A thousand gifts - a lot of fun and messy too!

Well, my little kindergartner, Vivace, was the creative maestro around here this Christmas. In addition to making many other items, whether at school, Awana, or just around the house, he painted 12 homemade handprint calendars as gifts for everyone in the extended family.

He invited one friend over and they each did one for their Dads, and then he invited another friend over who did one for his mom while Vivace did one for one of his grandparents, and then over the course of several afternoons, he cranked out 10 more for everyone else, from the other set of grandparents to his teacher to the aunts and uncles to our 94-year old neighbor who loves this stuff. It was fun.

It was amazing pulling all this off without Papa Bear figuring it out, nor Grandma who came to visit before we'd finished. We were like madmen he and I painting drying and hiding and washing and hiding.... Papa Bear did smell the paint one evening, and he reprimanded Vivace for writing on his hands (the paint stained) another time.... What a huge project, but what fun we had! And we are glad to have been able to give away our thousand gifts (ok, more like 150 if you count up all the pages of the calendars and then everything else).

Teamwork and posting issues

Well, two times now during the past ten days I have been thwarted in my posting because I tried to blog with photos and some string thingy came up "null" and I lost it all when I went to publish. Apologies to any and all for my unwillingness to troubleshoot... I need Papa Bear and that hasn't been possible thus far (esp. now that I know it is not a fluke).

But I can still type (I think - if you are able to read this then I will have been able to post!) so today (just now, which is why I have a moment to post while they finish) my little still-5-yr-old Vivace read Constance's words to her and she spelled them back to her. These are words like shrink, shrank, shrunk, shriek, squish, squash, though, threw, through.... you get the idea. I was a bit floored (she had asked me to help her and I was cleaning the fish tank so he offered). Granted he was trying to read something too difficult to me while I was working and had just given up, but I was nonetheless impressed, and love the team effort to do her studying. Bravo to them both :-) What fun to watch and enjoy them working together.

NB - My beloved helped at least begin troubleshooting this evening AND we discovered that while the pictures never uploaded, blogger DID save my work as a draft from my posting attempts, and so I was able to recreate at least the one (real not a test) post from 11/18. Yay! And BTW, those snapdragons and mums (and the grass) are still growing. I think the geraniums finally died and we took them down, but I'm wondering if they're still alive in the pots we put under the back porch.... Very strange weather we've been having, and tomorrow it's December. Maybe we won't have winter this year? Hmmm. Fat chance.

November Blooms

These flowers were actually cut on 11/11/11.

What's amazing is that they were BLOOMING actively in my garden up until that date.

What's just as amazing is that the plants they were cut from are STILL growing, and still blooming, a week later (that's 11/18/11, craziness...).

Note the pictures below. You can see the mums and snapdragons to the left of the front steps.

The miniature trailing geranium is in the planter to the right of the steps (it has had better days, but it is still alive and blooming technically).

The strangest thing is that my geraniums look terrible because I stopped watering them in September like I always do, expecting them to die any day due to the frost.


But they're still alive (despite my neglect) and yes, that is a fresh bloom you see. There are others just about ready to bloom.

I took pity on them and watered them a few days ago and took off a few dead leaves but I'm not sure why, since it's now almost Thanksgiving and they're already "past dead" - at least in a normal VT November. They really shouldn't be here.

But as I remember my special trip to visit a Lucette last November (and whom I saw on this date one year ago for the first time in over 10 years!) I will also remember that she loved red geraniums even more than I do and she is why I purchase them to enjoy every year all summer long. Thanks Lulu for teaching me to love them so!

Happy weird November. I think it will get cold FAST, and SOON.... but I've been saying that for a couple weeks. It's going to be a tough winter when it does come. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my flowers while I can!

A visit to remember

One year ago today.... how quickly time flies.

Re-Reading

I was rereading older posts, like this one from last December. Sometimes they make you laugh (this one did) or cry, or just think. Do read my comment on that one :-). But anyway, I was rereading because it's just a year ago that I took Patience and traveled over the Great Atlantic to visit my host mom in Switzerland. What a great trip - and how much work it was to leave the rest of the family here and manage it all. How wonderful that we were able to go, and how blessed I feel that God kept her well-enough that we could enjoy much time together. As we close in upon Thanksgiving next week, I am thinking frequently of that trip last year and how special a Thanksgiving it was indeed.

