A mixture of love ...

Day 6 finds me in "Thought Provoking Thursday" with Doris Sander (one of my "most" favourite people over on Get It Scrapped! - well they are all my favourites, that's why I put in the "most" :) ). Doris says "my challenge to you is to flip through some of your own recent photos. find one that speaks to you and try to think of more than one angle you could use with your journaling". Since I'm always eager to please the exalted one, here is my take on a photo from last week.

Event perspective - Take butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, milk and flour, mix well and what you do have? A much anticipated cake that will be devoured quickly, a very happy child who has spent a quality hour with his beloved Grandmother; a tired but rewarded Mother-in-law who has successfully championed her Grandson to yet another cake making success AND a sink full of dirty dishes. !!

Relationship perspective - Invariably when my Mother-in-law comes to visit, Christopher asks her to bake a cake with him and she does; always. They start from scratch, with butter, eggs, sugar, etc and she patiently helps him measure out the correct amount of the ingredients and is at the ready to help with the electric beaters when they get a bit wobbly in his hands. The cakes they make together are always delicious and the time they spend creating them is both educational and rewarding for them both.

My perspective - I love the bond that Christopher has with his Grandmother. He's her last Grandchild and I think she is very aware that with the relentless passing of time she needs to do the things with him that she was unable to do with her eldest Grandson who is now 25. And do things with him she does; they look through cookbooks together, heads bent close to check out the finer details, she plays endless rounds of board games, they go for long walks in our neighbourhood; so many wonderful things. Having Grandma visit isn't a chore for Christopher; it's a highlight in his life.

Historical perspective - Oh how I wish my own Mother were alive to do this. I can remember standing on an upturned wooden box in our warm, scent filled kitchen when I was little, just so I could be tall enough to stand next to my Mum when she baked. She was the best cake cook. Her sponges were things of legend. She would carefully and patiently allow me to spoon cupcake mixture into their paper cases and never scold when I missed the center of the cups and mixture would slop over the sides. I'd sit on the box and watch our little creations rise in the oven and then help with the making of the icing. We'd have saucers filled with coconut and hundreds and thousands and if I were very, very lucky we would have glace cherries. We would smooth the rich creamy icing onto the tiny cakes and it was our special job to cover them with these colourful toppings but in my heart I knew that what we really were doing was sprinkling each one with love.