I found my thrill

Well, it's that time again...time for picking blueberries at Rouster's. The Rouster family has been hosting blueberry pickers for decades, and our family for a decade now. They have acres of land planted in blueberries, blackberries, and apples. (They are also the place-the only place-I will buy apples.)

Blueberry picking is a family tradition for us. I love this tradition. The first berries are so big and yummy! They are the largest variety. This year they were easily bigger than my thumb nail. And every year I swear they taste like flowers. Zi, who loves to argue, decided to argue with me about that. I told her this: When you are a mom and taking your kids blueberry picking, you will try a blueberry and think that it tastes like flowers. And you will remember my telling you this.

She was unimpressed.

The guy one row over in the Franciscan robes was more impressed. I kid you not, he was truly in one of those long brown robes, like Friar Tuck. Very friendly too. So I just looked up Franciscans on Wikipedia but couldn't figure out what order he would be a part of. Very interesting reading, though. And he was from the West Side, and I should have asked him if he knew Friend Barb, but I didn't think of it until just now.

I digress.

Anyway, there were something like a gazillion people there. I've never seen so many people there at one time, and like I said, we've been going there for 10 years. Don't know what was up but it was packed. And remarkably, everyone was walking out with pounds and pounds of blueberries. I wonder how many pounds of blueberries they produce in a year there? The line to pay was so incredibly long that I told Friend Husband to go stand in it while I continued picking and chatting with Sarah, Abby, and some other random person from the east side, this time. One of the pleasures of picking is meeting people and chatting. It's amazing how friendly people can be at this event. Eventually Friend Husband was at the frontish part of the line and he called us over. We had been picking for at least 20 minutes, maybe longer since he started to stand in line.

I think we ended up with between 25 & 30 pounds of luscious blue orbs of deliciousness. I took this picture with my phone (camera's dead and of course no one knows what has become of the charger) after we had hiked to the back 40 with our booty. Notice anything?

That's right, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Rachel declined to come with us. Yes, she had been up and down all night but her main excuse was that she never got a chance to sleep in, now that she works every morning and has to be there at 8. Boo hoo. As I told Friend Husband, getting up at 7 isn't exactly rising before dawn. This is a big family event and important to me. He was more inclined to give her a break and so she got to stay home. I missed her.

And thus ends my second blog post in as many days. I'm attempting to do NaBloPoMo this month. My blog could use an infusion and I could use the discipline. So probably I'll mess up real soon and not blog for a month because that's how my life goes. Perhaps not. But right now I'm going to go eat lunch and finish up with some yummy blueberries for dessert!

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

Fear and other weirdness

Have I mentioned how much I love Saturdays?  Well, I do.  As Keziah would say, "I just yuv them!"  Friend Husband is a kind and generous being to give me time alone and time to catch up on school stuff.  I'm caught up on laundry and almost caught up on school, after my brief, panicked hiatus during the last week of NaNo.

Friend Husband was on a tear this morning.  Generally speaking, he is the calmest, most reasonable person on the planet.  Very annoying to those of us who aren't, but I've grown to appreciate it after the turmoil of my childhood days.  Today was one of those rare days when he was angry with our slacker children and let them see it.

Abigail and David are our primary slackers and were today.  Abby had a major deficit in her school papers 2 weeks ago and had to spend the entire weekend catching up.  Friend Husband adjured her to not get so far behind again and I attempted to ride her hind end to keep her current.  She still did not finish her work yesterday but since we all wanted to go see the Goshen High School play, we told her that she could finish it this morning.  She attempted again to slack this morning and Dad put his foot down.  There was much whining and puling in the ranks. 

David just didn't want to pick up the Perler beads that he continually spills all over the family room floor.

Friend Husband was quite firm and then even sounded angry with Abby as she continued to push buttons and slither out of her work.  It apparently didn't have a major effect on her, but it freaked me out.  My emotions were saying, "Ack!  He's mad!  It's all my fault!  I have to do better!"  My rational mind was saying, "Um, chill?  You aren't the slacker here."

"Yes I am!"

"No, you're not."

And so on.

It's amazing what your childhood can do to you your whole life.

