Memorial Day

Himbeere worked very hard today.  The lawn had gotten quite long - he mowed it.  That was quite a job, because the grass was pretty long.  It had not been cut for about two weeks and during those weeks we'd had a lot of rain.  Our back yard grass grows much better than the front so when I say it was long, it was thick and long.  That means extra time because you have to go slow.  And he had to empty the bagger a lot.  So he spent a couple of hours mowing the lawn, and he was quite hot, and a bit sunburned by the time he was finished.  So he came in the house, drank a couple of big glasses of cold ice water, grabbed a towel and announced he was going swimming.  However, about 45 minutes later he was back.  He had checked three or four of the parks around here that have beaches and swimming and they were all packed with people out enjoying the first holiday of summer, and a warm day at that.  So he filled the little kiddie pool in the back yard and lay out in it. Notice the cell phone on his lap - Himbeere had some Johnny Cash tunes playing as he lay out in the pool.  Niiiiice.

Not quite the same as the beach but wet, cool, and good music.  You can't beat that with a stick!

Getting Dirty

We donʻt always manage to get a garden in but when we do its almost tradition to not plant until Memorial Day.  I suppose thatʻs because its not unheard of to get snow in May where we live and its pretty common to get frost during the night in May.  Its only been a couple of weeks since we last had frost at our house and some flowers Heidlebeere planted suffered from it; they died. Thus, our serious gardening usually happens on Memorial Day weekend or later.  But you canʻt wait too long after Memorial Day because the growing season is not so very long at our house either.  Its not uncommon to be getting frost in September.  So we pick our plants carefully and get them in timely.

One of Brombeereʻs favorite things to grow is tomatoes. Last year we did get some tomatoes in (check here for more on that) and they were yummy.  This year, though, we got quite a few more. We didnʻt count them but I wouldnʻt be surprised if there were a couple dozen.  Because of the short growing season we pretty much have to buy them as plants - not enough time to start them from seed.  Though I suppose we could start them indoors.  But then weʻd have to figure out where to put them so they werenʻt in the way.  Maybe some year we could do a greenhouse.  My sister did that a year or two ago and quite likes having it.  She lives where the growing season is actually shorter than where we live.

Anyway, most of the tomatoes we got are nice, big ones but Brombeere did get some cherry tomatoes for me - I like them in salads.

She also got a few plants of butternut squash, just for me.  Sheʻs nice to me that way.  Theyʻre out in the middle of our little garden plot - off away from the tomatoes.  They need a little more room because they spread out quite a bit.  Iʻm really hoping they do well and produce a lot.  I really like butternut squash

So now it will be a contest to see if we can keep ahead of the weeds to get as much as the rabbits will let us.  Last year we planted several green bean plants but the rabbits hit them pretty hard and we didnʻt get very many.  If they do that again this year weʻll probably have to get some fencing for around the garden.  Weʻve resisted doing that because it makes getting in and out of the garden a little harder.  But a low fence would probably be workable and it would be better than losing so much to the vermin.

Gardening can also be therapeutic.  Brombeere said later that of all the things she did that day she most enjoyed playing in the dirt.  Lots of fun!  And one real nice thing that happened was that within an hour of when she finished planting the rain started and rained quite a bit the rest of the day.  Good for the garden!

Persistence Pays Off

We decided recently that we wanted have a family play day where we went somewhere different and did something out of the ordinary. Not too extravagant or outlandish, not too far, just a little different. And we also wanted to incorporate a little bicycling in with whatever we did. So we picked a day and began putting together an itinerary of outdoor activities. However, because of the bicycling and outdoors aspect, it meant the weather needed to cooperate, which it didn't. The designated day arrived and the temperature was in the low 30s with snow flurries off and on during the day. Not very conducive to being outdoors or biking.  Not for me, anyway. And in addition to that, something had come up unexpectedly a few days before that we suddenly found ourselves with a fair amount of work to get ready for. So we decided to postpone the activities a couple of weeks to the next open Saturday.

