Sugar Cookies

"Who are those for?" Summerlyn asked me as I dropped a bag of sugar cookie mix into the cart.

"They're for Erica" I replied.

"Erica who?"

"Erica Holmes from church"
"Not Erica, Anna's mom.."

"From church?...no...it's Erica from church...little O's Mom"

"Oh...OoooOhhhhhhhhh!" Summerlyn replied, "why are we making sugar cookies for Erica?"

"Because she's had a rough month or so and we're going to do something nice for her."

"Sugar cookies? Mom! Why sugar cookies?"

"BECAUSE she ASKED for them!"...I answered her impatiently.

I had emailed Erica (one of my MOPS sisters), and asked her what her favorite dessert was. Since her dinner schedule was full, and she said that she was okay on food, I told her I would make dessert and bring it to her on Sunday. Erica had told me that brownies (made from Martha White brand brownie mix, found ONLY at Food City) were her absolute favorite, but that she also loves sugar cookies.
Thus the bag of sugar cookie mix in our cart.

My 10 year old strong-willed daughter, Summerlyn, thinks Erica is "cool", and always looks for her when we're loading up after worship on Sundays. So Summerlyn decided that SHE wanted to bake the cookies for Erica. No problem! Summerlyn really enjoys cooking and baking.
So here we go on Saturday night (after we put the cookie monsters to bed), making sugar cookies for my MOPS sister. Summerlyn baked them and we put them on a darling little Beatrix Potter plate, wrap them in tissue papers and tie them up with matching ribbon.
Summerlyn was ALL excited about taking those cookies to Erica the next morning!
We arrived at church about 8:05am and hurried to Erica's small group class. After greeting another one of my precious MOPS sisters, Lori, I told Summerlyn to stand outside the class to wait for Erica and if she didn't come within a reasonable amount of time, to come on by my class and drop off the cookies on her way to her class.
15-20 minutes into our discussion about our strong-willed children, Summerlyn drops off the cookies. At that point, I knew Erica didn't make it to church, and I started formulating a plan in my huge brain.
We would EAT those cookies!
Only after showing them off to a few more MOPS sisters (Missy!), so they could bear witness to my child's hard work on the pretty little package.

ONLY because we're not allowed to eat in the Ex, we waited until we got home (with a box of BOJANGLES chicken...simply THE BEST CHICKEN ON THE PLANET!), ate our lunch and then put our plan into motion...
Chomp, chomp, chomp! Puts a whole new perspective on the "thought that counts"...
Check it out! So while my MOPS sister was at home laying in the bed (rumor has it...from a hard night partying), she missed out on Summerlyn's sugar cookies.
Never mind that my precious MOPS sister has endured such heartbreak this month, physical pain and emergency room rushes multiple times (I swear they have an emergency room bed with her name on it!)!!!!! Does that mean that she couldn't get out of bed to come to church and receive Summerlyn's sweet gift of sugar cookies (and a whole lot of Jesus in the process???!!!!)??
Okay...in all honesty, she DID need the rest.

And her husband brought little O to church while she rested.

That counts for something...a blessing, I'd say.

So what about the effort behind those cookies?

Really...what's a little effort behind

the value of blessing someone else's heart?

What about how much it

blessed God's heart for Summerlyn to do that?

And Lord knows, it blessed my thighs for Erica to stay home. Thanks a LOT, Erica.

Erica is our MOPS at Grace social leader. She plans our Playdates and Mother's Night Out socials, as well as creating a fabulous newsletter each month. Maybe this month, she'll put in a recipe for sugar cookies. Maybe someone will make them for our November meeting.

If they do, I'm not eating any of them.
Erica's sugar cookies already put their 2 cents on my hips...more like $2...

It's okay, daaaaaarling. We're still sweet on you!