"C" is for Cookie and "D" is for Dairy-Free

Now what starts with the letter "C?" Cookie starts with "C." Let's think of other things that start with "C?" Ah, who cares about other things.
"C" is for cookie, that's good enough for me.
"C" is for cookie, that's good enough for me.
"C" is for cookie, that's good enough for me.
Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with "C!"
–Cookie Monster, The Cookie Song

I'm not a big fan of baking cookies. It takes a lot of time {a minimum of 2 hours a batch. Perhaps I'm just slow?}, dirties a lot of dishes and they disappear all too quickly from the plate only to reappear on my hips and thighs later. So I mostly buy cookies. Or at least I did until I gave up dairy. I still buy Oreos, because they are dairy-free {which makes me wonder what sort of chemicals they use to concoct the "creme" centers}, and I started buying a really yummy Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookie at a health-food shop downtown every once in a while when I'd stop in to pick up vegan sour cream for taco night. And then I decided that a $1.79 for one - 12,000 calorie cookie was kind of ridiculous. I figured out that I could buy a bag of dairy-free chocolate chips and make about 12,000 - one hundred calorie cookies {which comes out to about 8₵ a cookie} instead, so I changed my tune.

I found this recipe at The Live-In Kitchen. It was already in its third iteration, so I think it is OK to share my take on it because I've made a few tweaks.

Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 cup butter or butter substitute
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
2½ cups old-fashioned oats
¾ cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips or dairy-free mini chips

• In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.
• In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and coconut. Slowly add to the butter, sugar and egg mixture and beat until combined. Add the oats and chocolate chips and mix to incorporate.
• Drop by rounded tablespoon onto a baking sheet. Bake at 350˚ for approximately 10 minutes; let stand on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 6 dozen

Notes:
• If you are using real butter, use it at cool room temperature. If you are using butter substitute {I prefer the kind made with olive oil}, use it straight from the fridge.
• 10 minutes in my oven plus 2 minutes on the baking sheet {a preheated Pampered Chef baking stone} produces the perfect cookie — not to crispy and not too doughey. You may have to adjust for your oven and/or baking sheet, especially if you make larger cookies.

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And everyone needs a good chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe, even the dairy-free folks.

Arlene's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup shortening
½ cup butter or butter substitute
2 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
5 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups flour
⅔ cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cups milk chocolate chips or dairy-free mini chips

• In a large mixing bowl, cream together shortening, butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.
• In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to the butter, sugar and egg mixture and beat until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Drop by rounded tablespoon onto a baking sheet. Bake at 350˚ for approximately 10 minutes; let stand on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 8 dozen

Notes:
• If you are using real butter, use it at cool room temperature. If you are using butter substitute {I prefer the kind made with olive oil}, use it straight from the fridge.
• The type of cocoa powder you use makes a difference. In the first batch, I used regular cocoa powder. I was disappointed with the color and the flavor. The second time I made these, I used Hershey's Special Dark, which is a blend of regular and Dutch-processed cocoas and it made a huge difference. Someday, I may even get my hands on 100% Dutch-processed cocoa.
• Obviously, the flavor will be different if you use milk chocolate chips versus the dairy-free semi-sweet chips. Whichever chip you use, I highly recommend that you use mini chips. They're just so darn cute.
• 10 minutes in my oven plus 2 minutes on the baking sheet {a preheated Pampered Chef baking stone} produces the perfect cookie — not too crispy and not too doughy. You may have to adjust for your oven and/or baking sheet, especially if you make larger cookies.

Mormon Messages: The Shiny Bicycle

We have all made incorrect choices. If we have not already corrected such choices, I assure you that there is a way to do so. The process is called repentance. I plead with you to correct your mistakes. Our Savior died to provide you and me that blessed gift. Although the path is not easy, the promise is real, "Thou your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." (Isaiah 1:18) –Thomas S. Monson, The Three Rs of Choice, October 2010

The One Where The Not-So-Little-Bugs Go Back To School

The calm and balanced mind is the strong and great mind; the hurried and agitated mind is the weak one. –Wallace D. Wattles

Yesterday was the first day back to school for the Not-So-Little Bugs. I wrote this post all day in my head yesterday, but there just wasn't a minute to squeeze in actually typing it out. The moment has almost passed and this post is almost irrelevant, but I wanted to capture at least a little of what I was thinking of yesterday, because I'm still thinking some of it today.

This is Grasshopper. Yesterday was his first day of 8^th grade. I remember being in 8^th grade. I can hardly believe I have an 8^th grader.

This is LadyBug. Yesterday was her first day of 6^th grade. I can remember being in 6^th grade too.

And this is me on my first day of being the mother of a 6^th grader and an 8^th grader. {Sidebar: I didn't decide we were taking milestone photos until after Mr. Bug had left for work yesterday and he didn't get/ignored my text requesting that he snap a selfie and e-mail it to me.}

I never was one to get teary when my kids went to school. In years past I may not have been excited about it, but the reason for that is that we had to get back on a regular schedule with early mornings, strict bedtimes and homework. Leading up to the start of school this year, I was ambivalent. Staying on top of homework was at the top of my list of anxieties. In the perks column, with school back in I get to sleep in between thirty minutes and an hour every morning and I'm so over a 9:00 pm bedtime. {Sidebar: I considered keeping an earlier schedule in order to have a little sewing time in the morning, but I know myself and I would never be content with the amount of time available and would be grumpy to have to put away my project to go to work. Work first, then play seems to work best for me.}. And now that school has started and I've had two guilt-free work-days in a row now where I haven't had to worry about the Not-So-Little Bugs being alone, trying to mediate disputes or meet needs over the phone, and making it home well before they get out of school so that I can have a bit of time to decompress after work has been a huge relief. And that trumps tricky homework schedules any day.

