Pears And Pecans…

the last of Ed's golden pears...

A while back I wrote a post about my husband’s on-going adventure with squirrels who were intent on stealing our pears.  For weeks, Ed and the squirrels had “the battle of the pears” going on.  The squirrels knocked the pears off the trees, while Ed constantly shot in their direction with his “BB” gun, attempting to scare them away.  Trust me when I say, those squirrels were never in any danger!

It turned out there were more than enough pears for man and animals.  Those three little pear trees had literally hundreds of pears on them this year!  The squirrels ate pears, the rabbits ate pears, the grandchildren ate pears, and Ed ate pears!  I made four pear cobblers, and then froze some cooked pears for future cobblers.

The pears are almost gone.  If I had to guess, I’d say there are less than a dozen total left on the trees.  However, we now have a new crop of something to take their place…pecans!

our pecans are getting ready to fall...

Years ago, Ed’s daddy planted several pecan trees down the dirt road leading from the highway up to our house.  About every other year, the trees bear nuts.  I don’t know why they only bear on odd numbered years, but they do!  It’s 2011, so this is the year they are bearing nuts.  It’s also the year that pecans are bringing record high prices at the market!  We’ve been told that China wants to buy America’s pecan crops this year, so the market is better than usual.  Chinese fruitcake anyone???

For some reason, our pecan trees drop their nuts later than others in the area.  While many people have already harvested and sold their nuts, ours are just beginning to fall…a few at the time!  If we don’t gather the nuts as they fall, the squirrels will!  It’s a little like hunting very small eggs at Easter time–before the squirrels find them!

Gathering nuts…this brings me to the topic of the “pecan picker-upper”!  This is the year that Ed and I have discovered the need for pecan picker-uppers!  In the past, we’ve scoffed at the use of such a thing, but alas, our time has finally come!  Our legs and backs simply aren’t what they used to be…

Has anyone priced a rolling pecan picker-upper lately?  We did.  The price for the small one is forty dollars–plus tax!  In case you aren’t familiar with the item that I am referring to, permit me to show you what you get for forty bucks…

a pecan picker upper

I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t seem like much for the money…unless you are stooping and squatting in an effort to gather all of those stupid little nuts–one at a time–in which case, it’s worth more than forty bucks!!!

Nuts anyone?

Wednesday Hodgepodge…October 12

Happy Hump Day!  It’s time for the 48th volume of Joyce’s Wednesday Hodgepodge.  The number 48 is significant for another reason today, but I’ll get to that in a moment.  First, let’s jump right into the questions, shall we?

1. Have you ever been ‘asked’ to report for jury duty? Were you chosen to serve? If not, were you happy or disappointed?  So far, I have not been called to report for jury duty.  I didn’t register to vote for many years in order to prevent this from happening.  I know, I know…I should be ashamed.  I finally registered and voted for the first time a couple of years ago.  If I am ever chosen for jury duty, I will suck it up and serve to the best of my ability.  Whether I am happy or disappointed afterward remains to be seen.

2. On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being very), how mechanically inclined are you? Give an example to back up your answer.  Um, I would be about a 2.  I can remove and replace screws, change batteries, and replace vacuum cleaner bags.  That’s pretty much the extent of my talents.  I admire mechanically inclined people–especially women.

3. Beets-cabbage-cauliflower-butternut squash….of the four, which is your favorite fall vegetable?  Cabbage, but I hate to smell it cooking!

4. What do you recommend to overcome self-pity? The next time you are feeling sorry for yourself, I recommend taking a look around.  There is always somebody much worse off–and you don’t have to look far to find them either.  Then be thankful for the things that you do have.

5. Do you enjoy classical music?  I can and do listen to classical music at times, but it’s not my first choice in music.

6. October is National Book Month…what’s on your reading list this month?  I’m still trying to finish Jaycee Duggard’s book “Stolen Innocence”.  It’s taken me a while to get back into reading it because my book got wet while I was reading it, and it took me forever to dry the book out.  Next on my list of books to read is “The Help”.

7. What is your idea of ‘cute’?  My idea of cute is… a baby.  Everything about them is cute–and they just can’t help themselves!

Random:

Forty-eight years ago my brother married the love of his life.  They’ve been on their honeymoon ever since.  Happy Anniversary, you two.  Here’s a little walk down memory lane for you…Enjoy!

The “Awesome Eighties”…

Good Morning America celebrated the “Awesome Eighties” every day last week.  I really enjoyed looking back at the styles, music, and trends of the eighties, and it started me thinking…What was I doing during the eighties?

Let’s see…I began the eighties in my mid-twenties, with only one child, and ended the eighties in my mid-thirties with three children!   I guess I don’t have to tell you what I was doing during part of those awesome eighties!

