A good rule of thumb: Don't make promises you don't intend to keep.
A second rule: And definitely make sure you don't speak those promises aloud.
Where little ears will hear.
And remember like it's carved into stone.
(Now why oh why can't it be carved into stone that I asked them to clean their room?)
I had mentioned this morning - off hand - that I might *might* make Christmas cookies later, you know, if the day went well and all...
Fast forward to 4:30 and I had completely forgot. So, knowing full well what I was getting myself into, I began making the cookies.
Now for some background before we get into the nitty-gritty:
1. My kitchen is the size of a postage stamp. It's a 1.5 butt kitchen. (Don't tell the kids I used the "b" word) And all three - yes three! - were in there and wanting to "help".
2. I am not a baker. There has to be a full moon, all stars in alignment (or a really big kitchen with lots of legit help) for me to want to make any recipe that requires rolling out.
3. Once I say I'm going to do something, I will get it done, come hell or high water. At times this is a strength.
This was not one of those times.
You know that little voice inside? The one that whispers - or if you're lucky - screams that "This is a baaaad idea! Rethink! Regroup! Run AWAY!
Well apparently, he had the night off.
Just about everything that could go wrong, did.
- Added flour to the brown sugar, instead of creaming butter and sugar. (In my defense, recipe clearly stated "Mix dry ingredients together." Since when is brown sugar a wet ingredient?!
- Hand sifted the brown sugar out since it was still in a measuring-cup-shaped lump. (And because that's all the brown sugar I had)
- Proceeded to add baking powder to the brown sugar instead of the flour.
- Re-hand sifted the brown sugar by hand.
If you ever make cut-out cookies, the Number One tip I can give you?
MORE FLOUR.
Always use more flour. If you think you have enough and your finger doesn't stick to the dough?
ADD MORE FLOUR.
I must have scooped the dough out of the bowl like four times only to realize it was too sticky, then had to scrape it off the counter and back into the bowl for more flour.
At this point I was ready to chuck the whole bowl out the window.
Well...I finally got the right consistency and was in cookie making business. Until the baked cookies stuck to the sheet and snowflake arms started flying off left and right. Too bad I'm not Canadian, cuz they sure look a lot more like maple leaves than they do snowflakes.
Tip Number Two: NON-STICK SPRAY IS YOUR BFF.
By this time I was pretty sure God had performed a miracle and was reenacting the story where the widow's oil and flour never ran out...because I didn't feel like I was making a dent in that bowl of dough.
By now the kids were running like hellions around the house playing "Jedi and Darth Vader" - a result of another promise I had kept by letting them watch Star Wars earlier in the day - and Lil' Peach was sitting on my feet, crying rivers because I wouldn't let her have another cookie and "are you going to starve me forever Mama?!"
And somewhere in the midst of this chaos I thought: Where is the peace? This is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to look like those gosh darn Hallmark commercials. I'm supposed to feel blissful and full of holiday JOY for goodness sakes! When all I really wanted to be full of was a glass of wine and about half a tray of cookies.
But the thing about those holiday commercials?
They're not real.
This. THIS is real. The sifting through mistakes only to make the same mistake a few minutes later. The broken pieces of dreams and the big 'ol crocodile tears streaming down our faces wondering when we'll get our just desserts and "are you going to starve us forever God?!"
Joseph's holiday card would not have looked picture perfect. His memories weren't filled with glittering smile-filled get togethers. His brothers hated him. They tried to kill him. He was spoiled, prideful, spited, hated, kidnapped, sold, exiled, bought, framed, imprisoned and forgotten.
Yet each painful unfathomable mysterious step was orchestrated by God and used to save an entire nation. God was in each moment, holding Joseph, whispering hope. All the tough stuff he had to go through made him the perfect man to lead Egypt through an unbelievable crisis.
And the God that held Joseph is the same God who holds you. Who can take the cookie-crumble pieces of your life and turn them into something beautiful and full of hope.
Embrace the darkness...he has you hidden in the shadow of his wings, the enfold of his strong arms.
Keep seeking for Hope...he knows what he is doing, and is doing it.
All is grace,
Carie
Day 7 - Joseph - Genesis 37:3-4, 12-24, 28
The Message (MSG)
37 Meanwhile Jacob had settled down where his father had lived, the land of Canaan.
Joseph and His Brothers
2 This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them.
3-4 Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him—they wouldn’t even speak to him.
5-7 Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said, “Listen to this dream I had. We were all out in the field gathering bundles of wheat. All of a sudden my bundle stood straight up and your bundles circled around it and bowed down to mine.”
8 His brothers said, “So! You’re going to rule us? You’re going to boss us around?” And they hated him more than ever because of his dreams and the way he talked.
9 He had another dream and told this one also to his brothers: “I dreamed another dream—the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to me!”
10-11 When he told it to his father and brothers, his father reprimanded him: “What’s with all this dreaming? Am I and your mother and your brothers all supposed to bow down to you?” Now his brothers were really jealous; but his father brooded over the whole business.
12-13 His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing their father’s flocks. Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are with flocks in Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them.”
Joseph said, “I’m ready.”
14 He said, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing and bring me back a report.” He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem.
15 A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
16 “I’m trying to find my brothers. Do you have any idea where they are grazing their flocks?”
17 The man said, “They’ve left here, but I overheard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers down, and found them in Dothan.
18-20 They spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to kill him. The brothers were saying, “Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what his dreams amount to.”
21-22 Reuben heard the brothers talking and intervened to save him, “We’re not going to kill him. No murder. Go ahead and throw him in this cistern out here in the wild, but don’t hurt him.” Reuben planned to go back later and get him out and take him back to his father.
23-24 When Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the fancy coat he was wearing, grabbed him, and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was dry; there wasn’t any water in it.
25-27 Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices, ointments, and perfumes to sell in Egypt. Judah said, “Brothers, what are we going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence? Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not kill him—he is, after all, our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
28 By that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt.
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