For today, just today!

I'm feeling very overwhelmed by the idea of catching this virtual scrapbook up to date. Since I last posted here 20 days ago the following has happened: I returned to work at CJP full force and just wrapped up my last new student orientation (I have also shared with colleagues my plans to wrap up my time at CJP at the end of this calendar year); We spent a glorious evening with friends in and along the Shenandoah River; Our eldest daughter turned 18!; We had a marathon applesauce making day netting 100 quarts; We enjoyed an outing to Switzer Lake with Emily, Jonas and Ivy; Most of all we savored our last meals and games and hugs and conversations and walks and sleepovers with Tala before seeing her off at Dulles Airport for her return home to the Philippines. All of that will have to wait for another day, as each could be a post of it's own. I'll ease back into this space but just sharing one little snapshot into our lives: today! A Saturday in late August at Tangly Woods!

While our girls still slumbered, Jason and I got a head start on the day. While I fed the pigs and stirred animal feed barrels, Jason cut the black eyed peas. Then he did the rest of the animal chores while I pulled the beets and got that canning process rolling. But I did take a circuitous root to the beets in order to admire my little sunflower patch. I can get a little lost in all our gardens and have a hard time keeping track of all that is going on. But this little row of sunflowers I planted all by myself, and watered it faithfully, and thinned it when it was time and am in awe of these tall, glorious splashes of color! 

I decided to just can all the beets as pickled beets to be able to just crack open a jar and poor over hard boiled eggs to make red beet eggs. The beets were probably a bit past their prime but canning them will soften up even the slightly woody ones. August gets away from us every year - this one was no different! With the beets, like often happens, a phenomena occurred that I cannot begin to understand/make sense of. I pulled all the beets, I cooked and peeled them all, and then I cut them all up and put them in jars and it came out EXACTLY to 7 quarts (one canner load). How does that happen SO often in canning?

Somewhere in there, my other helpers started to wake, and Kali was woken. Jason did the girls' chores so that they could dive into the food processing party as soon as they had breakfasted! Last night in a family meeting, I had shared my appreciation that when I am able to articulate my need for help and make specific requests, all our girls are normally ready and willing to assist. I said that I was grateful that they never made me feel bad for asking or refused to lend a hand. Alida looked very perplexed and asked why anyone would do that. I said that I didn't think it was a great way to respond, but definitely people do. Terah piped up, "Well that's not very nice." I love these kiddos!!

So I had excellent tomato and beet peelers. Once the beets were in the canner, I got the hot sauce rolling. It was our largest batch yet. I finally got smart and cooked it on the outdoor propane burner, so I was not coughing while it simmered. And, sure enough, when it came time to blend it and can it, it happened again! I had put all our peppers, a bunch of garlic, some salt, covered it with apple cider vinegar and cooked it until soft. I went to the root cellar and got as many 1 cup jars as could fit in one canner load (12). In the end, it made EXACTLY 12 jars with none to spare. I'm not complaining, just mystified!!

Jason kept bringing in more harvests while we kept things rolling inside: cantaloupes, tomatoes of all kinds, concord grapes, okra, etc... Kali picked a large bin of sweet peppers for the salsa. Once the day's harvests were wrapped up, Jason shifted his attention to the large mound of black beans in the garage. It was bean threshing and winnowing time! He was very excited as he really enjoys that job. And he had some helpers too here and there during the process. By day's end, there are now trays of black beans, and a few brown and pinto beans drying in our back kitchen - with a box fan aiding them in that initial drying (as we hardly want them to mold after the hours of work that has already been poured into getting them to this point). 

Once Alida and Terah had mostly moved onto other things, Kali settled in to chopping and chopping and chopping tomatoes for salsa. It was probably our last big salsa day, doing two double batches (so 15 quarts, 9 pints, and we probably ate at least a quart throughout the day). There were enough leftover tomatoes for another canner load of 7 quarts of diced tomatoes. In the afternoon, Mom joined the chopping fun for a bit and she and Kali also got some tomatoes and okra going in the dehydrator. Freezer space is becoming more and more precious!

