Is love a crime?

Two days ago my nephew Noah called the police for me. For me! His aunt. I was shocked. Mind you, he is four years old and the phone he used was literally a handheld one…he was dialing on his hand. He was very polite as he asked the police officer to come to his home right away. He then informed me that I was going to jail. My crime? Telling him I loved him too many times.

He warned me. He did. He said “Say you love me one more time and I will call the police.” So, I called his bluff, looked him in the eye and slowly said, “I love you!” That was it! He immediately dialed his palm and got on to the imaginary air police and was told that one imaginary officer was on their way. But it got me to thinking, how fortunate is he? To know that he is so well and truly loved that he can put limits on the number of times he is told he is loved, or limit the number of hugs he will receive on a daily basis. Secure in the knowledge that at any time, he can call or video chat any member of his family and know that he will see a smiling face, patiently listening while he reads his book about the lion and the mouse for the fifteenth time. Or listen in awe of how he ran so fast down the road. Or how many dinosaurs he saw last night.

I wondered, does he even realize just how loved he is? Is it just one of those things that is taken for granted? Like knowing that you will take in oxygen the next time you inhale? It also got me to thinking, when do we realize that not everyone around us loves us and, why we feel so sad and lonely at this realization. We want to have everyone love us, listen to our stories, marvel at the perfectly ordinary things that we do, and we are saddened when we think or imagine that everyone on this planet is NOT our number one fan.

Ahhhh….but what about the many, many people that do love us? Whether they tell us twenty times a day or they show us how much they care by doing such simple things. Bringing a drink for you because you are wrapped up in a movie on TV and didn’t even realize you would have loved a drink. Covering your shoulder at night with the blanket. Making a simple sandwich. As we grow up, not many of us are told constantly that we are loved, but many of us are loved, by a great many people. We just need to take the time to realize that the glass of water that was given to you when you didn’t even realize you were thirsty was, an act of love.

I pray that Noah always feels that love and always is secure in the knowledge that he is so greatly loved. Bake good and lovely choices all!

xo, Lisa

Not so much about baking today

Funny that the title of this blog is called Baking Good Choices and looking at my posts, not very much so far is about actual baking. One very simple reason is that I am not doing any baking right now, but trust me, I am researching lots and loads of recipes and techniques for baking and cooking. Sooo looking forward to being in the kitchen again, making a mess and maybe what would turn out to be some good choices 🙂

Today I was chatting with someone and, while I am certainly not an expert in the field or on the topic, it seems to be me that mental health and well being is becoming a more and more prevalent topic in these times. Maybe it is due to the pandemic and the various effects that it is having on us. Some of us are handling it beautifully, like just another day and carrying on with our lives, while others are having a really hard time getting a handle on what is happening.

I like to think I am handling the changes and turmoil relatively well. I am worried about almost everything. My job, my bills, getting home, seeing my loved ones, travel. On and on the list goes, but it is not debilitating. I worry about these things to what I deem to be a normal degree. Like I would have worried back in the beginning of 2019. I am one of the “lucky” ones, I think. I count my multiple blessings daily, hourly, by the minute, because I know I am one of the exceptions.

There are people out there, close to me, that are having a real struggle just going about their daily lives and I am not sure quite how to help. I don’t want to be one those that think ” aww, just shake it off” is the solution. I am aware that this is real. The struggle is real and we can no longer just sweep it away and wish the person would just get up and shake it off. But how do we help? What is the correct thing to say? To advise? Every case is unique and all need different approaches I believe.

But when it is someone close to you, it gets that much more personal doesn’t it? You want to do something, anything to make things better, but when you don’t quite know how what do you do? I am trying to be as supportive as I can, but how do I even know that this is the type of support that is needed? I truly believe that now more than ever, if we need help we should definitely reach out and get that help. Don’t sit and hope that the issues will go away, we must all be in this together, we must be each other’s keeper and look out for one another. Mental health and well being is so important, especially now. Be there for one another. Bake some good choices 🙂

xo, Lisa

Love is in the air

Or at sea, or across lots and lots of miles of land and ocean. Happy Valentine’s day to you. Today is a day all about love, hearts, chocolates and flowers. I am not able to be with my loved ones except via social media at this time, and I am guessing some if not most of people are in the same boat. This has been a strange year, continuing from the last one, but it gives us all a chance to reflect on many things. And today I choose to reflect on one of the greatest loves of my life.

