Two days ago I was outside watching my son practice balancing skills on his bike, the same thing I had been doing for three months. He is learning to ride several years older than his peers and it has started to become apparent even to him that this is different.
I knew something was wrong the day he was born, but it took 4 years before ANY diagnosis was made and even those findings seemed somewhat insignificant. I knew something was wrong because his feet didn’t curve inward on the bottom of his foot like all my friends babies. The doctors said it was nothing and I wanted to believe it, but then he didn’t walk and the doctor said it was fine because some kids just take longer to walk. As time passed, we would have family dancing parties and he would throw himself into the air trying to participate, but unable to get his legs to hold him upright. I finally begged my doctor, “How delayed do we have to let a child be before we help them?” She gave in and referred him for physical therapy.
We were somewhat out of place as we waited for our appointment. Children in leg braces, children in wheelchairs – likely never going to walk. I was humbled, knowing my child would walk, even if there were struggles, his weren’t nearly as severe as what I was now seeing.
Some trials in life are permanent, some are fleeting, the key is finding the difference – accepting those that are permanent while finding the strength to make it through those that are fleeting.
Our son did walk
and then ran
and now – trying to ride a bike.
It turns out he has an inherited condition where he experiences “seizure activity,” but has not yet had a seizure.
It is as if the lights keep being turned out while reading, you get bits and pieces, but it is not congruent learning and large sections can be lost. This condition has affected everything from speech to walking, reading, eye sight and balance. It affects how his brain learns and how his body grows.
So far he has been able to accomplish everything his peers have, it just takes 10 times as long or with 10 times the effort. That is why we have been practicing for the last 3 months…
I know he will learn, but he doesn’t – not yet.
When overcoming obstacles, that is one of the hardest things to realize in the first place, that it is possible.
Photo credit luke.sky.watcher – find this and other amazing shots on his instagram site @luke.sky.watcher
Growing up my mom often quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson’s saying,
“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do,
not that the nature of the thing has changed
but that our power to do has increased.”
I think there were a few times in there where I may have rolled my eyes and silently quoted it along with her, but my mother – a saint by the way – didn’t give up. She knew something I didn’t – she knew that I could and would eventually learn and that I might need it one day.
There may be times it feels hard, impossible even. We may want to quit, rationalizing that we are on the wrong path, that maybe an easier course would be the answer to making our life balanced again. The best things in life are often the things we had to work the hardest for. Rarely is that precious item, moment or relationship simply handed to us. The ability to accept the things that are permanent while finding the strength to change the things that aren’t is where we conquer our life’s obstacles.
It can be tempting to think that because of our many mistakes or trials that we should give up. Maybe take it as a sign that we shouldn’t continue. But as Albert Einstein learned from continuous trail and error with his own obstacles, “A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new.”
Any time we progress, we can look back and see a path lined with mistakes along the way. Mistakes are proof that you are trying. The important thing is that we get back up, brush ourselves off and try again.
When my son took off on his bike the first time, he tumbled and fell hard. I tried to catch him to prevent the fall, but didn’t get there in time. It took me a few weeks to convince him to get back on. Quite honestly I was worried if he didn’t learn now, he may never learn. It would be that obstacle in his past, always there to justify not taking on the next obstacle.
But here we are, practicing every day, it’s started getting a little easier. He has learned to glide longer distances and is now practicing getting his feet up on the peddles
And then he did it!
He took off, completely on his own. Balancing and peddling and NOT falling. I was speechless and a bit confused at first because when he came to a stop he began to cry. I ran to him knowing he hadn’t gotten hurt. As I held him in my arms I realized they were tears of relief and pride and happiness all wrapped up in one happy face. He had finally realized he could do something hard. He overcame what seemed like an insurmountable obstacle and here he was standing on top. I couldn’t help myself as I realized what was happening, I tried to fight off the tears at first and then just gave in. We stood there hugging and crying, I knew he would remember this for the rest of his life,
the day he realized he could overcome what felt like the impossible.
Somethings in life just make sense, like being able to see the recipe on your tablet or smart phone while your hands are sticky. I didn’t realize I wanted a recipe card/ tablet holder, until I saw the idea from RealityDaydream.com, I began to see the advantages and had the perfect corner cabinet to attach it to. I also had a small shelf I wasn’t using from my newly installed cabinets and thought I would try it out. All you need are the friction lid hinges one for the left and the right, a square piece of wood the size you want for your device or magazine, and a magnet. The magnet is used to hold up the back of the board when you fold it in for storage, otherwise it hangs down. RealityDaydream acknowledged this was a problem and invited others to send their solutions. This was mine and I’ll show you how to install it below.