After such a dry spell, we have had a lot of rain. We are enjoying a lot of wonderful cantaloupes but many are splitting in the patch so have to be used/eaten quickly. So we are stocking up again on frozen cantaloupe for smoothies. We had read about blending frozen cantaloupe, water and honey and that was good. But then Tala introduced us to doing it with milk and, despite my thinking it didn't sound great, it was DELICIOUS! So more of that in our future for sure. We are grateful for an abundance of cantaloupe as our watermelon patch wasn't much to speak of this year. 

I am happy to report that my day had very little screen time in it until the end when we watched the next episode of AGT and now with me writing this post. That said, we are SO grateful for screens and internet these days. Multiple times a day we get to connect with Tala via text or facebook or video chat. And today, it was stepped up a notch with learning how to do some favorite games on the computer. Actually, as I'm typing, Kali and Tala are playing Rook online. Earlier today they figured out how to do Upwords. On a few occasions, I've had Tala on video chat to myself for a few seconds. But somehow when Tala's voice is heard, kids come running from all directions. 

So it's 10:30 p.m. and Jason has just arrived home with extra milk from our neighbor's farm. Somewhere in the day, I also slipped in making another round of cheddar cheese - trying to stock up while the extra milk is abundant. There are pickled beets, jars of hot sauce, salsa and diced tomatoes cooling on the porch while the thunder still rumbles and lightning flashes. I'm most definitely ready to call it a day! I'm grateful that the headache that actually had me lay down for a few minutes this afternoon has subsided in intensity. And I'm glad tomorrow doesn't have quite as much in store for us as today! Maybe I'll have the chance to catch up some here before we generate more to share. Monday I'll be heading back into my office to work "in person" several days/week for the first time in a year and five months. Transitions...transitions!

Nicole and Luke's wedding

Let's see if I've got another one in me yet this evening! We just finished up a family meeting (which took the place of games with our ice cream) and now the younger two are upstairs helping Grandma arrange lots of leftover flowers gifted to us from the wedding into vases. Kali is packing to leave in the morning with Tala and our friend, David, for Cape Charles. Jason has gotten all the animals shut in for the night and is washing supper dishes. We are so very grateful for the 1/2 inch of rain we got this evening and for the timeliness of it! It fell after all the wedding cleanup had concluded (with just the chairs and tables stacked waiting for the rental company to pick them back up). 

What a week it has been! Big events are always such a mix of generating feelings of sheer exhaustion and pumping me full of adrenaline. It's something our whole family enjoys and gets excited about, which always makes it feel worth it. And since Alida and Terah "play wedding" a lot, they were pretty eager to even be a small part of a real one. But we haven't hosted anything of this magnitude since before Covid, and hadn't navigated the extra challenges of an event in Covid times - so added to the logistics and obsessive checking of the weather was some feelings of anxiety about doing all we could to make it as safe an event as possible. 

One of the things about hosting events, is that it normally inspires a push to tie up loose ends and maybe go the extra mile in doing a few things we'd like to do but in "normal times" just don't get shoved to the front of the line. Probably the biggest item this go around, other than general tidying and trimming, was that we splurged on a ton of sand to "redress" our fire ring. Kids and animals had carted enough away that it was getting weedier and some roots were beginning to protrude. Terah laid into the sand bag with her little shovel with great enthusiasm. Alida and I helped her out at the end to unload, spread and rake it. We were pleased with the end result, as were the ducks who eagerly placed their prints in it within minutes of completion.

The buzz really commenced Friday afternoon when the flowers arrived (with some people too). Mom and Dad's in-law quarters was soon overrun with flowers, which seemed very fitting for any space my mother inhabits. And then many helping hands started setting up tables and chairs and tents and planting the arch. While our jobs for that day were mostly some signage and stocking bathrooms with tp, there was plenty of fetching this or that to do and fielding general questions about where to find such and such. It's a good thing that Jason and I really like being around and available to fill in as needed, and that it seems that our girls generally do to. Terah stationed herself at the swing set for a long time swinging and taking in the action (coming to give me the blow by blow occasionally of what she had last seen happen or who she had talked to). Alida was very eager to station herself where she might be the one to get to field some questions or help someone find something. So rather than navigating a big event with small children needing me to tend to their needs, our kiddos were full participants on the hosting team this go round! They even added some of their own touches.

