Family Camp and Dishpan Cookies

Our family has been bustling around, preparing for our church's annual Family Camp happening next week. We're in charge of Registration, so some of us spend an inordinate amount of time filling out spreadsheets and marking people's names on our little map of all the cabins and re-figuring the total amount of adults and children coming.

Family Camp is a great time to re-connect with friends who we only get to see once a year and to hear great sermons/messages every morning and night that are encouraging, inspiring, and quite frequently, uncomfortable and convicting. It's a reminder to "break up the fallow ground" in our lives... Its also a time to remember that we are as surrendered and holy as we want to be. Keith Daniel, our guest speaker from South Africa always reminds us of that. Our problem isn't usually that we don't know what God wants of us and our lives - our problem is that so often we aren't willing and broken and yielded to live every day the way He has called us to!

If you family happens to be interested in coming to Family Camp this year (Oct. 2-5), you can contact us at: mbcfamcamp {at} gmail.com. There are people coming from Texas, Arkansas, Nebraska, Montana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, but there's still room for more!

Things are coming together really well for the most part. (Maybe Jennifer, who's planning all of the meals and organizing the kitchen work doesn't think so! She has a lot to do!)

As we prepare for Family Camp, our house has been filled with the smell of baking cookies for several days! With 150 or more people to feed snacks to each day, and homemade cookies as the mainstay of snack time, that's a lot of cookies to bake!

Speaking of cookies, I need to go make a few more batches right now. Here's one of my favorite cookie recipes when baking for a crowd:

Dishpan Cookies
2 c. butter, softened
2 c. brown or raw sugar
2 c. granulated or raw sugar
Cream the butter and sugar till smooth. Add:
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix well, and then stir in:
4 1/2 c. flour (I've been using a combination of oat, wheat, and white flour)
2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
Add:
5 c. rice crispy cereal or crushed cornflakes
2 c. flaked coconut
1 - 12 oz. pkg. chocolate chips
3 c. quick oats
Stir, till well combined. (Add more quick oats and/or rice crispies if the dough is too soft or the cookies spread all over the pan when cooked)
Preheat oven to 325. Drop rounded teaspoons onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 9-12 minutes till lightly browned on the bottom, still soft on top. Take out a bit early for chewy cookies. Makes 8-10 dozen. These freeze really well!