I attached the hinges to the bottom of my cabinet, right along that 2 inch ledge cabinet builders leave. Once folded into place, you could see the hinge a little bit, but not enough to notice unless you were looking.
I also attached my magnet to the top of the wood slab. The metal plate for the magnet was attached onto a 1″ block of wood which was placed about in the middle of the cabinet. Notice I also placed the magnet flush with my board face, this was so the magnet would hold the wood slab close to the underside of the cabinet. The ridge at the bottom of the wood slab was here because it is the underside of a narrow shelf. I lucked out in having a nice piece already in place. If you are creating a wood surface from scratch you will need to attach a piece of wood at the bottom to hold your wood slab.
The best way to start is to secure the hinges to the cabinet first. Then secure the wood slab for the tablet to the hinges. To determine where to place the hinge, do a dry run and see where you want the square wood to end up when you’ve folded it into place. Notice the wooden block with the metal plate is not attached to the cabinet yet, I used this method then marked with a pencil where to attach the block. Then secure the hinges to your slab of wood.
Make sure it unfolds the way you want, once you are pleased with that then you will fold it in place and see where the top edge of your square wood meets up with the bottom of your cabinet, this is where you want to place your metal plate (mine placed on a block). You may need to adjust the thickness of your wooden block, depending on the depth of the under-edge of your cabinet.
As you go, make sure to always check the length of your screw with the thickness of the wood to make sure it will hold the hardware, but not go through the finished part of your wood. I check my screw with the wood by placing it on the edge, giving room for any hardware to be attached. In this example, I am checking the screw depth for my Pull-Out Kitchen Trash.
Also be sure to pre-drill any wood where you will place a screw. This will prevent your wood from splitting. As you see here, I have attached the metal plate to the wooden block first, then I did a dry run. The next step is to screw it into place.
There you have it, a pull-down recipe/tablet holder that makes it easier to read and mess free. If you have a wider cabinet spot you could also do this for a recipe book. I just folded up my magazine or used my tablet. It was pretty handy. Share your recipe holders and any insights you’ve had on your designs below. Happy building!
My wonderful daughter, wrote up her own recipe and experience for making her chocolate creation. She loves to cook and to write so this was a perfect combination. Please enjoy.
I made the chocolate-topped-Oreo cookies in hope that my brother and his friends would choose it to be the winner because of how much chocolate was in the recipe. I love making food, but as the oven was and would be used the entire time, my appetizer had to be something that did not need to be cooked. Looking at the ingredients I decided to make some sort of cookie.
The cookie used only three ingredients, Oreos, milk chocolate and frozen blue berries. I started by melting one chocolate bar in a ceramic bowl. Then while the chocolate was still warm I crushed up about five Oreos into the bowl. I left chunks of Oreo in it but I mostly I crushed the Oreos into dust while the chocolate was still melted so that the dust could melt into it. After that I scooped the Oreo-chocolate onto Oreos with a metal spoon and topped it off with a blueberry on the top (I think it could have had more though.)
This recipe made seven delicious cookies. When they were done I put them in the fridge for about fifteen minutes. The affect was great, the chocolate melted in your mouth, the blueberry gave a sweet, fruity touch to it and the Oreo put a nice crunch in the cookie.
I put a lot of thought into this cookie, however, I didn’t win when the boys saw my mom and dads, but it was a lot of fun for a really great chocolate appetizer.
This cake is amazing! Dense, creamy, chocolate center with ganache chocolate poured on top. Decorated with with your choice of candy chocolates. A dream come true for the chocolate lover in your life. This recipe was adapted from throughherlookingglass.com
I have made a number of chocolate cakes throughout the years and while I don’t think you can go wrong with chocolate, this is one of my very favorites. I would have eaten the whole thing, but my son wouldn’t let me (thank goodness).
Brick Street Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1/1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 1/2 cups cake flour (I used 100% whole white wheat because I like the texture)
1 cup baking cocoa, sifted
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 instant chocolate pudding mix (small box
2 1/4 cups butter milk (or you can put a tbs of lemon juice in a cup of milk)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
In a large, electric mixing bowl combine sugar and butter until well combined. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well in between each.
In a separate medium bowl mix the dry ingredients flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
Then using a large serving spoon, add a few scoops of dry ingredient mix to the butter and sugar mixture. Blend just until mixed then add a portion of the butter milk or substitute version milk with 1 tbs lemon juice. Keep adding dry mix and then the butter milk mixture, mixing just till blended each time, until both the dry mix and butter milk mixture are gone.
