Guest Blogger: Recipe for Single Moms by Dawn V. Cahill

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Guest Blogger: Recipe for Single Moms by Dawn V. Cahill

Recipe for Single Moms
By Dawn V. Cahill. First appeared on Dawn V. Cahill.com June 7, 2015

Many years ago, my three-year-old son discovered a love for food preparation. He’d come up with all kinds of concoctions. Here’s one of them:

½ gallon of milk

2/3 quart chocolate milk powder

Approx 8 tbsp salt

¼ can of pepper

¼ jar of onion powder

½ box of petit fours

In a saucepan, stir all ingredients together on medium-high heat, stir, and enjoy. Note: In order to capture every subtle flavor of each ingredient, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to prepare before 6:00 am, before anyone else is up. I promise it will fill your home with a mysterious yet enticing scent, and will bring the rest of the family scurrying to the kitchen.

Doesn’t that look scrumptious? A half-gallon of milk mixed with chocolate powder sounds like a promising beginning, doesn’t it? Funny how life can imitate recipes. In my own case, life as a single parent started out not so bad. Once I rid my home of my alcoholic husband’s toxic influence, the atmosphere lightened as if the house itself breathed a big sigh of relief.

But then life threw a lot of salt into the mix. And way too much pepper. One of my sons began getting in trouble at school for disruptive behavior, and he was only 6 years old. His grades nosedived and his behavior grew increasingly unruly as the long year wore on. As this was happening, another son, the chef wannabe, was diagnosed with delayed development.

Sweet had turned to bitter.

I had eliminated one problem – abusive husband – but had acquired umpteen more. Child support was erratic, at best. Financial problems, like onion powder, is only tolerable in small doses.

Life had turned into a disaster that made me gag.

I decided I needed a way to sweeten up my life, and came up with the perfect solution: a delicious new romance! A purely selfish, yet pleasurable way to make life bearable again.

Of course, it didn’t work. Petit fours soaked in salt, pepper and onions aren’t so tasty anymore. Neither is romance when the rest of life isn’t working.

But here I am, twenty years later, my sanity still intact—at least, I hope it is. My son the aspiring chef is on the verge of graduating from college. My unruly son made it through school and has been on his own for many years.

So, you might wonder, how did I get from there to here?

It’s a long story, one I’ll have to save for next time. But it’s a testament to God’s grace. His merciful concern for the widow and the orphan.

Be sure to come back HERE for the rest of the story.

~~Dawn V. Cahill~~Since I was a small child, I’ve loved stories, both reading and writing them. One of my earliest stories got high accolades from my third grade teacher. It was about a little Manx kitten whose mother rejected her because she didn’t have a tail. Until an older, wiser cat helped the mother understand the importance of accepting her children the way God made them.

Over the years, I cranked out many a story, started and stopped several more. The most memorable one I started as a teenager, and I’ve promised myself and my sons I’m going to finish it someday. I called it “Mitch and the Martians.” A group of Martian buddies visit Earth, just happen to land on the State Capitol building in Salem, Oregon (my home at the time), saw the gold-plated statue of a pioneer on the dome, and assumed all Earthlings looked like that. So they turned themselves into gold men and walked the streets of Salem. Strange adventures ensue!

We know much more about Mars now. When I finish the story, I’ll include the premise that the residents of Mars live underground, which is why the NASA explorations never saw them!

I put writing on the back burner once I began raising my sons as a single mom. That was the hardest job I’ve ever done, but now I feel a nudge from the Lord to encourage other women who are facing the same struggles I did. My blog section called “Crumpets and Tea” is targeted especially for single mothers, and includes personal anecdotes and what I learned from them, as well as Bible verses and how the Lord used them to encourage me during my darkest days.

I started my first novel two years ago, and now have two completed ones to my name. And I’m one-fourth of the way through my third. I’m excited that the Lord reawakened my passion for writing, and am looking forward to seeing what He does through me!

Of my three completed books, one is published, a short story available only in ebook, When Lyric Met Limerick. Here’s the blurb from my website:

Aspiring rock star Howard McCreary only wants to be rich and famous. At least that’s what he’d always thought until Luna Rickles, the cute poetess, walked into his life. But when disaster strikes, his rock star career comes to a screeching halt. As his troubles escalate, Howard makes a desperate bargain with God. But as the walls crumble around him, is it too late for Howard? Or can God really redeem his mistakes and turn them into something good?

Here are the links to my book. On the bookshop manager link, all formats are available for download.

Bookshop manager

Amazon

Here’s my Facebook author page:

And my website.