Daddy Home!

Jim just arrived around 9:00 and the house is in pure pandemonium. Here is a video of the little ones dancing when they realized daddy had pulled into the driveway:





And here is the happy reunion:






Before Jim got home, I made some homemade molasses cookies. I used http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Soft-Molasses-Cookies-II/Detail.aspx


I changed it to 1/2 c white sugar and 1/2 c of brown sugar, 2 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/2 c of molasses (like one of the reviewers suggested). I then topped with confectioners sugar. The house smelled wonderful. If I could add a "scratch and sniff" here for you I would :) Here is a picture of them:





Yes, I am a little obsessed with them and I'll tell you why. One of my biggest regrets is that I don't have my mother's recipes. Some of my fondest memories are of her baking for our family when I was young. Many an afternoon I would come home from school to smell these delicious cookies baking and this recipe took me back to that sweet childhood memory. Now I will be able to share this same memory with my children (and I'll add it to my personal recipe book so they will have it one day). What about you? Do you have a favorite memory of a food you use to eat as a child?


Here are some photos and quick stories of life lately:


I made valentines day cookies for all three Awana classes that the boys are in Sunday nights (over 60 cookies in all!). Tristan helped me decorate them and we had fun making them. It was good to hear that the kids liked them too, I truly enjoy making things for the kids at church:






Last week I picked up the donuts from school that I had sold for the school fundraiser (more on that shortly). The boys loved them of course and I had to snap this picture of Dalton talking to Daddy on the phone while trying to shove one in his mouth:





As my coworkers will tell you, I am always selling something :) I feel very strongly about parents taking part in school fundraisers. I am originally from upstate NY and they fund their education programs by assessing a school tax on top of your property tax (and it is not cheap). We are very fortunate here in NC that we do not have that tax. In order to do our part to help the schools, we each need to take a part in fundraising whenever possible. One of the programs I feel strongly about is the box tops for education program (http://www.boxtops4education.com/Default.aspx). I clip these from each product I can and get a little obsessive about checking each box and packaging that is thrown away in our house. Each one brings the school 10 cents each. This may not sound like much, but my recent pile was worth over $17 to the school and it didn't cost me an extra dime:







Here is a picture of what these look like in case you are not familiar:







Thank you Dee for sending me all of yours as well. Everyone check your packages and clip and save these for your local schools. Schools can and do earn thousands from the efforts of folks just like you!