Moving Furniture and the Grace of Laughter

So last week the gas line was connected to our fireplace after 2 1/2 months of a big hole in our wall. Our gas fireplace was installed the same week in June that it became insanely hot for two months, and broken air conditioners are more important than my fireplace when it's 108! This has been 2 1/2 months of patience building for me with random things out of place and mantle and surround supplies sitting around.

This week Randy has begun the sheet rocking and mudding process, which I don't mind until he starts sanding. Yesterday we moved almost all of the family room furniture into the smaller living room that is already filled with furniture. No pictures, please! And today is build-a-ginormous-fort-day!

Yesterday had one of those mornings where I struggled and prayed and prayed and struggled some more with my attitude. I couldn't get anything done with two mobile small children who don't know how to play together. My house was (is) a MESS. And I let it all push my buttons!

Then Randy needed breakfast food made. Buttermilk scones with vanilla frosting. The same ones I had been assigned to make for the Women's Conference at church last week. Randy said they tasted like his mom's sugar cookies - perfect for breakfast! So around 11:30, I fed the boys an early lunch because they were hungry (and fighting). Afterward I thought, "I have time to get these done really fast before nap time. This is a bad idea." But I did it anyhow.

Randy had suggested making a double batch so we could throw some in the freezer. So I wondered, "Can I make a double batch at the same time in my mixer? Probably a bad idea, but I'm going to try."

6 cups of flour, 5 (yes FIVE) tablespoons of baking powder, and some other dry ingredients really fill up a mixer. Then I added three sticks of butter...and forgot to cut it into small pieces. Flour exploded everywhere! I knew this was a bad idea.

I cut up the butter and tried it again. Better this time. Then I started adding two cups of buttermilk. My mixer seriously started grinding. I had to be careful or I was going to burn it up (making TWO cranky Regehrs in our house - Randy would not be happy with that!) Then I realized I forgot the sugar! I kneaded the sugar in by hand and put the scones on a pan. By this time Wyatt had pulled a chair up on the other side of the counter and was watching. On that counter I had a canister of sugar, a pan of scones and a ball of dough. No touch, Wyatt!

Ryder was playing on the kitchen floor and getting cranky and tired, so I took him to bed. When I came back Wyatt had dumped a 1/3 cup of sugar on the scones and was gleefully licking sugar out of the cup. A classic Wyatt move. Thankfully, all of this was making me laugh. And it kept getting better.

I popped most of the scones in the oven then read Wyatt a story and put him to bed. Over the next 20 minutes I continued to put him back to bed and mixed up the frosting. By this time my kitchen was an absolute disaster. I frosted the first batch, and then picked them up to move them to the laundry room counter to cool, so I'd have room to frost the second batch. Of course, I couldn't carry the cooling racks one at a time. I had to carry two at once. After about three steps the scones on the right rack started sliding. Splat! Splat! SPLAT! At least four scones hit the floor, fresh frosting side down, narrowly missing all of Ryder's toys still strewn all over the floor. I laughed till I had tears rolling down my cheeks. Amazingly enough, only one broke (my lunch), and Randy managed to have 23 scones ready for his breakfast.

What a grace that laughter was! A gift from the Lord because that wasn't my heart yesterday. That comedy of errors in my kitchen absolutely made my day!