Today’s thoughts…

Some friends of ours have a bakery in a town 45 minutes outside of our metro area. Every now and then, when someone is coming into town, they will let people know, we order off the menu for the day and they bring our orders in with them and we meet in a public parking lot. Besides the hug from my friend who owns the bakery, I found a new favorite goodie. Their blueberry cheese danishes. Oh My! I devoured my half speedily, and had to restrain myself from eating the half I saved for my honey.

Blueberry cheese danish

I made the last batch of applesauce for the season today. Brought a hot jar to my bakery friend, as well as some garden goodies. We have a tree that produces super sweet apples, but small and bug bitten. It is a lot of work cutting out just the good parts. The apples were a bit larger than last year. I learned about thinning the crop, but probably a little too late on the season. I removed about a third of the apples in late July Next year, I am going to try to remove about half of the new apples once they get to be a few inches big. Not sure I’ll need to make any more apple sauce, but probably will anyway and share it with others. The good, non bug bitten apples got donated to the smaller food banks in our area. The super buggy, too small to cut up apples and all my cores went to a friend with goats and chickens. I always go for as little waste of food as I can.

It seems my winter squash plants don’t realize that it is September 2nd yet. Instead of winding down, I am getting new vine growth and new squash fruit. I’m not sure if the weather will last long enough for them to mature, but, God knows what we need for the winter. The few butternut squash we have on the vine at the moment are what I would call personal size. Kinda like the dozen cantaloupe that are ripening on the vine outside.

Personal sized butternut squash

After 27 years of marriage, I am slowly learning how to respect my husband. Shout out to author Laura Doyle and her book “The Empowered Wife”. Wish someone had given this to me as a wedding present. I plan to give this to brides in the future. Speaking of, I better order a new copy for a wedding coming up.

My dad’s memory is really disintegrating quickly now. He forgets things we talk about within the hour, can’t remember family names, mostly great grandchildren born recently. While he is 88, and some memory issues are normal, these are not so normal. Forgetting where things are in the kitchen, not being able to rectify/balance his checking account with his computer records, setting alarms for the wrong days, etc. fortunately, God has provided for us, and I am able to help with doctors appointments and keeping track of things with him. we still play scrabble each sabbath morning, but I win more often than he does now. He frequently mutters under his breath that it would help if he entered the right letters into his word finder app. Yes, we cheat and use those. But we both do, so it’s fair. But we do have a rule that you can’t play a word unless you look up the definition first. Learn new things if possible.

My eyes are getting sleepy, the litter box needs its nightly scooping, and I need to ice my ankle where a heavy drawer front hit it today (long story).

Yummy Scrapplesauce…

When we moved into our current home almost two years ago, we inherited an old apple tree that had been neglected and pruned improperly. Last summer, the apples were bug bitten, but after a lot of cutting out the bad parts, the good pieces made a sweet applesauce.

This year, I pruned back the interior of the tree, fertilized it once, and removed about half of the apples mid summer in hopes to get some better sized fruit and release some pressure on the bowing branches. I checked the fruit a couple weeks ago, but it wasn’t ready. On Sunday, I checked again, and they were ready. Crisp and juicy, although still smaller (but larger than last year) and bug bitten.

When I say the apples are ripe, I mean they ALL are ripe. I have been making 1-2 batches of scrapplesauce each day. I use a simple recipe: 1 cup water, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, 1 cinnamon stick and fill a large pan with apple pieces. Boil until mushy, then blend. I leave the skins on for higher nutritional value, and I add one honeycrisp apple to the batch to ensure sweetness.

My first four quarts are in the freeze dryer tonight, two more quarts are already in the freezer, and a hot batch is cooling on the kitchen counter. I was able to bless a couple elderly neighbors with containers of scrapplesauce, and I will be giving some to our son and daughter in law in exchange for fresh blackberries, which I will use to make blackberry cobbler for breakfasts.

I am thankful for Gods provision for the winter, even though it means extra work for the next couple weeks. Wish I could share the sweetness with you all!

Share a photo of your pet and tell us one thing that makes them uniquely them.

Statler

This is Statler, as in Statler Hilton, the hotel magnet. But that’s not who he was named after. He and his brother were named after the two little old men in the Muppet movies who heckled the muppets from the balcony. Yes, they have names.

What makes this 18 pound boy special is his sweet temperament. He is a cuddler through and through. When his brother comes onto the bed in the middle of the night and says “hey. Give me that spot next to mom”, his response is “can’t we just cuddle together and share her?” He usually gives in and gives his brother the spot. He likes to jump up next to me on the couch and cuddle. He reads the morning paper in my arms, making it very difficult to eat anything.

Waldo

Now Waldo (think Waldorf Astoria) he’s a different story. He’s 25 pounds of pure muscle with the temperament of a toddler. Each morning he steps on me to wake me up. Then follows me around saying “Mom! Mom! Play with me!!!”

We love our boys. They love us and entertain us. Wouldn’t change them for the world!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Don’t lend money to family or friends. Just give it if you have it. When you lend, it creates a barrier in the relationship. If the person can’t pay you back, there may be friction in the relationship, or the person may stop being your friend due to being embarrassed. You will have to battle possibly being angry with that person. Best to give it with no expectation of return if you value the relationship.

Fun memories…

LEGOs strewn across the living room carpet

Two boys constantly singing nonsense songs. While playing dominos, while building LEGOs, while riding in the car, while taking walks, and more.

Teaching the kids how to play dominos, and learning the oldest is very competitive, the middle grandson plays to have fun.

Picky eating, and great eaters.

Playing foosball and building a fort made of large boxes I collected.

Creative sandcastles built in the sandbox, complete with water filled moats.

Cousins connecting over pizza and water slides. Me connecting with my grown son and grands on that same water slide!

Our daughter cooking for us!!

A gold mine tour and searching bags of dirt for gemstones. panning for gold and shopping in the gift store for pretty rocks.

Watching The Magic School Bus and Paw Patrol on the couch.

The ten year old cooking his own fried eggs. Yikes! They grow up so quickly!

Happy screeches and angry yells.

Grandpa teaching silly songs to the tune of “La Cucaracha”. That’s “the cockroach” for those of you not familiar with Spanish. Imagine a potty training three year old singing, “I got poopies! I got poopies!”

Great grandpa (my father) getting the news that great grandchild numbers 15 and 16 are due early 2027. One grand is mine, one is my sister’s.

Full heart…

It’s been 15 months since I’ve seen our daughter and her three children. It’s been 2 1/2 years since my honey has seen them. Yesterday they arrived, and my heart is full.

Preparing a special bunk room for them, placing books within reach, collecting stuffed animals for playing. These filled my heart. Making themed money envelopes (coffee and eating out, fun money) to bless our daughter (complete with USD) filled my heart. Finding the LEGO set of our oldest grandson’s dreams: filled my heart.

Spending spare time over the last month baking blueberry pancakes, cinnamon roll bread, oatmeal breakfast cake and more: filled my heart.

But there’s nothing like that moment, when you see them, and they see you when you’re picking them up at the airport. The happy tears flow as long hugs are shared. The car ride home becomes cacophonous with the sounds of a singing three year old and two wrassling boys with a full days worth of pent up energy. The happy noise doesn’t bother me. My heart is full.

I will spend the next three weeks sucking in every juicy moment, every happy screech, every tickle giggle. I will cherish every moment of talking to our daughter, and the moments the cousins will get to spend with each other. Every silly song Grandpa teaches them will echo in my brain for weeks after they leave.

May you also find joy in whatever your life holds today, and tomorrow, and every day that follows.

Little waste…

It’s amazing how much waste here is in this world. And with prices as high as they are for everything these days, I hate to waste anything.

This past year, I tried something interesting. Not sure why I thought of it, I like to think that God brought it to mind to help our budget in little ways, but the thought was there. My favorite body lotion, (from an independent company called Shaklee) and really, the only skincare item I own comes in a squeeze tube. When it gets low and starts spurting, my honey gives me his tube because he knows I can get more out of it. I pound and shake until I can’t get more squeezed out. But, about a year ago, I cut the end of the tube off to see if there was any left in the tube. I saw some around the edges. Thinking it might be enough for one after shower use, I grabbed the skinny spatula I own (Pampered Chef of course, because I love their products), and began to scrape the sides. Then I cut another hunk of tube off, scraped more, u til I was left with only tree inches of tube left near the cap. I ended up with another two weeks left of daily use left in the tube!!!

For a cap, I place a little snack baggie (reused until it can’t be used anymore) or small reusable plastic container over the top and keep it on the sink counter. It took five minutes of my time and was probably worth $3.

Now, I see if I can salvage everything that comes in a package like that! I want to get every last drop of dish soap, or liquid hand soap. Every little bit helps these days. Try it! Happy salvaging!!

So confused…

Apologies spoken without emotion. Did she mean it? Was it just to keep the relationship from disappearing? Why? She didn’t say anything when I shared the pain in my heart she had caused. But when I said I wouldn’t have a fake relationship with her, she was quick with the “Grammi, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about what I did.” But she never said, “I’m so sorry I hurt you.” The hurt is more important than the action in my book. On the one hand, she didn’t have to say anything. On the other hand, she chose to, even though I doubt the sincerity. So many questions I want to ask, but I don’t know what I can believe and what I can’t. There are things she doesn’t tell me, important things. I find out from her dad, whom she has also cut out of her life. What to believe? I feel grief for my loss, sadness for the situation she finds herself in, anger at three parties, pity for their lost, broken souls. I am so confused.