The last 5 weeks have certainly been a period of adjustment for me. The agency I work for is experiencing some growth and development, and since I have taken on a new position, I am personally experiencing some growing pains too. It's been a great adventure so far, but as with any change, even positive ones, the process can be exhausting. Luckily, I have a great supervisor who allowed me to take a personal day today to catch up on some much needed house keeping, errand running and most importantly, bonding. I'm still getting used to working longer hours, and finding that balance between home and office responsibilities. It'll come in due time.
Originally, I planned to spend the first half of today fishing with Greg and Andrew, my brother-in-law, father-in-law and nieces at a local lake, but the weather had other plans. We had some monumental thunderstorms this morning, and being much less dedicated fishermen than my hubby, Andrew and I opted to stay home instead of braving the elements. We got a lot done this morning. Andrew helped me gather all of Jake's supplies for school, so he is ready to go on Monday morning. I also finished all the laundry, ironing and prep work for next week, aside from making lunches. We have a birthday party, a visitation from Jake's dad and a Mary Kay party this weekend, so having today to knock out some of my cleaning and prep was super helpful.
After our housekeeping at home, Andrew and I drove to a local store to get Jacob a new gym uniform for school. Then we hit up Barnes and Noble. I got a new book - "Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children," which I am itching to start, and Andrew bought a new Cars toy. We ran to the grocery store and stocked up on a few essential items, as well as ingredients for chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I even let Andrew drive one of the car carts that I typically avoid like the plague! He was so good, he deserved a little excitement at Giant Eagle! Then we headed home to start baking.
Now, I have come a long way in the kitchen since my early adulthood. I would even venture to say that I am a fairly decent cook at this point, but a baker, I am not. It's not the recipes or the mixing, but rather the timing in the oven. Aside from my kick ass banana bread (my mom's recipe) and a pretty good from-scratch berry pie, I simply can't bake. Oh well. That doesn't stop me! As I tell the parents in our program, it's often not the final product that is important, but rather, the process that counts. Andrew and I certainly had fun with the process of baking this morning. Take a look:
So excited to start those cookies!
"Hey, somebody get me an egg!"
Throw in a little brown sugar...
"Mom, look! A dome!" (Yes, that's what he was calling the brown sugar blob...pretty darn smart, if you ask me! Love that vocab!)
Unsweetened applesauce instead of nasty oils and fats! We try to make even our desserts healthy around here!
Mixing, mixing, mixing!
Mixing requires some pretty intense concentration when you're three.
We can't forget our favorite add-in, special dark chocolate chips!
Better taste one or two of those chips, just to be sure they're OK before we put them in the cookies.
In goes the chocolate!
Ready to bake.
Oh, and being the obsessive-compulsive cleaner and multi-tasker that I am, I took a moment to do some laundry while the cookies were baking. Sammy offered his help. Such a thoughtful kitty!
The finished product. Yum!
I'm not going to bother with the recipe, unless you all really want it. The cookies were good, but not outstanding, in my opinion. We had fun spending some time together and that's all that matters. Now, I had originally intended to do some dusting and cleaning while Andrew napped, but I'm feeling a little tired myself. You know what? It's my day off. I think that couch is looking pretty comfy about now! Don't call me until after 2:30. I'm taking a nap too!
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