If there hadn't been a need for it, I don't think I would have ever chosen to go back to work when my kids were this young. It has been hard, but it has also been good. My hours at work kind of grew to more than I expected, though, which was very stressful where the balancing act is concerned. At the beginning of the summer I asked to reduce my hours back to what I'd been hired for. I hoped that I could keep them steady at that level even after summer, and it looks like it is going to work out on both ends. A coworker who is a single mom needs more hours in order to qualify for health benefits so she has been picking up the slack for me. And the reduction in wages that accompanies fewer work hours hasn't pinched our budget too much. Finding the right balance has been hard for me over the last several years. At the risk of jinxing myself, I think I've maybe got it. At any rate, I'm glad the kids are back in school.

Speaking of which, they should be home any minute now and I want to hear all about their days.

Grandma Week 2013: Day 5, Lagoon — Let Fun Reign

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous. –Alexander Hamilton

Half my lifetime ago, I worked at an amusement park right here in Utah. It was the best job I ever had {well, maybe I've romanticized it a bit, but I loved working there}. During this time I developed somewhat of an unfortunate habit of locking my keys in my car. It happened enough that I kept an extra set of keys at work and my parents had an extra set in case I locked my keys in the car somewhere other than at work.

I must have been channeling my 20 year-old self in anticipation for our Grandma Week trip to Lagoon because when I got home yesterday afternoon I locked my keys in my car. I didn't discover it until it was time to go today, which was after Mr. Bug and his key to my vehicle had already gone to work. Not having a spare set of keys at home and the need to get to our last Grandma Week activity of 2013 kind of fried the circuits in my brain. I called Mr. Bug, who is almost always calm and collected and he suggested I call the police department and see if they could recommend a locksmith, or if they might do it themselves. I did. They would. And two officers came and unlocked my car.

I then discovered that not only had I left the keys in the ignition, I'd left them turned half-way on and the battery was dead. So, I called Mr. Bug again. Still his calm, cool and collected self, he reminded me that we have a fully charged car battery that he bought to use to power his CPAP machine when he goes camping with Grasshopper, but also for a back-up power source in case of emergencies. Such as when his wife locks her keys in the car and runs the battery down. {Sidebar: Mr. Bug made the comment, "boy you must have been tired when you got home yesterday. You've never done this before." I blame the migraine.} I hooked up the jumper cables, got the car started and we were on our way.

{Top Left: Keys discovered locked in the car
Top Right: The police arrive to get the keys out
Middle Right: These guys aren't Gone in 60 Seconds
Bottom Right: Resorting to the Slim Jim
Bottom Left: Brand spanking new jumper cables and a back-up battery to get the party started}

We had lots of fun. Most unfortunately, my mom {a.k.a. The Grandma in Grandma Week} sustained a small injury while rollerskating on Saturday and wasn't able to make it to Lagoon. My sister, Robin and her husband, Jeremy, came and so did my brother, Andrew, and his wife, Ellen, in addition to my other two sisters, Julie and Jill, and their kids. We're quite the crew.

{Top Left: Frog, Julie, Cap'n Underpants, Mantis, Miss Butterfly, Grasshopper & LadyBug
Center Left: Cricket, Jill, Toad & Lizard Boy
Right: Cricket, LadyBug & Grasshopper
Bottom: Grasshopper, Toad, Andrew, Ellen, Mantis, Jeremy, Cap'n Underpants, Robin}

Lagoon has evolved quite a bit in the last 20 years. It has changed from a stationary carnival to almost a proper amusement park, complete with overpriced concessions {overpriced everything, really}, seven eight roller coasters and several dozen other rides and attractions. They even have a teacup ride, new this year.

{Top Left: Jeremy & Robin on the Paratrooper (ferris wheel on an angle)
Center Left: Capn' Underpants on Scamper (little bumper cars)
Bottom Left: Lizard Boy & Toad on the Dinosaur Drop
Top Right Grasshopper, Andrew & Ellen on the Tipsey Tea Cups
Bottom Center: Toad & Julie on The Bat (suspension coaster)
Bottom Right: Toad on Scamper}

We pretty much rode until we dropped. Julie and her crew and I with my two were pretty much the last ones out of the park at 10:30 pm, despite the fact that we both had to be up early to get back to real life the next morning.

{Top Left: Miss Butterfly & LadyBug on the Paratrooper
Second Left: Frog on Scamper
Third Left: Robin & Jeremy on The Bat
Top Right: Capn' Underpants & Lizard Boy on The Bat
Center Left: Selfie (me) and Lizard Boy on the Wooden Roller Coaster
Bottom Left: Toad, Lizard Boy and me on the walkway in line for Bombora
Bottom Right: LadyBug, Jeremy & Miss Butterfly on the Tipsey Tea Cups}

Thank you, Grandma, for a fun week! We can't wait until next year!

Grandma Week 2013: Day 4, What Matters Most

What is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should let them know. –Thomas S. Monson, Finding Joy in the Journey, October 2008

Sunday is a day apart. The bouncy house gets put away, and outside activities are set aside. Our plans include going to church and spending time with the people who matter most. Family is what Grandma Week is all about. We've had so much fun the past few days; the Not-So-Little Bugs with their cousins and grandparents and me with my silibngs and parents and nieces and nephews. But we decided to come home and spend the afternoon with Mr. Bug, because we haven't seen him since Wednesday {and because I had a stupid migraine and hadn't slept in a bed for three days}. Mr. Bug, I love you.

And just in case you didn't know, Mom, Dad, Julie, Mark, Jill, Robin & Andrew, and all the cousins, I love you, too!