Blue berries

One would think blue berries would be getting near the end of their season but they don't seem to be doing that. This has been a good year for those little blue critters. I have made at least two dozen quarts of pie filling plus frozen a bunch just as whole berries for future pan cakes and muffins. The family keeps telling me more is better but I am thinking I have gone a wee bit overboard this year. I have so many processed for storage and no one is eating them. Mind you, if I made more pies we would eat more pies. But Larry rarely eats them, the crazy man seems to prefer corn flakes to almost everything, so, being the good little girl that I am, I finish them off and.... and the results of that habit of finishing things off has greatly increased my circumference over the years. So I just process the berries and I don't eat them.
When Linda is no longer pregnant she swears she will use some for her gatherings. And Emily says she practices great conservation on her quarts of pie filling also. I have encouraged her to use a little less conservation until I get the count down a little. Even Nancy has kind of caught the vision as to the easy pie process. Purchase the crust, open the jar, dump and cook...how much easier could that be! Lawrence makes his own crusts but he too has been slow to use the abundance of berries.
Meanwhile, I have picked over a gallon of berries today. It has taken me all day as I pick awhile and then do something else for a time and go back later. I think this is the end of the back-log created with my trip South. I am back on top so it will not take so many hours each day. Ah the joys of abundance!
I do have ulterior motives for doing this however. I can see food storage as a more and more important part of our lives as the economy becomes more and more challenging. We have plenty of healthy food storage, but who wants to live a totally healthy life. I need sugar and processing these berries guarantees me a supply of sweet things for at least a year. One can live on wheat and beans, but it will be much more worth living with sweets!

You are living my life...

I got an interesting letter from my friend Sue. We date back forever, well, nearly. We became friends when we were 18 and that is forever in my book. Anyway, she and husband Gordy live what she joingly calls the "Orange County Life Style". The beautiful home and all the trappings surround this extremely down to earth family. Looking in you see one thing and talking you hear something different. Gordy is a very successfull CEO and travels the world all the time. Sue has been a secretary by choice and recently stopped working so she could travel more with Gordy. They spend about a week every month it would appear out of the country. Most recently they returned from the huge Air Show in England (Gordy's work was at the airshow) where Sue had a week to tour the UK. She saw all the places one would want to see and even was granted the priviledge of seeing Queen Elizabeth, rather unexpected but nice all the same.

Growing up I was sure I would marry a professional and call the world my home, she thought she would stay planted and manage a family. We have switched identities it would seem. We are both satisfied with our lives, but there is this piece of me that still desperately wants to travel and to expand my reference. I don't do much, just parent in all the vastness of that word. All important and it is my choice, but there is still the world out there and I have seen none of it. I try to keep an eternal perspective and that helps, because I will be able to see and do so much when I leave this world for the better one to come....but I still wish I were not so tied sometimes. I would love to take each of the grandchildren on a tour of somewhere and do something. That, however, will not be happening so I will just leave them lots of writings and that will have to suffice. My mind and I can still travel at will and will continue to do so as long as it is functional...and that better be a dang long time because I have lots to imagine doing!

The 21st century

Well, I think I have officially arrived at the 21st century. What allows me to draw that conclusion? A simple fact, I have no car for the rest of the week. Gas prices are crazy and only seem to be getting more crazy and life has thrown me a curve. My car has gone South while I have LJ's car here to fix, and the fix is not happening in a timely manner...hence no car. Larry is taking the Saturn to scout camp and that leave me with the RV, or nothing. I have decided to take a short camping trip on one night just to get away from the house. Local but still out of the house, I love those short trips almost as much as I love the real ones.

Gas locally seems to run about 25 cents a gallon higher than everywhere else. One of the joys of living here I guess. I keep thinking it will round a corner but it doesn't. It has affected my lifestyle and will continue to do so more and more as time moves on.

But as I am forced to stay closer to home I also have the benifit of a good berry crop. The raspberries are in full swing and just now turning the corner to lesser production. The blueberries are slow this year, but they are constant and I think there will be plenty. The Marion berries are now showing some ripe but are still a week out to the real deal. And the black caps are producing slowly and steadily, I freeze them as I wait for enough to deseed....those little rocks in your mouth are very unpleasant so I remove same and make a seedless jam with them. Nothing much else happening in the garden until beans and corn, and those will be in September I think. Late year for almost everything.

That said I will go start my day. Larry has the car so I can't go to the gym again. Makes me sad, I was doing so well and now I am not doing as well. Such is life. I am determined to meet my goal however, so I will just keep picking away at it until I get my life under control and then I can work hard again.

