78 and Counting

The Special Morning

The morning sun’s rays were streaming into the window and onto my face. 

“Get up!”,  The sun seemed to say, “It’s your mother’s birthday.”

While I washed my face and tried to make my curls presentable, I recalled the events that lead to this bright January morning.

There really were no plans to celebrate my mother’s birthday this year.  My siblings and I had agreed to wait until my mom turned 80 to have that one big bang of a celebration. 

“But hey!”, One of us declared, “Why wait until mommy turned 80? Every year after 70, nay 60 is cause for celebration.”

The Price of Happiness

“Mommy, will you be putting up the Christmas tree this year?”, my daughter asked.

“I’m still thinking about it.”, was my response.  Setting up the Christmas tree and Belen has been another on-again-off-again affair with me since my kids graduated from college.  Reasons ranged from political:  “no tree until an unpopular president is booted out” to the apathetic: “why bother”.

“Come on mommy.  It will be fun.”, my daughter countered.

Positive Confessions

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

It started like any other mentoring Sunday.  The parish scholars, public elementary and high school students, were starting to come into the chapel to once more meet up with their assigned mentors.  The program that morning was to center around the scholars’ need to set goals on how to better their lives.  In a prior meeting, it was agreed that it would be good to have an older scholar share with the rest of the kids her story of what and how she was doing to achieve her dreams. 

So why were tears slowly streaming down my face as I listened to Z, a shy parish college scholar tell her story? 

The Truth of the Matter

What makes the heart skip a-beat, eyelashes a-flatter, and steps a-lighter...... Is it....
a) a bonus in your payslip?
b) hunger?
c) the Bird Flu?

Could it be love?

I would like to share with you an incident some 10 years ago that somehow helped me focus on what love really is. One day my daughter noticed my son intently whispering sweet nothings on the phone. She brings this phenomena to my husband's attention and ask, "Daddy, what is love?"

My husband ever the teacher wanting to have his student grasp the lesson in one easy step began with, "Well, what your kuya is experiencing right now is a lot of excitement and the feeling of lightness. That is not love. Because love is boring. Now go ask your mom why..."

As I was there at the time of enlightenment, I did not know whether I should be elated because my husband considered that what we have was love or I should be depressed because my husband considered our "love" boring.

Well, not one to let it go without clarification, I asked, "What do you mean by boring?"

Well, love indeed is boring, explained my husband, because it is as constant as night follows day; it is as comfortable as warm bedroom slippers; and it is dependable as paid-up insurance.

Okey, okey, I conceded that my husband had a point and well, also pulled a fast one on me too. But love is trust and so I will once more put on something red because Love-is-thine day is just around the corner.

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Don't have a red outfit but would like to mark a special date? Why not try out baking some chocolate cupcakes that is sure to fire up those old fashion feelings.



Old Fashion Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups all purpose flour
2 t baking soda
½ t salt
¾ c cocoa

½ c butter
3 eggs
2 cups brown sugar

½ c milk
1 T vinegar
1 t vanilla
1 cup hot water

Set oven to 350 degrees. Drop cupcake liners into 2 12-cupcake pan.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa. Set aside.

Cream butter until light yellow in color. Then alternately add sugar and eggs. Begin with the sugar and end with the sugar. ( divide the sugar into 4 so you add ½ c sugar then an egg, and so on and so forth)

Mix in the vinegar to the milk. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the batter—in four . Begin with the flour and end with the flour. (divide the flour mixture into 4 so you add about ½ c flour then 1/3 portion milk, then flour and so on and so forth).

Once well blended, add vanilla and the hot water. Stir until mixture is of smooth consistency.

Pour into rectangular pan or cupcake pan and put into the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes for the rectangular pan or until toothpick comes up clean when inserted in the middle of cake. For cupcakes, it will take only 20-25 minutes to bake.

When done, cool on rack. You may ice this with your favorite frosting. For the cupcakes, I like to frost them with Fluffy White Frosting. Then sprinkle some colored candy bits to give them a happy and festive look.

Fluffy White Frosting
2 egg whites
¾ cup sugar
1/3 c light corn syrup
2 T water
¼ t salt
¼ t cream of tartar
1 t vanilla

Combine first 6 ingredients in top of double boiler. Cook over rapidly boiling water, beating with mixer until mixture stands in peaks. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Continue beating until think enough to spread.