Failures

Sometimes days start like this:

A perfect little cheese cup.

  You plan ahead for it, but are pretty confident that it's going to turn out alright because you've done this before.  Then somewhere along the way, the day turns into this: 

This is where white goat cheese (with minced parsley, that is supposed to have a texture similar to whipped cream, because it's mixed with whipped cream), that you are later going to pipe into a beautiful little floret into afore mentioned cheese cup, turns into a green soupy mess.  Un-pipable. Except that you've made this before, too.  You were equally as confident.  

This is where you learn that no matter how many times you do something, how many kids you have, there will always be some different variable that could affect the end results.  Stop being so self confident.  This isn't about you. Pay attention to what very specific thing you are working with (like brand of goat cheese, cream, temperature of your kitchen, birth order of your child, etc.) Fortunately with goat cheese, we get another try.  And, another, until on the 3rd try and a second trip to the grocery, it works.

Then there's this:

Do those look like potato chips?  Yeah, not to me either. There was a hole in the middle of my potato.  Putting a hole in every.single.chip. Plus my mandoline didn't slice them quite "paper" thin, so they were supposed to cook in 25 minutes and after 50  minutes, weren't quite done yet.   This is where you learn that the first time you do something, you will probably mess it up.  You figure out what works, what doesn't, and are grateful for the grace to have a second chance. 

And then you reflect over what you learned on this day.  How you can internalize these things, not panic over boots that have just been buried about 4 feet deep in the sandbox because your child asked his siblings to bury him, and be grateful for another day.   Another day that starts out like this: