Just two teaspoons...

I made cinnamon rolls today. I love to cook but I don't bake too much. Just not usually my thing. I've been trying to do more of it lately to get better at it. Today I made cinnamon rolls using a simple recipe that was pretty straight forward.

I've found that when following a recipe I get in a hurry. I don't know why, it is not like its going anywhere. And when I get in a hurry I'll miss a step or ingredient. I can usually fix it so it is not usually a big deal. You'd think I'd learn but apparently not.

Today everything seemed to go really well. I mixed the filling (using Splenda, good for me) and it was awesome. I mixed the dough, rolled it out and it looked great. Spread the filling, rolled it up, cut it and baked it. They looked good when they came out. I put the icing on and thought I was all ready.

One bite and I knew something was just a little off. While done, they just tasted a little "floury" or something. They were good and the filling was awesome but the bun part was a little off. I thought through everything and couldn't figure it out. When I went back to the recipe I realized I'd left out 2 teaspoons of sugar from the flour mixture.

Now, 2 teaspoons of sugar in a cinnamon bun recipe doesn't sound like much and it isn't. Except it is needed in the bun mix to take off the flour edge. It is all the difference.

Life is like this, too. There are things we don't like to do but need to force ourselves to do so we can get good at them, learn from them and, if we do them right, have something wonderful to show for it when we finish. Even if we don't succeed 100% we almost always come away with a better education than when we started.

To me, the biggest thing I learned is that it is not the size or the amount of the ingredient in a recipe. It is the impact it has on the finished product. Life is like that, too. It does not have to be big but if not given at the right time it can have big results. Likewise, if given at the right time, in the right amount the result can be stellar.

To me, telling my kids that I love them is much like the two tablespoons of sugar. It is a little thing but it is so important to what I want them to know about me, about themselves and about how to let others know how important they are to you.