so you had a bad day...

...or week...or whatever.

For some reason I was super emotional last week.  I cried almost every day.  I didn't feel like cleaning (well, fine, I never feel like cleaning, but it was worse than usual), I made pathetic meals, I didn't go on walks or take Jane to the park.  I don't know what was going on!  Luckily it has passed, but I thought I'd share one story from my week.

Before I tell the story, I just want to include one little fact:  I don't bake cookies.  If you have ever had cookies I "made", they were from store-bought dough.  Over the years the few times I have attempted cookies from scratch have been unsuccessful, so I gave up.  I'm not sure when I last attempted cookies, but I think it was on my mission.

Anyway, back to last week...
I was bored, emotional, and unmotivated.  The only thing I was looking forward to was our Relief Society dinner on Wednesday.  Caleb had agreed to watch Jane so I could enjoy the night without worrying over her.  This may sound a little pathetic, but I crave social interaction, and I was really looking forward to a night out with the ladies.  I even signed up to bring a salad.

Interestingly enough, we had not one, but two dinner invitations that night.  It totally bummed me out that we had to say no, but as I already said, I was excited to go to the Relief Society dinner and I had committed to that salad.

By 6:30 pm, my salad was in the fridge, Caleb and Jane were finishing up their dinner (with exactly enough for just the two of them--no leftovers, no hassle!), I had changed my clothes, and had my makeup on.  As I waited a few more minutes--I didn't want to get there too early--I decided to check the flyer again and make sure I had the time right.  Yep, 7:00 pm.  Unfortunately, it was the date I had wrong.  The dinner wasn't until the next day.  I (of course) started crying and then, realizing how hungry I was, started to scavenge something for my own lonely dinner.  The best I could find was a $1 microwave meal that had been sitting in our freezer for months.

Let me just insert a small reminder here that we had declined two dinner invitations.  OUCH.

I was feeling so forlorn (and hungry!) that I worked up the courage to attempt baking some cookies using minty chips my mom had bought me in December.

I was nervous about how they would turn out, especially since it wasn't your typical chocolate chip cookie.  But oh! what a beautiful, blissful moment when I took my first bite!  The bitterness of my day was washed away in gooey, minty, chocolate deliciousness.  The closest thing I can relate it to is how I felt when I finally decided to have an epidural after 18 hours of labor:  very happy.

I highly recommend them to any of you who like mint and chocolate, and unlike the epidural, your legs won't go numb.

Caleb's and Jane's dinner:

my salad before it sat in the fridge for a day:

my dinner:

mint chip salve for the soul:

(You can get the recipe here, if you're interested.  And you should be interested.)