Chocolate Peanut Butter Creme Cookies for Mikey

Last week, a fellow food blogger unexpectedly lost her husband.  I didn’t even know Jennie before then, but as the news traveled, I found myself watching this video through tears.

I cried for this total stranger, living through something I could not even imagine, wishing with all my heart I could turn back time and undo this for her and her family.

I thought about Jennie throughout the week, and cried some more as I watched blogger after blogger honor Jennie’s wish of making a peanut butter pie for Mikey.

I thought about doing it myself, but as I looked at my growing to-do list I decided it just wasn’t in the cards.  So, I tucked it away, planned out my upcoming week, and got to work on all of the projects I had planned. Then, without warning, my blog crashed. 

Seriously, in the scheme of things, this is not a big deal.  It happens.  But, when it happens to you, and your only concern is your weekly schedule, it can be kind of stressful.

I bugged my web host {who in all honesty was probably ten times as stressed as I was} and I may have even pouted a little, then I got a wake up call.  One of my long time internet buddies, a breast cancer survivor, informed me that she might have cancer again.  I felt like an ass.  I completely self-centered, immature ass.

Sorry about the word, but there’s no other way to say it.  How dare I pout over a blog when there were people like Jennie and my friend were carrying burdens far greater than any I could ever imagine.

Suddenly, my week opened up.  Instead of 150 things to do, I had nothing but time.  And instead of looking at it as a setback, I tried to see the good. 

It’s absolutely amazing how perception can change your outlook.  Instead of crying over a broken blog, I was suddenly grateful for an unexpected lazy week.  Free time to prepare for my little boy’s birthday this coming Friday, and a moment to BREATHE before school begins again next week.

It was then I decided that even though I was a week late, it was time for me to honor Jennie’s wish.

I’ve never had a lot of luck with pies or cakes, so of course I did it my way.

So here they are.  Chocolate peanut butter creme cookies, for Mikey.

 

For the cookies, I used Bridget’s chocolate cut out cookies {more on that later}

 

  and  filled them with peanut butter creme.

I tinkered with Martha’s recipe a little to come up with a version I liked:

 

See my nails, nibbled down to nubs?

 

It seems kinda silly now that I worried so much over something that allowed me to spend my day like this, with each one of my precious loves…

Playing in the water a few last times…

and eating popsicles and cookies that weren’t “for something”.

Aren’t they silly…

 

I love them more than words can express, and I am so very thankful for normal, no matter how chaotic it may be.

I’m actually thankful for a lot of things.

I am thankful that the autoimmune conditions that irritate me on a daily basis won’t kill me.

I am thankful for a husband who is willing to work his butt off, so I can stay home with our kids.

I am thankful for parents, brothers, aunts, cousins  and friends who’d do anything for me.

I am thankful that our house is hard to clean because it has enough room for all of my projects.

I am thankful I am overweight because I never go to bed hungry.

I am thankful that I live in a time where the Internet allows me to make new friends, and remain close to my best friends, who live very far away.

I am thankful, and I hope you can find a reason to be thankful too.

 

To Jennie and your family, my heartfelt condolences.  You are in my prayers.