There are moments of clarity in life, and sometimes I get a few. For instance, when I was a kid, I distinctly remember the moment that someone informed me that “quarter past the hour” meant that it was 15 minutes past. Up until then, I’d always thought “quarter past” meant that it was 25 minutes past, since a quarter is worth $0.25. It is easier for me to use a childhood example, of course.

My son had one of these moments of clarity a few years ago during a discussion of time and calendars. He noted, “Hey…[long pause], I was born on my birthday!?!” Whenever anyone has a Eureka! moment here, we in the Scott household will mention my son’s famous tagline.

Speaking of birthdays, we just celebrated another one this week. Everyone is on even ages now (0, 2, 4, 6, 8), which makes it easier to articulate if people ask. So in honor of the occasion, I purchased a pre-made birthday cake. (Trust me, it’s right there in Proverbs 32.)

I don’t know what got into me, spending that kind of money on that kind of stuff. In years past, the cakes have been homemade: simple sprinkles, a baseball cake, pink cakes, flag cakes, and a space shuttle cake. My husband made the space shuttle cake with candles firing out the back, as he doesn’t trust my engineering skills on anything space related. The thing about these cakes is that they always get eaten; there are no leftovers because I use cool whip as the frosting.

Professional bakers don’t use cool whip, and so there are expensive cake leftovers sitting in my refrigerator. Even the plastic toy on top broke already. There are moments of clarity in life, and this is one of them. I won’t feel guilty serving economical, unprofessional looking cakes anymore. At least people (who were born on their birthdays) eat them.