The Great Cupcake Escapades

I'm typically a little too, shall we say, all over the place to be much good as a crafty hobbyist. I have things that I enjoy. I like to tinker. But frankly, my mercurial self will never stay enthralled with one thing long enough to say I'm, for example, a quilter, baker, scrapbooker...well you get the idea. Some things, however, I ended up returning to quite often for a variety of reasons; only some of which include the fact that I genuinely like them.

For example, I actually do like to bake. I do not like to clean so my baking is often put on hold with the dread of cleaning that mess up. Someone must be home (ahem, husband, I'm eyeballing you) to do the dishes. In addition, when your child has food allergies, you end up making quite a bit of fancy little baked goods because those are safe whereas other people's baked goods (bought or made) are not or are unknown. Every year we make oodles of cupcakes just before school goes back. Most of those end up in the school nurses' freezer so Megan has a known safe fall back whenever treats make their way into the classroom during the year. This means, of course, that simply boxed cupcakes and canned frosting are not enough. No. These must complete with mile-high frosting and cute decorations you find in shops. These must stand-up to fantastic. If Meg must be different, she will be the different everyone else wishes they had on their plate.

Out of necessity I have become an cupcake maker. Creeping into August and with a desert due to the church kitchen tomorrow morning for mission teams we're hosting, it's time to get back to the cupcake drawing board. Today we're going to make a combination of recipes I've found online in order to produce S'Mores cupcakes. The basis of our creation begins here: http://cookiesandcups.com/smores-cupcakes/

They will be good.

I will make twice as many as I need to keep the family happy. Actually, I may not share.

It's been so long let's get reacquainted.

It seems to me that all blogs should start off with a "who am I?" entry. This one did ten years ago when I created it's inaugural post. Who I was then, a young(er) mother to one child, working part-time, looking for an outlet beyond the 'baby book' style blog I also kept, is not exactly who I am today. A decade manages to change people.

So who am I?

I am a mom. This time around, I'm a mom to two tweens - one about to start middle school as a 6th grader and the other 4th grade. I am a wife. I am a daughter. I am a sister.

I am a volunteer who does not often remember what the word "NO" feels like on my lips. I am a Girl Scout leader, a mentor and trainer for new GS volunteers, and I frequent many other Girl Scout committee meetings. I am on church committees. I am pitching in at various places because I was raised to understand that our purpose is to make the world better than we found it and the best way to do that is to volunteer your time and talents.

I am a writer who suffers from enough self-doubt in my words to approach pitching myself for freelance pieces. I procrastinate while I work up the courage. I've not had the courage in many years, despite having written for publication several times. I am an out of work marketer and public relations maven. I am job seeker whose perfect job would allow me to work at home or work part-time but who is willing to take what I find.

I am a child of the Jersey Shore who is raising her own children in her own hometown. I am seeing the places where I grew up, and the things I thought my children would grow up with, fighting to recover from Hurricane Sandy - cursing her destruction and marveling at the amazing people who have come from near and far to help us rebuild. I am feet on the ground and hands in mix to pick up the pieces. I am part of the solution.

I am a food allergy parent who understands that my primary task in this role is to empower my daughter to respect her allergies and to take charge of them. My job is not to construct a bubble around her, but to teach her to keep herself safe, to be confident and to above all else, not let her allergies get in the way of her happiness or contentment with life.

I am firm believer learning never ends and a child's education is a partnership between home and school. I am always looking for the learning opportunity in all things. How can we grow from this? What can we glean?

I'm a history buff, a political junky, a Yankee baseball and Giants football fan. I may be addicted to Starbucks, but only those drinks that don't taste like coffee. I am an avid reader who sometimes forgets to take the time to feed that passion. I am one who works best with music playing in the background because my brain tends to wander off aimlessly when it's not half listening to someone singing.

I am 40 and that no longer seems "old." Old is now what it's always been - people my parent's age. People my age? We're just getting started on the good stuff.

This is me. This is my blog.

Life With My Overachieving Bunch: Smurfing Food Allergies?

Sometimes the allergy community gets itself worked up over stuff. Sometimes I identify with the rally cry and other times I don't. The latest hubbub over the new Smurf movie is one in which I don't fall in with the masses. Instead of waxing poetic again, I will just share the link to a guest blog post I wrote for a friend:

Life With My Overachieving Bunch: Smurfing Food Allergies?

The big comeback

When I signed off 5 years ago I left things a little open ended. It was nice having my own wall to throw stuff up against. It was fun having others actually read that stuff and leave a few words. As much as I knew I needed a break from blogging, I also knew that one day the words would build up inside again and I'd need to dust off my little slice of the web. That time has come. I can't promise I'll be consistent with frequency. I can't promise it will always be entertaining. It's just me, just like it's always been. Me and Me only and whatever it is that happened to crawl up into that itchy place of my brain and demand my fingers set it free. Are you ready to go along for the ride?