Chocolate Chip Cookies used in Eric's Sermon 7/6/09

World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
From the kitchen of Becky Flood

¾ c granulated sugar
1 c brown sugar

½ c butter
½ c shortening

1 T vanilla

2 eggs, slightly beaten

3 c flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

3 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c chopped nuts (0ptional)

Preheat oven to 350◦.
In a large bowl, combine sugars; add in butter and shortening and cream together with the sugar. Add vanilla and eggs; mix together.
In a separate bowl sift the dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture. Mix well; the dough will be stiff. Add the chocolate chips and nuts (if using).
Line the cookie sheets with baking parchment or wax paper, or just use ungreased cookie sheets. Drop dough with a small ice cream scoop onto the sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350◦. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
Yield: 2 ½ dozen.

What Makes a House a Home?

Eric posed this question to us at the supper table the other night because it is the focus of his message this coming Sunday. My first thought was the people inside the house make it a home. Hannah said this is too general and that I need to be more specific.

So I am going to take you on a journey to my Great-grandma Venter's house. Her real last name is Deventer but the great-grandchildren shortened it to Venter. It is a beautiful summer day with blue clouds and white fluffy clouds that contrast nicely with the brilliant green leaves of the trees and grass. We travel down a gravel road and arrive at a white farm house surrounded by fields.

Another thing that makes a house a home are the smells. I am going to take you on a smell tour of my grandma's house. As we get out of the car the fragrance of peonies in all shades of pink greet us. Next we go up to the attic where treasures of ages past await with a musty smell. However, we were told by the great-uncles to never go in the attic because we might fall through the floor, I am not sure if this is really true or if they just wanted to keep us out of the attic :) Next we travel down to my great-grandma Venter's bedroom where I can remember the smell of her sewing machine which must have been a mixture of the oil, thread, and material of years of use. Now we will go to where my favorite smells came from, the kitchen. I can clearly remember the smell of homemade fried chicken, real mash potatoes and gravy. I remember the Correl bowls of miniature marshmallows she gave to us at treats.

I was blessed to spend some one-on-one time with my great-grandma at a time when I needed the attention the most. My parents got divorced when I was in the first grade. Being one of four children it is hard for a single parent to give a lot of attention to their children individually. I loved the time I got to spend with my great-grandma. I am sure spending time with my great-grandmother during these impressionable years had a lot to do with who I am today. In some ways I am probably like my great-grandma with a love to sew and cook and those great traits of being stubborn and independent.

So for me, the people make a house a home. Without my great-grandma, this house would have been simply a house. It was my great-grandma that made her house a home. Just as we each make our house a home. Creating memories and investing in our family and visitors who come into our homes.

P.S. The above picture is of my great-grandmother and me taken in my home growing up.

P.P.S. I am holding a yellow plastic tea cup in the picture :)