Making Mistakes is for April Fools
April Fool’s Day Plans: Making Brown E’s
My kids and I were all set with our April Fool’s Day plans – that’s right, just the night before we came up with an idea and dashed around madly to get everything done in time. We cut out letter E’s out of brown construction paper so that they could tell their fellow students that they will be handing out brownies to every person in class. In fact, they mean a ‘brown E’ to each person. Get it? Feeling a Martha Stewart moment coming on, I decided I was going to cook real brownies for my kids to surprise their classes with later. And by real, I mean using a box mix versus buying them already made in the store.
Over-Multitasking Leads to Burning Brownies
I made brownies for my kids, while doing laundry, cleaning the living room, getting them to finish their homework, etc. I was so busy doing other things….I forgot about the brownies cooking in the oven. I turned two mini-cupcake trays of perfectly poured brownie batter into chocolate pucks. I’d let them cool in the pan, only to find they could only be removed with a chisel and a hammer. (Yes, I had greased the pans.)
Scraping Rock Hard Brownies out of Cupcake Pans
I tried to remove the cooked-to-a-crisp-and-mostly-not-burnt brownies and was making a colossal mess. There were chunks of brownie all over the counter and a fine dusting of chocolate brownie floating all around me. My son came to eat some of the beat up brownie bits and he mentioned it looked like dirt was everywhere.
And I had a magical mistake changing moment.
Packing Dirt In Kids’ Lunch for April First
“Great idea!” I said. We can collect up the brownie dirt and pack it with you to school. You can pretend your mom gave you dirt in your lunch for April Fool’s Day. I hate to waste things, so I was so happy that the brownie bits were going to be consumed. It would also be one less snack I would have to put in his lunch. My son said he was able to fool some kids at school that it was dirt and then later had fun daring his friends to eat dirt with him.
Improv Fixing Problems Makes You Creative
Improv life skills are so important – I want to be able to think on my feet and find ways to be adaptable when needed. So when a plan doesn’t come together as I wanted; I love it when I can find a way to make what seems like a disaster turn into something positive. It forces me to be creative and think outside the brownie box. Not only did I feel better after angrily saying such naughty words as “Fudge!” under my breath as I tried to mine the brownie out of the cupcake pans, I feel it’s a great way for kids to learn to deal with mistakes too.
When Life Gives You Brownie Pucks…
I did still bake another batch of brownies, this time checking in on them much more frequently. They turned out just right. Moral of the story: when life gives you overcooked and sort of burnt brownies – salvage what you can and eat it like dirt. We were happy April Fools.
Hope you had a good April Fool’s Day. 🙂
