No, Cottage Grove does not sit on a slant, our family just appears to hold our signs on an angle. Oh well, at least this demonstrates my family’s impressive patience, while posing for my family photo concepts. All except for Kirby the Beagle, who cannot wait to bolt away from picture time. #IOweThemAllOne #ExceptTheDog
You can tell that the Paulsen boys are beginning to feel at home in, well, their new home. How can I tell? Misplaced socks. #WoundNotHaveItAnyOtherWay
8-year-old Sam’s socks beginning to feel comfy in the basement.
Actual chatter from the movers intercepted earlier today, plus an exclusive photo of the call being placed. “Send reinforcements! The Paulsen family has far more boxes than we ever anticipated!”
The time came to pass, when a lovely family was told that they must leave the land they called home. Yes, they were being cast into the wilderness. A long and tediously slow wilderness referred to as State Highway 7. Never fear, they would be delivered to the Promised Land, a.k.a. a lovely place populated by cottages and situated within a peaceful grove. Rumor has it that this new land also features an awesome double oven, a Promised Land if there ever was one, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
First the family would need to embark on their Exodus. They had no time to get ready (actually they had eight long months, but never mind that superfluous detail) and since the movers had packed all of their useful household items, the father needed to unwind with a glass of leftover white wine drank from an old plastic cup, while enjoying a random Hershey’s chocolate bar that he found buried within the depths of the now sparsely populated fridge. Yes, these were challenging times. Times when cookies had no time to bake. Times when ingredients were hard to find.
Never fear for those who stay the course and remain loyal to cookie baking will see their needs met and the father was rewarded with a recipe suited for these challenging times.
Harnessing the flavor of Maple and Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal, these No Bake Cookies will provide you with the energy you need to survive life’s Exoduses and see that you arrive at your own personal Promised Land. Enjoy your new found freedom! Enjoy these tasty cookies!
An Exodus No Bake Cookie placed before the moving boxes.
EXODUS NO BAKE COOKIES
#MosesApproved #DontPassTheseOver
1 cup Sugar
½ cup Brown Sugar
½ cup Milk
½ cup Butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 cups Maple and Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal
In a sauce pan, mix together the sugar, brown sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla extract.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Continue boiling the sugar mixture for 90 seconds, while stirring occasionally.
Pour oatmeal into a bowl and then pour the cooked sugar mixture on top.
Stir to completely mix the contents.
Place Tablespoon sized balls of dough onto parchment paper lined baking sheets.
Freeze until set.
Makes about 30 cookies.
Revised Source: “Instant Oatmeal No-Bakes” recipe on www.justapinch.com.
I hope you saved some room in the moving truck for one fluorescent father.
Thank you Willmar for one last snow and one final snowman. Good news, I hear Cottage Grove has plenty of snow, too.
Home is where the snow is.
During our lives, Charlene and I have been blessed to have many treasured church homes. Places full of our friends, our treasured brothers and sisters in Christ. Places that accepted us as family and helped make our new communities more than just a place, but our home.
Yesterday, as we prepared for our move to Cottage Grove, we said goodbye to a blessed place. Our church home for the last four years, Bethel Lutheran in downtown Willmar, Minnesota. More than being just friends, our Bethel family served as confidants and cheerleaders. They were there to celebrate our successes, supported us in so many ways during our trials, and were our voice when we had none. They shaped us into better people and helped us grow in Christ. They also selflessly tried my weekly cookie experiments and provided oh so many treats, both food and spiritual nourishment, in return. They cared for our children as their own, serving as mentors, teachers, and friends. In so many ways, they have shown us how to live as Christ in the world. Caring and loving, while fearlessly saying what needs to be said and bravely doing what needs to be done.
Earlier today, I asked my boys if they wanted to attend one final choir practice at church. I was not sure what answer to expect. After all, they had said their goodbyes, they would no longer be singing at church, and they were immersed in post-school tablets and Netflix. With no hesitation, however, 6-year-old Ben provided his enthusiastic response, “I want to go to choir!” My boy wanted to be with his church family. His friends. Those he loves. Ben expressed in that moment how my whole family feels. A boundless love and appreciation for our friends here in Willmar. Those who have made this a special and dear place that will forever remain in our hearts. To borrow from the Apostle Paul, in one of yesterday’s Bible verses (1 Thessalonians 3:9), “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you?”
The word Bethel means “holy place” and yesterday, in the smiles of our friends and the hugs of goodbye, I was once again reminded of how no place has ever had such a fitting name. My friends, it is with great love and admiration that I say “thank you.” You carried us through the hard times and sent us forth into our future with love. Even though we will no longer be sitting in “our space” in the fourth pew on the left every Sunday at 8:15 AM, our hearts will remain with you forever.
PEACHES AND CREAM COOKIES
“Cleaning the pantry and what to do with all those random packets of instant oatmeal? Well, fear not. I have the answer, ‘Peaches and Cream Cookies.’ Really, it could be any flavor, but I am fond of the Peaches and Cream variety, so that’s what I transformed into cookies this week. This cookie is very much a traditional oatmeal cookie, but with a subtle Peaches and Cream flavor. It’s a yummy addition to your cookie jar that would fit in well at your breakfast table. Enjoy!”
½ cup Butter
¼ cup Sugar
½ cup Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Milk
1 Egg
6 packets of Peaches and Cream flavored instant oatmeal
1 cup Flour
½ teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar.
Mix in the milk and egg.
Mix in the instant oatmeal packets.
Mix in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
Drop Tablespoon size balls of dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies have lightly browned.
Makes about 32 cookies.
Revised Source: “Instant Oatmeal Packet Cookies” recipe on www.moderndaymoms.com.
When a man’s swagger is nearing its end, it must be time to leave town. #HowToReadTheSigns #ItTakesABraveManToAdmitHisLackOfSwagger
Venturing out on Black Friday, I was wandering the aisles of Target. Approaching the “Star Wars” toy aisle, I heard a woman say to a friend in a smug and off putting voice, “I need a geek.” Yes, she was looking at the overwhelming selection of Star Wars merchandise, of which our family either owns half or soon will by the end of the Holiday season. She had no clue. No clue what to purchase. No clue that she had just slighted a man with three young boys, near the aisle. A man, who was once a boy, a boy who happened to be 4-years-old, when Star Wars was first released. A man, who knows enough about Star Wars to answer any of her questions. Yes, I was a New Hope. I can sound like Chewbacca with the best of them. Yep, I know my way around Kashyyyk. I used to bull’s-eye womp rats in my T-16 back home. I could prepare the Death Star to fire upon orders from Grand Moff Tarkin. I am a geek. A Star Wars geek, but a geek with standards. I would not be demeaned. I would not be slighted. I would maintain my pride.
I kept walking. An opening victory in “Star Wars: Revenge of the Nerds.” And to all of my fellow Star Wars geeks out there, “May the Force be with you.” Black Friday and every day.