My cup runneth over

 

 

 

 

The sap buckets runneth over.  It would be a grand problem indeed if sap wasn't perishable.  I could take my good old time boiling it down bit by bit with nary a concern in the world.  But now the days are warmer (blessed days!) and the sap isn't being 'refrigerated' by the frigid mudroom any longer which means they are in danger of spoiling (gasp!).  I've actually run out of Price Chopper 5 gallon buckets to use because they are all sitting there, tapping their impatient toes to get in the sauna.  I try to keep up but the woodstove is only so big and the sap takes SO LONG to boil down. 

So syrupping reminders are in syrup jars on the counters, sap buckets in the mudroom, on the woodstove and finishing on the gas stove...it's the first thing to do in the morning and the last thing to take care of at night.  It occupies my thoughts and my days.  I think I finally have this thing down.

Yesterday we went to the library and they were dusting/deep cleaning the shelves and everywhere there was the scent of lemons and books.  I loved it.  I came straight home and started to spring clean the living room.  I picked up a couch full of little things that get missed at the nightly clean-up...playmobil bits and bobs, a random Lincoln log, marbles that all roll to one particular corner because the house slopes just a bit... I dusted and changed all the darker table scarves with bright, cheery white ones.  I even starched and ironed a table cloth and some doilies and felt very, very happy doing it. 

It has been a slow winter, long and drawn out.  Syrupping is the beginning warm-up before things get fast and furious.  But I am ready.  SO ready.

Speaking of fast and furious~ eight years ago today I had a sweet little black-haired, black-eyed baby boy just a week before we had to move away from our little duplex apartment.  I remember packing up the boxes of baby things that I had just set out, all in a haze of wonderment at my boy.  Eight years later, he causes me to wonder in different ways.  ;-) 

Sweet baby.  Sweet boy.

And now, I have a cake to bake!