The Cookie Jar

Hello, Friends Of The Ewe!
I hope this finds you just blooming like my irises! My very favorites are on the verge of popping open--those are my deep purple ones...I call them "black." They just look so elegant. :-) My tulips have *not* bloomed--is that normal? I can't remember when it was last year that they bloomed. Anyway...
A couple weeks ago, we were blessed with a cookie jar. This is one I've had my eye on at a relative's house for a few months now. I didn't ask for it, but I was sure happy to be offered it! LOL Let's just say it's a Bible character scene, and I really like it.
Since The Ram and I married, I've been an "anti-cookie jar" gal. You see, I have a "love/hate" relationship w/ cookies--I hate that I love them! Though there had been a few jars through the years that I admired, I always thought it would be bad to welcome cookies into my house. (Rather like housing the enemy.) I didn't want the children expecting there to be goodies in the house all the time. But...
When this just-too-cute jar was offered, I couldn't resist. So, I brought it home. It sat empty on the counter for days. The girls were anxious to fill that puppy! Finally, one day, The Ol' Ewe broke down and gave the go-ahead for cookie baking. Now, my girls know their way around a kitchen and they had cookies baked in no time. We gathered around the cooling racks, admiring those round treasures. Before they'd cooled 10 minutes, the girls wanted to put them in the jar. I realized that the Cookie Jar Way of Life was foreign to my daughters. I explained that you have to wait to put them in there, or you'd have one huge cookie. I began to think that maybe this whole cookie jar thing could be used to teach self-discipline. Any time before The Jar, we'd pull the cookies out of the oven and break out the spoons, if we had to. A dozen cookies never made it to "cool-dom." So, now, with the anticipation of getting to fill the jar, we learned to wait. I explained to the girls what a huge responsibility it is to have a full cookie jar in the house. I knew I had to lay down some ground rules. Or actually, rule. Basically The Cookie Rule is that we only get cookies at tea time. For us, that's 3 p.m. (I know it's supposed to be 4 p.m., but that a bit late for us--too close to dinner!) So, we have the cookie jar on a time-lock security system. (It's the Honor-type.) I believe I've sufficiently instilled in the children the gravity of unauthorized cookie gnoshing. I'll admit, it's been a challenge for me to deny the flesh and walk on past that piece of ceramic, but I just remind myself that 3 p.m. is coming and the lid will unlock and we'll all get to fellowship around the round things. :-) Yes, I'm thinking this cookie jar is a good thing. So far, we've had good compliance with the Cookie Rule. No one even asks for cookies unless it's 3 p.m. (or later, if we've missed cookie time.) They know I'll say "no." LOL
I remember as a child, my babysitter had a cookie jar. She generally kept on hand those sandwich cookies--duplex, vanilla, peanut butter...Man, they were good. I confess to you that *I* did not typically ask first. My babysitter, though a sweet lady, had an open-jar policy. Any time I wanted to open it, I could. I believe that is not a good way to run a cookie jar-containing kitchen. Some little critter like me could get in there and founder.
Well, y'all keep your wool dry...and your cookies cool!
The Ewe