Cookies & Willpower

My boys and I are huge fans of the Frog and Toad series. We really wish Arnold Lobel had written more in the series. Nathan reads them in the most hilarious way, too. I'm not sure what it is, but he has this monotone sound to his voice and it suits both characters perfectly. Neil and I love listening to him read the books out loud to us. Today he read Frog and Toad Together and as soon as he finished with the Cookies story, I knew it was what I'd be blogging about.

In this story, Frog and Toad are eating lots of cookies, but become worried that they'll get bellyaches. They decide to put the cookies in a box, but that's not good enough because they know they can just open the box and eat more. So, they tie the box with a string, but realize they can easily cut the string. Eventually, they get a ladder and put the cookies way up high, but that's still not good enough. Frog says they need willpower to stop eating the cookies. He ends up getting the cookies down, cutting the string, opening the box, and letting the birds eat them. Then he says how great it is that they both have lots of willpower now. Toad disagrees and says Frog can have all the willpower because he's going home to bake a cake.

HA! It's such a great story. If you haven't read the series, you really should. It's hard to believe these books were written in the early 1970s. Like I said, the boys and I love reading them. During lunch, I went upstairs and baked a batch of cookies for myself. I have a special recipe I got from the weight-loss book I'm following, so these are something I can eat. Basically, they're peanut butter cookies, but using soynut butter and a sweetener instead of sugar. I was joking with Nathan about the book and how I needed to have willpower like Frog and Toad, so I was going to bake them now and have 2 tonight at dinner. HA! Well, two of the cookies broke as I was putting them away, so I had to eat them. I just HAD to because they were all jacked up. So much for willpower. Now if you'll excuse me ... I'm off to find some string for that cookie box!