garden woes

September is my favorite month. School starts, the weather tempers, the leaves turn, and the garden gives us its very best. This year our garden makes me think that Mother Nature is a jokester, for instead of my seeds growing where I carefully placed them in the spring, it looks as though I sowed them by flinging them in the air on a windy day! I have carrots in the asparagus, a tomato plant in the middle of the carrots, and a lovely acorn squash at home among the beets. I’d say only 10% of the corn came up and it certainly wasn’t knee-high by the 4th of July (Nebraska’s standard for a successful corn crop). Although this year’s garden is peculiar, it doesn’t really bother me, for I am still happy with whatever the garden is producing and I am happy that my plants are filling the measure of their creation, wherever they grow.
But there is another strange thing going on. The tomato plants are producing nicely, or so it would appear. But just as the tomatoes get ripe enough to “pick tomorrow”, they disappear before “tomorrow” comes. The neighbors report sightings of a pair of very large raccoons in the neighborhood. They come out at night and invade our yards and, I suspect, gardens. Early in the summer I would wake about 3:00 every morning when our dog dashed outside to scare something away. Hmmm. It isn’t happening anymore. I suspect that our dog, who is always on top of any invading mice, birds and squirrels, is too intimidated by those raccoons the same size as she is. And so she cowers inside, letting them have their way with our produce. Mother Nature may be a jokester, but I have a trick or two up my sleeve, too. From now on I’m not waiting until “tomorrow” to pick the tomatoes, I am picking “today”!

wise words

Heber J. Grant loved this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased.”

Heber J. Grant believed this with all his heart and proved it many times over through persistence and hard work. Ralph Waldo Emerson was indeed a very wise man. Here are some of his other gems of wisdom:



“Whatever you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children… to leave the world a better place… to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

Have a successful day today, dear friends!

"cat"-napped

I have kept pretty good journals over the years, particularly of the doings of my young children (I wanted documentation). Although I didn’t get down everything noteworthy, I am very glad for what I did write, it is an important insight into the workings of developing individuals. Jesse’s journal has been a source of great delight to the whole family; there have been times when his siblings would be blue or bored and suggest, “Let’s read Jesse’s journals!” In no time they’d be rolling on the floor laughing so hard at the antics of that boy. There was the time he kicked a greenie Elder in the shin with his cowboy boots just because “He was looking at me funny.” And the time he went right up to a stranger smoking outside the library and told him, “You are going to die.” (Thankfully, the man took no offense, but agreed that smoking is very bad and cautioned him never to start). By the time Jesse was nine, we thought (hoped) he was growing out of some of his impulsiveness. But then we had a wild summer full of unusual adventures, culminating with the incident known as the “kidnapping”.

Neighbors down the street came knocking one day, looking for their missing cat; had we seen it? No, hadn’t seen it. The next day they came again, “Are you sure you haven’t seen it? We think Jesse might have it.” No, still hadn’t seen it. I thought it was peculiar that they thought Jesse had it, I didn’t know where he would have it; but then Jesse got blamed for a lot of things. The next day they came again, “We really think Jesse has our cat; we think he kidnapped it.” By this time I was getting a little perturbed and the Momma Bear began to emerge. “Jesse doesn’t have your cat! How in the world could Jesse kidnap your cat? The cat can jump over the fence; the cat can crawl under the gate. What makes you think Jesse has your cat?” My husband overheard the exchange and came to the door. In his mind was the thought, “If anyone could kidnap a cat, Jesse could… if anyone would kidnap a cat, it would be Jesse.” He told the neighbor children he’d check into it. He approached Aaron, Jesse’s younger brother and likely partner in crime. Aaron was at that lovely innocent age when lying is still a foreign concept. “Oh, yes, Jesse has a cat. He has him in a cage made of wood scraps, hidden in the alley up the street a ways. He’s had him for three days and has been taking him food and water. Wanna see it?” Jesse returned the cat to its rightful owners, wrote a heartfelt apology letter, and worked hard all afternoon making homemade cinnamon rolls as a peace offering.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, children have a way of opening your eyes a little wider…

divine direction

“It is said that the very hairs of your head are all numbered; is it not to teach us that nothing, not the smallest things imaginable, happen to us by chance? But if the smallest things we can conceive of are declared to be under the divine direction, need we, or can we, be more plainly taught that the greatest things of life, such as the manner of our coming into the world, our parents, the time, and other circumstances of our birth and condition, are all according to the eternal purposes, direction, and appointment of divine Providence?” (A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, William Law, Sovereign Grace Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1971.)

as American as...

