Trappings

Good morning! I believe I have an uncle with a birthday today—Happy Birthday Uncle Robert! I hope you have a wonderful day.

I love mornings. For one thing, when I have to take Amena to Quabbin in order to leave on the 8^th grade trip, more radio stations come in better so the choices aren’t so limited. It just so happens that I got to hear some pretty good stuff this morning: Journey, White Snake, Foreigner, Cheap Trick, Steve Perry, U2. In fact, U2 was coming on while I was on Pitcherville and I was thinking, “Hmmmm, maybe I would like to go see them in concert in July.” On the other hand, think of how many people that would be. In Boston. Making noise. Yeah. Wouldn’t mind seeing them, not sure I want to go.

Then I got out of the car and the real reason I love mornings became very apparent.

I love listening to the world waking up. The natural world; I don’t think I would have any appreciation of the city waking up. I love to hear the water running in the creek and the birds; so many birds. The slow lightening of the eastern sky, sometimes orange or pink or just shades of blue, is lovely to behold.

These things make the lights on in houses (including this one) and the deadlines and general hustle and bustle of appointments and needing to get things done—the trappings of society—seem so superfluous.

Ultimately, it seems that the only things that are really important are our relationship with nature (including the creators of it) and family. Anything else is just. . .extra. Not even frosting on the cake; I think much of it is more like sewage.

Deep breath in. Hold it.

Let it go.

Ahhhhhh.

In other news, the midwifery skills workshop for this past weekend was postponed because I was the only person who wasn’t sick or had sick children. Such is life.

This is the first bread finished. I thought I'd make three loaves instead of two so that they would be smaller. It didn't really work. As you can see, these loaves are not small.

Because I didn’t get to go to New Hampshire, I made bread. Three kinds. And put the peels of five or six oranges in a quart jar and filled it with vinegar to try it out for cleaning and keeping bugs away. Yesterday I made lemon bars (they are actually more lime than lemon) and an apple strawberry pie.

The chocolate bread was started first (the two larger loaves, if you needed help) and finished last. I was experimenting because Paul brought a loaf of chocolate chocolate chunk bread home and said he likes it and could I make it. Well, I can certainly give it a go. I actually do not care for this bread but the boys (Seth and Joseph) love it and Paul likes it so we're good. The other bread is my current favorite. It's the almost no knead recipe Paul brought home that has beer in it. It makes the best bruschetta (I have no idea if that is spelled correctly) and I've got it to the point where I like it with 1 cup of whole wheat and 2 cups of unbleached white. The next step is 2 cups of whole wheat and 1 of unbleached white.

This morning I got up at 3:57 to be ready to take Amena to Barre for the 8^th grade trip. I told her we needed to leave by 4:30 so that we’d leave by 4:45 which should get us to the school right on time (between 5: 00 and 5:15) and it worked just right. We left at 4:45 and got to the school at 5:07.

The lemon bars that are 7/8 lime and 1/8 lemon. Turned out really well. I don't understand, though, how Paul can stand to eat the lemon filled donuts from the store but doesn't like these.

Trappings.

The apple strawberry pie before baking.

Speaking of trappings, she’s going to Washington, DC. While there are things there I wouldn’t mind seeing, I think I could happily live my life without ever going there. Crater Lake, on the other hand, I still would like to visit. With my family. Maybe there are letterboxes there.

The strawberry apple pie after baking. I used the recipe I got from Grandma for deep dish rhubarb pie. You don't have to roll out the crust and I used the food processor to mix it last night. Heavenly! So easy and so good. And made with all whole wheat flour.

Anyway, have a fantastic day!