1. Get up early. Feel as if you can conquer the world. Make this bed. Practice with that kid. Do somebody's hair. Oh, it is on.
2. Somewhere along the way, your imagination kicks in. You are someone awesome. Someone with super powers, even. Pow! Does that kitchen sparkle or what?!
3. Start making lunches. Discover a complete and total lack of cookies in the house. Oh, dear. The superhero is momentarily stumped. Or is she? Fire up the oven, get out the mixer. These are the moments that truly call for a superhero, anyway.
4. Start throwing things into the bowl. Butter, sugar, vanilla, salt. Also, why not a few bananas? And cinnamon! Entertain a mild cauldron fantasy. Mesmerize yourself with those disappearing chunks of banana. But do pay attention! Do make sure nothing is forgotten. Did you add the baking powder and baking soda (always being careful not to use one without the other, as you have no clue which truly does the trick)? Good. Some flour. Some chocolate chips.
5. Pop a tray into the oven. You are riding the crest of a feeling that all things are possible. Savor the moment.
6. But you are also feeling a slight twinge of doubt. It's faint, but it's there. You did remember all the ingredients, right? You weren't so busy entertaining notions of grandeur that you forgot....oh my goodness: the eggs!
7. You forgot the eggs.
8. Well, I hope you're happy. I hope you have something to say for yourself. Because look where your imagination has gotten you--crouched at the mouth of your oven, contemplating one dozen sagging lumps of dough that will never, no matter what the prowess of your mental powers, transform themselves into proper cookies.
9. Oh, it's high times whenever your imagination comes around. Fun and games. Glittering, coloratura laughter. But mark my words, sooner or later it all comes to this. Sooner or later, someone loses an egg (I honestly can't believe I just said that).
10. Wait! What is that faint stirring? That old, familiar feeling? Is it your imagination, staging a comeback? Rising like a phoenix from the ashes? Because when you think about it, what is an imagination for if not to be there at your lowest moment?
11. The comeback is on. Pull that tray out of the oven. It's only been there for what? Five, ten minutes?
12. Scoop that slop back into your mixing bowl. Throw in two eggs and blend immediately before they start to scramble and before you can second-guess yourself.
13. So what if it all turns brown? Your chococolate chips melted. So what? This is going to work.
14. Get a new cookie sheet. Deposit new lumps of dough. It's go time. This is going to work (did I say that already? Well, it is.).
15. Package up the results and discreetly include them with the school lunches. You may be a superhero, but even superheroes don't need to be confronted with dubious expressions from their kids and hear them cry, "What's that?"
16. Because later on that day, your little one is going to come charging home from school and smother you in a Genghis Khan hug and ask what were those cookies you put in her lunch? Because even though all the other kids in the lunchroom said they looked burnt, she knew they wouldn't be burnt. At least she was quite certain they wouldn't be burnt. So she tried them just to be sure, and now she has a new favorite cookie in the whole entire world and guess what?
17. This one is it.