Cookies for a Cause - Mitochondrial Disease

Every 30 minutes, a child will be born who will develop mitochondrial disease by the age of 10. 

Mitochondrial disease occurs when there is a defect in the body’s ‘powerhouses’. The mitochondria fail to produce enough energy. That results in organ systems failing. Imagine a major city with half of its power plants shut down. The same thing happens in the affected person’s body. The brain may be impaired.  They may lose vision or hearing. The heart may be weakened, and they may have eating and digestive issues. The symptoms range from mild to severe for each affected person. (UMDF.org)

Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week is September 16-23.  Between now and then I will be sharing information about Mitochondrial Disease.  Please take a few minutes to read it... 

So far, my cookies have raised more than $100 for the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation! Thank you!

This past week, I baked cookies to raise money support the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, but I really baked cookies to show my love for an amazing young lady, named Tricia, and her mother, Wendy.

Over the next few posts, I will be sharing her story, telling you about Mitochondrial Disease, giving you an opportunity to help, and maybe even sneaking in a give-away! ;^) Oh yeah, and talking about cookies too!

I will be featuring each of these cookies and a few fun extras over the next few weeks on my blog.

Tricia and her younger brother Andrew
 with my oldest two, Reader R and Curious K,
after a performance of the Wizard of OZ.

My friend Tricia is a freshman in high school, and she has Mitochondrial Disease.  If you don't read any of my other posts, please take a few minutes to watch this video that she made about her journey.

Tricia looks like a happy, healthy teenager.  Yet, she suffers from autonomic neuropathy, chronic nerve pain, chronic fatigue, breathing difficulties, delayed gastric emptying, GI motility issues, acid reflux, hypercalciuria, visual impairments, and kidney stones, and oh yeah, and she hasn't eaten by mouth in  years.

Please consider helping to support the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation by sponsoring me for the upcoming "Energy for Life" Walk-a-thon.  Every gift helps.

Thank you!
Sarah

www.umdf.org

Cool Cookies for a HOT Day!

It is HOT in Kansas City.  Today we are going to hit a COOL 107 degrees! But, earlier this week, it was only 99 degrees, so Reader R. had a fun playdate at a friend's house to play in the sprinkler with many of the "going into 2nd grade" girls from school.  I made these fun cookies as a thank you for the hostess.  (I realized afterward, it would have been better to say "Thanks for COOL play on a HOT day!" but I wasn't that clever at the time that I was icing them. ;^))

I also made these sunshine cookies for my little sous-chef... She is my sweet sunshine!

Cheers and keep COOL!

Sarah

Oh Baby! How Sweet It is to Love You!

Earlier this Spring, one of my dear church friends had a beautiful baby girl.  The Women's Ministry at our church had a baby shower for sweet Lila Margaret, which happened to be the day before her baptism.  At the time, I also happened to be short on cash in the gift-giving budget, but long on ideas for beautiful cookies to celebrate the birth and baptism of this special baby girl, so Momma and Daddy got a gift basket from Sarah's Sweet Shoppe, filled with yummy cookies! ;^)

These "sign" cookies were my first attempt at using a "#1" tip for icing decorations.  Even with that small of a tip, it took several tries to squeeze all of those words on the big cookie! ;^)

 My wishes for their sweet family!

The "Daughter of the King" onesie is my favorite!

 I baked some of the cookies on sticks, so that they would "stick" up at the back of the basket. ;^) That backfired on me when one of the sticks broke out of the cookie while I was putting it in the bag.  No problem.  I just took another cross cookie and used Royal Icing to "glue" the stick back in place and covered it with the extra cookie. ;^) Extra cookies save the day (again)!

Top Right Cross reads: "Lila Margaret ~ Fearfully and Wonderfully Made"

In the final gift basket, I ended up hiding the small hearts down inside the basket to hold the other cookies in their places better.  After this photo was taken, I put the whole thing in a gift bag and tied it with a bow.  It was a beautiful gift (if I do say so myself...;^)) and Rachel appreciated the time and effort that went into creating such a personalized gift of love.  Besides, who really needs more baby clothes anyway, right?

The finished Gift Basket with the Hearts tucked inside!

I also made these baby hands and feet, but they didn't make the cut for the basket.  It was fun to try my new cutters, but I wasn't completely happy with how they turned out, this time. ;^)

Congratulations Rachel and Johnny!
Happy Baptism Lila!

Love,
Mrs. Rose

  

On the Eleventh Day of Cookie Christmas...

Sweet Sarah gave to me, Eleven Cheerful Cardinals...

These were for the annual William Jewell ~ Alpha Gamma Delta ornament exchange.  I thought they we appropriate because the Jewell mascot is a cardinal, and I couldn't muster up the squirrel with a wreath that I really wanted to do.  I LOVE red and white together... so I included some snowflakes too.

This fun cookie was the hostess gift for my dear friend, Mary Catherine.  She sent me a postcard like this from the U.K. with a container of my favorite British "Biscuits" after I found out I was pregnant with my third child... What a blessing that I will never forget.  I still have the postcard, and used it to create yummy "Thank you!"

I also was really happy with these red and white ornaments, too.  They were also inspired by my Isaiah Bible Study, and were a gift to the leaders of that study.



“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
Isaiah 1:18

Merry Cookie Christmas!
Sarah