Summer is Winding Down

Park Day, at home
Monday has been our park day on our summer schedule and this week, I selected the park we've spent the most time at and worked the hardest on, home.  The kids enjoyed the unexpected sunny day by playing in the pool and going down the water slide for hours.  They found an old tube my parents used to pull around behind the boat years ago when we had just Jacob.  Freed from its cover, it makes a great four person tube down the slide.  With all that weight on the tube, they go fast and far.  With all that weight at the top of the slide, they cracked a support beam and Dode had to fix it when he got home.  I'm glad they got to play on it on Monday because the forecast for the rest of the week is rain.  There won't be many more days to play before the slide and the pool are put away for next year.

Getting Ready for Disneyland
Yesterday I bought our tickets for Disneyland.  Ares Travel had the best deal I could find on a "5 day for the price of 3" pass.  Even with getting two days free, it will cost us 11 weeks of delivering newspapers (1200 papers a week at 10 cents each) to just pay for our admission (that is 13,200 news papers).  Ouch!  With our lodging it's another 11 weeks of papers.  Then, the gas, food, etc. are even more weeks of papers.  It's tough to contemplate how many papers had to be wrapped and delivered to make our trip happen.  We've actually been working towards this trip for three years.  At first, the newspaper money went into the "general fund" and just kept disappearing.  Dode suggested we open an account at a different bank for the vacation fund.  Once we did that, the money started accumulating much faster. 

Sometimes I feel like I'm just a kid inside an adult body pretending to be a grown up.  I imagine something big and difficult, plan a way to accomplish it, and when I see it come together I still have to stand back a little in awe that it really worked.  It happens with day camp each year when I see the program run smoothly.  It happens when nearly 100 happy people pick up their produce each week.  It happens when I catch Isaac staying up too late reading when it was so difficult to teach him to read.  It happens when the bills get paid, the cupboards are full, and the children are dressed, taken care of, and happy.  Now, it's happened with the paper route and Disneyland.  We pulling it off!  And it leaves me to wonder, will I ever feel like a true grown up?


Peanut Butter Cookies

 We think these are the best peanut butter cookies.  They aren't as dense as most.  I had to make them (smiles) because I had some chocolate ganache left over from some mint brownies I made the other day.  (I made the brownies because I had some frosting left over from a cake last week.  I didn't want to waste the frosting so I decided mint brownies sounded good.  I added peppermint extract and green food coloring to the frosting and topped the brownies with it, then with ganache.  They were great!)  I couldn't bear to let the ganache go to waste so I made cookies to put ganache on.  It's great to be thrifty!  This makes a lot of cookies.  I just make up a dozen at a time and put the rest of the dough in the refrigerator or freezer.  Then, we can have fresh cookies easily!

1 pound unsalted butter, softened
2 cups creamy peanut butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp. vanilla
6 cups all  purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
white sugar
milk chocolate, or semi-sweet, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream butter and peanut butter with sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Add flour, baking powder and salt.  Scoop golf ball sized pieces of dough, roll in sugar and place on cookie sheet.  Flatten gently with fingers.  Bake until golden brown.  Immediately after removing from oven, place a small piece of  chocolate on each cookie.  Allow to melt for a few minutes, then spread with a knife.  Cool completely, or enjoy a messy cookie while still warm.