Apples

I love apples.

I love the smell of apples.

I love cooking with apples.

I love the way they look on the trees.

I love the blossoms in the spring.

I love picking apples.

I love the way apples crunch when you bite into them.

I love to drink fresh apple cider.

I love to watch it being made.

Note I do NOT like apple juice (and it does not agree with me).

I like my own homemade PINK applesauce. Plain, nothing added. Warm (hot), right from the pot.

Note I really don't like any other applesauce. I might eat it. I might not. It does nothing for me.

I like apple pie.

I like dried apple rings and dried apple chips. My parents even got me a professional grade dehydrator a couple Christmas' ago so I could make these (and much more) efficiently.

On Wednesday, all by myself, I picked a bushel of apples off the trees in an orchard near us, and picked up two bushels of drops. It took me just over an hour, and I got them for a song ($6.50 a bushel - for a visual of how much this is, that's six paper bags FULL of apples). It was a delightful time alone working outside. This is really good for me. :-) And it was definitely work (stretching, bending, walking, pulling....). Fun.

My house and car (my "apple" refrigerator) smell like apples.

As I'm running errands in the car, I put the ones from the trees in the front seat of the van and I keep eating them. Delicious. At this rate I'll be keeping the doctor away for months.

Thus far (in two days), I've made four batches of apple butter (I use the slow cooker to reduce it and like I said, the house smells amazing) and I have no idea how many batches of applesauce. I've used three of the bags of drops and washed the fourth. I'll finish that bag tomorrow if I have time. It's wonderful to be able to set all this aside for the coming year at such a good price, and even though it's tiring, it's work I (mostly) enjoy (though I did just have to run to the kitchen to stir this last batch of sauce as it's cooking.... I'm on a time limit here typing...)

I also have such helpful and appreciative kids. They like apples just as much as I do. They've helped when they've been around w/washing up jars, apples, and the like, and carrying things up and down stairs and more.

We'll be doing apple butter for the teachers gifts at Christmas, and we all enjoyed my mom's oatmeal apple crisp for dessert tonight (no wonder the house smells so good).

So for anyone who likes apples, here's the place to be. Please come visit and keep me company in the kitchen these next few days while I finish setting them aside. And if you're lucky, we'll not only enjoy some time together, but you'll enjoy a tasty apple treat too!

October Nor'easter Ramblings

So glad this latest storm missed us. We didn't really even get a dusting. Southern New England is a mess (except for where it was too warm to snow - they just got rain, mostly coastal areas). My folks were out of power for two days and my mom has some stories, like the half-baked pie she wanted to finish cooking when the power went back on, so she stuck the pie (still warm from the oven), in the fridge to cool (remember, no power). Oops.

I've read comments from folks battered by storm after storm this year, like "Mother Nature must be trying to tell us something". They're right - only "she" has a name; it's God. Maybe he does have something to say (like give him credit where credit is due? Hmm...).

These storms can bring out the worst - and they can bring out the best. Sometimes it's how you respond that makes all the difference. Our society is becoming so selfish - every man for himself. These events shine a light on that - abundantly! But they also force us - even if unwillingly - to recognize our dependence on others, and ultimately on God. At least that's how I understand it.

It's kind of like my daughter's diabetes. Same lesson, different circumstances. We can fight it, or we can use it to learn and grow and discover the God who made her this way. Will we ever know why? I don't think that's the right question. I think the question is one of submission - of "What now, Lord?" Submission to God's will AND to His grace. To look for Him in the midst of it. To suffer the literal hi's and lo's of blood sugar roller coasters and to wonder at the intricacies of the human body (nature), the amazing design of the pancreas (and the weather), and marvel at how we try to understand and manage it (insulin pumps, weather devices...) and how fantastic it is what we can do (praise God!) and yet how far short it falls from his perfection and control (again, we are fearfully and wonderfully made!).

We so learn the value of grace, of trust, and of love in it all. It draws us closer to him. It amazes me that these trials, storms, and circumstances - even the nor'easters of life, both real and figurative - keep us looking to Him, depending on Him, and ultimately in growing our faith in Him. He is bigger than it all. He really is. And while broken trees, loss of power and life, and messed up pancreases give me grief and often reduce me to tears, whether from helplessness or from empathy or whatever, I find myself thankful in it all, and full of wonder that He should take an interest in any of us, especially me. What wonder it all is.