One of the special things about having the wedding at our place was that we had the privilege of having breakfast with Luke and Nicole the morning of the wedding and the day after - we enjoyed sharing anticipation for the day ahead on the wedding day and then, on the following day, reflections. We got to share moments that each of us took in that the others may not have been part of. Those were some treasured brief quieter moments in the mix of a very full, kinda chaotic, really exciting and beautiful weekend. Nicole and Luke planned such a beautiful celebration of their love and partnership, and included so many friends and family in an intentional, thoughtful, creative, yummy, fun and meaningful gathering.

The wedding day started out quite cloudy but didn't feel like rain - so much so that I managed to not check weather obsessively that day at all. And the temperature (after a string of so many hot days) was quite pleasant. Ok, on checking the weather, it was actually that I was frantically trying to get all the food processing done before the wedding stuff really ramped up! It was harvest day and of course happened to be our largest bean picking yet. Jason just kept coming in with more and more. We ended up canning two rounds of dilly beans and froze two rounds of beans and fermented one crock. Every time I looked outside, something new was unfolding. The place was transforming into a colorful party scene!

Once the set up was complete, I mostly wandered around waiting to be asked questions, and really there weren't too many. So I had fun just having my camera in hand to catch moments that I figured the photographers might miss. I figured it might be fun to have one of them having their photos taken. :) 

And then I took a quick jaunt down the lane to check on the welcome and parking crew. Alida was very happy to be the first one at the point of entry. She had also croqueted for each of us a necklace with a flower so she could tell people as they arrived that anyone with that kind of necklace lived there and hopefully could answer questions they might have about the place. She took her position quite seriously and did a great job of it, even trying to make our dear neighbors and friends (Jonathan and Christen) who arrived on foot go up the "right lane" so Jason could park them. That gal's a silly one!

Jason was parking cars and then Kali and Terah were stationed at the top of the lane to point people to the path to the lawn where the ceremony was being held. What a very fine group of humans to be welcomed by!

The slow trickle became a faster flow of people until most of the seats were filled. They were able to be intentional in spreading out chairs in groupings to allow for some distance. But in the end, our anxiety was lessened by choosing to wear masks when we weren't eating or drinking. There were a number of reasons we felt we wanted an extra layer of precaution for the sake of our pod, and I think I enjoyed the evening more once we just made the decision to not waffle on when to or not to don a mask.  Sometimes it is making the decision that is the hardest and navigating conversations with those we share daily life with so we can do our best to choose the path that resonates with the needs we are aware of. I think we struck the best balance we could!

The words of the song Luke composed for the wedding characterizes the ceremony better than any commentary I might make: May I love. May I be loved. May you love. May you be loved. May we love. May we be loved.

By the end of the ceremony, the skies had cleared and the air was cooling as the sun slipped behind the trees. Even the gnats seemed to be ready to call it a day. There were refreshing drinks and tasty appetizers, followed by a delicious dinner we had no trouble waiting for since there was a table cloth to decorate and special wedding edition playing cards to use to pass the time. Some of us were almost ready to bypass the meal so we could move on to the ice cream sundae bar that was set up on the deck and that we had little cards at the table to fill out our desired flavors and toppings. So many special creative touches to the whole evening. 

We lost light before we were done partying. Jason got a fire going and then the girls and I did a round of large Jenga in the dark - some of us using the extra help of a flashlight. We were on the 30th row when it collapsed. I didn't realize how tired I was until we were doing the rudimentary clean up. It was like I could keep helping but my brain wanted to shut down and not have to think any more. But one final push was needed to make sure we didn't leave anything out that would be damaged by moisture or would attract bears. And then I set about washing all the cups of the evening (which Tala helped me finish off!) - we'll be well set on cups for popcorn seed testing (or another event) for some time to come...

Today involved more clean up, laundry, and Jason and I both managed to squeeze in a very short snooze and woke to the sound of some sorely needed rain. I had to go right out into it and sniff it and let it fall on me so I could also be refreshed like all the plants around me. And now tomorrow I will do the reverse of what I did two months ago when I disengaged from my work email. The time has come to dip my toe back in and get reacclimated. Ready or not!

Catching up before life changes drastically...

I sat down to put up some pictures from the eventful weekend here and realized I've got some serious catching up to do in this space. But I don't want to devote much time to it because it's my last evening before starting back at work first thing tomorrow morning! So here's a whole bunch of pictures of life lately, with a minimal amount of commentary. I'm playing Rook with Terah and Alida while posting this, so there's a limit to my focus at present.

