Apples!

We had a great week.  I hope you did too. Last Friday Neal and Ruth went on the daddy daughter camping trip and enjoyed it.  They enjoyed being with friends and in a pretty camping place.  Neal enjoyed going with Ben looking for mushrooms. Ben enjoys eating them and has researched a lot about them and knows what ones are good to eat.  Ruth had fun just being with her girl friends.  I am glad they had some fun.

Friday evening I was invited to a girls night at Erin's home.  I found out afterwards it was her birthday and she probably didn’t want to be alone because her husband had gone with the girls camping.  There was about five other women who came to her home and we enjoyed sitting around the table talking.  It was so good to have some time to just visit with other women.  I am glad that I was able to go.  Andrew babysat the boys while I was gone.  When I got home they had gone to bed and were all asleep.  Andrew is being responsible with a lot of things lately.  Last night he even did all the dishes while I was at the school.  I came home to the kitchen clean and even all the pots cleaned.  I really appreciated it.

Andrew also likes his activities.  Last Saturday his friend Aiden invited him over to go to a fund raiser breakfast and then play time with friends.  Andrew enjoyed his time with the other boys.  After school Monday Andrew asked to go for a bike ride.  He was out having some fun in the open space, I could see him riding around from my bed room window.  Then the rain hit hard and fast.  He came home with a huge smile on his face and soaked to the skin and said how fun it was to ride in the rain.

Saturday I made another batch of dill pickles.  Our cucumber plants are dying back so I am not sure how many more I will get.  They have been good this year.  We have enjoyed eating them fresh too.  Our green beans are pretty much done.  I only picked a handful this week.  Our tomatoes are producing a lot right now and we all enjoy eating them. Saturday evening we all went outside and picked apples.  We picked most of the red apples from our tree.  We left a few that looked like they could ripen a bit more.  We got a large box full of apples.  I had a potato plant come up in the garden.  Probably from a potato piece from the compost pile that hadn’t decomposed.  I let the plant grow and this week I dug it up to see what I would find.  I had one small potato.  I couldn’t put dirt up around the plant, like you should with potatoes, because it was too close to the cucumbers.  I thought it was funny the only potato that grew was about a half inch in diameter.

The potato in Ruth's hand

This week has been busy for me.  I worked on the apples.  I did seven quarts of apple sauce and 12 quarts of apple pieces.  I am happy with our harvest.  We also have a big basket of the best looking ones to save to eat fresh.  Last year I only bottled 6 quarts or so, so this is a big increase.  They are good apples too.  Our pears are ripening too.  They are so good. The boys and I have been eating pears at breakfast all week.

On Tuesday I went to the band meeting at the middle school.  Andrew is excited to be involved in the concert and jazz bands this year.  He is enjoying learning about how to play jazz music.  He has really caught on to playing the trombone and enjoys it.  Wednesday evening I went to the open house at the high school.  I went around to all of Ruth’s classes, spending 10 minutes in each, and hearing a bit about each class and meeting the teachers.  It was really a nice way to do it.  They had bells ringing to say when it was time to go to the next period.  I did the same thing Thursday at the middle school for Andrew’s classes.  It was a lot of information, and a lot of people to meet, but I enjoyed meeting the teachers and seeing their classrooms.  It also gave me an appreciation that I am not the student. I hope that I can help my kids get through their education.

Spencer has enjoyed playing with Lego this week.  He likes to create things.  Caleb has enjoyed playing with the wooden trains.  They are both enjoying school.  This morning they went to the school early with Neal for a “Doughnuts with Dads” activity.  They were excited to go eat a doughnut.

I finished another puzzle recently.  The last 100 or so pieces always go in so quickly, there are fewer places to figure out where they go.  I always enjoy taking all those pieces and working through them to make a picture out of them.  It is like taking apples and cutting them up to put in jars.  It is a sense of accomplishment of taking things in chaos and making it beautiful. I am thankful for the beauty of life.