Patience

I am getting a crash course on patience this week. Lawrence's car has decided to take the long road to nowhere so he has my car while I try to get his car back on the road. Meaning a new engene installed, something I know next to nothing about but have a lot of people willing to help, some a plus and many a minus. Anyway, Larry and I are sharing a car and that has never worked well. I got to church barely in time to play prelude and then sat in the car for half an hour after church. I arrive early and leave early, he arrives late and leaves late....not a good combination. But I used my time wisely and read scriptures so it was not for nothing, and tried to manage my attitude. That too was necessary.

Tomorrow I will get started on the tasks at hand, finding a engene for the 2002 honda and cleaning all the messes the past three weeks have hatched in my home. In my house, the beach house and the RV. The major three all could stand some serious cleaning. I am going to take them one at a time. Tomorrow I address the car and then the house, Tuesday I address the RV and go camping at South Whidbey State Park so that I can dump all tanks, Wednesday I address the cabin because Linda and Curtis will be installed there and she will help me as much as she can. But, you know, it was all worth it. I had a wonderful week with my entire family here. I really don't mind paying the bill now....it was worth it.

someday

Someday I will figure out this thing works and then I will be a much more interesting participant. I don't think anyone can respond to my writing because I don't know how to invite them. Oh well, can't say as it really matters all that much. I don't have much to say anyway and when I do I write a letter to those I care about.

Someday the bathroom remodel at the beach will be done. It is like walking uphill every step of the way. The men in my life are all willing to help, but not willing to get things done in a reasonable frame of time. They do something and then sit around and do nothing for weeks. Then I complain and they do one more part of the project. It makes me feel bad to have to ask for each step to be completed. Kind of takes the pleasure out of the whole thing. I guess I made the assumption that their saying they would do it meant from first step to last without me having the beg for each and every step along the way. I Hate begging! I hate feeling like I am nagging when things don't happen! What was supposed to be a fun family project has turned into another chore to get behind me. I hate chores that need to get behind me! Maybe when it is done I will go back to finding some enthusiasm for the completed project rather than resentment for all the begging that I have had to do. You would think this was all for me.... Folks, it isn't! I have not spent one night at the beach since 1977, or rather in the cabin. I did drag the Connie P down for an overnight last year. Argh!!!

Second Hand new

I just returned from the second hand store with three new shirts and a new jacket. I had purchased a red jacket some time back and wore it a lot, liked it a lot but I have managed to loose enough weight that it no longer did good things for mem both physically and emotionally. So I found a new one. It is not as nice as the one I sent out, but it is home with me now. And it is a full two sizes less than the one it replaces so that makes me feel good. I then found 3 shirts, one was a blue cotton that someone had chopped the long sleeves short on. I know they were chopped because they did a lousy job of it. I thought about fixing same but I like the length so we will just pretend it is peachy! Then there was another blue one that has long sleeves and, when I finish this, the sleeves are coming off that one also. It is the season for short sleeves and I will insist. The other is a silk number that I am hoping will be cool enough for the trip to Utah to help Nancy. It is dark of color but light weight so I am thinking it will be fine. Three new things, that is a major haul, plus a replacement of something I had enjoyed. All in all a good day for digging at the second hand store!

Hurry up and wait

Boy is my life a constant game of hurry up and wait. I rush around and get off to seminary, go to the gym and try to do something constructive....not an easy thing for me but I try, then home to do house work etc. But there is this constant interuption called lessons. Some come on time, so don't come at all and some take hours longer than scheduled. It feels like everytime I get serious about doing something I have an interuption. Mind you, it is how I make a living but one would think I could get control over some of this confusion.
I have the best group of kids this season so I really can't complain about that. One advanced student and 6 intermediate plus 5 advanced beginners and my instrumental kids. They range from rediculously advanced to just fun to work with, but all fall into that advanced classification. Sometimes I think it is them that keeps me sane! And, of course, there are the beginners, some of which you have to pull along through strength of will and determination, those are the ones I would rather not teach. I gave notice to two just last week, either get the line out and fish or cut off the hook and get off the boat, so to speak. Enough already. They come under prepared with a set of excuses that I am not interested in. Either do it or don't, the choice is yours, but I am not the judge or the jury to make those decisions for you. We all have busy lives and that is just the way it is. The parents do not work with the kids and somehow they expect me to make them something in the 30-45 minutes I work with them every week. Won't happen. You invest nothing and you get just that in return. Being a musician is a huge investment of time, energy and, to a degree, money. Which reminds me, I have gone up for next year. I need to earn more and I either quit or charge a little more.
And I am also seriously thinking about spending one day a week working out of Avi's studio in Oak Harbor. It offers many benifits that I would enjoy, high on the list is not being responsible for collection of tuition money. Lessons here, gota go...