When They Surprise You…In a Good Way

Vegetables and blue icing everywhere.  If you had been unfortunate enough to enter my kitchen a few hours ago, this would have been the sight.

Often, as Celiacs or people with food allergies/intolerances, we seem to focus on the negative.  To keep ourselves healthy, we must be prepared for the bad things to happen.  But are we prepared for the good things?

A little over a week ago, Braden brought me an invitation to a birthday party, extremely excited that it was on a Saturday (we don’t do parties on Sundays) and that it was on my weekend (so he knew he would actually get to go).  When I called to RSVP, I informed the mom of Braden’s food allergies.  She asked me a lot of questions and wanted to go out and buy a gluten-free pizza.  I’m not even sure you can find one that’s also corn-free.  This mom really did want to make sure Braden felt included.  I told her it would be no problem for me to send some of my homemade pizza with him and a cupcake or something (she had wanted to get the local health food store to make a gluten-free cake, but then she remembered they use a soy-based icing).  After much discussion, she asked if I would be willing to make the pizzas and cake for the party, and she would pay for the ingredients.

To many people, that may seem like asking me to do work.  But to me, that was asking for my help to ensure that not only were my son’s allergies accounted for, but that he would be fully included in all of the festivities. To me, that is one of those moments when someone surprises you.  I had never met this lady before and all she knew of my son was what her son told her from their lunch encounters (like that Braden eats pizza with tons of vegetables and that he did a project on material science engineers).

So it was, with a cheerful heart, that I made a huge mess in my kitchen, chopping up lots of veggies for two vegetarian pizzas and making blue icing for a chocolate cake.

Please, friends and readers, be prepared for the good things that happen, too, because sometimes, they do.

And no, I can’t cook or bake without making a mess.  🙂