Bakery Math and the Spring Whirlygig

So let's recap, friends and neighbors:

This weekend:

• I have a signing at Maeva's in Alton on Friday night - "Writers of the Riverbend."
• On Saturday, I work for Ye Olde Newspaper.
• On Sunday, I am running a fundraiser at Pottery Hollow for the Relay for Life team. This requires baked goods, as treats were promised to the people coming to paint things. I might be able to get away with cookies and punch.
• Meanwhile Boy goes through his Ordeal for the Order of the Arrow.

Next weekend:

• I am doing a signing in Louisville, Ky. I am leaving on Thursday so I can do some photography on Friday before the signing on Saturday.
• But as soon as the signing is over Saturday, I have to book it back to Illinois. Because...
• Sunday is the 175th anniversary of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. I am responsible for the coffee hour baked goods. And coffee hour is, as we all know, the eighth sacrament of the Episcopal Church.
• Therefore all baking must be done by Wednesday of next week and then hidden from the menfolk.

The following weekend:

• I am coordinating a group author signing at St. Andrew's and the Relay Cafe.
• Which means more baked goods, plus the chili and hot dogs and other schtuff for the cafe, which likewise is raising money for the American Cancer Society.

Therefore, I need to do large-scale bake-sale-type baking in my ha ha ha spare time.

Cookies. Brownies. Cupcakes.

I AM OPEN TO RECIPES, PEOPLE. Preferably things hard to screw up, which don't require refrigeration, and keep for a good while, and tempt people to drop extra dollars in the donation jar.

Meanwhile, I am trying to manage:

• logistics and paperwork for Ian's summer school enrollment, freshman orientation arrangements, orchestra trip to Florida, summer camp counselor gig, and this weekend's Ordeal for the Order of the Arrow;
• travel plans for summer and fall for me, Jim, Ian, and occasionally some combination thereof;
• prom, which happens while I'm in Kentucky so I will MISS IT;
• three (3) separate fundraisers for Relay for Life with another on the horizon plus the Relay itself;
• three (3) group author signings that somehow I am coordinating;
• SPJ and its various spinning plates, including the annual report;
• the side gigs for fiction, photography and editing;
• more doctors' appointments than a syphilitic octogenarian.

Before you say, "Elizabeth, you're doing too much!" ... yeah, I know. This time of year is always nuts, since all the speaking engagements pile up in the spring and Relay comes right at the end of the school year and so on. It's a little crazier this year, because of the one thing I left off the list: Ian's graduation and Jim's 50th birthday, which happen the same weekend.

!!!!!!!

So I'm gonna go find my Zen, which may or may not resemble rum, and y'all feel free to share cookie recipes that will feed all these people with a minimum effort from me, and if you're so inclined, share some of your Zen with me. Because I could really use a vacation.

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