Saturday Renewal

Today's view of the porch is covered in powdered sugar. I'm spending my Saturday afternoon in my favorite way... baking in the kitchen listening to a basketball game on the radio. I'm baking for the church youth group bake sale tomorrow. The last two sheets of cutout sugar cookies are in the oven and I'm getting all the fun stuff together for Emily to decorate.
My niece Catherine has challenged me to be British and make a Victoria sponge cake for the bake sale. I am prepared to take this one on. I have a good cuppa and ready to start. It's a yellow cake, rich with four eggs. Between the two layers is whipped cream and jam. I'm using strawberry, per Catherine's suggestion. I rarely see her as she has always lived in the UK and I have always lived here. But things like this make me feel close to her. Love you, Rosie.
Earlier this morning, I volunteered at a solo band contest at our middle school. Every single student was amazing. Adolescents to teenagers, boys and young men, girls and young women, all stood nervously waiting their turn to play. From breathy flutes played by equally wispy girls to giant instruments that were as large as the students who played them. A lovely young woman playing a baritone saxophone - I swear it was bigger than she was. A new thing was a bass clarinet - a clarinet dressed up like a saxophone. Beautiful sound... Moms and dads all proud.
Good life lessons, these things are. The students who forgot their music. The students who stood waiting to play and wishing they had prepared a lot more than they had as they stood ready to play in front of an audience. It's good to be scared, one of the music teachers remarked. And it is. Life is that way. There are loads of experiences that scare the pee out of us as we grow and something like this is rather painless in the grand scheme of things.
It started feeling like spring this week. The sun is up earlier in the morning and later in the evening. It smells a bit like mud. The birds are singing more loudly at dawn. Renewal in the air. So, I'm trying new things. I made a new friend this past week. I'm trying my hand at a new cake recipe. I'm thinking about my garden. The house and my soul,are in need of spring cleaning. Time to go through the stuff that I don't need any more and pass it on to others.
Time to give this cake recipe a go ... why not challenge yourself this week to try something new?