Time for a Slow Sunday

I took Friday off to renew my driver's license and meet Tracey Broome for lunch. The plan was to just wander through the junk shop downtown and then go have lunch. Tracey met me along with her sweet daughter at 10:30 and we did just that.
 I turned on the radio as I left to head home and heard about the shooting.
I was floored as I know you all are.
I did not sleep that night just thinking about the way this would change so many lives. The loss is overwhelming.
I try not to be political on this page and I am a person who does not step out into the public to tell you what I think is right or wrong. It is not up to me to judge you or your beliefs. I don't want to think that I know more or I am a better judge than you about how we can change things to make this better.
I do know you can not predict crazy.

 I do think we are failing the many families that may be dealing with someone in their family who is mentally ill.
There are no answers here as we will never know what the thoughts were that lead to such a tragedy.
Our hearts were and are broken for the families of the children and the adults who died.
The world has been changed.
These are all our children.
I weep for the loss.


Weeks ago my friend Laura and I made a plan to bake some cookies.

I was happy to have this to look forward to.
It is the simple things in life that can make life so sweet.

We figured out pretty quick the steps of working together in my kitchen as we made two batches of cookies.
The first up was Gary Rith's triple chocolate cookies.
A recipe that I have been holding for awhile afraid to make a full batch for just Mark and I to eat.

They are wonderful!
 I will have to post up the recipe for you.
Or beg Gary for it.
This cookie is worth the butter!
 

We made a decision to leave out the nuts since Mark prefers no nuts with his brownies.
I know this is not a really good reason for you nuts lovers but this is how we roll.

Then after pouring over the many other choices we had we settled on one of the family favorites that Mark's mother made every year.
Cowboy cookies.
This cookie was one of the first cookies that I ever had made by my mother-in-law.
 I came from a house of cooks and cookies were not on the list at our house.
My grandmother and my mother were both great bakers but they were more likely to make a pound cake. I don't ever remember them making cookies as we were growing up.
I learned my cookie baking from a lot of trial and error and from my mother-in-law and daughter.

Louise was the one who would teach our daughter to bake.
I came home one day to find my 4 year old, who was never very interested in the kitchen like her brother was, calmly sitting on the kitchen counter meticulously  spooning cookie dough onto a baking sheet while her grandmother was shifting cookies in and out of the oven.
Anna would become the cookie baker of the family long before I would take this over after she left home.

 So you know my heart was singing when I received this picture the other night of the wee one in an apron I made her this past year making cookies with Mom.

Life is a circle of many things.
Make your circles full.
When asked by Santa what wee one wants for Christmas her answer was- hugs.

Happy Sunday- go give hugs.
M