Aggression Cookies

Grandma and Bethany, Christmas

I made cookies this week. Not just any cookies but I made Grandpa and Grandma's Aggression cookies. I enjoyed them growing up at my grandparent's house. They regularly had my brother and I and my two cousins over for the weekends. I'm sure our parents put their free weekends to good use!

Grandma and Grandpa were good at spoiling us (still are!) and I remember hot chocolate and cookies as we all sat in their giant bean bag while they watched the Lawrence Welk Show! We had plenty to do at their house.

Grandpa collected trains that ran on a huge set of tracks and houses set up in the garage. Grandpa worked for Knudsen so their freezer was always stocked with novelty ice creams! Us grand kids would play all day, using our imaginations with the toys that were there. Behind their house was a track field that we would often go down to to burn off extra energy. Every New Year's my grandparents had a big, fancy party where we had to dress up and 'be on our best behavior'. Grandpa would spend hours cooking up his cherried pot roast, mashed potatoes and black eyed peas. Grandma would likewise, spend hours baking up her huge platter of cookies, chocolates, breads and desserts. And there would always be the Aggression cookies!

We lost my grandpa in '95 to lung cancer and he is missed. He had a way of 'dealing' with us grand kids that was all 'him'. He would bark and yell, and yet we always knew his bark was much worse than his bite. He was frugal beyond words yet would 'let' my grandma spoil us (it was him too), he would get aggravated with Grandma for her crazy ways yet had all he patience in the world for her when she was shopping. He would never say a word or complain and would hold her purse and packages.

When I make those cookies, I pull out his recipe. It's yellow and old. Grandma made a copy for me. His writing is all over it. He tells me to double the recipe. "Yes, sir". I always do. He tells me to use one full box of brown sugar. "Thanks, Grandpa it's helpful to not have to measure it out". He also tells me to "use the green bowl". This part I can't do but I know exactly which bowl he wants me to use and I know right where it is in their kitchen. It's avocado green. But, guess what? I have a green bowl roughly the same size. It's not avocado green (I can't travel back to the '70s to replicate that one) but I do use it every time I make these, because Grandpa says to.

Make these and think of my grandparents. I always do. I am grateful my grandma is such a big part of my life and that my girls know her so well also. She dotes on them the same way she doted on the four of us. They get spoiled and loved on. When she is here with us for a few days she is such a huge help bustling around the house tying up all my loose ends. I'm sure I hear her in the middle of the night up checking on the kids and putting more blankets on them (she's always cold!). After she goes home I can always count on a call from her checking on her great-granddaughters. She's incredibly loving! Also, if I age half as grateful as she has I'll be in pretty good shape!

So, remember your grandparents today, all their quirks and habits, love and sometimes yelling! Make these cookies and think of mine!

Grandma and Grandpa's Aggression Cookies- double it and mix in the green bowl!

1 cup light brown sugar (a full box if doubled!)

1 cup butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups quick cooking rolled oats

granulated sugar

Mix all ingredients like pie crust until soft. Flatten 1-inch balls of dough onto ungreased pan. Press flat with bottom of glass dipped once into a bit of butter and then granulated sugar. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven 10-12 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen.

A Follow Up

As a follow up to the last blog, I looked up my CA state legislators and want to share with you how I did this. I just googled 'CA State Legislators' and it took me to the official page where I entered my zip code and got my local legislators. It was easy. The phone number and address is on this page. Since you all hail from all over the US I can't list all legislators here! Help me in this. Not sure how you stand on the abortion issue, just peek at some pictures of my youngest, Bethany. We adopted her after her birth and not a day goes by that I am not grateful her birth mother chose life. I know she reads this and I want her to know how grateful we are and how we pray for blessings to flow into her life because of her courageous decision. Thank you. It's not enough to say but there are no words to express how grateful we are. Choose life.

Call to Action

I just heard this this morning on our local Christian radio station the girls and I listen to every morning on our way to taking Savannah to school. It has stuck with me and is turning my stomach. After 9/11 Planned Parenthood provided free abortions to NYC residents. They did this as their way of helping 'provide relief' after the attacks. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina they provided the morning-after pill. Today, in Haiti, they are 'helping' deal with the aftereffects of the earthquake by providing more abortions. Their answer to death and destruction is to provide more death and destruction. As Americans and Christians we should all be disgusted and ashamed of ourselves for not doing anything to stop Planned Parenthood. They go to Haiti representing Americans, us! No, I don't know what to do or where to begin but I am open for suggestions. There are times to silently wait on the Lord and there are times to move our feet while we pray. During this difficult time we should at the very least be making sure that not one cent of our tax money goes to Planned Parenthood. Contact legislation, stop the health-care bill from going through so that we do not fund abortions. We all seem to sit back and watch as America disintegrates into immorality. Do we expect someone else to handle the problems? I know I am guilty of this. But if enough of us stood up for values, morality and what this country was founded on we could get a movement going to begin to be a voice. We have all stood still long enough. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything

forward this on to help get this message across

SNOW! 2010

What began as rain, rain, rain, ALL week has turned into... SNOW! We all love, love, love the snow. Even the doggies!

