Smoking

Not to brag, but around these parts, and parts of Central California where I spent many years, I’m known for my cookies.  Yes, in the scheme of things, I realize this is a sad, pathetic talent to be known for.  I have a husband who is an accomplished artist, a son and daughter who are incredibly creative and talented.  I cook.  Specifically, I bake.  This is not impressive.  But if you are hungry, I can provide you with tasty treats. I bake most days of the week and have since I was a teen.  So, I am pretty committed to my gigantic KitchenAid mixer.  In fact, as ridiculous as this sounds to those of you who don’t enjoy time in the kitchen…If my family was safe and I had five minutes to grab stuff out of the house before it collapsed, it would probably be the photo albums, hard drive with photos, kid art and KitchenAid.

Until the event I am about to disclose, I didn’t even know just how radical my KitchenAid mixer was… I knew it was heavy, beastly even.  No joke, this bad daddy weighs over thirty pounds.  Now you know why I do 100 push-ups/day…I need to be strong enough to hoist this baby onto the kitchen counter and back into the cupboard.  Princessenpointe didn’t weigh 3o pounds until she was over two years old!  I received my KitchenAid mixer as a gift for Mother’s Day about a decade ago, so I did no research, information gathering, etc.  I only knew it could mix a quadruple batch of Snickerdoodles and  whip just about anything else into smithereens in seconds.  But, now I know it is a Professional 6.  This is one of the bad daddy models.

I know this because I was mixing whole wheat pizza dough the other day and the KitchenAid started smoking…smoking as in big plumes of smoke spewing from the back and from the front.  I was out back watering the plants while it mashed my dough for six minutes and when I came inside,  the kitchen was smokey.  Does this make the pizza “electrically fired?”  It’s a new take on “coal fired”…only instead of firing the dough in a coal fired oven, you fire the raw dow in a broken down KitchenAid.  EEEEK.  I was afraid to unplug the cord from the electrical socket.  Mind you, both Princessenpointe and Princelightningbolt were nearby and neither noticed the smell or the smoke.  So, if you invite them over to your house, be sure your smoke detector has new batteries because they probably won’t notice that your house is burning down.

Long story short, my KitchenAid is at the repair shop getting new motor parts.  I lasted one day without it and had to borrow Mrscooksalot’s extra.  This extra mixer is a bitty, bitty baby compared to my bad boy, but it will do until I get mine back.  I’ve made some macaroons in it and they are delicious, but I still feel like something major is missing from my life.

Look closely…there is a little plume coming out of the front of the mixer..this is all the smoke that was left after I freaked out for a few minutes, unplugged and thought to go get my phone for a picture…Next time I will be quicker to get the shot.

Life Skills

I volunteered today at an M.U.N. (Model United Nations) conference at Princelightningbolt’s high school.  I didn’t have M.U.N. at my high school so this was all new to me when he first started high school.  This program is right up Sirlightningbolt’s alley (he loves history, politics, being up in front of people and writing a mean essay).  I am impressed I can discuss topics pertinent to the world with him because he is educated about current events.  He now knows that behind the Orange Curtain does not lie the entire world.

What I really enjoy about these conferences is seeing hundreds of smart, educated, interested teens all dressed up at 6:30 in the morning on a weekend day, ready for action.  Why doesn’t this make the news?  Hundreds of sleepy, overworked  teens are up at the crack of dawn, dressed to the nines and ready to debate issues pertinent to our world today.  What could be better?  When I drop Princelightningbolt off in my pajamas and  the sun has barely cracked the horizon, I am impressed.

These kids are going places.  The skills they have as teens will serve them well.  Get up, be prepared, show up, make a good case, dress the part, engage your audience, have the endurance to do it for 10 hours with a small lunch break.  Doesn’t this sound like a day of meetings at a real job?  Follow through, knowledge, preparation and presentation (of both information and of self) are key.  But, more important than all of these life skills, these teens seem happy.  They smile, they joke, they obviously have camaraderie.  This is important stuff.  This is life, this is relationships, this is communication.

We hear there are no jobs, kids are denied college entrance even with GPA’s well above perfect, their majors are impacted and worse.  However, there is a legion of teens out there ready to take on the world…head on.  These kids can dress the part, they can argue a point, they can commit and they can put it all down on paper.  Be ready, they are coming and they are strong.  If they keep developing this skill set, us parents will be in good hands when we age and are depending on someone younger to care for and make decisions for us.

And we will rest easy knowing they are productive, engaged and happy in their lives.  We all need to remember to hone these life skills and validate their importance at a time when most of us are checking their grades daily and forgetting that the grades are a very small part of the package.  Truly, do you even remember your high school GPA?  Probably not.  But, I bet you remember how you felt in high school and what you learned that you still know and utilize to this day.  I bet it mattered if you were happy and involved and I bet that still matters today.