Friday, September 13, 2013

The Cookie-Baking Mom

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Ahhhh, fresh-baked cookies, greeting the kids after a long day of school. That's the epitome of a good mother, right? It's what I dreamed of when I was pregnant -- making cookies and doing art projects all. the. time. A picture is worth a thousand words.

And here's what my picture is really saying:
  1. Yes, those are fresh-baked cookies. And they really are in my kitchen. Or at least they were a week and a half ago, because that's about how long it takes me to write a blog post these days.
  2. I didn't actually bake them for my family. The real purpose was to bring a treat for a school House meeting (the Harry Potterish version of student government). I'm the House Mother, so I figured I should probably do something nice like that for the first meeting of the year. Bonus that this particular recipe makes a billion cookies, so my family would get some too. 
  3. I didn't even bake them myself. We got home around 8:30 p.m. from cross country practice, and my kitchen, which has had no air conditioning for 18 months, was 100 degrees. Baking cookies was the last thing I wanted to do. Anna, on the other hand, decided she would rather bake cookies in a 100-degree kitchen than cut out foam letters for the House bulletin board that she needed to decorate. So we traded tasks and the next day at school everyone told Anna she did a great job on the board and thanked me profusely for the cookies, and it never really occurred to either of us to set the record straight. After all, I did plan on baking the cookies, even making a special trip to buy chocolate chips. She planned on making the sign, even sketching out her idea and picking out all the materials at Hobby Lobby. It all evens out, right?
  4. I had to shove aside a bunch of stuff on the counter to even take this picture. 
  5. Back-to-school has near about killed me this year. One meeting and event after another! And any time I thought I would have gained by sending Grace to school this year has been filled with signing fourteen thousand permission slips, pizza forms, homework assignment sheets, and writing at least a dozen checks for the aforementioned items. Well, no, we don't have to pay to do homework at her school. I'm pretty sure that's part of our tuition. The stress has caused me to eat about half the cookies in that picture.
  6. When I haven't been attending meetings, signing forms, and writing checks, I've been traveling or have been sick. Unfortunately, at the same time. We went to Denver for Labor Day Weekend to celebrate my mother-in-law's 75th birthday, but I caught an awful head cold from the girls who got (mildly) sick the first week of school, and so I spent the entire weekend on the couch in my mother-in-law's basement. I've been feeling sorry for myself ever since, which is why I ate another half of the cookies in that picture.
  7. If you can do the math, that means I ate way too many cookies. So I just spent all my spending money on fitness videos and a Weight Watchers membership.
  8. The good news is that there was a whole other container of cookies, so everyone in our family got to eat way too many cookies. And school is going wonderfully for the girls. Ryne and I are getting lots done at home, but I do have some time to do things like attend Bible Study Fellowship, which just started this week and I'm so excited to be back! I get a do-over on the Denver trip this weekend -- this time to spend some time with my dad who has Alzheimer's. Ryne and I will stay there for a week, while Marc and the girls hold down the fort. Who gets the dog for the week is still under negotiation (both sides want him). My new sister-in-law is graciously offering her time to help Marc out while I'm gone. God has worked out so many details!
My picture doesn't lie. I'm a cookie-baking mom, just not the June Cleaver type. But life is so good and I am thankful. 

3 comments:

  1. Very clever post!! I'm with you. The start of this school year has been NUTS! I'm too tired to even write about it...

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  2. Right there with you on the 14,000 permission slips ....and I thought high school wouldn't be so bad....I thought wrong, lol.
    Missed you at church : ) glad you were traveling and not at home sick.

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  3. This was a week when I was ready to take one of mine to the local private school and enroll him. The grass is always greener, you know. :) You convinced me that life wouldn't be any easier that way and so OP Home Academy lives on. (I only half kidding with that story... it was a HARD week.)

    May I come to your house and eat cookies? It doesn't matter who bakes them. :)

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