Wouldn't You Know It

I did it. I stemmed, skinned, and quartered my tomatoes, just like the recipe said. I covered them and cooked them for 10 minutes until they were tender, just like the recipe said. I set the pan into cold water to cool, just like the recipe said. It all took less than 25 minutes. Simple.

We all sat at the dining room table, the children to colour with felts, and me to read aloud from Sterling North's "Rascal".

Little Man went to the sink to wash his hands. I said, "run the tap into the big sink, because the tomatoes are cooling in the little sink." And he did! Simple.

Then, a few minutes later, I noticed the sound of the tap again. I stood up, looked in the sink and saw a used dishcloth in the pan of stewed tomatoes. I looked closer and saw another used dishcloth beside the first. I broadened my view and saw Brown-Eyed Boy standing at the sink, washing his hands with a third cloth, one edge dangling in the pan, the other carefully rubbing the felt pen marks from his fingers. And I saw that the fill level in the pan was inches higher than I had left it with only stewed tomatoes. Now it had approximately three cups of water in it as well. Ruined.

At least it had been simple.

If it had been complicated or labour intensive, I might have had to cry. As it was I just took a couple of deep breaths, sat back on my chair, closed my eyes for a moment, whispered a prayer for grace, and went on reading Rascal to the children as they coloured.

Simple.

Crochet an Afghan this Fall

This lovely afghan pattern was in my inbox yesterday. I think I'm going to try it, although I'll have to substitute yarn as the one recommended isn't available in my adorable small town.

My Mom has made tons of afghans over the years, including a lovely one that sits on my living room armchair waiting to be curled up in. Now it's my turn to try my hand at it and make a companion curl-up-afghan for the upcoming cool weather evenings. (Maybe I'll have to make three so we won't be fighting over them - the one we have from Mom gets nabbed by the first person on the couch, and the rest of us do without - or share, but you know how smooth that can be!)

Summer Bounty

Little Man's tomato plants have been producing steadily, as have my own patio and cherry tomatoes. But now My Girl's crop is beginning to ripen and there are just too many tomatoes for us to eat as is.

Lovely reds in Little Man's square foot boulevard garden

Strong stems supported by cages. A neighbourhood animal pulled over one of the cages last night and I found 3 lovely, large, green tomatoes on the ground. Sad.

My Girl's tomatoes beginning to ripen. Do you see the green one on the left? Right below it, hiding behind a bright leaf is another orange one, waiting its turn for harvest.

What do we do with tomatoes too plentiful to keep up with but not plentiful enough to can using the recipes that I have in my books?

Produce brought into the house in the last 2 days.

I've decided to try stewing and freezing them as it seems to be the simplest way to handle them, and I'm all for simple!

I'd love to hear more small batch preserving ideas, things that I can do a bit at a time as the crop becomes more than daily food. Any ideas?

The children have loved watching their plants grow, flower, and produce; now it's time for me to do something with them that we can enjoy later in the year.

One of two peppers growing in Little Man's garden.

My Girl's garden next to the playhouse. Her peppers aren't producing yet, but the cucumber is twining itself through the tomatoes.

One of the two cucumbers. We're watching to see how much it plumps up at the top!

Just for fun, a shot of my butterfly garden. I'm so pleased with the colours and textures!

Sorrow

Hesitant fingers touch my keyboard tonight.

There is much at risk in writing and recently I paid the price. Words written are hard to retract. They carry less context than those spoken. Convenient, writing is. It allows me time to think before my words are passed on to another, time to re-frame, time to reconsider.

But fully reliable as a means of communication, writing is not. The blessing I have of being able to live with my own emotions about the words, to ponder them and mull them over is one that the receiver has not had. All the receiver is given are the words themselves. And as much as I can try to imbue those words with the feelings and sensitivity that I am thinking as I write there is no guarantee that they will be fully transferred to the receiver.

Where my words caused pain this week, I tried to bring healing, but there is now a breach in a relationship that will take time to heal. And the healing will leave a scar, I know - a scar that will be a constant reminder to me to not take lightly the power of written words.

My heart is heavy. My thoughts no longer pour through my fingers. My sorrow is for the friendship that has been damaged, for the brokenness in me, for the strain of relating to one I've hurt, for the pain of relating to one who has hurt me.

Deani's Research Trip to Ambleside

This summer Deani and a handful of other CM researchers spent time at the Armitt in Ambleside. It's true! Deani was there!

You are all invited to read about the time she spent there and to view the stunning pictures of the Ambleside environs on the ChildLight USA blog. This is a direct link to her post and from that post you can read previous posts on the ChildLight blog. There's a treasure of knowledge and encouragement there!

Welcome home, Deani! Pack me in your suitcase next time - although I probably weigh more than a printer/scanner/computer/recording device all put together. Hmmm. But, then again, I'd help you carry your bags once we arrived!

Home Again

I've been putting off posting about our trip to Colorado. It seems that writing about it will end it completely. And yet there is so much to think about, to process, to share. It'll just have to come out in little bits because to do it all at once is too overwhelming! Besides that, I've sprained my little finger on my left hand (yes, I am left handed) and so typing is a challenge that I hadn't anticipated.

The photo in this post is the sky over the Rocky Mountains at the YMCA of the Rockies near Winter Park, Colorado. Every day of the Renovare Covenant Retreat included a time to practise the discipline of silence, and this sky was one of the gifts God gave me during my silence.

Now I need to go catch up on some of the work I've been putting off - fall is coming and the school year will soon be upon us. I better get to work.

One Hundred Species Challenge

Sandy Rusby Bell pointed me to this great idea. The point is to familiarize yourself with 100 species of plant life within walking distance of your home. Read the whole post to get instructions on how it works. It sounds like a great way to kick-start nature study for the new school year. Even if you don't blog yourself, you can do this in your nature journals, or even email this blog and share your information here, that way we can all benefit from what each of us learn. Do any of you think you'll give it a try? Please leave a comment if you plan to participate in this challenge.

We're getting ready to start school again after a wonderful summer of travel, play, and simply change of pace. Keep watching for the 2008-2009 meeting schedule which you'll receive in your inbox as well as post here on the blog.

Blessings to everyone these last weeks of summer!

Jennifer