We’re not even half way through summer vacation and I’ve heard the words “I’m bored” so many times already.
We go to the library every week and get books. We go walking in the park. We do crafts. And we still have our vacation to take in 2 weeks.
But they can’t help it. So a few years ago, I started the kids on a summer writing project. I’d give them a subject and they had to write. I was looking through their journals the other day and I came across one of my favorite stories from the kids. All spelling, grammar and punctuation errors are intentional.
Child 1.
If I was a sqairl I would climb a lot with other sqarls. I would race each other up trees. I would run a way from cats when they chase me. I would run into the woods with the other sqairls. The End.
Child 2.
A day in the life of a squirle
One morning I woke up in a tree. I looked like a squirle. I was so fusy. Then I went to looke for some food. I found pecans, peanuts, walnuts and acorns and saved the rest for later.
Then I went off to explore I found nuts, berries and more trees. The just when I was about to head home I found a house with the smell of pie coming out of it so I went to the window but before I could make it I saw a cat. It pounced and caught my tail. Eventually I could see no more. The end.
Child 3.
As the sun rose, and the birds sang. Chatter the squirrel the squirrel woke up. As he got up and yawned he went ans got three acorns from the pile for breakfast.
As he munched on his breakfast his best friend Wackel popped up. “Hey Wackel” I said through a mouthful of acorns. “Hey Chatter!” Wackel said energetically. “wanna go outside and play tag with Frunk?” “yeah sure” I said.
As I ran by him I said “your it!” And tagged him playfully. As I ran to find Frunk I saw one of the orange tabby cats. I yelled to Frunk and Wackel “let’s play with the tabby!” As we grabbed some vines the orange tabby was walking to the porch.
Wackel threw an acorn at the tabby and hit him right on hiss butt. He jumped up and squealed in pain. He started running straight toward Wackel. Just before he got to Wackel, Wackel jumped up and pulled the vine and bounced upward.
The confused cat ran straight into the fence. We all burst into laughter at the foolishness of the cat. As it slid away in defeat we all jeering at it. “What’s the matter cat, dog got your tail?” All the sudden we found ourselves in the dark. “Darn, I can’t see anymore, well I guess it’s bedtime, Night guys!” As I went to my tree I thought how fun a day it was. The end.
Kids just don’t write anymore, not creative writing. I’m glad I have my kids do this every now and then. It doesn’t matter that the grammar and punctuation may be terrible or that they spelled words wrong.
Heck, before spell check most of us had spelling errors and just didn’t realize it. They took some time and used their imaginations to create a story.
And someday, when they have kids of their own, I’ll give them these journals so they can pass on something personal, not a computer printed paper written for school but a handwritten, book of thoughts and stories.
So Grace and I made these cookies for her Bake Sale and they were a huge hit, in fact they’ve been requested again so I’ll keep them in the rotation.
Lemon Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks)
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 5 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 cup decorating sugar (granulated sugar can be used)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
- Using a pastry blender, blend in butter till mixture looks like coarse sand.
- With a hand mixer blend in eggs, zest and lemon juice. Mixture will look crumbly but when mushed between your fingers will stick together.
- Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Roll dough balls in decorating sugar and place on greased or parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes, just till you see the slightest color around edges. Remove from oven and let rest on cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing to racks to cool completely.
Lemon Sugar Cookies
adapted from Domino Sugar
makes 5 dozen cookies
I’m linking up at some of these great parties!
Jamie @ Love Bakes Good Cakes says
June 25, 2012 at 8:54 pmI can’t wait to try these, Joan! Lemon is such a summery flavor.
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust says
June 26, 2012 at 1:31 amI love that writing idea. I will have to use it with Jordan. She could use the practice! And these cookies. Man, I’m craving lemon something fierce.
Jaime says
June 26, 2012 at 1:53 amOh those stories are so cute! And what gorgeous cookies! Lemon is my favourite fruit to bake with, the kitchen always smells amazing when there’s lemon in something in the oven.
The Squishy Monster says
June 26, 2012 at 4:54 amI think you’ve convinced me to always add lemon to my sugar cookies from now on!! =D
Anonymous says
June 26, 2012 at 7:13 pmI loved the kids stories! I still have some of my sons papers, and they are grown up, married and have their own children.
The cookies look really good.
Steve niklas says
June 27, 2012 at 12:35 pmnice blog checkout mine on
http://www.onjokes.blogspot.com
feel free to leave a comment
Rachel says
June 29, 2012 at 2:06 pmThese look yummy! I love lemon. Thanks for sharing at Terrific Tuesdays.
Rachel
adventuresofadiymom.blogspot.com
Bobbi says
June 29, 2012 at 10:39 pmThank you so much for sharing these on Manic Monday (sorry I am slow took some time off this week) I am pinning these so I can give them a try!!! <3
Jocelyn says
July 2, 2012 at 8:07 pmWhat a great idea to keep them thinking through the summer vacation. I have heard “I’m bored” way too many times already too!!! The lemon cookies look delicious!!! I’m loving the lemon sugar too:-)
Debra Kapellakis says
July 5, 2012 at 2:24 pmWonderful stories and a yummy recipe!
Inka says
July 9, 2012 at 5:14 pmcookies looks so delicious! Greetings from my kitchen!
Marlys Folly says
July 22, 2012 at 9:07 amthis look delicious. I made some lemon-lime sugar cookies that were wonderful.. Now to try them with just lemon. Love and anything lemon. New follower through linky follower
marlys-thisandthat.blogspot.com
Herb extract says
July 28, 2012 at 2:16 amThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jena Jessup says
August 29, 2012 at 5:46 pmthanks you very much for the recipe! Will try it :))))
Anonymous says
January 3, 2013 at 9:08 pmI just made these, but with oil instead of butter and they were awful. So, if you’re wanting to make these cookies a little healthier, don’t bother! We couldn’t form cookie shapes,so I baked them like bars, but they weren’t so good. I am going to try it again with butter though!
Joan Hayes says
January 4, 2013 at 3:46 amI’m so sorry your cookies didn’t turn out. The concept of this dough is like a pie crust, working the cold butter into the flour so oil definitely wouldn’t work, you could possibly try half shortening, half butter but I don’t know how that would work. I do know you can use margarine instead of butter if that helps.
Colleen says
May 10, 2013 at 2:00 pmYou have some creative writers there! I love the squoral stories!
Joan Hayes says
May 10, 2013 at 3:48 pmThanks Colleen!