In other breaking news, I got good mail today!  Woot!  Cousin Gwen finally sent me a copy of her mother's family tree.  Let me 'splain.  Aunt Nina was famous for "being nosy" and putting stuff down in her "family notebook".  When she passed, we all wanted to see what was in the notebook.  She had recorded a great many things of interest to this budding genealogist, dates, names, children, marriage dates, death dates, etc.  I asked Cousin Gwen to please please please send me a copy of this and that was what came in the mail today.  In addition to the tree information, which I had seen before, she sent a copy of "Memories of Mother's Family" and "Memories of Father's Family", which I hadn't yet seen.  Unbelievably cool.  I did the happy dance all the way back down the driveway and was absorbed in the pages as soon as I could get them out of the envelope.  I was interrupted before I could really read the "Memories" parts but I hope to be able to sit down and look at them soon.  (To those of you who are family and read this, this is the Anderson side of my mother's family, not the Carlson side.)

What else?  Went to the play last night, wherein the lovely and talented Rogers girls (Hannah and Elizabeth) played Dr. Jacqueline Hyde and Miss Hope Leslie Trite in Alibis.  That whole troupe did a fabulous job.  It was an enjoyable farce.  Tonight, some of us are going to go back to see Rachel D.'s debut onstage as Miss Trite.  Should be interesting.  I hope to be able to post pictures sometime next week, as I want to get Rachel's before I post them.

Wow, seems like I had piles of things to say but I guess I don't.  Ha...I don't guess that I usually do anyway but that doesn't stop me.  Hope y'all have a lovely weekend!

It's snowing?

Hello?  It's November 15th?  And what to my wondering eyes did appear, but SNOW falling from a sky so drear.

While I was not born there, I spent all but one year of my formative years in Texas, mostly in Austin and environs.  It did not snow in Austin.  Well, it did, but when it did, the entire city closed down until it melted.  No snow plows there, ya know.  And it was a grand and wonderful holiday for those of us deprived children who rarely saw the white stuff.

When we moved to Missouri after we married, I delighted in the snowfall.  Friend Husband, not so much.  (He hasn't the added insulation that I have.)  I'd call my mother in fiendish delight when I saw the first flakes of the year falling.  Mother, who had spent a cold year or so in North Dakota, would always respond, "Better you than me!"  It was a tradition that fell by the wayside when she passed.  I mean, who else could I call with such obvious delight and receive such a loving but curmudgeonly response?  Only my dear mama.

I have, however, passed my love of snow on to my girls (the twins don't seem so enamored of it).  We go out and dance in the first snow. 

I knew it had gotten cold last night and it was cloudy.  But it didn't seem nearly cold enough to snow, not to mention that it's NOVEMBER and it rarely snows in Cincinnati in November.  Imagine my surprise when I went out to mail a couple of letters (Bethany, you've got one on the way!) and noticed the flurries.  I had seen some before, when I was waving Friend Husband off to the salt  mines, but I'd dismissed it as the aberration of a troubled mind in the midst of NaNo, with not enough sleep in my brain.  But the flakes I saw later were bigger and more copious.

I had just gotten onto the girls for not working diligently on their schoolwork before I went outside.  I popped back inside and hollered, "Girls!  It's snowing!", which exclamation was echoed in their excited voices.  When I got back into the house, there was a happy dance going on in the dining room (no shoes on the feet = no dancing in the snow outside) and plans underway to get snow gear on and revel in it.  I believe it was Sarah who burst the excitement balloons for them by saying, "It's not going to snow enough to romp in."  No matter, we were excited.

Yes, we're weird but we like it that way.

Have a great day!  It's snowing in Milford, OH!  Since my own mama is not around, I'll just announce it to the Internets at large.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Thank God for His blessings

It finally rained here! I don't know how many weeks we've been without it but it's been at least 3. I let the twins go out and play in the gentle raindrops most of the afternoon. At first I made them stay on the porch but upon watching a lot of the neighborhood children out in it I thought, "Why not?" It wasn't thundering, the flow was gentle, and they play in the sprinkler half the summer anyway. I sat on the porch, reading and knitting and trying to recover from this irritating cold.

