Grumbly Gus

I have to come clean. I have been a bit of a Grumbly Gus lately. I am usually a girl that can roll with the punches. Take life as it comes. Just go with the flow. But, here it goes, the rain is getting to me. Never before I have a grumbled so much about the rain. I mean, I chose to live in the Northwest! I could have stayed in the Midwest with it's snow, cold temperatures, and humidity. But I chose to move here and now, I am just begging for a little sun. Just a little itty bitty bit, please!

Someone told me this morning we have been setting records in the number of days we have had rain (last time I checked it was 30 out of 32 days. Yikes!) Setting a record in the fact that we haven't reached 60 degrees at all in March (sigh). Is this why, whenever there is a tiny bit of sun peeking through those clouds, my whole family runs to the patch of sun and stands there soaking it up?!? I think I'd rather set records in the number of sunny days in the month of March instead!

To try and cure my Grumbly Gus attitude, I've made myself run outside just to be outside in the fresh air instead of the gym. This theory proved to be interesting last Sunday as I ran through sunshine (yay!), rain (boo!), and hail (ouch!) all in a 50 minute time-span. But, I have perservered and taken to drying my shoes over the heat register every night.

I have also been baking away madly in the kitchen, continuing to test my recipes for the day Cupcake Tuesdays becomes a true bakery (still daydreaming of that day!).  Testing out recipes such as:

Chocolate Cupcake with Malted Buttercream Frosting

Testing out a pumpkin cake recipe that developed into a yummy, fall-inspired cupcake:

Don't you just love those pearl decorations?!? So fancy!

And my new love: Whoopie Pies, a fun concoction that brings a lot to the table. I just found a whole cookbook devoted to Whoopie Pies that looks like it will give me a whole year of baking fun!

So simple but oh so good!

So I will try my best to not be such a Grumbly Gus as the weather looks like it will continue to be rainy. But, just so you know, I just might give up, pack the kids up, and hit the road. Paint the words, "Sunshine or Bust!" on my mom-van and go on a mission to find a sunny patch. I can feel the sunshine on my shoulders now!

Did You See That?!?

I keep a training log of all my marathon training. Each training season, I write down everything related to my runs. How tired I was, what I ate, what hurt, even what was special about a particular day. These training logs help me when something is hurting or when I need to know what worked and what didn't. It is also fun to look at how many miles I have logged over one season.

Yesterday, I wrote this in my training log:

5 1/2 miles with 3 miles tempo.
Run: Good, happy to be out
Body: Stiff here and there (not unusual these days!)
Knee: Good
Left Foot: Achy tonight
Weather: Rainy and sunny at the same time (Go Northwest weather!)
Double Rainbow: AWESOME!

I had waited all day for my run, watching the weather to see how wet it was going to be. No rain all day, maybe just a drizzle here and there. As soon as I put my gear on, it started dumping buckets. Not a mild soaker, but a full out drenching downpour.

Obviously, I grumbled and complained as I headed down the stairs but once I got out there the sun came out, while it was still pouring. Such a Northwest thing! When I hit the busy, main road, I looked over and saw the most amazing rainbow I had ever seen. A double rainbow so vivid that it was striking against the dark sky. To boot, the bottom rainbow had little rainbows underneath. Wow!

There I am standing, in the pouring rain, in the full sunshine, amazed at the beauty. I looked at all the travelers going by and thought, "Do you see that?!? That fantastic beauty behind you? Look everyone! You are missing it!" I am sure they were thinking, "Why is that crazy runner standing in the pouring rain looking at me? Crazy runner girl! Go back inside!"

I continued on my run and was blessed by the rainbow, the rain tapering off, and the warm sunshine on my shoulders. In my last post, I talked about these moments of beauty as temporary bandages for the sadness in the world right now. I kept looking for them this week and caught some of them on camera. Sadly, I did not have my camera on me yesterday so I couldn't capture the rainbow. Bummer!

Here are the ones I did capture. Enjoy!

More Daffodil Beauty

Raindrops Perched on a Lily Leaf

Chocolate Macaroons. So yummy!

My Favorite: A Raindrop on a Hydrangea Branch

Enjoy your moments of beauty. I hope you find some real treasures these next few days.

A Temporary Bandage

A Moment of Beauty

I am not quite sure what to make of the world right now. Watching the events unravel through the news has been unnerving. Listening to people's reactions and reasons for the events has been puzzling and disheartening, to say the least. Our God is a kind and compassionate God, I have to believe. 


My 'desire to fix it all' personality has been challenged these past few days. From afar, I feel a bit helpless. I can't physically fix, right now, what is going on but I can pray for those involved, think of what they will face in the future, and be thankful for friends who are home instead of overseas, like they usually are at this time. 


This morning, as I was listening to my husband read the daily news updates, I looked outside and saw that my daffodils had finally bloomed. Through rain storms and dreary days, they managed to put forth their beautiful blooms. They were reminding me to take notice of the beauty around me as I pondered the sadness that is here in our world.


So, each day this week, as events continue to unravel, I will look for moments of beauty around me. Maybe it will be in the words my children say or the way a run lifts my spirits. These moments of beauty might be seen as a temporary bandage but, until I find away to help from here, they will remind me to have faith in my world. 

The Legend of Van

There is a story of a man in Eugene who sells so many strawberries during strawberry season that he is known as "Van-Van the Strawberry Man". I have met this man, this living legend. A man, who in his 80's, has more energy than I. A man who is the grandfather of my friend. Hmmm...wonder where she gets all her energy?!? Must run in the family!

When I first met him, he was up on a ladder, fixing and repairing. A fearless man who loves his family, honors his community, and takes care of business. In his honor, Cupcake Tuesdays has created a cupcake that reflects the beauty of the strawberry season and the brightness of Van-Van the Strawberry Man's life. Enjoy!

"Van-Van the Strawberry Man" by Cupcake Tuesdays

The "Van-Van the Strawberry Man" cupcake begins with a fresh strawberry buttermilk cake, filled with homemade lemon curd. A sweet surprise in the middle of strawberry goodness!

Streaming in the Fresh Strawberry Juice.

The cupcakes are then topped with strawberry buttercream frosting. This frosting I probably could have eaten by the spoonfuls without any cake or lemon curd!

Getting Ready to be Shared!

To finish off these cupcakes, we decorated them with sugared lemon peels which gave the cupcakes an extra edge. Sweet, tart, and delectable cupcakes! One of my favorite cupcakes we have made so far!

Welcome to the Party

Joyful Little Cupcakes!

Lately, I have been wondering what direction my life is heading in. Questioning where I will be in the next week, a few months from now, even a year. Wondering where all this time in the company of butter, sugar, and chocolate, even beyond Cupcake Tuesdays, is taking me (I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, just so you know). Wondering if I should be putting that Masters of Education I have to good use.

Then a friend of mine asked me to make two dozen cupcakes for her birthday. My first cupcake customer! I was incredibly excited and honored to be asked to make her celebration cupcakes. Honored to create the centerpiece for her birthday celebration.

As I mixed and created on Saturday afternoon in the peace and quiet of my house (my dear husband had taken all three kids out on an adventure by himself), I realized how much joy and happiness I felt in hanging out in the kitchen, baking away to my heart's content. As I mixed the butter and sugar together, I sighed a sigh of happiness. This is where I belong right now.

Even better was the happiness and joy I saw in her face when she got a peek of her cupcakes for the first time. If my creations can bring that much joy to someone, I think I am in the right business. In the right business of combining my passion for sugar and my love of taking care of others through food. It's a good deal. I think I will take it for now.