On Teaching and Believing

Oh man. Mom just told me one of my favorite jr. high school teachers passed away this week.

It's been almost 20 years since I stepped into his office the first time, probably 15 years since I saw him, and I can still hear his laugh.

Mr W, you were an awesome teacher. Every single one of your students recognized that you loved your work. And we all knew you believed in us.

Good teachers don't learn how to teach by taking education classes. They learn to teach because someone first taught them. Thank you for being one of those great teachers in my life. I hope I can pass that lesson along.







Xxoo
Jenni


Image via Tumblr, via inspiring-pictures.com

Summertime Wordless Wednesday

Via Pinterest via http://imstillgonnashine.tumblr.com/

S'mores Cookie Bar Recipe

A little taste of heaven and oh-so easy! Serve them warm and toasty or at room temperature the next day.




Assemblage: no actual baking skills required. I'm pretty fuzzy on legit details. You can't mess these up.

"recipe"

Ingredients:
Sugar cookie mix

About 1 cup or 1.5 cups Graham cracker crumbs

1 or 2 sticks of butter or Parkay, melted (1 if small bag, 2 if large bag of sugar cookie mix)

1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 or 2 jars marshmallow cream (as you desire)

1 or 2 bars of Hershey chocolate

Preheat oven 350

Melt butter/Parkay, mix in sugar cookie and Graham cracker crumbs by hand. Dough will be moist or sandy--either works. If you want crispy treats, add more grahams. If you like gooey treats, add less.

Bake 10-15 minutes, or to desired crispiness. I like my cookie dough bottom to be soft and chewy, so I take out while still soft, but brown. (it will firm up/keep cooking on the counter)

Pour bag of chocolate chips over still-warm cookie. Turn your oven to broil.




Allow to melt, then spread over cookie crust. (PS I lined my baking sheet with parchment)

Then while still warm, apply marshmallow cream. I didn't want a marble effect so I used two jars. :) Once it's pretty evenly spread, place under broiler (or use fancy kitchen torch).




Keep a close eye on this sucker. Take out while golden and perfect. Then for grins, add more chocolate--allow to cool a bit.




These are terribly messy and gooey and lovely. (Here's my mom dishing up a slice--the parchment paper lining is genius.)







A week later and I'm still drooling!

Remember, marshmallow cream has no fat. ;)

Xxoo
Jenni

The Grocer's Children...

I can't find a bag I love. I should be able to make one. Yet here we have a classic case of The Grocer's Children. But this time, it's the bag maker's children.

Except I have no children. Maybe the modern tale would be The Single Lady Who Makes Stuff For Other People But Never For Herself.

Maybe not.




But here's the cute Melody Miller and Joel Dewberry fabrics I picked out. Just in case.

Xxoo
Jenni


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Home, Sweet Home

The bigger the hair, the closer to God. And, lemme tell you, I am soooooooooo close to the Big Guy when I'm home.

I'm literally in West Texas for two seconds and pouf goes my hair. No teasing, no hairspray, no bumpits. Just clean hair, no humidity, and a quick toss back in a bun.

We had a bittersweet Father's Day back on the homestead. It was great to be home again but it was also pretty heartbreaking.

About a month before, Murphy and I took our last road trip home together. We had a great few days together before I had to head back to work, his health deteriorated, and we had to say goodbye.






Even though it was clear to all of us that he didn't feel great, he pushed through and had a great time playing ball, digging all of his favorite toys out of Max's toy box, sitting next to my daddy in their recliner, and keeping watch in the hall by my mom's sewing room. And we can't forget ringing the bells to go outside.

But this weekend there was only Max to ring the bells. Bless his heart, I darn near strangled and smothered my mom's sweet poodle to death because it was just so nice to be around one of my boys again.

I'm still pretty much a mess. I cry just about every day. I'm sure my mom worries about me all the time. But it sure was nice to be home.





I'm pretty sure the Father's Day s'mores cookie bars were a hit with Daddy. And Mother. And me.

Xxoo
Jenni

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