cake

today I made a cake. i made a cake last week for Olivia's birthday. today i made another one. you might ask "why?" "why 2 cakes in one week?" I'll tell you. cake (betty crocker out of a box with duncan hines frosting) makes me feel normal. french cake (bittersweet, dry, no frosting) does NOT make me feel normal. My life is so upside down crazy that I have a deep longing to feel just plain, boring and normal. cake helps me do that. licking the bowl is a good thing.
this cake mix came from a battered box that my sweet sister in law brought over here, and the frosting exploded in her suitcase, but it was the best frosting i have ever tasted.

i asked olivia what she wanted most for christmas, and she said "to wake up at mimi and paw paw's house on christmas morning" then later she was looking through a toy catalog, and I asked her to circle what she wanted, and she said "you know what i want isn't in here"
can it be that at the tender age of 9 she is learning that relationships are better and far more valuable than any "stuff" we could possibly aquire. she doesn't know yet that she will get her wish. my sweet father has bought us tickets to come home for their 50th wedding anniversary, so my precious girls will get to wake up at their grandparents house after all. this year.