Reese’s Chewy Chocolate Cookies

A few weeks ago we enjoyed an evening of fellowship with friends, and oh my was I glad Anita brought a pan of these to share. Soft, chewy, chocolate, and peanut butter – doesn’t get much better than this; and the cookies we made were just as good as the bars.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 2/3 cups (1 10 oz. package) Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips

Heat oven to 350*. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients, beating well. Stir in peanut butter chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-9 minutes. Cook slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool completely. Yield: about 4 1/2 dozen cookies.

Pan recipe: Spread batter in greased jelly-roll pan. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes or until set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack; cut into bars. Yield: about 4 dozen bars.

A delicious cloudy day treat!

Another Rink Skate

After another gray morning of school, yesterday was another great afternoon of fresh crisp air, fun with friends, and exercise. I love watching confidence grow in these kids as they get the hang of ice skating. Especially Josh – he got to play hockey this time and went about 90 mph the whole time. Holding onto the hockey stick helps with balance even though with the rowdiness of hockey he still hit the ice quite a few times (that’s why he wears his coat and hat – added padding, hehe). I won’t identify this time – same crowd as last week minus a few, plus James and Gloria.

that’s it

Tuesday Restmor Singing

Warm study spot on another cold day (So why short sleeves and no socks? You got me.).

A few songs with A. Joyce and Grace before supper Monday.

Thankful we were able to go to Restmor yesterday and enjoy some special visitors for lunch afterwards.

that’s it

Weekend

Mid-January - - - tax time. Notice the sunshine blazing in the east window? Nice. Very nice.

Before outside time – a few kitchen projects.

Words fail me.

But also thankful for awesome help.

These two dorks were toasting our new President with chocolate milk. Not sure why that was so funny, but their shenanigans got the rest of us laughing too.

A beautiful day for washing a few windows.

Lots of sunshine time after kp done.

Yep that’s lots of open water on the pond.

But still a thin pan of ice over most of it.

A new kind of pond fun – playing with the ice.

And tasting it.

And oohhhh the skies.

Gorgeous.

Our lovely backyard fish pond, minus the fish.

Loving that bright sunshine.

Trusty steed Skeet  - - -

dirt and all. Such is the season.

Nothing like a good fire to complete a great spring afternoon.

Our nice little family of five for an evening as the other five enjoyed an evening with TYG.

Sunday’s takeaway for me was Dare To Be A Daniel. He had a purpose firm and dared to make it known. Which I too must do. And the man imprisoned in Russia for his faith whose Bible was stolen – do I love God’s word so much that, in order to get my Bible back, I’d give my ration of food for three days to the prisoner who stole it from me (even if my ration was only bread, and I exited prison a mere 77#)? Quite a challenge to me.

Walk after church with Dad – no sunshine but still a beautiful afternoon.

Heading for the viaduct to see what there is to see down there -

Get this – driving home after church, there was still a thin pan of ice over half the pond. A hour later, walking down there with Dad – pan was gone. Sank? Melted all at once? Don’t know. But as of yesterday afternoon – no more ice.

Loved having Levi’s here for supper – little one is still star attraction - - -

Not sure how she does it but she undoubtedly gets cuter every time we see her.

And a good time at Grandpa&Grandma Kaiser’s after supper. Kids had so much fun with Samuel & Kinsey and Lance & Grace (no px, duh me), and Kiowa certainly never lacked for attention either.

that’s it

Bad Mom Moment

Can’t remember what day it was – yes it was Wednesday - Josh headed to the garden to see how deep the mud was. About 6” later, he wasn’t going anywhere. No one is really sure how long he was out there until Jewel heroically helped him out, but when he came in covered with mud, I was not happy with the situation. I completely forgot that God made dirt not to hurt and couldn’t see past the mud EVERYWHERE to the fun he’d had until he got stuck. No I didn’t yell (generally I’m not a yeller)(feel free to ask the kids but they might disagree with me on that) but my attitude and words were - - - well, let’s just say I was a far cry from gracious. My normal good humor that should’ve prompted me to have a good laugh and get a few px of him stuck out there and traipsing to the house covered in mud was G.O.N.E. Maybe because I was still hoping to do some reading with him before church (which of course didn’t happen and you know what, the world didn’t end). Maybe because his chores weren’t done (I think he had to finish doing eggs after we got home from church and you know what, the world didn’t end). Maybe because we usually try to eat an earlier supper so as to get to church on time (which we did but you know what, the world wouldn’t end if we were late now and then). Maybe….whatever the excuse, it really didn’t matter. Point is, I missed the opportunity to show grace when things were kind of messy; and since I need and expect a lot of grace, both from my heavenly Father and from my family and friends, I hope I learned a lesson. It’s so easy to be gracious during the tidy times, but the true test occurs in how we respond to the messy times of life. Sad to say, I failed miserably this time.

Hence, this picture. While I was far from excited at the time to record the mud everywhere, the next morning after Josh diligently cleaned up his boots, I realized that I really need to remember a few lessons.

1. God really did make dirt not to hurt.

2. She (that’s me) who needs lots of grace must extend lots of grace.

3. I’ve still never met a mess that can’t be cleaned up.

And hopefully, after Josh spent literally about an hour cleaning himself and everything up, he’ll remember too that while mudfun might indeed be fun, it does also indeed have a cost (which HE will pay, not mom)!

Moving on.

Never get tired of this little girlie’s precious smiles.

Kids are working on a few new songs. Sounding good.

Kate & Josh are quite the wild pair. Never a dull moment with these two.

Henry was so generous with hugs this morning.

Jack & Henry both love watching the remote helicopter fly, but Jack gets so concerned when it crashes (which it frequently does). His little pout is pretty cute.

Okay. I’ve been meaning to get a few px of this amazing weather. Rain then fog then rain then clouds then rain then fog and then more clouds. Or something like that. I think we’ve seen the sun for an hour total these last couple weeks.

I think everyone in central IL is ready for the sunshine that’s forecast for tomorrow – even if it is supposed to be 55* in the middle of January. Welcome to IL!