As I sat to write this post, it was one of my closest friends in the entire world’s birthday. Well, it was yesterday, technically. It is after midnight – my typical writing hours. Earlier in the evening, as in a maybe an hour ago, because I must truly be a creature of the night in all facets, I baked her a cake from scratch. Modern cake mixes are really good – so good, in fact, that the effort to make a cake from scratch is not always worth committing to compared to the finished products. There is something to making something yourself, though, isn’t there? Carefully selecting each ingredient, meticulously measuring, and scraping down the bowl, every bit of effort a testament to your love and care. It is just a nice thing, I think. Sometimes the extra effort makes the results all the more satisfying.