I miss my mother. It’s been almost a year since last I was at home and a lot has changed in that year. But the one constant has been my mummy. I do miss her so very much. It’s amazing how much our relationship has changed over the years. I remember being a rebellious teenager and I don’t know when the dynamic changed to her being my best friend. When I am at home, we do everything together. One of our favorite pastimes is going to the grocery. May sound very weird to most people, but we love it. We even have the groceries mapped out and what we get in each. She is the most amazing and genuine woman I have ever known and everyday I try to be just a little more like her. Her love and kindness. Her belief that there is good in everyone, even if you have to dig a little deeper to find it in some more than others. Her deepest wish for her family is that we all find peace with each other.

She possesses a kind of innocence that I love. It’s almost child-like. When I chat with her there is ALWAYS a smile on her face, it’s like just me talking to her makes her so happy. It makes my heart full. I truly, truly love that woman with a depth and breadth that I cannot describe. Although I will never have the joy of knowing what it is like to be a mother, I can only hope and pray that I may be as loving and as amazingly beautiful a person as my one and only. My mother.

Happy Valentine’s day Mummy, I love you more than you know.

xo, Lisa

Photo by Andreas Wohlfahrt on Pexels.com

Have a pinkaful day!

Back when I can remember and people would ask me what is your favorite color, it was never, EVER what it is today. Blue, black, purple, never any bright colors. Until one day, and I must add rather recently, it became PINK. I don’t know how and I don’t know when, it just…was.

It may have started off with rose gold and then morphed into a mix of lilac, lavender and baby pink. I shop for stuff now and some of it I must admit is purely based on the deliciousness of the pinkness of the item. I would actually put in “pink …..” in the search bar. I would have never taken myself for a pink person. AT ALL!

I like to collect. Which in and of itself is not strange, but one of the many items I collect are mugs, but specific types of mugs, they must have something about them that draws them to me. Big, cozy comfort mugs, that you can wrap your hands around and blow on the steam as it rises from the hot drink inside. Cute, quirky ones, ones with meaningful or not so meaningful sayings written on them.

There’s also glasses, reading glasses. I don’t need a strong prescription, so I can pick up glasses anywhere, and I do. Then there are the pen collection and the watches and the back-packs. Then factor in that most of these have some shade of pink. Going through the security check in the airport one day a lady behind me actually commented that I must “like” pink as everything that I was putting through the scanner had some type of pink hue. We are talking iPad, Kindle, laptop case, hand carry, back pack, hoodie and even my sneakers were pink. Imagine the color of my cheeks after she mentioned that:)

Thing is, I still don’t think of myself in terms of pink, more of a neutral girl really. But it kind of reflects my personality I think. I don’t really like to stand out or shine above others, I don’t like to shout out or announce my presence. I am not a fuchsia person, more of a hint of pink. I like quiet time and hiding away in quiet nooks reading my pink Kindle.

Will the color change in time? Will I learn to love green? Probably not. But I have noticed that as I move along in life a lot of things have changed since I was younger. I never like oatmeal, now I look up oatmeal recipes for hot and cold oats, cookies, overnight oats, granola. Love, love oatmeal. Coffee and hot drinks in general…could not stand them, now? Cannot seem to start my day without a cup of hot liquid. Hence, the fascination with mugs. And pink….who woulda thunk it? But pink seems to be my happy place for now.

Have a pinkaful day all,

xo, Lisa

Waffling is a verb

I love me some waffles. Sometimes onboard we do a show of appreciation for the crew members and we make waffles. There are different toppings of course. Ice creams, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, nuts, caramel.

I love mine plain. Hot, a little more brown than others like. Looks like it spent too much time on the beach under the noon sun. Juuust this side of crispy. Yummers!

I sometimes have a waffle and pancake morning when I am at home. Blueberries are the fave add in although, bananas come in a close second. And trust me, even cold pancakes and waffles make an excellent walking around snack.

Not a pro by any means, and I don’t really have a family held secret recipe (although I am working on one). I do love me some waffles. No waffling about on that one.

xo, Lisa

My blueberry waffles

You’ve got that baking feeling.

So, I am still not able to go home. Sounds strange? Well, due to the ongoing, everchanging nature of the pandemic my home country still has not opened the borders. Which mean I am still not able to go home.

In the beginning I didn’t look at this in a positive light as I was thinking of all the things that I could be doing if I was home. But now, I choose to look at it as all the things I am doing now that I would not do if I was home.

Gigabytes of pictures of sunsets. Trying to find an interesting angle on a coffee cup that will make an excellent picture. Reading books, learning to knit and bullet journaling.

But I have to say the one thing I do miss about being home, besides being home is baking. That, I can’t do where I am. So, instead I scour the internet for recipes and save videos and make promises to myself that that will be the first thing I create when I get home.

I am content to some degree as I have realised no amount of shaking my fists at the sky will change things. I continue to find recipes and cookie decorating techniques and videos and hopefully one day soon I will be home, baking good choices.

xo, Lisa

Sunset from the deck just outside of Barbados