Food For Thought
{artwork by Easton. He is for hire}

I sit here waiting for a batch of cookies to finish up their baking process in the oven. I told Jared that I'd make him cookies for work tomorrow and since I have extra frosting from some cookies I made a few days ago, I'm once again making homemade oreos which seem to take longer than the average cookie.....so here I write.

My little basement apartment is quiet. That is other than the dripping coming from the kitchen sink that has been driving me nuts for over six months now. It wouldn't ring in my ear if I hadn't left the faucet turned toward a metal cookie sheet.....oh, the sound of water on metal.

My brain is rambling. I don't think I've finished a complete thought in my head for quite some time tonight. Where do I begin.

Let me begin with something that I honestly have been shaking my head about. I have been making cookies for the past 40 minutes or so. My kitchen is in a "U" shaped with the stove on the left, the sink in the middle and the counter space on the right.  There has been a stepstool at the sink, a toy in the middle, one shoe, a pair of socks and a candy wrapper the ENTIRE time I've been making cookies.  I've tripped over the step stool, I've kicked the shoe around and stood on the candy wrapper. I really don't know what I expect or WHO I expect to remedy the situation but I've gotten aggravated at something that would literally take me 30 seconds to remedy.....

I started a literacy class tonight. It's a class to help parents be more involved with reading to their children and finding ways to make reading fun and to read in such a way as your children will love to read and learn to read easier {it's free in my school district so if you want more info, let me know, I'll pass it along....comes with free books, free food and free childcare! Need I say more}    Anyway, tonight the main thing that stuck out was that 85% {eighty-five percent} of your child's desire to read is based on the FATHER! If they see their dad reading, they are 85% more likely to pick up a book and read! Interesting eh?

Back to laziness. I wear compression socks for some vericose veins I'm sporting due to being pregnant. I never understood compression socks until I had to put them on. I'm talking 20 minutes with a break to breath is what it takes me. Seriously.  I was too lazy to put them on today. I'm currently paying the price for my laziness. Burning, aching legs folks......not fun.  

So I've up and joined Facebook and I still don't "get it" but it's been highly entertaining on the nights I can't sleep or I'm stuck being silent because I have a sleeping child and I live in a tiny, tiny apartment and the sound of me sneezing causes him to stir.  I have loved reconnecting with faces from the old neighborhood growing up, high school, Cleveland, etc. but the thing I have really loved is learning people's ages!  You know, there's always the person you meet that you KNOW is older than you. Wiser than you. Of course, you never dare ask but she's been married longer, her kids are older than yours, she's just more mature or just has the "look" about her that she's older than you are and then you find out that your the same age or she's younger! Makes me want to instant message my BFF and scream "did you know so and so was born in '81 which makes her 3 years younger than me" Fascinating people. Just fascinating. 

Honey Bunches of Oats with chocolate clusters. Delicious! You should try.

Speaking of trying.  Back to homemade oreo cookies. A few weeks ago my sister-in-law was making them and she wanted to double the recipe {since they are so yummy} but we only had one chocolate cake mix on hand. So, we {I can totally use we because I sat and watched her the entire time} decided to try a different flavor of cake mix. I had strawberry so we used the same recipe just switched things up a bit and put a strawberry cake mix in instead of the called for chocolate. Yummy!  I don't know why I hadn't tried that before. So tonight, I'm totally switching it up and made a batch of lemon. They are going to be delicious, I just know it.

Homemade Oreo's

1 box devils food cake mix

3/4 cup shortening

2 eggs

Roll into balls {or use cookie scoop if you're lazy like me} and bake for 8 minutes. Let cool completely and use cream cheese frosting in the middle of two cookies.

The cookies are now done and cool enough for me to frost. Jared is home from the gym and Jay Leno....I mean the Simpsons.....wait, King of Queens......oh, Jared has the remote,  so my brain is once again rambling.

I shall now go move the stepstool, frost cookies and elevate my burning, achy legs.