A question I commonly ask students who come into my office on a Friday is, "Do you have any plans for the weekend?" A small handful will say that they do have one thing or other, but most of them say they do not. I will often reply to this that those weekends can sometimes be the best ones. This weekend, I only had two things on my plate: mow the lawn (my usual Saturday morning activity) and go to the library.
Both of those activities proved very successful. I grab three different books for myself nine books for the kids, and my wife picked up a book on CD for when she finishes her latest Audible. We we got home we were started into lunch when I got a call from my brother, Bub. He and Bluey (his wife) had been tasked with picking her parent's apricot tree clear and had called to invite us to glean what we could from the prolific tree. We readily agreed and joined them for an hour of so of picking and chatting. They showed us around the garden and we even tried black caps - a pseudo-raspberry that is not as sweet, but still savory. We came away with quite a few apricots and wondered what to do with them before they spoiled.
Originally we planned on making jam, but without the supplies and not wanting to make a run to the store, among other things, we decided on something a little different. Angel makes herself a smoothie most mornings for breakfast and likes putting frozen fruit in it for flavor. We thought that we would try freezing the apricots. We did get a couple of bags of apricot halves, but also ran a whole bunch of them through a food grinder and froze the stuff in three cup measures. We figured that we could use it for making jam later, in pies, mixed with cream for a topping, etc. In addition, we froze portions of the ground apricots on cookie sheets and placed them in backs so Angel can add one or two of them to her smoothie in the mornings.
It was a lot of work and Kanga very expertly ran the grinder, doing a great job of pushing the fruit down the chute into the screw. Luckily she was wearing coveralls so her shirt stayed clean through the who procedure. It brought back memories of helping my mother make applesauce when I was very young. Kanga let us know when she needed more and did a good job of working very hard without complaining one bit. Tigger watched, but was a little too small to contribute.
That night the kids and I read every last one of the books we got for them at the library including: Olivia Acts Out, The House on 88th East Street, Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave, and The Watering Hole. This may not seem like much in and of itself, but my mother and I suffer from the same condition. We both fall asleep when we read aloud. You may wonder how it is possible to fall asleep when you are reading and talking, but not only is it possible it is the norm in my family. I can usually read three children's books to my kids without curling up for a nap, or passing out in the middle, but that is my limit. The fact that I read nine is a huge achievement for me. Something about reading aloud puts me to sleep. I don't know why. Oddly enough we both fall asleep writing in our journals too.
Both of those activities proved very successful. I grab three different books for myself nine books for the kids, and my wife picked up a book on CD for when she finishes her latest Audible. We we got home we were started into lunch when I got a call from my brother, Bub. He and Bluey (his wife) had been tasked with picking her parent's apricot tree clear and had called to invite us to glean what we could from the prolific tree. We readily agreed and joined them for an hour of so of picking and chatting. They showed us around the garden and we even tried black caps - a pseudo-raspberry that is not as sweet, but still savory. We came away with quite a few apricots and wondered what to do with them before they spoiled.
Originally we planned on making jam, but without the supplies and not wanting to make a run to the store, among other things, we decided on something a little different. Angel makes herself a smoothie most mornings for breakfast and likes putting frozen fruit in it for flavor. We thought that we would try freezing the apricots. We did get a couple of bags of apricot halves, but also ran a whole bunch of them through a food grinder and froze the stuff in three cup measures. We figured that we could use it for making jam later, in pies, mixed with cream for a topping, etc. In addition, we froze portions of the ground apricots on cookie sheets and placed them in backs so Angel can add one or two of them to her smoothie in the mornings.
It was a lot of work and Kanga very expertly ran the grinder, doing a great job of pushing the fruit down the chute into the screw. Luckily she was wearing coveralls so her shirt stayed clean through the who procedure. It brought back memories of helping my mother make applesauce when I was very young. Kanga let us know when she needed more and did a good job of working very hard without complaining one bit. Tigger watched, but was a little too small to contribute.That night the kids and I read every last one of the books we got for them at the library including: Olivia Acts Out, The House on 88th East Street, Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave, and The Watering Hole. This may not seem like much in and of itself, but my mother and I suffer from the same condition. We both fall asleep when we read aloud. You may wonder how it is possible to fall asleep when you are reading and talking, but not only is it possible it is the norm in my family. I can usually read three children's books to my kids without curling up for a nap, or passing out in the middle, but that is my limit. The fact that I read nine is a huge achievement for me. Something about reading aloud puts me to sleep. I don't know why. Oddly enough we both fall asleep writing in our journals too.
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