Betty Crocker I'm not

Saturday was a day of baking. I decided to try my hand at a molded, decorated cake for Wil's birthday this year. It is both harder and easier than I thought it would be, but I took a few pictures of the process:

I started with baking the cake in the morning. I make spice cake for Wil's birthday and strawberry for Sam's so they each have a special cake until they are old enough to choose their favorite. After the cake cooled, I worked on icing it off and on all afternoon and finally finished around 8:30 p.m. Some of the markings (from the pan) didn't show well, so I had to freehand a lot of the design, so it doesn't look exactly like the picture; I also had one big goof, but I didn't notice until after I cleaned up so oh well! Overall, I think it turned out well and Wil loved it!

While the cake was cooling, I took the opportunity to try a recipe we had read about, Indian pudding. This is a corn meal and molasses pudding that is possibly something served at the first Thanksgiving. It's interesting and not bad, but not something I would make every day. Or even often.

Ah, teen romance

With New Moon in theaters now, I've been thinking about the whole Twilight saga again. I enjoyed the books and the first movie. I'm planning on seeing this movie. But I have a few concerns about the appeal of Edward to teenage girls - it must be the mom in me.

Edward is a stalker. Really, Bella didn't like him at first and if she hadn't decided he was the love of her life, she could have gotten a restraining order against him. He snuck into her room at night to watch her sleep. He followed her. If he weren't the romantic hero of the story, it was the perfect set-up for a horror story.

And then there's the whole Bella wanting to die thing. Life is precious. That she wants to throw it away because she can't imagine any experience that could be worthwhile is very sad and scary. Are we now encouraging young women to not live for themselves? That they have nothing unless they have a man? Education is only necessary if you don't have a rich guy?

And the whole Romeo/Juliet vibe. Why does every teen romance in pop culture need to involve the melodrama of "I can't live without you. I'll [literally] die" and then often follow through? Really, breaking up hurts, but it isn't fatal. Lovers throughout history have parted and survived the ordeal, usually gaining wisdom and learning from the experience, painful though it may be. Wouldn't it be better to show teens how to survive a break-up?

I have to say I'm on Team Jacob in this one. At least he's still alive! Or even Team Human Guy. (I do have a soft spot for Jacob and wonder what the series would have been like if he got Bella in the end.) The fourth book in the series was my least favorite. I found the themes disturbing and actually thought it seemed familiar - maybe Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches series? I really think one of those involved a similar type of birth, but I haven't re-read to verify.

All that being said, as an adult who is capable of separating real life and fiction, I really did like the books and found myself escaping into the travails of Bella, Edward, and Jacob. I laughed and cried at the appropriate moments (with an occasional cringe as my inner adult jumped in.) I just hope all the teenage girls going gaga over Edward understand that romance shouldn't be that traumatic. And death is never the answer.

Update: There is a good review of the New Moon movie here that identifies some of the same type of themes I found disturbing.

When it's time to call it quits

I've spent a lot of time and energy over the last year trying to make a moms group function well. Last November, the Moms Club of Bloomington - East disbanded and created our own club, the Moms of Bloomington. We tried to make things work better than they were, but unfortunately it didn't work. We made the decision to disband the group and it is now officially over.

It's a relief for me in a lot of ways. I feel like I put a lot of work in for no reason. A lot of moms kept saying they wanted us to keep the group going and they were excited, but they never went to events. It is extremely discouraging when you plan something and no one comes. Especially when someone responded that they would. There were many times when I might have preferred to stay home if we were having a bad day but went out because someone else was supposed to be there... only no one showed up. It's frustrating.

I'm kind of mad that so many people said they were going to participate but didn't. I would be less upset if people could admit they didn't have the time, desire, energy, whatever, than to talk a good game and leave me hanging. Just tell me you can't do it! It hurts less to hear 'no' than to hear 'yes' and see 'no'.

Luckily I am in another moms group that is very functional, with a lot of active moms. I'm happy that I've met so many nice moms and kids through both groups. And now it's time to let the past rest and move on. I only have one calendar to figure out now, so that's a big plus.