It is time to be thinking about the fall apple crop. Nearly 30 years ago, a friend told me about this recipe for home-processed apple pie filling but said she had tried it and it turned out horribly so she was reluctant to share it with me. I talked her into giving it to me anyway and I have used it all these years with wonderful results. I make several batches each year to have plenty on hand. It is wonderful for a quick, easy dessert; many claim it is the best apple pie they’ve ever had. Make it with the traditional double crust (I’ve included my own recipe for pie crust) or try it with the Apple Crumb topping in place of the top crust (that’s the way my family likes it). A jar of the filling makes a beautiful gift, too.


BOTTLED APPLE PIE FILLING
Mix together in a large pot:
4 ½ Cups sugar
1 Cup cornstarch
2 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
Add 10 Cups water and cook over medium heat until bubbly.
Add 3 Tbsp. lemon juice. Remove from heat.
Prepare 7 quarts of apples*, peeled, and thinly sliced. Pour syrup over apples, using a skewer to work out air pockets. Fill bottles to ½” from top. Cap and process in a cold water bath or steamer for 20 minutes.
*I use either golden delicious or granny smith, but any tart apple works well.


APPLE CRUMB PIE
Empty one jar apple pie filling (see previous recipe) into unbaked pie shell.
In a small bowl combine:
¾ Cup flour
½ Cup sugar
With a pastry blender, cut in 1/3 Cup butter until mixture resembles cornmeal. Sprinkle over apples.
Bake 40 minutes at 400 .


PIE CRUST
2 Cups flour
½ tsp. salt
10 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. shortening
¼ Cup ice water
Mix four and salt. Cut shortening and butter in until mixture resembles cornmeal. Stir in water slowly, adding a little more if needed just until mixture will stick to itself. Makes enough for two crusts. *Roll out scraps, cut into squares, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake for a delicious pie crust cookie.

school

It’s that time of year, the days turn ever so slightly shorter, the mornings are just a touch cooler, and school supplies fill the store shelves. I love this time of year, I love the exciting anticipation of school starting. I loved school, learning new and wonderful things, opening new books, sharpening new pencils (I used to name my two number twos and took care to help them last all school year). Clean white paper just cried out for words and numbers to be written on it. Perhaps that is why I wanted to be a teacher.

Now my excitement is in watching my children return to school. And all six of them have. Nate teaches history to 8th-graders by day and teaches a college history class at night. Eli is in a masters program (psychology) at UCCS. Jesse is in his last quarter at BYU (psychology) and Aaron is a junior there (speech pathology). Hannah and Isaac are both in high school, she is a senior and he is a freshman. One of my daughters-in-law is even a part-time substitute teacher!

I do my learning from books these days, finding great volumes at thrift stores. But I have an urge to buy my own school supplies; I could use some brand new number twos!

totally cool

Two weeks ago my 14-yr old son, Isaac, announced he was going “swimming” up in the mountains with his scouting friends and their leader. They came to pick him up and I asked if I needed to sign a trip permit of some kind. No, it was just an informal activity. As it turns out, they went cliff-diving! He had a fabulous time jumping off 40-foot cliffs into a pool too deep to even touch bottom. The only mishap was when he neglected to keep his arms tight against his body on one jump, smacking his forearm pretty hard. I was glad he had the adventure, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was also glad I didn’t know about it ahead of time, you know how mothers can worry…
Then just this weekend my nearly-18-year-old daughter went to the shooting range with her older brothers. She got to try out Eli’s 40 caliber Glock handgun. She was totally into it, that fierce stance, arms outstretched, “Make my day” written all over her face. Thirteen shots emptied the clip, then she reloaded in a heartbeat, emptying 5 clips. She was so excited about the whole experience, she said she felt like Jason Bourne. She and Eli have a date to the gun show next weekend; she wants a 9mm Glock for Christmas this year…
I am so proud of my children!