The Cheese Man : May 20

It's pizza night.  The fresh mozzarella is made and frozen just long enough to shred beautifully, then Andrew is always the one who comes in and does the shredding.  

I call him my Cheese Man.  And I love him.

First Frost

It happened.  First frost.  The ending of another garden season.  I am always happy to welcome the first frost because I know that with it, the garden chores will be coming to an end.  Trust me, by October, I am ready for them to be coming to an end!  But a garden doesn't go out with a slow fizzle but with a mad dash.  In preparation for the first frost, we had to get everything we could out of the garden and off of the trees.  And that meant a very busy week indeed.

Lots of green tomatoes to line all the windowsills and too many too small peppers (if only they had a bit more time!).  Vases of cosmos and zinnias, lemon verbena and basil, squashes both summer and winter.  Digging up the sweet potatoes.  Renegade beets.  Too many apples to pick- many still hang frozen on their branches.  All week we've been digging up and bringing in.

Saturday was applesauce making day. 37 quarts of applesauce made- and only half the apples we had picked used up.  I had hoped to make at least 52 quarts (for once a week applesauce eating) but a girl can only do so much in a day even with many small, helpful hands in the kitchen working alongside her.

The children gathered 'round and dove right in to the apple chores when I first began.  Adele' said "Mama, I wanna be just like you when I grow up.  It's so fun to can."  As time went on, one by one they eventually peetered out and scooted off to do other things, but every now and again I would find myself with some more helpers before they again scooted off.  By 6:30 pm, as I was finishing off the last of the canning dishes, Adele' had come again to help with apples and was filling up the last of the jars with applesauce.  Says she: "Canning is fun in the beginning but when you work at it all day, it can make you pretty tired."  smile.  How right you are.

I had hoped to fill up many more buckets of apples before frost so that when we host a church picnic in a few weeks, we could have a cider-making party at the same time.  The rest of the apples we never sauced will go for the cider but the yield won't be nearly as substantial as I had hoped.  I was hoping to can some cider for drinking later.  The frozen apples taunt me.  

I can never seem to get everything done that I would like and, even though this is a fact of life for every single person on this planet, it has been a constant struggle for me to accept in my own life- and probably always will be.  

I don't know why I am a glass-half-full sort of girl in every aspect of life except in regard to my own personal achievements/limitations but I don't like that about myself.  I tend to see the frozen apples on the tree, wasting away, instead of the jars on the counter.  Maybe it is a healthy way to stay humble and prevents a person from becoming stagnant in life...maybe it is a good thing.  I just wish it didn't feel so much like failing.  Is this a woman thing?  Is it a me thing?  Is it the outworking of humbleness or ingratitude?  Is it a good thing or a bad thing?  

I wonder...