Gently stir in the semi-sweet chocolate chips, these will melt into your cake and give bursts of rich chocolate goodness. Pour into a greased bunt pan and place the bunt onto a cooking sheet. Then just in case it flows over it will be ok. My pan didn’t flow over, it is 10 inches across and 4 inches deep
Cook Brick Street Chocolate Cake
Cook at 350 in a convection oven for 45-60 minutes. Check with a toothpick, if it comes out with batter on the stick let it keep cooking. I like to pull cakes out when a few crumbs of the cake are still sticking to the toothpick. If you pull out the toothpick and it’s completely dry, the cake has cooked too long and will be slightly dry.
For a regular oven without convection, bake at 350 for 30 minutes then lower the temperature to 325 and cook an additional 30-40 minutes.
Let it cool for about 10 minutes in the pan then loosen the edges with a plastic knife (so you don’t scratch the sides of your pan). Tip it upside down to slide the cake out. If it doesn’t come out loosen again with the plastic knife on the outside and on the inside ring of the cake. Let it cool completely on a wrack then cover with ganache.
Chocolate Ganache
Chocolate ganache is a mixture of equal weights chocolate and cream, melted together and used to glaze or fill cakes, whip into fluffy frosting or fill truffles and it’s amazing. For our cake today I kept it as a glaze and didn’t whip it.
8 ounces chopped chocolate (the better the quality the better the ganache)
8 ounces heavy cream
Chop your chocolate into small pieces. I used Ghiradelli’s Dark chocolate, which makes for a very rich chocolate flavor. For a lighter, creamy chocolate use milk chocolate instead.
Heat up your heavy cream until very hot and pour on top of your chopped chocolate. I let it sit for a minute, then mix it together. Now let it sit for several minutes. I even put mine in the fridge to cool for 10-15 minutes, so it would go on thick. It will cool to a solid consistency, so watch the ganache and don’t let it cool too much.
How to Decorate the Brick Street Chocolate Cake
Pour ganache on the cake and decorate. I used several different chocolates to create an over the top appearance. 🙂 Which worked really well. I filled the center with chocolate covered coconut truffles and the flavors sunk into the core of the cake–pure decadence.
I also used orange sticks, malt balls and Lindt Truffles. The malt balls were pretty fun because they completed the bubbling over effect and were light enough to stay where I put them on the ganache topping.
Use a variety of chocolates and have fun with it. Until next time.
My son LOVES chocolate, even more than I do, so… it’s serious. Though, I am pretty committed.
I have this sign in my kitchen, “When Mom has a bad day, everyone gets chocolate.” It’s a reference to, “When mom has a bad day, eveyone has a bad day.” This sign is a reminder to me that I don’t need to take my bad day out on others– we can just resolve it over chocolate.😊
For my son’s 13th birthday, he requested a Chocolate Iron Chef where we cook and he and his friends judge the winners. So while they were out jumping on the trampoline and goofing off we were working up a sweat, trying to win.
I claimed baking the cake because that is my right as mother. I also chose an entree to try to keep something palatable on the table. Since the requirement was, that everything made for dinner that night had to include chocolate, I didn’t want to send home a crew of hungry boys.
The menu went as follows… Cookie Appetizer (my daughter’s entry)
Crepes (my entry)
Chocolate Fried Chicken (my husband’s entry)
Followed up with a Brick Street Chocolate Cake and ice cream. (also my entry)
The winner?? may surprise you, was the Chocolate Fried Chicken!
My husband said, “Take pictures, you’re going to want to post about this.” I said, “I only post things that are good.” I really didn’t think his would work – though it was daring. But it was amazingly good and the kids devoured them (chocolate and non-chocolate). So my husband won for daring and good taste.
Personally I feel I already won because I pulled off this awesome cake, but my son said he was only judging dinner and so it was disqualified –
I know!!!
For what other reason do I pour hours into a cake, than to win? But in all honesty, I love the big smiles and completely enjoy making my children’s birthday cakes.
The cake was enjoyed by everyone and then guarded by our new teenager with a sign that read, “I am watching you!” to make sure he got to finish it off –
That’s how I know I won, actions speak louder than words.
How much do you love chocolate, what would you have made for a Chocolate Iron Chef? Share you comments, I know there are chocolate recipes that would be amazing here.
Hi, I’m Natalie. I’m a mother of four, an artist, and a DIYer that loves to reuse, recycle, and refurbish. I like power tools and teaching others how to save money while improving their home.
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