Sprinkle the World

I remember the exact moment my mother entrusted me with making sugar cookies all by myself for the very first time.  I LOVE sugar cookies and I felt thrilled to be considered old enough and wise enough to tackle this on my own. I also felt panicked.  These would be our Christmas sugar cookies and I considered Christmas cookies a very sacred thing--I did not want to be responsible for ruining Christmas cookies.  (I grew up in a home where Christmastime was cookie time; days and days were spent making a delightful plethora of specialty cookies that we only made during the holidays.  I've continued that tradition in my own home.)

Well, the old, old family sugar cookie recipe was so old it called for "lard" as the fat ingredient.  At ten years old, alone in the kitchen, I went looking for lard.  And I found it.  I found it in the form of solidifying bacon fat my mother had saved (probably to cook popcorn in on the stove--yum).  Looked like lard to me. So into the mixing bowl it went--in a tripled recipe.

As the cookies baked (yes, after so carefully rolling and cutting into Christmas shapes) they didn't smell right.  The baker got the first taste and, uh, they didn't taste right.  In fact, ...YUCK!  I couldn't understand what had gone wrong.  My mother couldn't believe I'd used bacon fat and she was sickened over the fact that a tripled recipe of ingredients were going in the garbage can.  But I don't think she ever stored bacon fat near the shortening again.

I write this little memory because I recently read a statement from a fellow homeschooling mother that kind of made me sad.  She was sharing a "fast, easy, no-mess" sugar cookie recipe with the explanation, "I had given up on sugar cookies, despite my life-long love, because of the complete pain in the neck they are. What mother of multiple children also trying to homeschool or undertake any worthy endeavor has time to roll, cut, frost, and clean up after sugar cookies?!?"  What mother does that?  Well, this mother does--I do.  Maybe I'm crazy but, to my way of thinking, a happy home has days where there is flour and frosting on counters and floors and happy children with flour and frosting on tummies and noses.  There is an exciting sense of power and importance a child feels when rolling and cutting dough--something real and of value.  And the sense of accomplishment as a child sits back and looks at his cookie creations!  Even if he's dumped enough sugary confections on his cookies to send a diabetic into shock; even if there is frosting and sprinkles everywhere;  even if it's no longer possible to eat what he's touched, these are works of art and the pleased and accomplished hands and heart deserves these thrilling moments.

I have an ornament hanging in my kitchen that says, "A good mom has sticky floors, dirty ovens, and happy children."  I believe that.  I don't mean to say that moms who don't bake sugar cookies (or let their children participate in baking and decorating sugar cookies) aren't good moms; there are lots of ways to be good moms.  I just want to say that things clean up... and kids grow up.  I'd rather have solidified frosting on my ceiling and colorful sprinkles forever stuck in crevices in chairs over an immaculate house any day so long as the kids are giddy and giggling, loving life and traditions and family.

Maybe I shouldn't say this here... but I'm going to.  I once provided the music for the funeral of a woman I didn't know very well.  As I listened to her loved ones speak of their memories, there was a common theme.  Everyone remembered her staunchly clean house and her immaculate car.  Everything was always so clean.  In fact, this woman kept things so clean that it was hard to take grandchildren to visit.  Not to disparage this woman, but God forbid such a thing be all anyone can remember about me!  There's nothing wrong with keeping a clean house, but when my grandchildren come over, I want them as comfortable and happy as can be, perhaps elbow deep in flour, frosting, and sprinkles!

The world needs more sprinkles (and glitter).  More specifically, the world needs more children who've been covered in sprinkles and glitter.

It's messy.  It's sticky.  Everyone's backsides could be unsuspectingly sprinkled and glittered for days to come when the cleanup from the dining room chairs isn't as thorough as hoped.  But the JOY!

Here is a photo (from a long time ago) when I took all the fixings for sugar cookies on a trip with us and the kids decorated them in a rented condo.  A little clean up for happy children?  It's a good trade investment.