The Importance of Small Victories

For the past two weeks, I've had the privilege of co-hosting the Small Victories Sunday linky with Tanya at Mom's Small Victories. Before this opportunity, I would find myself haphazardly looking for new blogs and connections. Each week I co-hosted, I read at least half of the posts plus others I that grabbed my attention. I felt like I discovered a new world in the blogosphere as I anticipated reading several posts a day. These bloggers encouraged me with their words, taught me important lessons in blogging, and opened my eyes to the many ways bloggers can serve their readers. 

I've been inspired by the talented women that posted to the linky each week with their recipes, crafts, book reviews and most importantly their small victories. Most of these bloggers are busy moms and adding anything to your "regular" mom duties is a victory in itself. Congratulate these ladies by commenting on their posts.

My Victories

This past Monday, my husband and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. We've had good times and bad times, but through each season we put God first. Our family motto is God-Love-Trust. Currently, we've been trusting God in our finances as we budget more carefully and spend a little less, so when our anniversary came around we decided to forgo gifts and have dinner out with the kids (sitters can be expensive). I was fine with the no-gifts part, but I was worried about bringing the kids out-to-eat. 

As we began planning our special day, I read about the Scandalous Strawberry Cake from the Traveling with T blog. It relayed a story of how the strawberry cake recipe mysteriously vanished from her grandmother's recipe box. It was an intriguing story, but what reeled me in was the infamous recipe. Strawberry cake is my husband, Seth's favorite cake, and now I had a recipe that was easy enough for me to make and good enough to steal. So, I decided to surprise Seth with the Scandalous Strawberry Cake for our anniversary. 

Yes, he was surprised when he got home from work, and then he surprised us by taking us all out to the Peak City Grill in downtown Apex. The Peak City Grill isn't your neighborhood Applebees. It's located in a renovated building in downtown Apex with original hardwood floors, local art and sculptures on the walls, and organic and locally grown produce on the menu. Surprisingly, they did have a kid's menu even though we were the only brave parents to bring our kids that evening. Overall, the kids were good. They whined a little bit, but the crayons provided help disract them until our dinner was served. The boys shared their steak and chicken tender plates while Seth and I feasted on braised ribs and crusted salmon. We ate so much that by the time we got home; we had to save the cake for the next day. The strawberry cake sat patiently in our fridge until lunch the next day when Seth sliced the first piece. It was delicious. Victorious!