One day a week, the possibility of sleeping in until 6 looms. It’s so lovely. On Friday nights I snuggle into bed with the knowledge that I can just loaf in the mornings. Well, no. But I can be dragged out of bed by a child, go downstairs, sit on the couch, and hope that nobody wants to play with me so that I can read my book in peace.

Another special thing about weekends? Good snacking options! While I’ve always been a big fan of peanut butter blossom cookies, I’m not as into how they need to be made with shortening to prevent spreading. I don’t like shortening much. So instead, I put them into cookie cups, and that works just fine!

Bear with me for a few minutes as I talk about teaching. Ready? It’s a heavy topic for the almost weekend, but I need to express myself.

Years ago, a mentor told me that if I went into teaching expecting appreciation, then I was barking up the wrong tree. Instead, she told me, I would have to find satisfaction in my work from within. That intrinsic motivation would have to drive me.

The thing with teaching is that when people are feeling appreciative, they don’t necessarily express it. I have taught some lovely students who are thankful, and some parents of students who are as well. For the most part, people appreciate teachers and that’s really nice. The problem is, they’re not as vocal about it, so teachers often wind up hearing only from the people who are dissatisfied.

I’ve been lucky enough in my career that I have been given appreciation on a regular basis, but this week I heard a conversation that stopped me in my tracks. Someone was talking about teaching, and they made the argument that any warm body could stand in a classroom full of highly motivated students and the results would be the same as with a teacher who was putting forth the best possible effort.

Boy, did that rankle. All teachers who are working to help students of any background or skill level are making a difference. We’re not babysitters, caregivers, or place holders. There is an unimaginable skill set to teaching, and it still shocks me sometimes when people (some of whom otherwise seem intelligent and perceptive) just don’t get it.

If you’re a satisfied parent whose child has good teachers, tell them that. Tell them you appreciate them. Well, not right now. It’s the summer, and they don’t want to be bothered now. But you get the idea!

On to less deep topics: cookie cups! Peanut butter blossom cookie cups, to be exact.

The best part about cookie cups is that the mini-muffin tin holds in the cookie dough so that it can’t spread. The result is a thick cookie. And you can just press the Hershey kiss right on into the center, making it quite a blissful experience.

Happy almost weekend, and go hug a teacher. Or buy us chocolate. Or bake us cookies. We need it!

This summer, I’ve got the kids when I’m not working, and it’s great. But I need some hours in the day to get things done, so hello to camp! And hello to having a smidgen of peace and quiet.

And hello to peanut butter cups! My favorite candy is back in these flourless PB cookie cups. They might not have any flour, but you won’t miss it at all with all this peanut butter goodness!

People don’t really understand what the summertime is like to a teacher, so I’ll try to explain as best I can. See, we are on overdrive for 10 months out of the year. We show up to work at crazily early times (I’m there around 5:45), get set up, and then we’re on. All day.

With teaching, you can rarely sit back. Checking e-mail is often impossible, as is using the bathroom. There is a constant flow of human interaction, ranging from pleasantries to several nonstop hours of active instruction.

Back when I was earning my certification in college, a professor told us that anyone entering the teaching profession would never have trouble sleeping at night. Boy, was he right. Every day, after running around and then running around some more, I crash as soon as the light goes off. It’s a nice perk, really.

In the summertime, our lives resemble other people’s. We can go to bed late (meaning 10 o’clock), we can have moments of leisure, and we can get some sunlight. It’s a totally different experience, and we love every moment of it. It’s a complete change of pace.

You can bet that during these months, I do a lot of baking. In addition to my two months of cake decorating class, I’m in the kitchen every day, testing recipes and trying out new things just for you! So be sure to stick with me during these lazy months as I bring you more dessert.

These are the way to start off a life of leisure. The cookie base is just peanut butter, two sugars, egg, baking soda, salt and vanilla. These ingredients get combined and chilled for a few hours, and then you put the dough into mini-muffin tins with a miniature PB cup pressed into the center. A few minutes later, you have the best cookie cup ever!

Hope your summer is filled with promise, just like mine. Can’t wait to share my adventures with you!

Okay, that was kind of harsh. But really, I don’t forget to wear green on purpose. I barely own anything green. I’m more of a black and gray kind of person with my clothing choices. That way, everything matches!

