Guest Post From Grammy...

It's been several days since we finished the Cupcake Madness. I haven't blogged yet, because my Mom asked if she could "guest blog." I said, "yes," of course and was excited for her to share her perspective. But before I share, I have to say, "I have the most amazing Mom in the world." She poured everything in her being into this fundraiser, we got a total of 12 hours of sleep in 4 nights, and she never peeped one complaint...all because she loves Nate and I, AND her grandchildren to come. So, thank you Mom, and without further ado, here is the post from Grammy...


“Be Careful What You Pray For…!”
Hi, Readers…It’s “Grammy” of “Grammy’s Cupcake Obsession”! Andrea has graciously allowed me to be a guest writer on her blog and finish “the rest of the story of “Cupcake Madness.” And I have to share my version of the beginning of the story…
As Andrea mentioned in her last post, I was a “little” discouraged at the order of “just” 500 cupcakes a week before the due date…even though all three of my daughters said that I would get as many orders as God knew I could handle, just like I had told them all of their lives when they were worrying about needs. I thought at least I should have as many as last year (1000). “Thoughts” started passing through my mind…”maybe people didn’t like the cupcakes…we really don’t need “discouragement” at this time in the process Lord,…God, are you really listening to my prayers for Nate and Ang?...”So I prayed…I didn’t give God any numbers, but I guess I asked for….”abundance.”

God and I have a pretty cool relationship. When I picture Him setting on His throne up there, I picture Him in a big brown recliner similar to my hubby’s “throne.” And after hearing my prayers, I can just see Him prop His feet up, chuckle, and say, “She wants cupcakes? I’ll give her cupcakes!”

I had been baking all week long—between working and taking care of Heather’s two little ones—and didn’t finish until almost noon on Friday. I packed up about 100 put-together cupcake boxes, half of my kitchen, and the 700 cupcakes I had made, thinking I was in pretty good shape! After surviving my “cool ride” to H’town, we scurried around depositing the cupcakes in three different freezers, getting the rest of the icing ingredients, and setting up card tables all over the house. So the icing began, getting orders ready for the church folk on Sunday.
I knew that Nate had left some cupcake order form around the four schools in which he works. What I didn’t know was just how many he had sold…500, to be exact!!!...due Monday morning!...added to the 400 plus due Sunday morning…to begin with! When I told Ang we had to bake 24 dozen cupcakes before we could even start the icing of the first 400+ cupcakes, she looked at me with this “I can’t believe what you just said—you are crazy—we’ll never get this done” kind of look! “Ang,” I said, “don’t look ahead. Just one dozen at a time.”

And so the craziness began. I came with 700 cupcakes…we sold 1600. You do the math! We baked and baked till the morning of Valentine’s Day, and we iced almost 500 cupcakes each of the three evenings into the morning. I iced the last cupcakes at 9:30 am and was home at 12:15 to deliver orders. What goes into that many cupcakes? Approximately 20 dozen eggs, 50 lbs. of butter, 30 boxes of cream cheese, 20 jars of marshmallow fluff, 150 cups of powdered sugar, 50 cups of buttermilk, and 200 mini peanut butter cups!

And what do I remember about that time blur? Andrea’s wonderful handmade matching T-shirts that read, "Saving the World One Cupcake At a Time," feeling so grateful for all of my husband’s pre-trip help and his gift of a Kitchen-Aid mixer…watching the beautiful snow fall deep into the night…seeing Ang come up from the basement shivering in her shoes ‘cause Mom wants the cupcakes kept cold!’…waking my son-in-law from a deep sleep to cheerfully go to the grocery stores for his mother-in-law…my daughter doing everything I asked without complaining…people stopping by to pick up their orders and listening to their words of support and encouragement, some of them almost strangers, just friends of friends…my children feeding me ribs and pizza, ice cream and sweet tea –anything to keep me going...listening to hours of worship music, reminding me that God’s strength and grace was the only way we were going to accomplish this task—despite my stubbornness and trying to help God do His job! “Thanks be to God for His indescribable riches…and a million thanks to all of you who supported Ang and Nate and Grammy’s endeavors.