Applesauce

We made applesauce this week - a gift from the yellow transparent tree (the only one which really ever produces much). The victorio strainer makes it SO MUCH easier, as you don't have to peel or core the apples. I did core them, however, because enough were wormy I didn't want any surprises.

However, in hours worked, those 23 pints took between four and six hours - hardly a good investment if you were paying yourself anything. I choose to count it this way: the hours I spent picking apples and bottling applesauce were cheap "entertainment" - as I spent no money while I was working.

Steve made the comment, "You really don't see other ladies canning, do you?" I thought, "No, because they are smart. I could buy applesauce for less than a dollar a can and be done with it in ten minutes." Yet, canning is almost a heritage for me. I have so many memories of Mom snipping beans, canning peaches, bottling cherries, making applesauce, freezing corn. During the summer months, Dad spend several hours a night planting, watering, weeding, harvesting, and fertilizing. It was a big part of their lives.

While I do love the fresh produce, finding a way to utilize the bounties from the yard seems part of the stewardship. Mom and Dad were both great stewards of what they had been given. They canned it or gave it away. Nothing was wasted.

Next year may be I'll go with the "give it away" option - but I'll need to spray, as not many people want wormy apples, even if they're free.

So smart

Remember the days when you thought you were smart? It's been a long time for me.

It was fun having the grandkids to the lake. Since my Upwards strategy is definitely an anytime, bounded, greedy one, I could play Racko with Zach and Upwards with Trisha and Steve at the same time. Racko rules went something like this. You grabbed a card, pronounced the number (sometimes accompanied by "this is my favorite number"), and stated where you were placing it in your rack. The first one to fill the rack won. I commented on how well Zach could pronounce the numbers - even fifty two and thirty six. 14 became "One D four" and 30 became "thirty zero". When I told him how impressed I was, he said, "Yeah, I am smart!"

He is starting to read. Trisha is such a great mom. As words were played in Upwards that he could sound out, Trisha would have him read to us. It won't be long for he'll be reading chapter books.

Zach loves the hide-a-bed in the basement. He must be the only person in the family who likes that bed, so he has no contenders. It is a great bed for climbers and has a convenient view of the TV.

Zach has to eat on the little picnic table, not only because it is just his size, but has the added advantage that no one comments on what he is eating when he is away from the rest of us. A private table definitely has appeal. He loved playing restaurant with the play or imaginary food, but real food held little enticement.

At the beach, Zach so loves kids he starts playing ball with some girls in the next group. He's got a pretty good kick. At the pool, he loved jumping to Grandpa or landing on the rubber mat in the water.

Halle loves the beach. She sprinkles sand over her head until her blond hair is completely covered. She is an eater - the "carnivore" as she is called by her mom. She loves chicken, hot dogs, grapes, cheese, Cheerios,milk, corn. She is starting to talk so much. While she attempts a lot of words- ball, dog, grandma, papa, Zach, thank you, bye, milk - the word she pronounces the plainest is "dirt", which came in handy with all the sand everywhere. While she complained if we asked her to wear a life jacket, she spent most of the morning carrying the orange floaties with her arms placed through the holes. She is definitely a mama's girl, but would tolerate the walk with grandma solely because of all the dogs we saw along the beach.

Halle loves water. At the pool, she would jump from sides as long as anyone consented to catch her. She would bend over and blow bubbles in the water.

Everywhere she goes she finds something which interests her. The stairs at the condo are her favorite as the slats mean she can navigate the stairs upright. She loves cars (making the sounds) and girl toys. She found a six inch red string of beads and thought that was the most wonderful thing - putting it on her head (as it was too short for a necklace) and placing it in her mouth. When we could get it away from her, it ended up in the trash.

Ah, to be so smart - loving life and enjoying anything you find along the way. I could use such wisdom.

Punctuation

We spent the weekend at the lake again. JaNae and Lynda brought Grandma Allan on Friday. Trish and the kids joined us. I watched the kids while the rest of them went to Cafe Sabor. Trisha stayed with Grandma and the kids while the rest of us went for a walk along the beach. One of my favorite things to do is walk along the shore line. We walked so far, we got to a part where the seashells were ten inches thick. It looked like gravel, but was terrible to walk through. The shells slipped between the sole of your flip flops and your foot, cutting into you as you walked. We were gone far longer than we planned, but we had a great time visiting.

JaNae and Lynda were concerned with Grandma's home. She doesn't have the strength to water hanging plants that used to adorn her patio. Her yard is a far cry from the glory years, but at thirty dollars an hour for good gardening help and the need for a couple of hours of gardening per day, it becomes a financial impossibility to keep it the way she used to. She has four flower beds in the front yard, in addition to beds along the side of the house and flower beds all along the fence of a huge yard. She's had bugs in her grass, so even the grass isn't up to its old glory. I think its time for some redesign.

Inside the house, the shower is slippery, the throw rugs are a danger, and getting out of her chairs is more and more of a struggle every day. Plus, she gets so lonely. Everyone helps. Norm comes every week to take her out to dinner. Bob takes care of the garbage. Kathy has been coming several times a week to help with the shower and transports Grandma to her weekly hair appointment. We take care of Sunday dinner. Steve goes grocery shopping with her once a week and often takes her for a ride to see the beautiful valley. JaNae and Lynda call every day and visit often. But her friends are dying or in worse shape than she is. She can't enjoy the things she used to do. She gets bored.

