Sugar Cookie Revelation

I love sugar cookies! They are among my favorites. But the time it takes to roll them is always longer than the time it takes for them to disappear. I hate when the cookies are gone, but you can still smell them!

Yesterday afternoon, I had a cookie attack. I needed cookies NOW!!! So I started flipping through a cookbook, trying to find something that matched my craving, (it is an art to match your craving to the thing you are about to eat) and could be made quickly. From the pages came a beam of light, signalling the ONE! The title: Drop Sugar Cookies. I tremble at the excitement! Could it be possible to have my favorite without the hassle? I had to know! Since I am blogging about it, you can be sure the answer is good!

These are fast, soft and taste perfect. I am a bit of a sugar cookie snob. I like the ones I like, and there can be no substitutes, but this recipe tastes like the genuine article.

Drop Sugar Cookies

3/4 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla or lemon extract (I used vanilla)

2 eggs

2/3 c. oil

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

Mix the sugar, vanilla, eggs and oil until they are uniform color. Add the flour and baking powder, and mix well. The dough will look a bit oily (this worried me, so I share). Drop onto a greased baking sheet and bake at 350 for 10 min. Take them out before the edges brown, they will still look a bit doughy. (Unless you are like my mother and like them crispy, then brown away!) Yield: 2 1/2 dozen. I doubled the batch (of course).

I frosted them with a basic powder sugar icing. Bliss! Nathan and Jacob both preferred them without the frosting, so do what you like. I am just so excited that sugar cookies will be showing up more often around here!

Big Bear

Last evening was cub scout pack meeting. Pack meeting is for the whole family, and they always have some kind of activity, and give out the awards the boys have earned in the last month. This time the activity was some balloon relay races. In this one, you were supposed to hold one balloon and bounce it against your other balloon to keep it in the air. The kids had to cross the gym and return. Miriam's balloon got away from her at every turn! That is her in the blue shirt. The green balloon in the foreground is the one she is supposed to be chasing. :)

Caleb earned his Bear award and a gold and silver arrow point. When you have a cub scout rank advancement, the final test is whether or not you can pin the pin on your mother. They always tease the boys not to poke mom. Caleb fumbled with the back of the pin and dropped it twice. His leader claimed he had dropsey. :) He is turning 10 this week and will be moving into the Webelos den. We are happy for you, Caleb! Good work!

Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

It is spring! The time of year when all little boys get to re-connect with the outdoors. It has always been a source of consternation for me that little boys seem to need so many rocks and sticks. And alot of dirt. It is just part of the growth ritual to bring collections of rocks, sticks for swords, and bits of brick for car garages all into the house. In the spring too, there is always the snow and rain, not enough usually for the kids to stay inside, but enough to make the dirt into mud. That comes inside too. This photo is Ethan and Seth making a snowman in a recent storm. Which reminds me that it is bulging closet season too. When all the coats and all the jackets and all the boots and even some flipflops are all coexisting in the closets. I don't dare put the boots and coats away yet, but the warm weather clothes have a way of filtering in.

Don't get me wrong, I love it when the boys play outside! They have spent the last two weeks digging in our garden spot. They pretend to plant and weed and report on what is growing. Their imaginations have new fodder and they are busy and happy full time. Speaking of imaginations, however, this is what they made in the kitchen last night while I was concentrating on a new dinner recipe:

Seth calls it water soup. They filled these three doll containers with water, and some Ramen noodles they found (I don't want to know where) and the vegetable scraps from the garbage. They were also excited to score the can opener that I had just trashed in frustration, and they borrowed the ever-favorite Turkey Baster. They had a ball. I took the picture to document their cuteness, but now it has got to be cleaned up, ewww, and all that.

A final word on rocks and sticks and boxes and other toys that cost nothing but make the happiest play things...in this world of media and video games, it makes me smile to see the classics being used.

One of Those Days

You know it is going to be one of those days when the first time you see your reflection is while frantically scraping ice off the Suburban windows. You have a rooster tail. You console yourself that it doesn't really matter, and drive off, into the sunrise. Some days are sillier than others.

Out of the Clear Blue Sky

I have four broken windows in my basement. Only one was broken in a way that I think would normally break a window--it had a log fall into the window well. The others were all fluke things. A nerf rocket. One broke when Camille tried to put a little suction-cup mirror on the window, her hands went right through! I was so relieved that she wasn't cut! So, we are sure that the glass is brittle and we have had pieces of dry wall covering half of four windows for quite some time now. Repairing them has been something I have wanted, but we haven't been able to afford it with all of the unemployment we have experienced.

Then today dawned. Early this morning, there was a contractor at my neighbor's house. I wondered to myself what she might be having done. Later a small stack of windows appeared, leaning against the contractor's trailer. They were the ones from her basement. Nathan noticed them first, and went to investigate. She was replacing windows with spiffy new ones, and her old ones were destined for the trash, but (and here's the miracle) they fit my basement windows!!!! Nathan was able to replace 3 of the 4 without any headaches, just pull and plug. The fourth window is different, but now that he has it all pulled apart, he is off to the glass place to buy a new pane, and we will have light once again! I am ecstatic!

It is the specific miracles that remind me how much Heavenly Father is aware of us, and our needs and our desires. I am always humbled when one comes my way. I am so grateful for this one!