Pfefferminz Kuchen And A New Lodge

One of my favourite memories as a child growing up was the day Grandma baked pfefferminz kuchen - you might know them as peppermint cookies.  Grandma lived with us from when I was about 11 until I was out of high school and baking day was definitely the best day of the week!  She would start baking the cookies early in the morning and soon the smell of ammonia would be wafting through our house.  As she pulled the sheets of cookies out of the oven, I would be there, eating them as fast as I could while they were still very hot.  (FYI eating them frozen is also very tasty!)

For some reason I was allowed to eat as many cookies as I wanted - on the day of baking.  This may be selective memory on my part, but I remember eating a lot (I mean A LOT) of cookies straight out of the oven.  The rest of the time mom made a valiant attempt to limit my cookie consumption, but let's just say that peppermint cookies didn't last long in our home.  I've made peppermint cookies a couple of times trying to keep the tradition going, but so far they have not come out of the oven even close to the fluffyness of Grandma's!

How do peppermint cookies tie into a Reaching Higher blog?  (Well it is a bit of a stretch, even I will admit that.)  Part of enjoying the cookies was the anticipation.  When you saw the dough in the mixing bowl and the cookies on the baking sheet, you knew something good was coming!  Once they came out of the oven the whole house would have this glorious aroma and you could hardly wait to eat them.

As we continue to reach higher, we are anticipating a new lodge.  We're anticipating the incredible amount of ministry that we can do in a new lodge.  We're looking at plans, tweaking plans and are anticipating what is coming.  We're excited about providing an environment for God to reach down and change lives.

And as an added bonus...a new lodge will allow us to make great cookies, lots of cookies.  Maybe I'll have to give Ken my Grandma's secret recipe!

The new staff homes continue to move forward.  Gary (finish carpenter) anticipates finishing the red house today.  Stonework continues on the green house.  Craig and Stu were working on framing the red house basement bedrooms and bathroom.  I was actually "helping" Craig with his jig and crib.  We certainly weren't dancing or making a baby crib, this crib had something do do with walls and headers and studs.  (don't get me going on studs)  Both homes have a garage door and Ben and Andrew were back for their second of three visits installing cabinets.

All that talk about pfefferminz kuchen - I may just have to skip work early today and make a batch!

Thanks again for your continued support.

Bob"Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director