The next open Saturday arrived and we were full of anticipation! Got up at a decent hour, did a few things around the house, loaded the bikes into the car, along with some other gear we wanted to take with us, hopped in the car and pulled out of the driveway only to discover we had a flat tire. Really!? A flat tire!? Yes, flat as could be. Well, okay. We can change the tire, put on the spare, and drop off the flat at the shop to get fixed while we went and played. And then we made an incredible discovery, an unbelievable discovery. We'd been driving this car for six years without a spare tire! It hadn't come equipped with a spare, not even one of those stupid little pseudo-spares, those undersized spares automakers began putting in cars several years ago.  That's several trips half way across the country and back without a spare. Like, 3000 miles each! All over the Midwest, or out to the inter-mountain west and back without a spare. On top of that the thought that we haven't had a flat on that car in six years - that in and of itself is an amazing thing! 

Anyway, for our play day it meant the spare had to get fixed pretty quick if we were still going to make the trip we'd planned. So we got the flat off and loaded in the other car and beat it down to the local shop that fixes flats for free. Unfortunately, they were going to close in 20 minutes, but if I’d care to leave it they could have it done three days later. Uh, no, thanks. So I then called our regular mechanic but he's only open every other Saturday and unfortunately this day was not his day to be open. The third place said they'd be able to do it, probably the same day but no guarantees - if I'd leave it they'd work it in between appointments. So I left it but by the time we got it back it was pretty much too late for the day we had planned. So we pushed it back again, two weeks to the next available Saturday.

We'd been watching the weather predictions as the day of next try approached. Early on it was looking real good; temperatures predicted to be in the 70s, sunny skies, calm winds - everything was looking really promising. But as the Saturday got closer and closer the weather predictions deteriorated more and more. But even in the evening before it was still looking good enough, not ideal but good enough; temperature in the mid 50s, overcast and maybe a little wind. Well, okay, a 20 mile an hour wind. Maybe we'd drop the bike ride and just walk - that would still be okay, right? Well, Saturday arrived and our granddaughter had a t-ball game in the late morning we'd wanted to go to but at the game it was just barely in the 50s and it was pretty windy. That combination made the hour and a half we spent at the game pretty cold; we decided it was just too cold and windy to spend the day outdoors like we'd planned. That plus the “overcast” had showed up as some pretty threatening clouds. The radar showed all kinds of rain just to the southwest, which is where our weather usually comes from. Outdoors all afternoon in the cold, wind, and rain? No, thank you. We decided to move it back again. This time, the next open Saturday was three weeks away. Surely that would be far enough into the summer that winter will have finally let go and left. After all, we'd gone from mid March to the third week in May.

A week before the next try we got word that our grand-kids were having a recital on our play day. So far we've gone to all their recitals and we wanted to go to this one too, but the recital was an hour and a half in the opposite direction from the city we'd been planning on going to. Well, okay, we can work with that. We put the plans we'd had back on the ”to do” list and made plans for the new location. Fortunately there were some things in this new location that I've been wanting to do so the change in venue was not a big problem. In addition, while all this planning and postponing had been going on, Maulbeere and her husband had decided to move into the area from out west. The day of our play day was also going to be their first Saturday in their new apartment, which, as luck would have it, was in the same county as the recital.  So what had begun as a play day was turning into a family day – how cool is that!?  

So the big day arrived and the weather was beautiful!  Sunny, hardly any clouds, very little breeze and temperature in the mid to high 70s.  Nice.  The place we had decided to go was a park so we loaded up the bikes in the car, along with some stuff for a picnic we were all planning for later in the evening.  We got off from home pretty much on time and made the drive.  First stop was brunch with Maulbeere and her husband.  He had to work so he wasn’t going to be able to make the picnic but we had a good time at brunch.  You can tell when the dishes are cleared away and you find yourself lingering to talk and laugh and just enjoy the company.  It was good food and a good visit.

