Both kids had their parent-teacher conferences this week. John’s actually doing rather well—getting good grades and seems to be well-liked in class, which is a good change from the last school.

Seamus is also doing well, and his teacher had nothing but good things to say about him until the end, when she threw me for a loop. Apparently, during Red Ribbon Week, the teachers encourage the kids to tell them things that are bothering them. I suspect it’s fishing for drug use or abuse at home. When she called Seamus up to talk to her, she said he burst into tears and sobbed for about ten minutes. It seems that John hasn’t been treating Seamus very well lately, and it’s really getting to him.

I know there have been problems; I catch John interrupting him, talking down to him, and just generally being nasty fairly frequently, and I always put the smack down on John when I do. But I had no idea that it was bothering Seamus so much, and I just felt terrible. He’s really a sweet little boy.

I’ll have a talk with John, but for now, I wanted to give Seamus a little bit of a break. I think constantly being with someone who talks to you like that has to be wearing, and at their other house, it’s two big brothers that do it, not just one. So I picked him up yesterday to have a Mom and Seamus day.

We hung around the house and he got to play all of the video games that John usually takes over. We made cookies together, since he loves to cook but it’s really kind of a pain with two kids hanging on me. I let him do most of it, and he was rather pleased with himself.

He likes to run the mixer and dump things in, so I supervised the quantities and let him have at it. He did all of the cookie-placing too, but of course I handled the hot stuff. I’ve never made just a single batch of those cookies, but since we were doing it for the cooking experience rather than the having cookies motive, I made the small amount so they wouldn’t be around begging me to eat them. They’re really very good. They’ve been one of my specialties for almost twenty years, and every time I make them I think of the man who developed the recipe (who worked with my mom.)

Mocha Chip Cookies

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
2 T instant coffee powder
2 T boiling water
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips and cool to room temperature. Mix the instant coffee with the boiling water in a small cup. In a small bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda. In a large bowl, mix the butter, the sugars, and the coffee. Beat until creamy. Add the egg and the melted chocolate. Add the flour mixture gradually. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Cook at 350˚F for 10-12 minutes—take them out while they’re still a little under-done, as these cookies are best chewy.