{"id":198,"date":"2012-09-12T05:30:53","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T10:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/?p=198"},"modified":"2012-09-11T18:36:24","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T23:36:24","slug":"how-to-be-a-milk-hot-cookies-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/2012\/09\/12\/how-to-be-a-milk-hot-cookies-mom\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be a Milk-&-Hot-Cookies Mom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it: being a mom takes a lot of work. Being a great mom takes even more. Or so we think\u2026<\/p>\n

What if being a great mom wasn\u2019t so tough after all? I think sometimes we make it harder on ourselves by creating this image in our minds of the perfect mom. And then we beat ourselves up for not matching it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Enough already! It\u2019s time to go gentler on our selves. And it\u2019s time to embrace those life hacks that allow us to pull off some \u201cgreat mom\u201d moments without a lot of fuss. Because we all know there are enough \u201cbad mom moments\u201d in all of our lives that we could use a few great ones to even out the score (since we all know we\u2019re counting, even if our kids aren\u2019t).<\/p>\n

Want to welcome your kids home from school with a glass of milk and some fresh hot cookies? Yeah, right. Who\u2019s got the time for that?<\/em> you\u2019re thinking. You do, when you keep the end in sight and not the means.<\/p>\n

Last week I snatched my opportunity to be that mom. My eldest daughter had mixed up some chocolate chip cookie dough over the weekend (we won\u2019t talk about what I was letting everyone do with that batter as it sat in our fridge for the next couple of days, but let\u2019s just say it involved a spoon and the risk of salmonella. What can I say? I\u2019m a sucker for chocolate chip cookie dough). My girls happened to have staggered return times due to different school schedules and after school activities. So a few minutes before each one returned home I popped a couple of spoonfuls of cookie dough into our toaster oven, set it to bake, and voila! Fresh baked cookies and milk for an after school snack.<\/p>\n

As each girl munched on warm cookies, I chose that moment to sit with her and catch up on her day. We chatted briefly and then each went on to do their homework.<\/p>\n

All told I spent about a half hour in the kitchen that afternoon. The cost to me was minimal, but the return in terms of relationship building (and points for \u201cmom-of-the-year\u201d) was priceless.<\/p>\n

You can do this too. During down time, whether mid day, in the evening, or on the weekend, mix up some cookie dough. Then refrigerate a portion (hide in the back of the fridge if you don\u2019t want it eaten raw) and roll the rest up on plastic wrap, tuck in a storage bag and store in your freezer for the future. Then pick an afternoon to bake up individual portions in your toaster oven (or conventional oven). Serve to an eager child just after school gets out. And enjoy your moment as the dream mom! Who knew it could be so easy?<\/p>\n

Have any other life hacks for moms you\u2019d like to share? Tell us about them in the comments (we could all use more \u201cgreat mom moments\u201d).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it: being a mom takes a lot of work. Being a great mom takes even more. Or so we think\u2026 What if being a great mom wasn\u2019t so tough after all? I think sometimes we make it harder on ourselves by creating this image in our minds of the perfect mom. And then…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,32,21],"tags":[27,34,9,17,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-life-hacks","7":"category-parenting","8":"category-time","9":"tag-children","10":"tag-good-food","11":"tag-love","12":"tag-motherhood","13":"tag-time-2","14":"entry","15":"has-post-thumbnail"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Lara Krupicka","author_link":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/author\/laraadmin\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe5GGb-3c","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larakrupicka.com\/staging\/6885\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}