Next stop was the park.  This part was just me and Bormbeere.  First stop in the park was a look out tower.  This one wasn’t so bad – only 64 steps to the top.  But it was still a really nice view.   

I had hoped to be able to have the top of the tower all to ourselves for long enough to get a few pictures but this was a very nice day and a lot of people were at the park.  There were several other families or groups up on the tower.  But they were all nice and let us have to one side of the platform long enough to get a nice picture. 

After the tower we wanted to visit a statue of a local Indian chief that had lived in this area during the 19th century.  So we walked over to the statue and got our pictures.  

Then we decided there was still enough time to get the bikes out and ride around a little.  This was easy riding, nothing hard or strenuous, just sight-seeing around on the trails.  In fact, in this park there were not a lot of trails where bikes were allowed but there were enough.  

One bad thing about the maps on the internet, though; you can’t tell anything about the hills or lack of hills when you’re looking at an area.  So even though the stuff I had checked on the park described the trails as “mostly flat”, there were still several hills.  That, plus the trails were pretty rocky and rough – not real conducive to easy bike riding.  We even hit one spot where there were stairs on the trail so we had to back-track and find another way around. We rode out on the trails but after about a mile we switched to the road that ran more or less along parallel to the trails.  Much nicer, easier on the rear-end.  In fact, though we saw plenty of others on bikes we didn’t run into any bikers on the trails.  

We rode from the statue to another look-out area, checked the view and then headed back to where we’d left the car near the tower.  

By this time it was getting pretty warm and time was running out so we made a stop at a local ice cream shop that turned out to be pretty good.  Then we beat it over to pick up Maulbeere and head for the recital.

The recital was good, even little Peanut played.  She played a tune called “Mississippi Hot Dog”.  She got a bit of stage fright at first but with her Mama right in front of her she made it through her piece. 

Then her brothers did their pieces.  Her older brother is actually getting pretty good, his notes were clean and good – a lot of kids’ notes were often a little flat or sharp.  They all three did very good.

After the recital we headed to a park for the picnic and to play on the playground equipment.  And to kick around in the sand – the kids had to stop a number of times to pour the sand out of their shoes.

 

As the sun was setting Blaubeere saw a large bird come in and land in the reeds around the pond at the park.  So we all went over to a little dock to see if we could see it.  

We found lots of red-winged blackbirds, a duck or two and the big one – a blue heron. It was clear across the pond from the dock but my camera has a pretty good zoom and we were able to get a pretty good view.  It was cool. It was especially fun to get a number of fairly good pictures of it. It didn’t seem to be getting along with the blackbirds too well.  Ah, well.

Anyway, a minute seeing who could jump the highest (I think Brombeere won that one!), a group shot on the dock as the sun was setting and that was pretty much the evening.  Time for everyone to head for home.

It was a good day – lots of good family time.  Despite the set-backs and delays in making this day happen, despite the change and change again in plans of how to spend the day, it turned out really nice.  It was a good time.

Trying a New Recipe

I'm not an accomplished chef but I enjoy cooking now and then and so I like to keep an eye out (now there's an odd saying for you, if ever there was one) for new and interesting recipes that look fun, like they'll taste good, and aren't too exotic or difficult. Its the exotic part that turns me off to a lot of recipes - they call for ingredients that we don't normally have in our kitchen. I don't want to fill up our cupboards with stuff we used only once and don't anticipate ever using again.  Nor do I want a recipe that calls for complex or difficult steps.  Even separating egg yolks from the white is more than I want to do.  But the nice thing is there are still plenty of recipes out there fit those criteria and I'm willing to try.

So it was that I recently came across a recipe for Broken Glass Cake.  It was billed as a Christmas favorite but I don't see why you couldn't make it any old time.  It does, however, require some planning ahead.  I did have to make a run to the store to make sure I had all the ingredients.  They are all things we do frequently have in the house but not always all of them at the same time.  So, to make sure I had everything, I made a trip to the store and got a few things.

