Why do I do this to myself?

Let us discuss the phenomenon of "the handout." Why is it that we/I often, if not usually, feel the need to provide a handout for my church lessons? Does anyone ever look at them? And wouldn't my time be better spent actually preparing my lesson? And how about the fact that I'm not even remotely crafty, nor do I have any desire to be...so I don't even spend my handout prep time developing or creating something of my own, instead I spend hours searching the internet for other people's genius ideas and creativity, and then simply print those out on nice paper. Doesn't really make much sense, I know. (check this out if you want a good laugh. Someone is selling VT handouts on Etsy!)

But yet, week after week, I fall into the same trap of wasting hours on the computer prepping for my lessons. I must secretly like it, otherwise why would I keep subjecting myself to this silliness?

Today was no exception. Except for the fact that not only did I feel the need to do a handout, I decided a Thanksgiving treat was also going to be necessary. My lesson prep began at 5pm. (Did I mention I had already spent 6 hours earlier in the day at a YW conference?). After finding the "perfect" Thanksgiving treat (thanks to the creativity of this blogger) to coordinate with my "perfect" quote on gratitude, I set out to complete the task.


In an attempt to save time and hassle, I decided to call the grocery store to make sure they had candy corn for my Thanksgiving project. To my dismay...they WERE ALL OUT. And thus began the tireless search for CANDY CORN. Ten phone calls later....I was in luck. Thank you iParty, I'm only sorry I didn't call you first!

So it's what, probably 7pm by now? I bundle up, and head to the store. It's not like I live in a big city or anything, but iParty isn't necessarily close to my house and I was beginning to feel like this whole thing was a little ridiculous. I decided to hit up the grocery store right next to iParty first, to pick up all the remaining ingredients, and then finish off with the candy corn run (and of all things to be picking up, I hate candy corn).

You can imagine my surprise when I walked down the candy aisle in search of the "red hots" only to find CANDY CORN and NO RED HOTS! I'm cursing myself at this point!

Disaster averted, I found a substitute for red hots on the baking aisle.

As if I hadn't spent enough time on things that didn't actually matter, I decided that since I only ended up making one stop instead of two, I might as well drive all the way to Michaels to get cream colored paper for my handout instead of white. Because that makes sense...

I promise I'm getting to the punch line of the story...

I get to Michaels, they only have one piece of cream colored paper, which is dirty and crumpled...oh, and MY CAR BREAKS DOWN! The lug nuts snapped off again and the tire was about to fall off! (I have definitely made good use of my AAA membership this year)

Thanks to a really nice truck driver, and a reliable friend who bailed me out, I was able to get my car towed to the dealership and make it home at a reasonable hour. But note: the cookies still weren't made, oh, and my lesson wasn't actually prepared either.

As a matter of fact, it's currently 11pm, and my lesson still isn't prepared. Why am I blogging right now?

The cookies are, however, made. And I think they're cute.

(don't I look so proud!)

Worth the effort? Definitely not. Will the YW like them? Probably not. Let's face it, the combination of gingersnaps, chocolate frosting, candy corn and red hots doesn't exactly sound appetizing. Did I learn my lesson? Who knows. I'd like to think this is the beginning of a new chapter. A handout-less chapter. I think that might be my New Years resolution!