April 1984...mother of two

I spent fourteen years at home,  raising our family.  Ten of those fourteen years took place during the eighties.  I was a bit preoccupied during the awesome eighties…

During the time I stayed at home with our children, I did various things to  earn and save money.  I learned how to make and decorate “character cakes”, and I made and sold children’s birthday cakes for a little while.  I used cloth diapers with the first child, and made most of my own baby food with the next two.  I sewed most of my clothing, and some of our daughter’s.  I made curtains, throw pillows, and various other things for our home.  Later, I learned how to make dolls, and sold them and handmade Christmas ornaments for extra money at Christmas.

During the eighties I finally got my driver’s license, and gained my independence.  I really didn’t have a choice anymore–I was now somebody’s mom and chauffeur.  I spent three years of the eighties taking  little ones to preschool classes–five mornings a week.  On Monday afternoons, I also took our daughter to dance classes.

April 1987...a family of five

One activity that I remember well from the eighties was going camping.  Our family purchased a used camper in 1986, and that was the beginning of a family adventure that lasted nearly a decade!  Our family had a lot of fun in that camper!  It was our “home away from home” for two full weeks every summer, and lots of weekends in between.  You wouldn’t believe the stuff we could pack inside the hallway of that camper!  Five bicycles, lawn chairs for everyone, a cooler,  a grill, a camp stove, and various other assorted accessories!  Sometimes we even threw in a wading pool or the guinea pig and the parakeet!

For a time, every Friday night at 10 o’clock found me glued to our television set!  I loved watching Don Johnson on “Miami Vice”.  Who knew someone could look so good wearing a black t-shirt with a white suit–and no socks!  I’ve dreamed of visiting Miami for over twenty years now–and finding Don Johnson in that white suit!

I was notorious for cutting the shoulder pads out of my dresses and blouses back in the day.  Occasionally, I still do.  I can’t stand all the extra bulkiness!  I hated stirrup pants, but finally gave in and bought a pair of them before they went out of style.  They drove me insane every time I wore them–just like I thought they would.  There was just something so wrong about that piece of elastic under the arch of my foot, and it made my feet sore!

I did love the bright neon colors of the eighties though, and I dressed my children in the bright colors for spring and summer.  I have lots of pictures to prove it–probably much to my children’s dismay!  They had school pictures taken while wearing those bright neon-colored shirts!  I still love neon colors to this day…

Easter - the end of the eighties...

I kind of  liked the “big hair” look of the eighties, but didn’t have the right kind of hair, or the  patience to pull off that look.  I never managed to get my bangs (or my daughter’s)  to flip back and layer the way some people could do–not even with all the gel and hairspray in China!  In fact, my own hair managed to get shorter (with a little help) with the addition of each child!  I barely had enough hair to comb by the end of the eighties, but it didn’t bother me a bit!

I’ve enjoyed this time spent reminiscing about the days of the eighties.  To me, the 80′s weren’t as good as the 70′s, but they were better than the 90′s.  What do you think?  And what were you doing during the awesome eighties?  I’d love to know as I hop on board Tuesday’s Train!

The Memory Boxes…

I’m a sentimental person.  When my children were growing up, I had a hard time letting go of their things.  It was always an ordeal for me when it came time to weed out their clothing or toys.  Eventually, I got rid of most of their old things, but I saved a few things, especially some of their toys, which I still have.

Brett, age 11 mos.

When our children were babies, I always kept two copies of a baby book for each child.  I kept one for myself, the second one I planned to give them when they were grown up.  I always wished I’d had a baby book of my own.

I was one of those mothers who saved their school papers and made scrapbooks for my children.  I saved examples of their handwriting, coloring, drawings, and the stories they wrote for the “Young Author’s Conference”.  I wanted my children to be able to look back one day, and remember their childhoods.  I saved favorite blankets, stuffed animals, and even sports equipment.  I kept all of these special things in an old cedar wardrobe that belonged to my grandmother.

As each child graduated from high school, I made a shadow box with their graduation caps, tassels, and other graduation memorabilia.  I hung their graduation shadow boxes on the wall in our hallway–next to the shadow boxes which held their “coming home outfits”.  Our hallway was lovingly referred to as “the hall of shame” because it was also lined with various childhood photos of our children!

Cub scouting days...

As each child grew up and left home, they left behind a room filled with discarded “stuff”.  Trophies, plaques, high school yearbooks, and more.  (Why do our children do this when they flee the nest?)  We didn’t need the space, so these things sat in the children’s bedrooms, and collected dust for several years…Then one day Ed and I decided to build another house and downsize.   Suddenly I had the dilemma of what to do with a lot of excess stuff!