Friend Husband took the twins with him to work this morning to pick up some articles he has to read and evaluate for his fall classes. While they were gone, I sank into a deep sleep, certain sign that I'm sick. When I woke up I felt a lot better. At least my brain wasn't as foggy, although my body was still yucky.

We had already decided to celebrate my birthday today because we were still in recovery mode on Sunday but I told Friend Husband that if I didn't feel better, I didn't want to celebrate today. This whole birthday thing has been sort of a wash anyway. I totally see why people just ignore them. For my 30th birthday, I threw a big party for me, my mom, and my mil. They turned 50 and 60, respectively, that summer (my mil's birthday is 3 days after mine) and we also got a commemorative photo taken. We agreed to do this once a decade, have a party and take another picture. Of course, they're both gone. Barbara, my late, great mil, passed about a year and a half after the big party and Mom lasted 6 years. And here I am.

Anyway, Friend Husband, ever the loving spouse, brought home yummy Chinese food and cheesecake for my birthday dinner...wonderful! Before we ate, the girls gave me their gifts. (Doug had given me his the night before because he figured he couldn't hide it from me very easily...shows what he knows. I've been so out of it today that I'm not sure I would have noticed. He gave me 3 big hanging baskets full of flowers, so I do have a few flowers still living.) Rachel gave me some scented tarts (that you melt in a ceramic tart burner) and a bottle of rose-scented room spray (the girl knows what I love). Abigail gave me some coffee-scented tarts (yum) and a mug that she had attached a note to proclaiming it to be for "Her Royal Majesty". Sarah, with her usual wit and concern, had given me a bag upon which she'd lettered, "Motherhood survival kit: Aspirin not included". Inside was a bag of dark chocolate-almond truffles and a homemade coupon book with such coupons as "30 minutes of twin watch" and "free dinner where Mom doesn't have to do anything". I loved it, of course! My family is so very sweet.

Not much else to say (plus I can feel my brain shutting down) so I'll skedaddle. Blessings on you all tonight....

Weirdness

Currently ReadingA Winding Path (Miriam's Journal, Book 2)By Carrie Bendersee related

Well, the big 4-0 has come and gone. Sort of. Because we were so tanked from our trip to Oklahoma, we decided to postpone Father's Day and my birthday celebration. So I got a much-needed nap yesterday (keeled over cooking lunch, don't ya know) and we'll celebrate on Tuesday.

Don't exactly know where my camera is. Don't exactly know if my USB cord for it works at all since it freaked out when I used it to attach my fil's digital photo frame to it. So no pictures yet.

The red OK mud still adorns the Big Black Van. That stuff should be sold for cement.

A few casualty of our trip: the herbs I planted before we left actually leaped out of the ground, effectively committing suicide in the aridity that is Cincinnati these days; some of the flowers I planted don't look too healthy. All in all, though, I was satisfied. Of course, I haven't gone out to the vegetable garden yet. I may be sobbing in my coffee before long.

Another biggie: I talked to my cousin last night. Why is this a biggie? Because this is a cousin I've never actually met and one that I only knew of in a vague way. So she's about a year younger than I am, lives in St. Louis, and has one daughter. It was weird, talking to her. I'm sure it was the same for her. Here's this person you're related to but who you don't know at all. Actually, on my father's side, there's a lot of that. I was not allowed to know anything about his family when I was growing up and all I've gathered has been after I grew up. And now there's Shawn...weird stuff but wonderful. Life in the age of Jerry Springer.

And now I'll gird up, check the garden (bet the weeds grew despite the lack of rain) and hang up laundry. We might get a sprinkle or two tomorrow and we have loads and loads of camp laundry to process today. I love hanging laundry (getting in touch with my inner-almost-Amish, I guess) and love the scent of line-dried wash. And I need to get hold of Friend Gina and see what's up with the coupons she got for me last weekend when I was in Okie-homa.

And Friend Husband is talking to me so I'll go. Weirdness. I was gone from most technology last week and didn't miss it. But it's so easy to get back into it again. Phone on the shoulder, fingers to the keyboard. Later days, dudes.