happy cookies

The cure for a not so great day.

I don't ever have those days I was having one of those days. The house was a mess. The boys were fighting & whining. I was hot & tired & sore. It was too hot to go anywhere and do anything, especially at 37 weeks pregnant, and I was about to go insane.  I was being a grouchy mom & my kids weren't having very much fun. Frankly I felt at that moment I was really sucking at the whole mom thing.  What I wanted to do was lay on the couch & turn on a movie for the boys & just take a nap. But I knew that wasn't what I should do.

Then I remembered that I had all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch.  Because 2 weeks ago I was craving them, but got as far as buying the ingredients. Ha!

So I rolled off the couch, waddled into the kitchen, and measured out all the ingredients into little bowls like they do on cooking shows.  Then I invited the boys into my kitchen (it's small.  The only part of our townhouse I would change. Only one person can fit comfortably in there at a time, so it's "my" kitchen).

And guess what? They were smiling!

If you are like me then I know you also looked in the background of the above picture at what my kitchen looks like. Ha! It has a whole lot of white! And dirty dishes in the sink. And a LOT of stuff on the fridge. And a sticky note of encouragement on the microwave. Just the way we like it.  Ok well except maybe the "whole lot of white" part. :)

I sat the boys on the counter with the mixing bowl in between them and let them take turns pouring in the ingredients.  I would use the mixer & they would cover their ears & laugh.  We poured in the chocolate chips (dark chocolate of course) and then I let them each pour in a tube of mini M&M's (so they may or may not have been from Christmas... but they have been sealed in their tubes in the freezer so that still makes them good, right?) to mix in too. They were so excited to see it all come together!

Does anyone else look at cookie dough and just want to eat it? And it is quite the torture as a pregnant woman to make cookies & not eat the dough. I just keep telling myself, a couple more weeks!

They helped me use our little cookie scoop and load up the cookie sheets.  Then Sean asked if we could put sprinkles on the cookies.  Of course I said yes.  These were "lets make a crappy day a little happier" cookies and I'm pretty sure sprinkles make everything happier!

Yes, I have to wrap my phone charger around my phone a certain way for it to charge (see background of above picture).  My laptop charger has started doing the same thing. Awesome, it must be contagious! :)

This picture is funny to me because I tried to hold the camera above my head & take a picture of the boys with the cookies before I put them in the oven, but I had to try & miss getting my belly in the frame! It was so funny. And Nolan was too busy singing into his M&M tube to look up at the camera.

Over 3 dozen cookies were baked. 

The boys and I were all smiles, with good attitudes & happy hearts.  The happy cookies worked!

Dathan was having a frustrating day also so I suggested he come home for lunch & eat some happy cookies.

He did, and his day got better.

My younger brother had some unauthorized Ebay transactions go through his bank account, so I offered him cookies. It made him happier too.

The cookies were gone the next day, but there were a half a dozen happier people in this world, and it was so worth it!

Sometimes you just need to drop what you're doing and bake chocolate chip cookies with your kids.