Finally, I came up with the idea of making memory boxes for each of our grown children.  I bought three very large plastic storage containers.  Into those containers I put their baby book, childhood scrapbooks, high school yearbooks, graduation shadow boxes, and various other special items that I’d saved for each of them.  Then I gave the filled containers to each of our grown children.

My two sons didn’t even bother to look through their containers.  They stuck them in storage and forgot about them.  I felt a bit sad because they didn’t care about that box of memories that I’d so lovingly collected over the years…but, boys will be boys!

This past weekend our oldest son and his wife spent some time cleaning out their spare bed room, in preparation for their new baby.  (The spare room was where Brett had stored his memory box).  Brett told me that he took some time to look through his memory box as they were moving it out to the new storage shed.  He began telling me about some of the things he’d discovered in his box.

High school basketball days...

It’s been four years since I packed those boxes, and I’d actually forgotten what all I put in them.  I enjoyed hearing Brett describe what  he discovered in his box.  The scrapbook….his green baby blanket…the cub scouts uniform…the letterman jacket…sports clippings from the newspaper….the autographed basketball he won during the 3 point shoot-out contest!

Such fun memories from Brett’s first eighteen years of life…and it still it seems like it was just yesterday to me!  Where does the time go?

The Weekend Wrap Up…

I’m happy to say, the weekend ended a whole lot better than it began!  It began, on Friday, with my husband having to travel for two hours (one-way) to testify as a witness in court.  Hubby had to leave home at 6:30 on a very foggy morning.  Thankfully, he made it to his destination safely.  He sat in court for an hour, then was excused without ever having to testify, when the accused man pleaded “no contest” to the forging of an x-ray report.  It’s crazy what some people will do for drugs!

Meanwhile, on the home front next-door, our daughter’s kitchen was in shambles, with most of its contents sitting on her front porch!  By lunch, on Friday, Brandy and her husband had moved the remaining kitchen clutter to the spare bedroom, so they would be able to get to their stove, the kitchen counter, and the dinner table.  The kitchen floor continued to dry out, while Brandy learned to wash dishes in the bathtub!

On Saturday afternoon, our men got busy replacing the flooring in Brandy’s kitchen, and they finished getting the cabinet re-installed on Sunday.  Somehow they managed to piece the old set of cabinets back together after they replaced the bottom area which was damaged by water.  I’m so glad!  A new set of cabinets just wasn’t in the budget at this particular time, which happens to be just three months until Christmas and tax time!  My husband laughed and said the cabinets were now being held together with “duct tape and bobbie pins”!  He was kidding–I think!

I spent part of the weekend disassembling more old photo albums and scanning the photos.  Unfortunately, this chore was just as much “fun” as it was the last time I did it!  I tell you, that’s some wicked glue in those “magnetic” photo albums from 40 years ago!  I finally had to resort to using the hair dryer to melt the glue again.  I had a great time walking down memory lane while scanning the old photos though!

Late on Saturday afternoon Ed fired up the grill, and we had a family cookout.  All of our ”kids” came over and everyone brought the meat of their choice.  Brad and Jennifer showed up two hours late because Jennifer forgot to tell Brad that we were grilling, but better late than never, right?  The grill was still hot, so Brad grilled their pork chops once they arrived.

All is well that ends well, and in spite of a bad beginning, the weekend had a good ending.  We’re ready and waiting for the next adventure!  I’m secretly hoping it will be long wait…

The Best Things In Life…

our grandchildren, Madison and Caden

For those of you whose children have grown up, flown from the nest, and left you feeling sort of “at odds”, let me assure you that the best things in life are yet to come!  “The best things” come in the form of little people called “grandchildren“!

I don’t often write about our grandchildren on this blog because they are so special they deserve a blog all to themselves–and they have one!  I write about their adventures and accomplishments over at MiMi’s Mini Tales.  However, today I’m going to make an exception, because  I want to address the topic of being a grandparent.

I wanted to be a grandparent from the time our daughter got married in 2001.  By then, our youngest had turned sixteen, and I was already beginning to feel the “empty nest” beginning to come on.  Holidays were sort of boring without children, and I was missing the pitter patter of little feet. 

It was five long years, and three months before my dream of being a grandparent came true!  Finally, in October of 2006, our daughter gave birth to our first grandchild, Madison Elizabeth.  It took over a year of trying, a round of fertility meds,  and over six months of bed rest before get our first little miracle arrived.

By that time, I’d taken a position as a nanny for twin infant girls, belonging to my daughter’s best friend.  I was knee-deep in poop and spit up by the time I officially became a grandma!  I stuck with babysitting the twins for another nine  months, then gave it up to come home and be with “my girls”.  It was where I wanted and needed to be.

