Level Up! With A New Skill

Life is like a beautiful wedding cake. They're overpriced? No. They're overrated? No. They're all just a bunch of layers of lies? No. I was gonna say that life is like a beautiful wedding cake in that it takes a lot of hard work, a lot of patience, a lot of love, and a lot of skill. This might not be the most sound analogy I've ever come up with, but I was watching the Great British Baking Show the other day, one of my favorite shows, and something kind of hit me when I was watching it the other day. There was one display that drew our eyes. It was Andrew's. Very original, beautifully produced. All the way through, he showed us several skills. Several skills. And he has a very good finish. I just love the idea that these bakers have put so much extra time and, like, their time off, because this is not their profession, but they took the time that they needed in order to acquire some extra skills in order to make their hobby a little bit more fun and a little bit more beautiful. And as I was thinking about it, I thought, it doesn't even just relate to only professionals or hobbyists. It relates to motherhood as well. As mothers, we have to wear so many different hats and know how to do so many different things. And for most of us, we aren't instantly perfect at everything. No matter how much you prepare for that new baby, when you're a new mom, your eyes are opened to a whole new world of things that you don't know. And it can be really frustrating. You are thrown into this world, sometimes by choice and sometimes not, and you are expected to take care of this child and have a good time doing it. I'm here to tell you, it's okay that you're struggling. It's okay that you don't know everything. But what's not okay is giving up. Giving up on learning and giving up on adding skills to your artillery of motherhood skills. And I do this too. There are a whole bunch of things that I was born with that I'm pretty good at, that I love and I nourish it, and there's a whole bunch of other stuff that I am not very good at, and I just would rather not talk about it, right? And sometimes when I get down on myself about all of my untalents, we'll say, I like to listen to podcasts. And I was listening to Jodie Moore, Better Than Happy podcast, and this happened. Another thought I want to share with you today is I don't know is always a lie. I don't know is a lie? I mean, how great is that? And you will never be able to unhear this video, and you will never be able to say, I don't know ever again, and you're gonna love me and hate me for the rest of your life. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Okay, back to business. There are so many moms that are stuck in their everyday lives, and they forget that even though we're not in school, or you're not in an office, or you're not out in the field doing some cool occupation, that you can still learn new things in this life right now, today. You can learn something new. And I don't know isn't an answer. I don't know is a lie. You can get on YouTube. You can read a book on it. You can search the internet. And it doesn't have to be some crazy skill. You don't need to learn how to like skydive or something, even though that'd be really cool skill. I don't know how skilly that is. I'm talking like learn how to properly iron. Like who knows that, but I'm sure it makes life easier. Maybe learn how to budget. Maybe you can learn how to garden, or paint, play the piano, mow the lawn, sew a quilt, braid hair, play basketball, play tennis, drive a stick shift. Maybe you can learn to speed read, or ride a unicycle, or hike, or drive a boat, or type. I never really properly learned how to type. I'm so terrible at it. That would make my life easier. Learn how to sew. Learn how to change a tire. Learn how to fix your car. Learn a new way to mop your floors. Or how to really make a bed. There's supposed to be some kind of really cool way to make beds. The right way that no one ever taught me. Learn a new skill that your kids are interested in. If they're into video games, maybe learn how to play that game so that you can play with them. We are blessed to have so many ways to learn. And we need to take advantage of it. Learn something. And I'm not just saying this because I actually did it this week. My mother-in-law was in town, and she makes the most amazing rolls. And I have recently learned how to make the dough for her rolls. And then while she was here, she taught me how to make it into a breadstick. So here you go. Here's me learning a new skill. Nancy is going to show me how to roll it out into breadsticks. So there's all different kinds of ways to make bread. And she's going to teach me another one. So you flatten it all the way down. Smash it all in the jelly roll pan. It's so easy. It's a half-sheet pan in the professional flipping world. You want to make sure you cut all the way through. That's so much easier than rolls just because you don't have to make them pretty. They're just like sticks. So then we're melting a stick of butter. And we're going to put the butter on top of the stick. Well, we're going to dip them in it. I'll show you. See, guys, this is much easier. I don't know. You can just do them plain like this. Leave them just how they are. Or you can get cute, and you can do this. And then you kind of twist them. Oh, fancy. And they get kind of funky, but... Kind of fun. Yeah, we'll do everything. Kind of gets like butter on the inside. A little garlic salt. On this half, I'm going to do a teeny bit more garlic salt than the other half because I'm going to do the dill weed on this one. And I'm doing the salad and soup cream on the other one. And it already has some garlic salt. Oh, OK. So just a little bit, and then... You can also do it with Rhodes rolls. Oh, yeah. So we're letting these rise for 45 minutes. And then we're going to bake it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. And then, five minutes later, they will be in my belly. OK, the rolls came out, or all the breadsticks came out, and they look really yummy. It's a big success. And we're going to be eating these with creamy chicken noodle soup. And now I have a new skill of making breadsticks that will make my life easier and more fun, more fulfilling, and make my family's life more happy. Skills are great. Get some new skills, people. Just do it. Isn't that great? I learned something new, and now I'm going to feed my family yummy breadsticks every day. No matter where you are in your beautiful wedding cake life, I think that adding some skills now and then can make your day-to-day a little bit better, a little bit more beautiful, and a little bit more rewarding. So get off your butt and go learn a new skill. That's my message this week, you guys. I hope you like it. Let me know in the comments the new skills that you are excited to learn or that you have recently learned, and I'm excited to read them. We'll see you guys next week. Bye.