Random Gifts of Cookies

One of my daughters recently had a birthday that fell on the same day as one of her volleyball games.  I made cookies for her so that she could hand them out to her friends after the game; however, in the rush of everyone wanting to leave after the game (it was an "away" game, and the hour had gotten late), the passing out of the cookies never happened.  So we brought home the cute little packages of cookies:

Another daughter placed them all in one of my red mixing bowls so that we would have a place to keep them until they were eaten.

I found that having the cookies pre-wrapped as little gifts was actually a wonderful thing to have around the house.  So many instances came up where a random gift of a little cute bag of cookies was the perfect thing to give someone to brighten their day. 

I had found these little plastic food container bags in the Wilton baking section of I think WalMart.  I don't know exactly how many came in the package, but there was a very generous supply.  Combined with two cookies to a bag (I used the Originial Tollhouse Chocolate Chip cookie recipe), and some cute ribbon that we just happened to have, they were so easy to put together. 

I think I will be laying in a supply of these little cookie bags, and make it a now and then habit of making cookies for the sole purpose of passing them out to others just to see them smile.

Dishcloths

This time of year I find myself with bits and pieces of down time while watching volleyball games, sitting at the orthodontist's office, or even waiting for my daughter to finish one school subject so we can begin another.  During those moments, I enjoy working on a quick and easy knitting or crochet project.  It is sometimes amazing at how much can be accomplished when you only work on it 2 minutes here, or 4 minutes there.  Dishcloths are one of my favorite little projects to work on because they don't take much time, and before you know it, you have a cute little pile of functional items either to give as gifts or to replenish your own supply.  There are a wide variety of free patterns all over the internet.  I'm not sure exactly where I found this pattern, but it is one of my favorites.

Volleyball and Apples

Volleyball season has begun at our house.  This will be the second year that my youngest daughter has played, and she really loves the game.  She works hard at her practices; and in her down time at home, she loves to work on her serves out in the back yard.  And it just so happens that I have a small apple tree in this very same back yard.  My neighbors gave it to me several years ago, and it has never produced any apples.  However, this past spring I counted 25 blossoms on it which gave me great hope that it might bear fruit this year.  When the blossoms withered away, we counted three apples on it.  But one day during serving practice, the volleyball headed directly toward my apple tree, and promptly knocked off two little apples.  I think this was such a fluke that even if I had told my daughter to aim for those little tiny apples, she never would have hit them.  But in the big scope of things, I would never have traded seeing my daughter out working hard at improving a skill and enjoying herself for those apples.  Besides, I still have one left on the tree, and now I know that it actually can bring forth apples ----- maybe next year.