Whether you are an early bird or a night owl, there is one thing we can all agree on – a rush in the morning to get to school and work is almost always guaranteed to get a person off to a bad start. Last night I wrapped everything up at around half past midnight, but I still had clothes in the washer and I hadn’t put myself together (I like to do some preening pre-bedtime as it usually saves time in the morning). Without my husband’s nudges this morning, I would not have been able to drag myself out of bed before 7. Thanks to this, my morning and even my whole work day just went that much more smoothly.

However, rush is inevitable when you have 5 kids, a job, and multiple extracurriculars. I want to make sure I got my Christmas recipe done for today, and since today was the cookie exchange at my local MOMs group, I figured the best option was to bake some bars between 4pm when I got off work and 6pm when the cookie exchange started so I could bring some. Never rush baking! Actually, it wasn’t so bad. I did misread 1/3 as 1/2, so there was a bit more peanut butter than necessary, but otherwise the recipe came out as expected. Only a few problems came up: 1) I was so focused on getting the recipe done that I forgot to take pictures of the individual steps, 2) my patience with my kids grew rather thin, and 3) the bars hadn’t had time to cool properly before I cut them up in preparation for the cookie exchange. Not really huge problems, but annoying. Sadly I will not be redoing the cookies just so I can take pictures of the various steps.

When it comes to kids and patience the best course of action for me is to try and give them jobs. The more they feel like they are helping, the less likely they are to try and commandeer your project. My kids got the jobs of spoon licker and bowl scraper! In all seriousness, I was running through the recipe so fast, I didn’t really give them a chance to help. Which makes me sad, since I still didn’t get the bars done soon enough to cool completely before I left for MOMs group. It’s like speeding to work only to clock in late anyway.

I’m glad I got the cookies done, though, one more thing to check off my imaginary to-do list.

Anyways…today I made something called Babe Ruth bars. The recipe comes from the same cookbook as yesterday, “Many Gifts, One Spirit: Memories and Recipes”. Another recipe that I have never tried before. It came out good, despite the fact that I added 1/2 cup of peanut butter instead of the 1/3 cup that the recipe actually called for.

I took half the pan to the MOMs group cookie exchange, along with two dozen of yesterday’s pfeffernusse, and came back with an empty container and a plate full of a delicious assortment of other cookies. I also won a spoon holder during the Christmas games, which seems very appropriate for my mission this month!

Babe Ruth Bars

1/2 C butter

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/3 C peanut butter

1 C flour

Dash of salt

1/2 tsp [baking] soda

1 C oatmeal

1 C milk chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, egg, peanut butter and vanilla. Add flour, salt, soda and oatmeal. Pat in 9×13 pan (greased) and bake for 25 minutes at 350F. *DO NOT OVERBAKE.* Remove from oven and pour milk chocolate chips over top. Return to oven for a few minutes until melted and spread over cookies.

Thank you coming along on my journey!