BAKING COOKIES

I don't even have to look at the calendar to know we're over half-way through August and school is less than two weeks away.  All I have to do is listen and I hear these words:

"I don't know what to dooooooooooooo."

Yep...end of summer boredom.

I think it happens to almost every kid at some point in their life.

So today after many attempts to play with friends who were either gone, too hot (it's a warm and humid day today) or grounded, Faith asked,

"Mom...do we have the ingredients to make cookies?"

Me:  "Yep.  Chocolate chip?"

Faith:  "Yep."

Me:  "Let's do it!"

So while I sat at the counter and gave instructions, Faith made the cookies.

At one point she was concentrating very hard on scooping the flour mixture out of one bowl into the butter/sugar/egg bowl spinning on the electric mixer.  She was so focused on making sure the flour ended up IN the bowl...and the expression on her face was a combination of concentration and sweetness.  She had some glitter on her cheeks, too, from an art project we had been working on earlier in the afternoon.

It was this expression and glittery little face that brought tears to my eyes.

(Yes...I get tears in my eyes watching my little girl make cookies.)

You see, I'm one that has a very difficult time letting other people do things that I typically do on my own.  If it's quicker to do it myself, then that's how I do it.  It's a nasty little habit that I'm working on breaking...but that's probably a different blog topic.  Anyway, I remember being nine years old and wanting to do things myself...so I sat back, watched and called out cooking-baking instruction from my stool on the other side of the kitchen counter.

And there was a mess.

Faith's depth-perception isn't quite like everyone else.

So flour and sugar ended up missing the measuring cups...so she scooped up some more and eventually the measuring cups were filled, leveled off and dumped into the bowl.

Pouring vanilla into a teaspoon is difficult, too, since it's hard to tell when the teaspoon is actually full to the brim.  So our cookies ended up with a little more vanilla than the recipe called for.

When it came time for the above mentioned scooping flour into the butter/sugar/egg bowl on the mixer that required so much concentration...to make sure it all got IN the bowl and not accidentally on the counter, that's when the cooking-making tears welled up in my eyes.

These tears were not ones of sadness over the spills and messes.  Instead they were tears of joy in watching my sweet girl learn and do the simple task of making cookies...which we were told as a baby she would probably not have the ability to do.

Eventually the chocolate chips got mixed in, we ate more raw cookie dough than we should have and some of the dough actually made it onto the pan and into the oven. 

The cookies are done now.

And you know what?

They. are. delicious!

Best chocolate chip cookies I've had in a long time.

I think it's because they were made by a glitter-faced little nine-year old who is way sweeter than the sugar that got spilled on the counter :)

Wishing you a peaceFULLYsimple day.

peace.
jeanine