The recipe involves jello, which we like and usually have.  But I needed three different colors and that sometimes isn't what's in our cupboard.  So I made the jello the night before and let it set up over night.  And it was made with less than the full amount of water that regular jello calls for - it was the jello jigglers recipe.

So this morning, with the three jellos all set up and ready to go I got everything else out and set to work.  It wasn't long before I had a volunteer to help me out - that was fun.

She helped me crush the graham crackers.  This was "cake" we were making - my capable assistant kept asking when it was going into the oven.

 Soon as we had the graham cracker crust all mixed and ready she opened the oven, ready to pop the cake in to bake.  I had to explain a couple of times that this was a "no-bake" cake - something new and amazing.

 We beat the whipping cream forever, until it was ready.  Made me think of the old egg beater my Mom had, a hand crank kitchen tool. Rather akin to hand crank drill my Dad had. I am grateful for electric mixers - they make this part of the recipe so much easier.

 I had made up the three flavors of jello the night before but there was still an unflavored one to make this morning, with pineapple juice instead of water.  That was the first thing we did this morning so it was in the fridge setting up while we did the crust and beat the cream.  Then we gently and carefully folded it all together.  It became apparent at this stage where the name "broke glass" came from.

 When all the jello is all mixed together then it goes in the pan on top of a graham cracker crust bottom, with a "garnish" of graham cracker topping.  I had a hard time deciding if it looked right or not.  The original recipe had pictures but the way I save these recipes I find I don't end up with the pictures. Nevertheless, it still looked pretty inviting.

 And, of course, my able assistant had the wonderful job of helping with the clean up.  She was delighted that there were three pans left over that needed her attention.  What a wonderful helper she was!

A Day for Mothers

I’ve been thinking about mothers all through today, surprise, surprise.  At church this morning the speaker was a young lady in her early thirties.  She and her husband have yet to have any children, despite their desire to have kids.  Perhaps an odd choice for a talk on Motherʻs Day but she gave a real good talk about all the mothers she had learned from during her life, only one of which was her “real” mother.  Then she spent some time talking about the opportunities she has had to mother others even though she has yet to have any children of her own.  It was a good, thought provoking talk.

Iʻve watched my wife and my daughter mother today.  While a nice day, it has been far from an ideal day.  Life just isn’t like that. They each have had challenges from their families throughout the day. Yet they both hang in there, doing their best and loving their children in spite of the day turning out less than ideal. They never give up, they never quit.  President James E. Faust once said: “I am also sorry that I have not sooner appreciated the great sublime, unique gifts which our wives inherit from divinity. I speak of their womanly intuitions and their six senses, and their steadfast faith and capacity to love.”  I see that in my wife and my daughters who have children, as well as my daughters-in-law.  When I think of my own mother that’s the way I some times feel.  These women I love constantly amaze me. 

I recently had the opportunity to read some letters my mother had written to my father during the months they were separated just before they were married.  They were engaged at the time.  I found it humorous that as the time got shorter she began writing the number of days left until their wedding day on her letters, just under the date.  It was somewhat of an eye-opening experience, to see that side of her I never really had thought of before. After all, whoever thinks of their parents and as young couple in love?  In one letter about 5 weeks before the wedding she wrote, “I don’t see how I got such a considerate, good looking, wonderful guy as I did.  I still have to pinch myself to believe its true.”  She wrote of her preparations for the wedding, all the stuff she was arranging, asking his opinion about this and that, worrying about him as he was in the reserves and the Korean conflict was still going on.  They were in school at the “old AC” but much of the letters where of the time when she was at home down in the Salt Lake Valley while he was either off on maneuvers or helping on the farm in Wyoming. 

