Gingerbread personalities

Last week for family home evening, we created gingerbread people in small teams. Kelli came up with the activity and we were pretty excited to play. As we split into teams and began to build our g-people, certain personalities of team members slowly began to emerge.

Our g-people guidebook was given to us before we started our creations.

The teams were split as follows:

Hunter & Leslie
Cooper & Kurt
Mike & Gracie

Kelli was the manager of the activity and Molly was the taste tester.




Kelli handed out the bowls of frosting in the following order: 1st to Hunter & I, then Kurt & Coop & Finally Gracie & Mike.

As soon as Hunter & I received our frosting, I was ready to win. Hunter started dipping the cupcakes, but I didn't feel he was going as fast and efficiently as he could, so I took over. Hunter could care less and started eating accessories and playing with Molly. When Kurt & Coop received their frosting, it took them (Kurt) about 5 minutes to plan out what he was going to do while Cooper kept begging to get started. Mike and Gracie got their frosting and went to town, with little forethought of a final product.



If this was a timed race, Mike & Gracie would have won. They were the first to finish even though they received their frosting last. Hunter & I (basically just me) finished close behind while Kurt & Cooper (really Kurt) took forever to finish. As the leader of my team (not appointed of course), my goal was to create a gingerbread person that closely mimicked the book picture with a couple of original ideas. I think Kurt's goal was to create the most perfect frosting lines in the history of this field while making sure the accessories were symmetrical. Mike & Gracie's goal was to decorate with grandiose style, throwing anything they wanted on.

In the end I think we all accomplished our goals.

Identity Crisis

On Friday, after helping students in one of our computer labs, a student came up to me and asked if I was the "technology expert" for the middle school. Kurt happened to be visiting me at the moment, so I deflected the student toward him but it did make me wonder about my new identity as a working mom. Who am I? Last year at this time I would have quickly replied, "I'm a stay at home mom, wife and student". I'm now a mom, wife, student and teacher, but none of those labels really capture who I feel I am.

I was visiting with my Grandma and she was telling me that she can't think of one thing she is an expert of. I feel the same way. People who are true experts in their field cannot separate their identity from their expertise. They are so entwined they can't be completely distinct. Those people win the Nobel Peace Prize, have highly successful careers in the arts, are the top of their field in athletics, etc. My identity is one of a dabbler. The closest thing that defines me is my religious beliefs. They are tied to my soul and cannot be untangled. Other than that, I have a lot of things I feel comfortable with but not one thing I solely focus on. I'm okay with that.

So when people as me what I do, the list is too long to name. It's as if they are asking me to bundle all of my interests and intriques in a few short words. It just can't be done. I'll let all the experts of their fields continue to make impressive and sometimes frightening societal changes while I work in the background doing good where I can and learning from others. What do I do? I'm a dabbler. What are you?