Well friends, we made it! Another week has passed, and my, what a rough week it's been.

I worked Monday through Thursday, just like usual. Wednesday, however, started bad and ended worse. I woke up, and as I sat up in bed to shut off the alarm, I knew it was going to be a bad back day. But I don't have sick time yet, and it hurt, but I could walk and stand fine (just no bending over). So I headed off to drop the older kids off at school, then I went to work.

By the end of the day, even standing hurt. Electrical-shock-feeling pains going down into my left leg, and I was experiencing numbness down my leg as well. After work, off to the hospital I went. Diagnosed with a probable herniated disc, and loaded with a script for pain meds, I headed to the pharmacy, then home. One pain pill and 600mg of ibuprofen later, I was dizzy and falling asleep, so I hit the sack early. I went to work yesterday, but my pharmacist let me go early (there's no way I could have worked after taking a pain pill, and the ibuprofen didn't even touch the pain). I will be calling to schedule an MRI, and hopefully they'll figure out what's wrong and I can get on the road to fixing it.

Secondly, due to the number of emails and Facebook requests, I've decided to share the recipe for THE VERY BEST chocolate chip cookies ever. Please take note: this is not my original recipe, but I have no idea where I copied it from.

SOFT & CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

yield: 6 dozen

1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups firm packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
4 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 bags (12 ounces each) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Combine sugar, brown sugar, and butter; beat til light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs; blend well. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt; add to wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips**. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets*. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet, the. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

*I've found that greasing the cookie sheets makes the cookie bottoms a little crispier, but mych easier to remove from the sheet. That being said, my cookie sheets are WAY embarrassingly old...so that might have something everything to do with it.

**Because this makes such a large amount of cookies, add variety by splitting the dough in half at this point in the recipe. Add one flavor chips to one half, then a different flavor to the other half.

Make these cookies. Promise me. You'll take one bite and immediately run to your recipe box and remove every other chocolate chip cookie recipe you have. Yes, they're that good.

"But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

What a Busy Weekend!

The weekend teases me. Every. Single. Weekend. I usually have Fridays off (thanks be to God!), so I have a "cheater" day in there which many don't have. But I still run out of time because, well, because I'm a lazy bum. This past weekend was actually fairly full, however, so the downtime was spent relaxing and gearing up for this week.

Friday, Jacob had his dentist appointment. The poor kid has had a broken tooth for awhile, and the dental assistant said it probably broke due to the adult tooth pushing on it, and we'll just yank the baby tooth out and there ya go. Uh huh. So we get there and have x-rays done. Lo and behold, the broken tooth isn't a baby tooth, it's his 6 year molar!! {groan} So the dentist put some temp stuff in it to hold him over and that was that. Now we get to schedule a root canal. Jacob doesn't really understand what it is, but he was a trooper about getting the tooth pulled, so this should be a piece of cake.

Thomas made the basketball team! And of course, the physical he had on file couldn't be used for sports (I don't get it at all, but we roll with the punches, don't we?). So we took him to the clinic at my store to get his sports physical done. He's officially a Bullet now, complete with a white home uniform and a red away uniform. His first practice was today, and he came in looking pretty worn out :) He likes it though, and is good at it.

I spent time on Saturday baking my first ever pumpkins to purée and freeze for future pumpkin pies. I used the instructions on Heavenly Homemakers site, and it worked perfectly. I actually could've baked them a little longer, but they were small pumpkins, so I didn't want to take the chance of overdoing them. I'm not sure you can over cook pumpkin, but I didn't want to find out. So just a little work with the food processor, and Bob's your uncle, I've got enough pumpkin to make 3 pies and some extra (maybe cookies?). Sadly, I tried to brine the seeds, coat them in melted butter, then bake them. I mean, butter makes everything better, right? Not so much. I find the butter flavor overwhelming, and the seeds weren't as crispy as I like them...sort of like chewing butter-flavored tree bark...if I knew what that tasted like.

And does everyone remember the lost cookie recipe? Guess what!! I was washing dishes tonight, and I moved my used-so-often-that-it-has-earned-a-permanent-spot-on-my-stove griddle, and there it was!!! The long lost recipe! It's seriously the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever made, and I've had bags of chips waiting for their chance to snag a starring role in the recipe for so long. So next weekend, they'll get their wish.

Work tomorrow, so good night, dear friends. Keep doing everything for His glory!

:) :(

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

~that the rain has turned to snow in places west of our area (winter is my favorite season)
~that God is so absolutely forgiving, even as I fail as a wife, parent, and homemaker daily
~soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies (I think I found my lost recipe...I'm trying it this weekend and will post results)
~hot coffee with peppermint mocha creamer
~falling back!! (don't forget to set your clocks back and replace smoke alarm batteries this weekend)
~roast in the crock pot (is the crock pot on my list every week?? I love my crock pot)

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SAD:

~early huge snowstorms on the East Coast. I've been praying for relief for family and friends we have there.
~matching socks (see my bible verse below: it's one I meditate on while on sock duty)


Let us not become weary of doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ~Galatians 6:9

I believe this is an important verse for any mother, as we tread through the seemingly menial tasks of keeping home. We are serving our family by making our home a haven, a comfortable, welcoming place that exudes our love, and more importantly, that of our Heavenly Father. Our family should feel at peace when walking through the door, and we as homemakers are charged with that duty. Take comfort that this is of God's design! He is all-knowing, and He has given you everything you need to succeed in this role, including your greatest lifeline: Him!!