Change is messy

To be a catalyst for change, you must be immersed in the process. This is how my sister started her sermon on a program my church supports and it's the theme for this latest batch of cookies.  Not that making a batch of cookies is changing the world at all, but it's a start.  Her point was being immersed in change is messy.  It can be ugly.  You find the mistakes.  You see the problems and you can lose sight of the big picture, but still, we need to be immersed.

My church participates in a program called Families moving Forward.  We work with two other churches to host four families for one week at a time, a few times a year.  FMF is a program for homeless families - staff work with these families by taking the necessary steps to secure permanent housing and employment.  The program is considered successful.  In the last year, 56 family units were served; 203 individuals (126 of whom were children).  The average length of stay was 60 days.  However, FMF helps 1 out of 150 people who are looking for shelter.

I understand the stigma of homeless people, but take a look at these facts.
MN has the least amount of affordable housing for  minimum wage earners in the midwest.
A single parent would need to work 87 hours a week to pay rent for an average 2-bedroom apartment.
Family homelessness is the highest since 2000.
Children who have been homeless are more likely to do poorly in school than their peers, even when their peers are equally poor, but have never been homeless.
75% of homeless children read below grade level.
Children who have been homeless are more likely to be slow in achieving developmental milestones and more likely to be physically ill.

I know it's easy to write off the homeless as lazy.  I know it's easy to not help.  But consider the possibility that there are homeless people out there who are doing everything they can to their capabilities to do the best for their family; and probably work harder than you or I have ever worked, and consider helping.

So batch #92
Double Chocolate chip cookies
I had to chase Mike out of the kitchen, because he kept eating the cookies.  He told me I need to make the crappy cookies when I'm giving them away.  I replied that these people have suffered enough, they get the good cookies.  He offered to go to the store to buy the E.L Fudge cookies if we could keep this batch.  This batch is going to the kids, no store bought cookies for them.

Happy Mom's Day

I totally realize that getting a break and enjoying some relaxing time on Mother's Day is the cliche, and that is never really the case.  As the card I got (from my mother-in-law) says "you've earned a quiet, relaxing, unstressful day ....You may not get it, but you deserve it".  But I did think I was going to get a little help around the house (just a little).

It pretty much turned out to be your average Sunday.  I got up at 4am with Joey to feed him, then at 7:30 had to push my husband to go bring Joey to me to feed him again.  After I got Joey changed and dressed, I brought him downstairs so Mike could watch him while I showered, etc, but Mike was gone. So I took a quick shower and got ready quickly.  I wasn't annoyed though, I thought maybe Mike snuck away to do some Mother's day surprise.  I found out after I returned from going to church with Joey on my own and coming home to find Mike asleep on the couch - he decided to go to a different church on his own.  I know, weird.  Then I handed Joey off to Mike (as he watched TV) so that I could get some things done around the house.  Not all that glamorous of a day.  To give Mike credit, he "helped" Joey send me flowers at work on Friday and Mike has taken up the hobby of baking pies and made two Snickers pies for a family bar-b-que happening tonight.  Actually, Mike wanted me to bake more pies, I told him I was a little busy with 623 other recipes.

I was shocked that I got flowers or any recognition at all, so I'm quite happy.  As my dad says, if you have low expectations, you'll never be disappointed.

#89 Ginger-cream bars
How does cinnamon, cloves, ginger, molasses and 1 cup of hot coffee sound (along with butter, sugar, flour, etc).  Doesn't sound good, does it?  It's not.  Good thing I made these for coffee hour at church - we weren't stuck with them.  I thought maybe it would be a bar that would again appeal to a "mature" palate - it didn't.  They were not a hit.

#90 Rhubarb-filled cookies
Mike doesn't like rhubarb, yet he gave these cookies 4 out of 5 : ), so that's saying a lot about these cookies.  I made these for my mom and mother-in-law for Mother's day.  It's a good thing my new house already has an established rhubarb plant, because I did not have enough in my freezer from the amazing rhubarb plant I had at my old house; (my old rhubarb was a rhubarb plant on steroids - it was ridiculously huge).  These cookies looked pretty (in the book) so I thought our mom's deserved them.  However, as usual, they don't look as pretty in actuality.

#91 Blond Brownie Nut Squares
Bar-b-que tonight.  I learned this morning that Mike and I are bringing the sole desserts.  Mike made two pies, but there are 18 people in my immediate family, probably not enough.  I whipped up these pecan brownies in about 20 minutes.  Taste verdict remains to be eaten.

Returning to work

"I don't normally like chocolate, but I like these" and "I like chocolate and these are great" are just a couple of comments about my latest batch of cookies.

Batch #88 Walnut Chip Cookies

I returned to work this week.  Picture Janice from Friends - Oh  My   God!  Thank goodness I'm a teacher and it's May - only 1 month of this craziness.  Frankly, work is the easiest part of my day; I know exactly what I'm doing; I have no interruptions, it's just easy - other than the fact that I can't see straight, my body keeps giving out on me, and my mind is a jumble.  That's alright, it's not like anyones future quality of life is depending on me doing a good job.  Oh .......wait.

Anyways, made this batch of cookies the day before my return to work as a way to thank my colleagues for having to deal with my substitute teachers.  If you're in the world of education at all, you know how awful subs can be.  My poor teacher roommate, one sub sat at the table and just stared in her direction.  She actually retreated to a kindergarten classroom to get work done - that's saying a lot - going into a room with 30 five year olds to get away from 1 man.  

I may have been a little over ambitious in deciding to bake cookies the day before my return to work.  No, over ambitious is the term I'd use to describe the decision to make a batch of cookies.  I think committable would accurately describe this batch of cookies.  From the chapter Big Batch Bonanza, this recipe made 12 dozen cookies.  But they were well received.  The entire batch was eaten by my co-workers by 9:00 in the morning.

Off to rest.  Actually I'm going to pull up my fitness magazines and look at different exercises and hope that just looking at the pictures of people exercising will help me start to fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes.

Joey decided to be fussy - this is him "helping".  

I'm hoping baking while carrying a 16lb baby and swaying with him will help me burn those extra   

    calories that I get from eating all these little projects of mine.