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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

A Year of Giving Muffins

It started with a Facebook prompt:
I for one am tired of cookie cutter store-bought items. I promise to send something I'll make myself to the first 5 people who leave a comment on this update. In turn, you promise to re-post this as your status. The rules are that the items must be made by you personally and must be received by your 5 folks within 2011. Be creative and let's see what we can come up with!
How often do we sign up for these silly prompts expecting nothing to really happen?  Well yesterday I dispatched 6 muffins to the first girl to sign my prompt.  It wasn't as easy as I expected it to be.  Why is giving HARD?
 I started with a batch of banana muffins last week, but they collapsed because I didn't bake them long enough.  So we had to eat a dozen sticky sweet muffins - daughter loved them!
Then on Sunday I baked a batch of Buttermilk Spice Muffins and created a home logo/letter - which took me until 11pm on a work night - arrrugh!!!  And I kept wanting to make an actual book style, that folds and has pages - I HAD to tell myself to STOP!
 Why can't I do anything small, it has to be impressive, well thought out, worth the $7.90 postage.  
On Monday I labored to find the perfect box at work.  Nothing fit.  I spent almost an hour looking for packaging materials!  Huh?  Why isn't giving easier?  It's LABOR!  I want to give up.  Then I find a standard size UPS box, cut it in half, fit muffins and letter inside, tape it shut and then cover it with an inside out UPS envelop.  Why all this work?  Because the US Post Office is cheaper then shipping UPS and will not accept other couriers packaging - even if they do take 45 minutes of my time because they are so sloooooooow.  So my plan going forward is half a UPS box, covered by brown shopping bag paper from Whole Foods - have lots of those!  I'll bring home the supplies and do it in the evening so I'm not frantic at work.
At first I was ambitious, wanting to send muffins to everyone on my 50 person Christmas card list - how cool would it be to receive gifts randomly throughout the year???  Now I just want to make it through the 5 people on my Facebook list!!! 
I've wondered if the challenges faced are because giving should NOT be easy.  It's easy to give money.   I've given money over the years, once it's gone from my account I don't miss it.  My time, and energy I DO covet.  My house is dirty, the dishes are piled up in the kitchen, I NEED to spend more time surfing the internet - kidding (giant grin).  My point is that my initial ambition to make muffins for all my friends is not dimmed but definitely harder and more work then I imagined.  Or maybe I just need more practice giving!

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