Making Moments Special

My dear friend Sarah once told me that I have a knack for making everyday moments special for my family and those around me. It is a compliment I've held close to my heart and one I use as a check to see if I am still worthy of such generous praise.

With that in mind, I've been trying to think up ways to make doing the books special. To be honest, sometimes when Chris and I sit down to sort through the bills and receipts we can get a little snippy with each other. I'm really logical - to a fault. And Chris is fun and flighty and likes to bop from one thing to another as they pop into his mind. Can you see the possibility for tension?

I thought of mixing drinks (can't because of my meds) going somewhere special ( won't work as we do the books once the kids are in bed), nothing seemed just right. I put a lot of thought into it - we do the books about three times a week - and realized that if I follow my belief that the only person you can change is yourself, then I need to work on my own attitude.

To be honest (again), with all this pain and stress I haven't been feeling much like adding to my plate and going the extra mile. But if our family is going to continue to be really special then I need to continue making things extra-nice.

I found an awesome website called Cookie Madness which has among other things, lots of small batch cookies. Many of the recipes make eight to fourteen cookies. This seemed perfect to me as making three dozen cookies is way beyond my energy level and that volume implies they are for the family as opposed to made especially for my sweetie.

The last two book-keeping nights I've made cookies while Chris tucks in the boys and prays with them. Usually it takes as long to mix them up as it does to boil water and steep a cup of tea. When he gets our files out I can set down a plate of warm made-just-for-him treats and even better, approach the table with a loving attitude cultivated from the last fifteen minutes of focusing on making him feel spoiled.

It's working like a dream. No fights. And as an added bonus, I can tuck the remaining few in his lunch to keep the happy feelings flowing.

I highly recommend you try the molasses cookies. I made them with only 4 TBL of oil and they were pure heaven.