Then life got a whole lot more exciting when our oldest son and his wife blessed us with  little grandson, Caden Wesley, two years after our daughter gave birth to Madison.  Wow, suddenly we had the best of both worlds!  But wait–it’s going to get just a little bit better at the end of this coming December, when Caden welcomes a new baby brother!!!

Now, let me tell you, being a grandparent is a lot more fun than being a parent!  Everything is a lot more fun when you aren’t the one in charge!  No more fussing about bedtime, tooth brushing, or homework!  Love it!    It’s fun to shop for little ones because you want to–not because you have to!  It’s fun to love them, then send them home! It’s also fun to experience the world again through their eyes, without having to feel the weight of their responsibility resting on your shoulders.  Who knew it could be like this?

We are blessed to live “a stone’s throw” away from both of our grandchildren.  Our little granddaughter, Madison, lives just across the yard, while little Caden lives a few yards down the road.  When the weeds are mowed down in the field, we can see him playing in his yard.  We can actually see Madison inside of her house–she’s that close.

Our family usually gets together at some point during the week or definitely on the weekends.  Maddie and Cade enjoy meeting up at MiMi and E’s house.  Yes, that’s what they call us.  I chose the name “MiMi”, but the name “E-pa” chose Ed.  It started out as a joke–and it stuck.  “E-pa” eventually got shortened down to just plain “E”(for Ed).  One thing’s for sure, there are no grandpa shirts with “E” on them!

Our granddaughter, Madison, and my husband, Ed, have had a special bond ever since she became a toddler.  Up until that point, she was  “MiMi’s girl”, but eventually I got the shaft!  These days I have to share my man!  Madison refers to E as “her friend”.  She always expects him to drop whatever he’s doing, and play–and he usually does. 

Maddie and E have been inseparable for over three years–except when Ed is wearing his white lab coat from work!  Madison doesn’t like him much when he’s wearing that coat.  I believe she thinks he looks too much like the folks at her pediatrician’s office!

Caden has recently become more attached to E, too, although he seems to prefer the company of Madison to either of us. He loves E’s tools, as well as his tractor, and his lawnmower.  Caden’s been known to hitch a ride on the tractor every time he hears E coming down the road.  He also begs to see E’s tools nearly every time he visits.  Nothing thrills Caden like browsing through E’s tool shed!  Folks, I tell you– the little things mean the most!

In honor of Maddie and E’s special three year friendship, I have put together a little video for them.  So sweet…and kind of funny!

There is life after raising your children–it’s called grandchildren–and it’s simply the best!

Steppin’ On My Heart…

I remember, years ago, my children were little and they were always “underfoot”.  When I would complain, my mother-in-law would say to me “When children are little, they step on your toes, when they are big, they’ll step on your heart.”  I had no idea what she meant back then, but  over the years, I’ve come to understand exactly what she meant by that statement.

I used to have this crazy idea that once my children were grown, all of my worries would be over…yeah, I know, it was a crazy idea.  Now I realize that it doesn’t matter if my children are 60 and I’m 80, I will always love and worry about them.  Whenever anything goes wrong in my children’s lives, it affects me, too–no matter what their age, they will be always ”stepping on my heart.” 

When I was a young, married adult,  still growing up, it never occurred to me that our parents might be worrying about Ed and me.  We got married, moved away, and began our lives without much of a thought of anything except each other.  Fortunately, Ed and I were blessed for many years, and never really endured any hardships.  Our parents didn’t have much worry with us.  Our first real hardship didn’t come until 1994, when I  became chronically ill with an auto-immune disease–after 22 years of marriage.

My husband, Ed, originally had four brothers.  Two of his brothers died while they were just children.  One of Ed’s living brothers has often led a life filled with trials and tribulations.  Let’s just say, my mother-in-law has had her heart stepped on many times through the years, so she spoke from experience. 

Times are different, people are different, and all of my own children have already endured numerous hardships in their young adult lives.  Our family  list includes ”engagements that didn’t work out”,  ”near miscarriage/high risk pregnancy”, “hanging out with wrong crowd”, “loss of direction in life”, “college drop-out”, ”trouble adjusting to marriage”, “financial woes”,  ”separation/near divorce”, “marriage reconciliation”, and ”failure to find job”  Wow, just typing the list makes me stressed…we’ve been through a lot, and still going.  One of my children has recently become involved in a new crisis–” loved one diagnosed with cancer”.  My heart aches for both of them, my son and his love.  Twenty year olds should not have to be dealing with such things,  yet here they are…facing it together. 

Now I understand exactly what my mother-in-law was telling me all of those years ago.  Even though my children have been gone from under my feet for many years, they are still “steppin’ on my heart” every time something goes wrong in their lives.  When they are hurting, I am hurting.

Funny how life is that way…the more some things change, the more others stay the same.