A promise is a promise. And, if all else fails, I am not above bribery to motivate my kids. So I spent a few hours in the kitchen last night making Cyclops cookies - those melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss pressed in the center (hence the name "Cyclops, of course.) They are our family's favorite (except for Kendall, who is unfortunately allergic to peanut butter and has to stay on the far side of the house when I make them, poor girl. I usually make chocolate chip cookies at the same time so she has her own warm homemade cookies, but she's getting more health and weight conscious, so I was forbidden.)
Anyway...they are Daniel's favorite. To motivate him to get at least a "B" in Calculus at the University of Texas this past semester (we won't talk about his calculus grade the first semester), I promised him Cyclops cookies. He did it - he got a "B" - so I had to follow through on my promise.
It's not that I don't love Cyclops cookies. I do - but, at the risk of bragging, I make the absolute world's best Cyclops cookies. My mother-in-law told me so.
Every Christmas she made tons of cookies and fudge. She packed them in coffee cans and sent them to all of her sons who didn't live at home (she had nine total!) What a treat that first Christmas after I met Tom -that's when I had my first Cyclops cookie. The next Christmas Tom and I both really looked forward to the package, but it didn't come! Tom called his mom, to let her know it must have gotten lost in the mail.
"Oh, I only send them to unmarried sons. You've got a wife to take care of you, now."
Tom and I were both worried. We wanted our Cyclops cookies and fudge. Graciously, she shared her recipes with me. A few years later, I modified the Cyclops cookie recipe with my sister-in-law Haila's, and it became a work of taste-bud art. It's impossible to eat just one, or even just two or three. My mother-in-law passed the Queen of the Cookies crown to me.
That's the main reason I procrastinated. I knew I wouldn't be able to pass them up. Yes, peanut butter is good for you, but there's no way these can ever be classified as healthy.
The other reason I put off making them is that it takes a big chunk of unmulti-tasked time, of which I have very little. But a promise is a promise, and Daniel had been very patient. I needed to follow through so I'd have something to dangle in front of him next semester if necessary.
So I made dozens and dozens of them. Daniel helped, peeling the paper off of the Hershey's kisses and setting them in place on the warm cookies. And then he'd eat a handful. Tom would pass through and eat a handful. And I would test one or two off of every batch as they came out of the oven.
Kendall stayed safely across the room. I forbid her boyfriend from eating any, for fear he'd kiss her afterward - lethally. But I stashed some in a container for him to eat on his way home.
By bedtime, we all had stomachaches (except Kendall.) There are still a few cookies left, but I had enough last night to hold me until Daniel's October birthday. And Christmas. And Daniel's grade report for next semester. For our cholesterol levels' sake, I think I better raise the bar to "A"s.