Nothing like coming home from school to snow!

Maybe an inch on the ground means it's time to go out and play! You never know how long it will last!

We just love snow! Last year (December 2008) we got a ton and school was cancelled for three days! It lasted for two weeks! But we made the best out of this time! Enjoy each and every season as God gives it!

Gum

The evidence

"What's in your mouth?"

(caught red-handed)

"Nothing, Mama. I didn't do it..."

(the "I'm innocent" stare)

"I just looking at it..."

uh, huh, sure I believe you.

Chasing My Tail

I have been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning since yesterday. First I start downstairs. I do the dusting, cleaning glass and mirrors. Then I do the kitchen. I hate doing the kitchen 'cause all it takes is for someone in my family to get something, even just a snack and it's a disaster again. Then I do all the floors. The downstairs bathroom is next followed by the guest room. The desk I sit at with this computer invariably needs de-cluttering also. Once my downstairs is done, though I feel like I can breath again! The organizing never ends, though. Bethany loves to get into drawers and cupboards and see what she can see. The kitchen is totally child-proof but the rest of the drawers and cupboards in the house are not. She loves it when I am getting ready for the day because she gets to be in the bathroom with me and get into all kinds of goodies! Currently, there are hot rollers and their clips all over the floor, bottles of lotion have joined them. Bethany loves to play with the rollers by taking them off and puting them on their (unplugged!) pegs. Toys sit just inches from her new favorite activity. She loves getting into our closet and pulling clothes off hangers to 'try them on'. What's scary is that she is pretty good at getting it right! Oh, she also loves shoes! No, they don't have to be high heels or even mine; she just loves shoes!

Now, mind you, I can't be in the middle of, say, mascara and be running around after her getting her to put things back and to stop touching. So, I let it go. I let her play. I'm right there. There's nothing small. She's just so darn inquisitive. By the time I'm ready it's time to rush out the door onto our next adventure. There the curlers and bottles stay. So, the house is what it is. I clean it. In a matter of days (If I'm lucky. It's more like hours...) the place is a mess again. I just spin my wheels. When it's clean I turn into Momzilla and run around after all of them nagging them to 'pick that up when you're done', 'don't step into my kitchen', 'get off the floor, I just cleaned it'. I drive them all crazy. So, here we are. Beginning the weekend with the house clean and I can feel my Momzilla tail growing in again.

Push and Pull

"Don't get up, Mom, I can do it all by myself". This is what I heard this morning as my alarm went off at 6:30 so I could get Savannah up and ready for school. She beat my alarm to it. She encouraged me to sleep in and she could take her shower, pick out her own clothes (a uniform), make her own breakfast and lunch. At first I protested. We've never done it this way before and then I decided to wait for a few minutes in my warm bed until she came and got me because she needed me for something. I waited. And waited. I heard the shower in her bathroom. Heard the fridge open and close 15 minutes later. Heard the ding of the toaster. And still I waited. My little girl never needed me. I laid there thinking about this new path we are on. I want to be on this path and yet I don't. This isn't the first time I have felt this way, either. I felt this when I was her age and slightly older. I knew it was time to grow up, shed the trappings of youth and move forward yet I didn't want to. It's like putting one toe into the pool to test the temperature of the water; it's a bit cool so you step onto the first step and wait awhile. You get a little more brave and go in to your knees. Once you step onto the bottom of the shallow end you must go quickly all the way because your abdomen has been shocked and now it's too late.

I remember being so excited to go to Jr. High school. I had attended a small, country-esque elementary school and was ready for the 1/2 hour bus ride to town to the Jr. High. It was a much bigger school. We all went on an orientation for the new year that was to come after summer. We would be changing classrooms, having lockers, eating lunch on campus where we wanted. I was a young lady now! I wore a light yellow jumper and kneehigh white socks confident that I looked the part of the 7th grader. Unbeknownst to me, my kneehighs made me look 'juvenille' and I was teased by girls going to the orientation who knew better. Yep, my push-and-pull into adolescence had begun.

Savannah finally came in and 'got me'. She had been quite successful in doing everything she needed to do. Lunch, check. Shower, check. Breakfast, check. Hair brushed, teeth brushed, check. She didn't need me. I was sad yet proud of her. We drove the 15 minutes to her school with me deep in thought. "Thank heavens we have Bethany still or I would be a mess", seemed to be the only thought I could coherently put together. It's going to go soo fast now. I knew she would need me less and less and I was going to have to fortify myself for all the changes ahead. We pulled up to the school and I parked. We stepped out, I kissed her (praise God we're not there yet) and waited for her to walk in. She turned to me and said, "Mama, aren't you going to walk me up? I missed you this morning". Up the three of us walked and I had to work to keep my feet on the ground after that.