princess

Sometimes, when I'm working on something very late at night, or very near a rapidly approaching deadline, things start going badly and I get really frustrated.  I wish that I could laugh in these moments, or take a step back and realize that everything will be fine.  But in those moments, I feel like a complete failure.

I took this first picture the night before my daughter's birthday party.   I was trying to make cupcakes, but it was just too hot.  The frosting kept melting, and they literally kept falling apart.  I took this picture (I couldn't even get the camera to focus properly, that's how wonderfully my night was going!) because in that moment, I was certain that I would not be able to finish even one decent looking cupcake before the party the next day.  I was a failure.  A true Culinary School Dropout who didn't have it in her to finish anything.  I kept thinking about how tired I was going to be the next morning, and wishing that I had gone to bed earlier so that I could have had the energy to wake up early and finish assembling the cupcakes.  I took this picture as a challenge.  Though I was feeling real despair, in the very back of my mind, I vaguely remembered that somehow, everything would be ok.

 

But the morning always brings a special gift: a fresh start.  When my brain is a little more clear, I can a step back to look around, formulate a little plan and then dig in.  Things always turn out okay, not the perfect picture that I had constructed, but good enough.  Through each disaster, I always learn something significant and important.  Maybe someday I will be able to appreciate the my trials when I am in chest deep.  Maybe?

P.S. I ALWAYS cut myself on those little foil seals that they put on containers of pre-made frosting.  Am I the only one?  I only have to look at them from across the room and I wince.  I try to be really careful, but it never helps.