Here and There

It is BLACK as night here and it is mid-morning. The rain is just a pouring down. More springy than fallish but who's complaining? That just makes me focus on inside tasks...
.......................................like blogging. hehehe

At dusk, my daily ritual is to turn on my stained glass lamp in the big window. Sort of like a lighthouse beacon. I want it to be a beacon to our home. I guess today it can be on ALL day! :-)


Hoooo-wee. This is going to be an interesting week-and next week even more so. This weekend we are meeting my sister in Williamsport (our half-way point) and then the children and I will be riding up with her to spend the week visiting my family in New York. An extended visit.
The following weekend, Matt will drive up and join us to celebrate at Oma and Opa’s anniversary dinner and then we will all come home. This will be the LONGEST time away from Matt that we have ever endured-the longest thus far being two nights on a business trip. And the thing is-it is VOLUNTARY! No business trip is requiring us to be apart, it is just an opportunity for me to have a good sit down visit with my family.
Our past visits are always hurried and cramped-and often with the Newman side, so it is needed. But nights will be ever so long and I will miss him so terribly. I will sob like a lunatic when we part, I just know it.

Of course, I might be loony by then ANYWAY, because preparations for such an extended time away are not few! Among the chores…
~Make and can applesauce, apple butter, and (possibly) pumpkin butter
~Pack clothes and everything else needed for a week.
~Do laundry
~Stock freezer with meals for Matt (so far I have…pizza, meatloaf, browned ground beef for tacos or spaghetti, and beef stew. Although-he assures me if I stock up on Lucky Charms he would be happy…)
~Write A ‘Remember’ list for Matt.
~Make some sheets for Corynn to do while away and a practice Memory Verse card.
~Pack up some crafty stuff and a book to wittle away my lonesome nights.

…And I am not sure what all else. As it gets closer HOPEFULLY I will figure it all out. This is a HUGE deal as I have NEVER packed up children for so long a time. I have no idea how many diapers to pack…

So I wrote about applesauce on my to-do list. I made it to Way Fruit Farm this weekend for some apples and asked about prices.

The ‘good’ apples were $15.00 a bushel (those are prime…)
‘Seconds’ are apples that were picked from the ground. Most LOOK prime and taste prime but you get a better deal on them. These are apples that you have to request because they don’t advertise. These apples in a specific variety were $12.00 a bushel
And then there were what they called ‘Deer apples’ which were ‘seconds’ but were all the different apple varieties mixed up. They were $4.00 a bushel.

Can you guess which one I got?!?!?

I was so pleased to get three bushels of apples for the price I expected to pay for ONE. The Amish roadside stand offered me a bushel of apples for $19.00!!! Sheesh! Thank goodness I looked around. Now it is just a matter of getting motivated to get to making applesauce and butter. I think I will make ALL of these into applesauce and butters because of our trip this weekend and next week. Perhaps I will go back to get a bushel more for pies and such when I have time to devote to more finicky recipes. And who knows? If Matt gets that cider press made, we may go back for quite a few more bushels to make cider. We will see about that though. It seems to me a more problematic process than to Matt.

And for those who wouldn't know right off...

Three ways you know your house is CO-OLD…

*Baby goes to bed with a onesie, long johns, and a blanket sleeper, socks and MITTENS. (I am saving the hat for REAL winter.)

*You start baking bread in the oven instead of the bread machine. (Actually, it was SO cold, I made cheese and beer bread, cinnamon rolls and a batch of soft pretzels. Those pretzels were GOOD-especially with the honey mustard dip I made or dipped in cinnamon sugar. I was trying to think of the other dips that Auntie Anne Pretzels offers with THEIRS but couldn’t think of any to reproduce except cheese. Anyone know? ) My favorite were the scrumptious cinnamon rolls though!

*You haven’t turned the heat on but it turns on anyway because it must heat the house to the start of the thermostat, which is 35.

That about sums up news on this home front.

BTW~ The children and I will be staying at my parents house who have wireless internet. So, I will be living with internet luxury for a week-so don’t think you will be rid of me!!! :-) In fact, no doubt, I will be blogging MORE to get my mind off of…well, things. Els~I will get to feel 1/6th of what you just recently felt. I wonder if I am as strong as you….