Our meals start to get really colorful at this time of year. This time it was Alida who got inspired to photograph her food!

For the first time this year, we got a swim in at our friend's pool (and the girls got to also visit the library and enjoy ice cream cones all on the same day).

Lots of chillaxing happening! Alida made some real progress on learning to float. Speaking of chillaxing, I came across this scene one day recently.

We are in the thick of green bean season and Kali's tower building has commenced once again. In addition to those skills, she recently tried out being a hairstylist on Alida. I liked "the do" so much, I asked if she would give me one too (and then Terah wanted one too). I was trying to order the rest of my birth doula books while she did it, not realizing I would have to turn my head every which way throughout!

In the kitchen, Kali made for all of us the cucumber curry she first made in Pittsburgh. As I typed this, Alida said, "Don't remind me...it was not good." I beg to differ!

We are eating so amazingly well these days! Having multiple cooks sharing their talents and creativity is wonderful. We enjoyed another round of spring rolls recently, thanks to Tala - it's now a family favorite.

We are harvesting things now on our M/W/S schedule and those days are thus pretty full with food processing of various kinds - whether that's freezing beans, fermenting beans or cucumbers, making pickles, whipping up some fresh pesto, chopping lots of veggies for fresh eating, making jam, freezing okra, etc... Tomatoes are just getting rolling so this coming week might include our first batch of salsa (just in time for Kali's bday!). I did our first round of tomato shallot sauce to go over sautéed squash - all the shallots are harvested and looks like there will be lots of "first use..." (ones that need to be used rapidly because they won't hold up in storage). We are excited about the sweet peppers coming along AND the long row of Serranos - we'll be making lots of hot sauce this year... We've got carrots and beets to pull as we want them. Probably better make sure they are holding up ok, but I've hardly had a chance to do more than the keep up with what has to be harvested every few days.

We've been struggling with how to manage our rain barrel. Our goldfish of many years finally died recently, and we think the rats living in the gutters might have something to do with it (their poop getting washed into the barrel and then using up all the oxygen in its decomposition). We tried minnows and they didn't make it. Now we have a frog that seems to be doing ok but it doesn't eat the mosquito larvae (though it must be eating many of the adults since there aren't many in there and the larvae supply seems lowish as well). We then tried another goldfish and two Rosie Reds. None survived to the next morning. Sigh. We are open to ideas! 

Our chickens are doing better than our fish. We are all done hatching, but still have some little ones running around with mamas. And some of the first chicks from this year have just started laying so we are enjoying new cute pullet eggs!

Among the summer harvests is always a pretty large chicken butchering and we had quite the team. Jason, Kali and Terah did the selecting the day before and on the day of we had 30 birds to butcher. Never before have we gotten through that many birds in a morning! Thanks to my dad doing much of the plucking and Tala, with Alida for some of the time, doing the gutting, it didn't end up being nearly as long a day. Terah enjoyed another feather festival!

The butchering coincided with a weekend visit from family. Ethan, Kathy and boys hadn't been down since before Covid so it was lovely to be together in person for a bit. The first day we were distracted by the butchering, but got to meander around together and visit a bit more the second morning. The girls also went over to Blake's to get in on some more slip and sliding!

Speaking of special visits, we got to enjoy another short but sweet visit from a dear friend recently. It went too fast, but we got in a lot of fun and connection time in the moments we had together. The phone calls and virtual times are helpful when distance separates, but the hug was such a gift!

Ok, time for a family meeting and ice cream sundaes (the wedding blog will have to wait - one of the perks of hosting it was a major haul of leftover Smiley's ice cream).

In closing, here's two signs of our kids growing up:

Kali has clearly outgrown one of her favorite outfits. And Alida has also outgrown it. And now Terah is done with it as well. On to Ivy it goes, but this one had to be photographed!

And Terah has decided that she puts herself to sleep at night. I'm still getting used to her saying, "I'm going to bed now" and climbing in and singing herself to sleep. The first night I figured it would be a one time thing and I just laid in our bed listening to her sweet little voice singing the lullabies she has heard so often over the years until her voice trailed off and all was quiet. But she's more or less stuck with it.

Two final pictures just because. I've caught some morning skies recently because, well, we've been burning the candle at both ends! And I took time to walk around a bit more slowly one day to notice all the blooming things.