurriedly scurried through cabinets looking for a cute dish, found the biggest piece intact, covered it in colorful celebratory sprinkles(desperate times call for desperate measures), and put a candle in it. I plopped(yes plopped- I’ve already discussed the care involved with plopping in previous posts) the rest of the cake in a food storage container, treated that to some sprinkles to placate the kiddos and headed across the street.
I could have cried when the nanny canceled. I could have lost it when I got the shitty answer from tech support that totally ignored the real issue putting me behind again. I could have barricaded myself in a room during Cal’s nap time leaving both myself and my 5-year-old daughter feeling isolated. I could have screamed at her when she knocked her brother over hurting him. and, I could have broken down when the cake fell apart. I could have FALLEN APART too. But for what? We wouldn’t have been able to march across the street singing Happy Birthday to Aunt Emba, we couldn’t have welcomed them home showing them how much we loved and missed them, we would have wasted all the time baking and the ingredients in the cake, and in the end, had nothing.
Instead, we put it back together. Maybe not the way we envisioned it, maybe not the way we had it planned. But we still got the message across and based upon the way the kids chowed it down, it still tasted just as sweet. Perhaps even sweeter given the determination in getting it delivered, and the extra sprinkles….
A Flourless Paleo Chocolate Cake (inspired by Elana’s pantry)
- Preheat Oven to 350
- Pull out a blender, immersion blender, food processor, or mixer (these are the order in which I would rate effectiveness)
- Separate 3 eggs, place the yolks in the mixing vessel and keep the whites to the side
- Measure and sprinkle in salt
- Drizzle in honey
- Blend for 1 minute
- Pour in walnut oil
- Drop in 2 ripe bananas
- Blend for an additional minute
- Add cacao powder
- Blend again
- In a separate bowl beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks
- Fold in the chocolate mixture from the blender
- Pour into a greased pan (I will consider using a spring-form pan in the future, I will say however that I have made this a couple of other times and it has come out of my regular round cake pan with no problem)
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted to the center comes out clean
- Cool for 10 minutes then flip
If the cake falls apart, don’t dismay. Scrape it all up, cover it in sprinkles. Light a candle and deliver it while singing your best rendition of Happy Birthday. Speaking from experience, the result will be just as good as if the cake had slid out of the pan with ease, maybe even sweeter. Oh, and if it’s not for a birthday just message me for other suggestions, I’m good at putting stuff back together when something unexpected happens…
What do you do when things fall apart?
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