• Start Here
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Table
    • Together at the Table
    • Food and Such
      • Beverages
      • Bread
      • Breakfast
      • Main Dishes
      • Vegetables & Sides
      • Soups
      • Desserts
  • Writing
    • On Family
  • Happy Designs
  • Connect
    • For You
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

On Birthday Cake and Why You Should Eat It.

May 26, 2015 by HappyGoStuckey 6 Comments

You should most definitely, absolutely always, eat cake at your child’s birthday party.

cake

No matter what weight loss plan you are on, when serving cake to all those tiny friends of your little, go ahead and serve yourself a little one too.

Because whether you delivered them after hours of rhythmic breathing, your loudest wail mingling with their very first cry–
or you lie in forced paralysis in a paper shower cap while a Doctor skillfully freed them from their tiny living quarters–
Today is your day too.Scanned Pictures 030

Maybe you stood in front of a judge and signed the most beautiful piece of paper ever with tears streaming and so much hope as you took them in your arms and turned to go home.

This day is just as much yours as it is theirs.

That is why as you stay up until midnight, hanging that funky pennant banner and blowing up balloons– you will still be smiling to remember their very first day. It wouldn’t be right if you didn’t greet their birthday bleary eyed and stumbling towards the french press– Just like every other beautifully exhausting day of parenting. You’ll be laying out ninja turtle napkins and green lemonade and their first little baby grunts will be echoing in your ears. Little hands grabbing fistfuls of air as they search for your warmth. It’s always been you, from the very beginning._MG_6022From the first newborn diaper swallowing their wrinkly frame to the first time they giggled and shimmied out of your reach mid-change. They keep growing and we keep cheering them on.
Scanned Pictures 144We remember to put the candles on the cake all the while remembering their very first wobbly steps. We could no sooner forget the day they were born than our own names and each year that goes by we take plenty of photos with the camera, but we take still more with our minds.

IMG_3711

First taste of sweet potatoes, Click. First roll-over, Click. First night in a big kid bed, Click. First trip to the zoo, Click. First day of school, Click, Sniff. First, first, first–Click. We are the memory-keepers and whether you have found the time to keep all those moments in a Shutterfly book or you keep them all in your big mama heart, you keep them just the same. 

And even when they grow a little too big and our memory keeping gets quieter and more personal– to avoid the side-eye and the mortified whisper of “Mom!“– We will keep right on celebrating.
We will forever be, the faithful remember-ers.

IMG_7553

We will celebrate every year on this day– yes; but even more so– all the beautiful anything but ordinary days in between.

So grab that slice of Cinderella cake and a pink plastic fork and dig in to that slice of sugary goodness– and make sure they see you celebrating it all. You can eat salad tomorrow. But today– today we eat cake.

Addition and Subtraction— Making Adjustments to Create Space. (Drowning in the Mess of Yes, part 2)
Drowning in the Mess of Yes, part 3.

Comments

  1. Jolene says

    May 26, 2015 at 9:32 pm

    Love this! Happy Birthday to the beautiful birthday girl!

    Reply
  2. Jolene says

    May 26, 2015 at 9:32 pm

    Love this! Happy Birthday to the beautiful birthday girl!

    Reply
  3. Linda Blythe says

    May 26, 2015 at 10:06 pm

    Beautifully written by a beautiful Mother of a beautiful little girl- my precious granddaughter Lucy! Happy happy happy birthday!

    Reply
  4. Linda Blythe says

    May 26, 2015 at 10:06 pm

    Beautifully written by a beautiful Mother of a beautiful little girl- my precious granddaughter Lucy! Happy happy happy birthday!

    Reply
  5. Amber says

    May 27, 2015 at 8:03 am

    Everything thing in this was beautiful. That porch!!!!!! Yes, eat the cake. Eat a small piece but eat it. They are watching you.

    Reply
  6. Amber says

    May 27, 2015 at 8:03 am

    Everything thing in this was beautiful. That porch!!!!!! Yes, eat the cake. Eat a small piece but eat it. They are watching you.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Amber Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe and receive a Free copy of “Simmer: Six soup recipes and the Stories that Inspired Them.”

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

Instagram

happygostuckey

Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all the answers, yet.

While you sit in a season of waiting,
the calendar can often be a cruel companion, reminding you that days go by, weeks, months— with what feels like very little change in the right direction.

Perhaps you can easily assent to: 
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but you strain to see just how it will be when: “...a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Wherever you and I are today— whether we wander, wait, stand firmly planted, or some pressed together combination of all three — we can take heart.

We are not alone.
And this will not be wasted.
What seems to be an unending blank space, an indefinite pause, is a space for new things.

Long before all is made right, and whether or not it all is tied up neatly with a perfectly crafted bow— we can know this:

We do not have to know the outcome to be faithful today.

