Real Conversation

My dad shared a sweet story with us.   He said about 3:00 Mom started talking.  Most of the time when this happens she cannot make herself understood. Either she can't finish the sentence or she uses gibberish.  Today however, she started with something that couldn't be understood and then said, "No. that isn't what I mean." And she started again.  This time she got it all out and Dad could answer her.  They had actual two way conversation.  The sweetest though was when Dad told her that he comes there everyday to help her however he can and she said, "And you'll never know how much I appreciate it."  Staff came in and she was able to converse with them as well while smiling and looking happy.  At some point Dad asked her if she knew who he was and she said yes.  He asked her if she could say his name.   She said, "You are the man that...." and then gibberish filled in.  So she couldn't say his name.  I don't know if that means she really didn't know or if she just couldn't get her brain to say it but her ability to fully communicate was gone again.  After a while she stopped talking and just stared at him.  When she does that I can't decide if she is just empty headed at the moment or if she knows she should know him but can't figure out how. Anyway, it was a sweet time for them to be able to have a real conversation.  On the rare occasions that something like this happens it is almost as if you get the real Inga back just for a little while.  And it is a moment to be savored.

Easy Lemon Cookies

Okay, I guess I'm on a lemon recipe roll.  I was looking for a simple dessert to serve our dinner guests tonight and found this recipe on line that I thought I'd try out.  I won't rave about them quite as much as the Lemon Blueberry Muffin recipe because it is still tops in my taste buds but it made a good cookie and it was super simple with only 5 ingredients.  (Do you count a cake mix as only one ingredient cuz really it has more than one.  But since it is only one thing to open and pour in, I'm counting it as one.)  

Easy Lemon Cookies
from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Roll them around until they're lightly covered. Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy. 
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5. Okay for some reason every time I try to move to another paragraph I just keep getting numbers for additional steps in the baking instructions.  Whatever...
7. Mine took the whole 9 minutes to bake which surprised me since I usually have to take things out of my oven just a little early.  They came out looking exactly like the picture but then flattened as they cooled.  I don't know if they were supposed to do that or not but they did.  They were tasty and lemony though and my guests seemed to like them.  My husband wanted to keep eating the dough without baking them because it was yummy.  So I think it is a keeper recipe. 
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9. And if you don't happen to have lemon extract on hand, the site it came from had substitutions people used in their comments.  Some people suggested refrigerating the dough which might be helpful but doesn't make the recipe quite as quick as the original.  I might try that next time but I didn't really have trouble with the dough this time. I just used a scoop to make the balls to roll in the sugar.