Years ago, when all the kids were still living with us, I found out quickly that Oreo cookies had to be hidden, or every one of them eaten immediately, if I was to get one. After not getting a cookie for several months, I decided one shopping trip to do the next best thing: get something else.
I wandered down the cookie aisle: all sorts of cookies to choose from. Mostly, however, I knew that anything made of chocolate or that had chocolate in it, was unsafe. I had, one time, even ventured to think the peanut butter ones might curb their ability to want a cookie, but, alas, I was wrong: they lasted about a day and, again, when it was my turn: no cookie.
But I am, unlike the kids at that time, not all that picky of an eater. I grew up eating my vegetables. In fact, it was never cookies my siblings and I fought over: it was cereal. I won’t describe it to you because it was a complicated matter which still makes them mad to this day – and even involved “the cereal bowl.” At any rate, cookies are, to me, a luxury and I did not often think about eating cookies: but for some reason, when denied over and over of a treat I thought would be there, I sort of got fixated on it. “Just how was I going to ensure that I got a cookie when I wanted one?” I asked myself. I finally stumbled upon the solution – purely by accident initially. After that initial time, however, there was nothing accidental about it: I bought lemon cookies.
Yes, that’s right: the lemon cookies. You see – I, unlike the kids, have a variety of tastes and one of those is lemon. I like lemon cakes, lemonade, lemon jello – and lemon cookies. Lemon cookies, in today’s day and age, though, are a kid deterrent: I wished I had known about it sooner. I made my first tentative experiment: I bought the lemon cookies (which, by the way, were considerably cheaper, an added bonus) and put them out – IN PLAIN SIGHT. That was the ultimate test – visual acuity. In the past I had been known to put the cookies behind things in the pantry to hide them only to discover that the children had a sixth sense which would make a bloodhound jealous.
One day went by: I could tell the lemon cookie package had been moved, but thus far, not opened. It was as if one of the children had nudged it to see if it was real. The cookies were blond and obviously had zero chocolate in them. I’m sure one of them probably smelled the package to see if it was actually edible. The next day following, the package had been opened and exactly three cookies had been removed. The day after that, my lemon cookies sat completely untouched. Finally, I had won!
Now that the kids have gone, I do think about the “lemon cookie triumph” every now and again. And, it reminds me that – when it seems as though I’ll never get the things I want, all I have to do is remind myself that my joy in life doesn’t end if the chocolate runs out – I can do lemon too.