At another point she wrote saying she hoped her sister will “be able to live her me while you’re gone.  She remembers the holidays before when I haunted the post office and about drove her crazy.” She wrote of one incident when her dog, Tag, pulled a ligament. She persuaded her parents to let her take her to the vet and came away with a bill of $17.50 for the check and a cast the dog had to wear for a month.  She was so worried about how her parents would react that she told them it had only cost $10.00 and made up the difference on her own. Then she wrote; “Now you see another side of my character and not such a good side either.  And I’m afraid marriage won’t change it suddenly, I hope I never lie or deceive you.  I haven’t yet and I pray I never will – but – I’m in a pickle” That was another thing that seemed so out of character for the mother I knew.  

I love my Mom.  She’s not around any more.  I miss her. Since she passed away I have found myself more than once wishing I could call her and ask her about one thing or another.  In the years raising our children she was always such a calming voice, a voice of reassurance and confidence. She bailed us out of trouble more than once.  As I think back on some of the attitudes and comments I heard from her in my youth I can see how she matured and softened as she grew older, I’m grateful to have lived as long as I have and hope I’m going through some of the same improvements she did.  

More than once I remember seeing her in tears because of something I had done.  When I think of the things I put her through in my youth it makes me so very grateful for the principle of repentance and hope that I was able to convey to her in some small way my appreciation for her patience and forgiveness.

I love this picture of my Mom, taken shortly before she passed away.  The kindness, gentleness and love that was my Mom seem to emanate from the photo.  My Mom was a remarkable woman. I miss her and am so glad for hope I have of being able to see her again and being able to continue to be counted as her son in the eternities. 

Plaaaaaay Baaaaaaaaallll!

Heidelbeereʻs oldest is the right age to be playing in the local league this year.  The youngest players start with t-ball.  Boy does that bring back memories of when our kids were in the local sports leagues as they were growing up. Ours played baseball, soccer, and football.  Summers were always busy. Crazy at times; rush home from work, wolf something down for dinner, and hit the playing field.

Anyway, every kid loves being at bat.  Her team has a very patient coach.  The kids are hilarious - all levels of skill.  You can really tell that some parents have worked with their kids - theyʻre out there all focused and in the game.  Others not so much.  Our little player, well, sheʻs out there in the middle.

So she comes to bat ....

Gets a few pointers from the coach, like how to hold the bat, where to put your feet, how to swing at the ball so you donʻt kill the tee, donʻt hit your coach when you swing.  Basic stuff like that.

Sheʻs does alright at the tee.  Good swing, usually hits the ball instead of the tee.  Pretty good form.

At her first practice I asked her what you do at bat.  You hit the ball, she said.  Then what, I asked.  "I donʻt know."  You run to first base!

Sheʻs a pretty good runner.  Some of the kids tear off for first, fast as they can go.  Some not so much.  Some kind of dance their way between bases.  At this age, if you hit the ball passed the line you get to run.

The rule is one base hits all the time, no matter how hard you hit the ball.  It works out well, most kids donʻt hit it hard enough to get any farther than that anyway.

Most of the kids arenʻt that good at catching or throwing so thereʻs never any real contest in getting to first base.  Its pretty much guaranteed youʻll make it.  Same with second base.

So each time a batter comes up the kids on base advance to the next base.  The only out Iʻve seen so far was once when one of the kids actually caught the ball on the first bounce and made the throw to first in time to hit the runner.  The runner went back to the bench but I think it was more a matter of it having hurt a little rather than counting it as an out.

So in to home plate she runs.  The bases fill up and stay loaded for the whole inning.  They bat until everyone has been at bat twice, then the last runner runs all the way in, pushing the other runners ahead and in.  Nobody keeps score, though our player is starting to notice that the other team seems to get lots of runs in  We just point out that her team does, too.

Outfield is a different matter.  The interest is high at first.

But gradually, as there is far less action in the outfield than at bat, interest begins to fade a bit.

Yeah, interest begins to wane a lot, readiness suffers but in the end it doesnʻt make a whole lot of difference.  In field pretty much always gets the ball.

Summer is upon us.  One nice thing about these summer games is the pleasant evenings. Nice sunset.  Little league is pretty nice.  Brings back lots of pleasant memories.