✨Joy is not disregard for reality as much as it is obstinacy against despair.✨
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. T Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. There. I said it. These days I’m gravitating to the true & the beautiful as rest for my weary self... and I wonder if you are too.

So much so, that I’m starting a new little offering, it’s called “The Feast: Wonder for the Weary” and the first issue goes out this weekend. It’s a bit more personal (okay this first one is WAY more personal. 🤭) It will be a little bit of everything, all with the goal of offering REST to both the feasters & foragers alike. If you’re already a subscriber— no need to do anything, if not— click through my bio to “keep in touch” and join the feast.✨
We are a people of both lament and praise. We hol We are a people of both lament and praise.

We hold questions without answers— yet we hold them in hands already full of good things.

We hold our daily bread, our daily gifts, and we hold the daily closeness of the God Who Sees.

The God who is no stranger to our lament, and Who Is the reason for our every hope.
He does not grow weary of our asking. Of our need to be told again, He will. 

You friend, are not invisible.
You are seen and cared for by the God who does all things well. (Even when they feel anything but.)
Married love ambition: making the kids roll their Married love ambition: making the kids roll their eyes at our “gushy-ness” as often as possible. 

President & CEO of the Lance Stuckey Fan Club— in every season, but especially on days like today.
Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty k Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty kitchen.😍🌧📚

On this chilly Saturday, we spent entirely too long browsing for books at our library and then all came home to a fire, mochas, and cocoa, respectively. Of all the things we do not know at this very moment, we know the gifts abound, and are worth counting.

PS, if you haven’t spread whipped cream on a foil-lined baking sheet to freeze, and then cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters to top your coffee or hot cocoa, may I suggest you get thee on that at once.
“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provide “If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.” — Corrie Ten Boom

✨File under, things to save in a fire.✨

The prayer journal pictured here contains six months of the hard & the sweet.
Six months of prayers asked & answered for ourselves and for others.
Six months of seeing through prayer, not how it changed our circumstances necessarily but how it changed us.

I always appreciate a record like this— being able to clearly see the paths we are led down, rocky though they may be? Priceless.

The ways God has come near us & drawn us to Himself again and again are written on these pages and I’ll treasure it forever.

Also pictured: Psalms Illuminated Scripture Journal. Highly recommend. Thank you always, @allifarnell
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it th “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

While scrolling through my photos today, my heart was heavy to realize how far back “before” was.

Before masks and distancing, before loss, before other, more personal bits of hard. Multitudinous change, neither all bad nor all good.

With our free time, we’ve introduced our girls to Tolkien, Bilbo, Frodo, and especially Samwise the Brave. They are officially hooked and we are delighted to watch them discover another world where evil doesn’t win, and the courage of the small matters much. {they close their eyes at the Orcs and we haven’t had a nightmare yet!}🤞🏻😂😬
I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog th I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog these days.

It started with the Sourdough and a dozen different kinds of jam last year.
I suddenly find great calm in activities that stand in direction opposition to hurry, the textbook definition of ✨work in progress.✨ And really, if you could see the other side of this piece, you would believe me. 🙃

Thank you to @thebarmyfox for making embroidery so accessible!
@thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfec @thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful,” and I believe that the weeknight meal equivalent is, “Just because it’s easy— doesn’t make it a second-tier supper!”

Thank you, Spaghetti with Meat sauce for being both a ministry to mom AND a crowd pleaser. Especially on a dreary January-ish day. It is ✨quite alright✨ to make something we’ve made a million times just because we know it makes the people happy.🍝
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Categories

Featured Posts

On Waiting & Moving

(And a Recipe for Italian Tortellini Soup) Later this month, our family will celebrate the 10th … [ Read More ]

Five Good Things

Hi. How are you, really? If you're anything like me-- you have moments of complete gratefulness for … [ Read More ]

Winter Favorites

(and why it matters to pay attention to the little things.) "For you are the sunshine-maker in … [ Read More ]

Loving Lately in November

"...all creation's revealing his majesty. We're invited to join with all nature in manifold witness … [ Read More ]

Feasting & Foraging (free for the weekend!) 🍊🌿

I wrote a book, called Feasting & Foraging, and I would like to tell you why. About a year … [ Read More ]

Miss Something?

Please be kind and give proper credit if you share! © Cynthia M. Stuckey. For personal use only, not to be copied, distributed, altered or sold.

Privacy Policy

Full privacy policy may be found HERE.

Want each post to magically appear in your email box?

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Cynthia@happygostuckey.com
xo Cynthia
  • Start Here
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Table
  • Writing
  • Happy Designs
  • Connect

© 2021 · Pretty Creative WordPress Theme by, Pretty Darn Cute Design