The packing has begun. Eight weeks until we PCS to Camp Pendleton, and I'm doing what Mom taught me: start early, label everything, pack the non-essentials first.
The nursery is the hardest to pack. The yellow walls that I painted with Jen. The secondhand crib where Caleb slept his first night, his hundredth night, every night of his life. The rocking chair where I nursed him and cried and healed. These things are coming with us — the crib, the chair, the memories — but the yellow walls stay. The next family will paint over them. The yellow that meant 'beginning' will be covered by someone else's beginning.
This is what military life is: a series of beginnings painted over each other, layer after layer, in base housing apartments that recycle families the way the earth recycles seasons.
Jen and I have been spending every free moment together because the countdown is loud now. We eat lunch together. We walk the base loop together. We take the kids to the pool. We don't talk about the move because talking about it makes it realer and we're not ready for real yet.
But Tuesday she said: 'I'm going to miss you so much, Rachel.'
And I said: 'I'm going to miss you more.'
And she said: 'That's not possible.'
And we didn't cry because we were at the pool and Dylan was trying to eat a pool noodle and Caleb was splashing with his feet and the moment required supervision, not tears.
I made a big batch of Mom's cookies — the browned-butter chocolate chip ones — and brought them to the support group for my last few meetings. Sandra ate three and said, 'You write down that recipe before you leave, Rachel Abernathy. You write it down and you leave it with me.'
I wrote it on a recipe card. In my handwriting. The way Mom writes recipes. The way recipes travel between military wives — on cards, across kitchen tables, from one base to the next.
The recipe stays at Lejeune. I go to Pendleton. The chain continues.
Mom's chili for dinner tonight. The last one I'll make in this kitchen.
Not the last one I'll make. Just the last one HERE.
Sandra’s request — “write it down before you leave” — has been echoing in my head all week, and it made me think about all the cookies I’ve been baking as countdowns and goodbyes. Mom’s browned-butter batch was the one I left with the support group, but these Valentine Sugar Cookies are the ones I’ve been making with Caleb on our last few slow Tuesday mornings — simple, sweet, and something small hands can press a cutter into. If you’re in a season of packing up and passing things forward, this is the recipe I’d put on a card for you.
Valentine Sugar Cookies
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 30 min (plus 1 hour chill time) | Servings: 36 cookies
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
- Colored sugar or sprinkles, for decorating
Instructions
- Whisk dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add wet ingredients. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract until fully combined. Mix in the sour cream until smooth.
- Combine and chill. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, stirring until a soft dough forms. Divide the dough in half, flatten into discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Preheat and prep. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll and cut. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into heart or other desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart.
- Decorate. Sprinkle with colored sugar or sprinkles before baking, if desired.
- Bake. Bake for 8–10 minutes, until edges are just barely set and bottoms are very lightly golden. Do not overbake — the cookies should look slightly underdone in the center when you pull them.
- Cool. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Cool completely before storing or gifting.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 112 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 16g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 55mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 164 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