But with food? That’s a different story altogether. I love me some green food, and when there’s a holiday to be celebrated, that’s even better. These pistachio cookie cups are the perfect festive treat!

Let’s get back to the wardrobe for a minute, because I have often been mistaken for a vampire, thanks to my color choices. You see, I wear a lot of black. A lot. It’s partly because yes, it matches everything, but it also expresses my deep disapproval of winter and mourning for summer. Once the seasons change, the sundresses can come out of hiding!

Thanks to genetics and rigorous sunscreen usage, I have extremely pale skin. My students have accused me of being a vampire, and I don’t bother contradicting them. After all, fear can work to a teacher’s advantage. The contrast of very dark hair with my regularly ashen hue is definitely a motivator for the black clothing preference as well. It’s an exercise in contrast.

So yeah, when tomorrow rolls around, there will probably be no green. I won’t even pull out a green scarf because, nope, don’t have one. Or a pin. Does anyone in my generation wear pins anymore? They mainly serve to make holes in jackets.

Here’s hoping that nobody pinches you come tomorrow if you forget your green. If you walk around armed with pistachio cookie cups, they’ll like you too much to hurt you!

These are so easy to make. The base is a yellow cake mix, to which you add pistachio pudding mix and other basic ingredients. Then you bake them in mini-muffin molds and frost. Watch how easy this is to do!

I told ya. Easy. If you head to the store after work, these will be done in less than an hour. In the recipe, I use bought frosting to speed things up. You could use the kind  that comes in tubs, or you could do my favorite hack, which is to buy a container of vanilla frosting from your favorite local bakery.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all. May it be a pinch-free day full of fun, laughter, and green food!

That’s right. You can have all of my Andes mints or Krackel bars. Those don’t rank so high with me. But if you try to get into my Reese’s supply, we’ll probably have words. Heated ones.

These cookies are classic and indisputably a winner. Who could argue with a peanut butter cookie wrapped around a peanut butter cup and baked into a mini muffin tin?

Not me, I tell ya. What I will argue, and endlessly, is the need to use apostrophes correctly. Is everyone ready? Because it’s time for a little lesson. Here we go:

IT’S = IT IS. Example: It’s so bizarre that she’s using her blog for a punctuation lesson!

ITS = possessive (as in, belonging to IT). Example: She put the giant muffin back in its wrapper.

Get it? Totally different, right? It confuses people all the time. But I’m an English teacher, so I’m here to educate. Here’s another one!

YOU’RE = YOU ARE. Example: You’re so awesome when you whisper sweet nothings in my ear.

YOUR = possessive (as in, belonging to YOU). Example: Here is your cookie. I wish it were mine.

And finally, for the big finish, the three words that always get my students:

THEY’RE = THEY ARE. Example: They’re eating my cookies! I hate them!

THEIR = possessive (as in, belonging to THEM). Their cookies were stale, so no wonder they took mine.

THERE = location. Example: Go there to buy more cookies!

Are we all good now? Can I stop being a total English teacher nerd?

Okay, here’s the truth. I read a lot of stuff online. And most of what I read is super amazing and written so nicely and it’s truly a pleasure.

But some writers are in need of some serious writing TLC. Like, the text is mostly emoticons, and the sentences don’t end with periods, and there’s no capitalization, not to mention a total absence of punctuation. We all have typos, so I’m not talking about that. I’m more talking about just not proofreading at all.

All writers are looking to improve and to gain wider audiences, so I figure, fix the easy stuff first. It’s super easy to fix apostrophes.

Don’t worry, y’all, I’m not pretending that I’m this genius writer. I just know a tiny bit about it. And I also know a tiny bit about peanut butter and chocolate desserts.

These cookies are the summary of what I love in life. Peanut butter cookies are so lovely. Peanut butter cups are even more lovely. Put them together and you’ve got one happy Mir!

Besides, I love Reese’s so much. See that apostrophe? Reese’s, as in, belonging to Reese. At some point, there must have been a Reese. Whoever he or she was, I love that person. Happiness is a day with peanut butter cups, and that is all.

If your writing doesn’t need any help, sorry about this impromptu lesson. Feel free to totally ignore anything I ever do or say. I won’t take it personally, I promise!