Good Neighbor Award

Moving to a new place and all together changing zip codes can be tricky.  Some rock changing spaces with mad skills.  They're all efficient and ultra-friendly to their new surroundings with immediacy.  They're pro-active and research the newness of the place with vigor and tenacity for the hope their new home holds for them.  Then there's the like that take rearranging the terrain they call theirs a bit more cautiously.  These kind of people stay secure inside their four walls of new.  They put out feelers for safety's sake and slowly make their presence known.  They're not the first to join social functions or find out about them for that matter.  The move takes a toll on them.  And reaching out may not be just the most important on their agenda in a place unchartered and fresh-faced to them.

No matter where your personality falls on the moving spectrum, on how you handle changing spaces, one thing remains certain.  All people like to feel welcomed.  To feel anticipated and thought of is one of the strongest baseboards in the art of homemaking.  It requires action and intention from an individual seasoned in the space that, just so happens, to be quite the unknown to the other.

Our family made a move 3 years ago this summer.  Leaving a place chock-full of memories was emotional to say the least.  With a new job for Kenny and a new place for us, we began memorizing a different set of 5 digits that we would call home.

And I am thankful for people that were intentional with us.  From hand shakes to "how can I help you" to "here's where you should get your hair done", we felt love.  Homemaking began for us first in them.  Places really are more the people, aren't they though?

One night that first winter in our new surroundings, there was a knock at our door.  As I opened the beveled glass cherry wood barricade of our in to the out, there before me was a petite lady with a beautiful, glowing smile holding a rectangular shaped pan.  The lid to the pan was covered with condensation as fresh-from-the-oven this concoction had just been pulled. With pot holders holding either side of the dish, she said, "Hi! This is for you from us."  

"This is for you from us." Powerful & packed with hope.  Our neighbor made us feel welcome.  Her act of kindness was something I want to remember.  It impacted our family in ways simple & significant. Yes, to a person in a new place, a cake can mean that much.

She offered up the recipe and since that wintery night, I've made this cake countless times. Each time I make it, each time that I fold in the ingredients,  blending & marrying mixtures, I am reminded of kindness.  Of steaming hot cake, fresh at our doorstep.  Of her smile.  And the presence of pot holders that made me realize just how important it is to be intentional.

Ingredients:

Cake:

yellow cake mix

4 eggs

2/3 cup water

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sour cream

 

Swirl Mixture:

1 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons cinnamon

 

Directions:

- Mix all cake ingredients together and pour into a 9 x 13 greased glass baking dish

- Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in separate bowl

- Sprinkle onto cake mixture

- Use a fork and swirl sugar & cinnamon mixture into cake mixture

- Bake a 350 degrees for 50 minutes. {insert a toothpick inside cake to be sure cake is done}

 

Ingredients for Icing:

4 tablespoons milk

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

 

Directions:  

- Whisk all ingredients together. 

- Pour onto cake immediately once it's removed from the oven.

 

As we sift through life, shakes happen.  Settling and swirling too.  Beginnings become mailboxes with worn-in last names.  Starting fresh becomes the weathered flag waving in the front yard.  Tattered from the breezes of the years that were once new and uncertain.  Whether we're moving down the road or across the country, we all hope for welcome.  Heartbeats and pot holders make the place.  Steamy hot at our front doorsteps, I am most thankful.

.mac :)