But this weekend, Grandma enjoyed the great grand kids, seeing the canyon, and enjoying the company. It was needed punctuation for an otherwise routine existence.

Signs of Fall

It took me years to appreciate Fall. When I was a student and would see the "back to school" advertisements, I would be filled with sudden dread. While I have always loved school and learning, school was always filled with anxiety - and a sadness for the end of summer. Once it was time for graduate school, Fall brought the anxiety of new classes, a new apartment, life away from family. As a Mom, Fall meant the end of delightful times with the kids and the stress of homework and daily demands. After my PhD, Fall brought the stress of new preparations, a rigid schedule, and lots of work. It's only been the last few years when the back to school signs don't elicit any stress.

At the lake, the six inch pond on the beach was colder than the lake - a sign that evening temperatures are dipping. Our tomato plants are eye level. We've only harvested a dozen cherry tomatoes, but if the weather will just hold out, we should have bucket loads. The raspberries have dwindled. Plums are getting ripe. Beans are producing enough to keep us is beans for dinner every day. The peppers are trying hard to get enough sun to thrive. We've even harvested a few cucumbers - and to think I thought they were squash! I planted so many cucumbers and squash that died, I wasn't sure what was planted where. The yellow transparent apples are WONDERFUL. I'm reminded of Grandma Hurst every time I get out my salt shaker to enjoy their tart flavor.

We start into college and department retreats this week. Yes, Fall is definitely coming.

Grandma Blog

Yesterday we recorded Grandma Allan answering some personal history questions.

Her blog is at maldaallan.blogspot.com.

Update

Health
Lori, Kram and kids are to NIH today and tomorrow for the ALPS study. She has blogged about it, so if you have access to her blog, you should read it there. They have some new medication to try and are testing for all kinds of things. ALPS is rare, but our particular mutation is the only one like it that they have seen.

The way the numbers came out, Steve and four of our five kids have ALPS, but Drew is the only grandchild with ALPS. It could be spontaneous with Steve, but they did say they might want to test his siblings. Grandma doesn't have it.

Steve, Kim and Trisha to go NIH next month for similar counseling and testing.

Jobs
Ben started a new job today with a law firm in Salt Lake City. You'll have to wait for Chelle to blog about that, as I've told you most of what I know.

Proof Positive - Less is more

I've been studying game theory for a new course I'm offering this fall. I ran across something so interesting. It is called Braess's paradox. Suppose you have 100 cars going from point A to point D along the roads shown above. The time to travel from A to B depends on the number of cars (x). So if 50 cars take the route from A to B to D, it would take 3.5 hours. The same is true of A to C to D. Because both routes are equally good, the cars tend to distribute themselves equally. In fact, if more choose one route than the other, cars will be motivated to change until the routes become equal again. (It's called a Nash equilibrium.) BUT, if we add a free road between B and C, everyone will take A to B to C to D and it will take 4 hours.

There you have it. Proof positive that less is more.

I have definitely known individuals for whom this is true. I remember talking to one of my rich cousins (one of the Dame's of Woodgrain Windows). He said something to the effect that having a lot of money is a big drain - you have to invest it wisely, make sure you aren't being cheated, plan for it, protect it, provide for others who depend on you. Who knew the rest of us are so lucky NOT to have such big worries?

End of an era...

There it is. The list of all the batches left to complete - empty, zip, zilch. After five years of being over extraction for the stake, the church has officially moved to the new indexing system.

I should feel a bit nostalgic after all the hours I've spent training, checking, auditing, correcting, submitting. I don't. It has been a rewarding calling, but I'm glad to be done.

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things

Kim has just been called to be Young Women's president in her ward. She was saying that she really wanted to go on trek with the young men/young women in her ward next year. The activity involves learning about Mormon pioneers - their conversion, persecution, and their travel west. For this multi-day event, they dress in clothing of the day and push handcarts, which carry their trek supplies. Before going, individuals are encouraged to eat healthy food, prepare physically, and get sufficient rest. They divide up the participants in "families" led by a "mom" and "dad". For Kim, it would be a little tough as she has no spouse to be the Dad of the family. She decided she may have to volunteer to be the cook.

Lori told an interesting story about going on the trek.

A friend of Lori's has a special needs daughter. She is totally dependent - needing help walking, dressing, eating, surviving 24/7. When her stake asked the mother and her husband to be leaders for one of the groups, she thought that would be a good break from her daily activities. Grandma would come to take care of her daughter, and they made plans to be gone for several days. When the "family" assignments came out for the trek, this woman and her husband had a special needs child in their group. At first she was concerned, knowing that there is no way her daughter could make the trip. When she met the boy, she was relieved. He was a big fellow with Downs syndrome - but healthy enough to withstand the demands of the trip. She thought, "Who better than us to work with a special needs child? We know how to help and what is needed."

As they began the trek, this fellow refused to walk. He was capable of walking. He just wouldn't do it. They had few options, so they decided to put him in the handcart and push him along the trail along with their supplies. It was hard work and a challenge they hadn't planned on, but somehow they made it work. They rallied the members of their group to share the load. Instead of pulling a few supplies, they had a two hundred pound rider. All the family members took turns. The fellow was delightful. He sang the entire time and made up ditties about the youth assigned to his group. He had them all laughing.

Other groups observed their group, laughing and pulling together. They would come to the "parents" and say, "Can we borrow him? Our group needs such a focus." And they did end up "loaning him out" to other groups.

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things... Henry Ward Beecher

Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can. Henry Drummond

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are. Bernice Johnson Reagon