The cogs they are a whirling...(Or Rebekah is In-Demand)

Remember how I told you it was Jalapeno Jelly making time? Well we are waaaaay past that now. The pectin has been shelved. The canner has been boxed up. The jelly jars were lined up in a row.

Yep. You read that right. WERE. They are all gone!!!!

First, I gave a couple away to family members. Then I got an email from the sister-in-law saying the girls at work were loving the jalapeno jelly and could she get another jar to share. Pretty soon the emails started rolling in more frantically. PLEASE SEND MORE JELLY - ASAP.

Then, came the most unexpected and wonderful email yet. One of SIL's co-workers wanted to BUY some jars of jelly. Seriously. I never would have imagined as much. I had dreams of having to invent wild and crazy recipes just to use up all of the jars of jalapeno jelly in my cupboard. Because it would be in my hips best interest if I did not eat all of the above mentioned jelly slathered on Ritz crackers with copious amounts of cream cheese.

So anyway, humbled by the request, yet nervous about selling something that someone else possibly, maybe wouldn't like, I declined the money. I gave the jars away under the guise of "building up a strong and faithful fan base".

But next year....

Oh next year....

sweet with a little bit of heat next year....

When I have jalapenos heaped up and overflowing the basket on my kitchen counter, maybe-just-maybe, I won't readily send them out the door with Will to give away at work because I'm sick of looking at all that green.

And maybe I'll be making a little bitty bit of green to keep myself.

Are people just getting lazy or what????

You know what I was pondering as we trekked back up our driveway after a few hours of trick-or-treating?

I think people are getting lazy.

gasp

no really

or else its the economy

but that gets blamed for everything these days

Or else people just don't care as much about Halloween as they used to.

We walked the mile-ish block that makes up our sub-division. There were jack-o-lanterns, there were a few cute purple and orange colored giant spiders, and that's about it. Sad. Where were the scare-the-living-daylights-out-of-you-we-better-not-take-the-kids-to-that-house decorations? Seriously people.

I have expectations you know!

I have some pretty good childhood memories of shrieking in fright and clinging to a sibling as some Bogey-man of sorts jumped from behind the bushes or grabbed your hand as you reached into the candy bowl.

Now admittedly, we woozies were quite the slackers. I would like to blame it on The Boy's plethora of business trips and general lack of being around the house this month.

I guess we are going to have to step it up a notch too next year. I'm up for the challenge.

And then one day, It happened!

Did you know that I make amazing, delicious apple pies from scratch?

It's true. Ask the boy. Or you can ask the dad. But the dad will tell you anything that he didn't make himself is delicious, so you should ask the boy.

Last year, however, I did NOT make pies. Two reasons:

These guys - long on cute, not so much on helpfulness. I decided it couldn't be done to spend a whole afternoon in the kitchen with these two clamoring for my attention. So I took a year off.

We missed the pies!!

This year, I sat myself down and gave myself a stern talking to.

"Buck up Girl!"

There are tons of moms that have been slaving away in the kitchen all while raising little ones. And I only have TWO children. Which seemed like so little that weekend as I had parked myself right in front of an 18 kids and counting marathon.

I had bags full of apples thanks to my big Sister and I was looking for something to occupy myself since the boy was out of town on a business trip. (Who goes on business trips on the weekend anyway - the nerve). So I tucked the kids into their beds for nap time and tip-toed out to the kitchen.

I usually use the food processor to make the pie crust but I didn't want to risk waking the kids. So I rolled up my sleeves, knocked the dust off the pastry blender, and set to work.

I measured.

I blended.

I formed dough balls.

I peeled apples.

I cored them.

I cut them.

I marinated them in sweet, deliciousness.

I rolled out the crust.

I filled the pies.

I fluted edges.

I tucked them away in the freezer for later.

At first I started with one, then I thought "That wasn't too bad" and I did another. and another. and another. and another. That's right 5!

And at some point in the process. The kids woke up. And I found myself staring at two pretty-stinkin-good helpers.

Days gone by

At the risk of sounding like a cranky, old lady complaining about the cost of bread, and milk, and gasoline, I'm going to ask this. Doesn't anyone make their own cotton candy these days. Seriously? The last three fair/carnivals we have been to have all had the same non-descript pre-bagged sugar abomination they are trying to pass off for cotton candy.

Why? I really would like to know. Sure cotton candy spinning has got to be a sticky, taking-too-long-the-line-is-forming-around-the-block business, but isn't it worth it? I think it is.

And so I pout.

But then my big (Em) says she really would like to have some cotton candy.

And it is still kind of melt-in-your-mouth tasty delicious.

So I cave.

But in my opinion, hand-spun is still light-years better!!!

Only a Newman....

....can randomly run into more Newmans when traveling out of town.

We bumped into the Brown's at two different stops while we were visiting Apple hill - It was quite a nice surprise!

We had our first run in at Denver Dan's (quite possibly our favorite place) and got to enjoy lunch, apple juice, and pie together.

And for those who were wondering we ALL got apples on our thumbs with sticky, delicious sauce poured over the tops.

The way to heaven is down the toilet

If you could be a fly on the wall - you would think...."What is this craziness this girl is teaching her children?"



I think most would agree that the finality of death and what happens next is hard thing to explain to a small child. And, it would seem, that this has been a popular discussion in our house of late.



It started with the anniversary of Pop's birthday. On his birthday day, We said a special prayer to remember Pop and asked him to still look after our family and Emma and Bobby. Since they never got to meet him I wanted to make sure they still hear his name and hear stories about him.



Em: "But where is Grandpa Bob?"

Me: "He passed away and now his ashes are in a box at Grandma's house"

Em: "Can we go see him?"

Me: "Of course"



can you see where this is going.....

(later...at Grandma's house)

Em: "Where's Grandpa Bob in the box?"

Will: "Here"

Em: "Let's let him out"



Since then we have had many nights where Em has requested special prayers for just about everything that's going to die. Let's say a prayer for Beatrix cause she's going to die, Let's say a prayer for Shasta cause she's going to die....



In the simplest way possible I tried to explain to her that yes, everything does die eventually, but for most, we will long and happy lives first. I also had to explain that we don't come back after we die (something Em was sure of) but that we go to Heaven.



So last night, the 2nd and last of Em's goldfish died. Em watched as Will scooped him out of the fish tank, verified that yes it was true the fish was not alive anymore, and flushed the fish down the toilet.



Em: "Poor Blackie, he died. Did he go to heaven?"

Me: "Yes he did."

Em: "Heaven is down the toilet. When you get there, you will all be sheep - because Jesus is the shepherd"

Me: " Em.....Let me tell you what a metaphor is"

Is this how it's going to be?

I'm sure any one of us Newman children can tell you want dinner time was like when we were growing up. We ate dinner at the table with the nightly news running on the TV in the background.

Dad would ask each of us "How was your day?" and "Did you learn anything in school today?"

Usually the stock answers were given...."Fine" and "nothing". To which always earned the response "Well you must have learned something." And Eventually each of us would offer up a small insight into what our day had been like.

All this time I chalked it up to classic teenager attitude and indifference. Something all children went through at some point, trying to assert their independence and what not.

So, here we are...only the 2nd week of preschool:
Me: "Em, how was school today? What did you do?"
Em: "Fine" and "I don't know"
Me: "I'll tell you what I did at work today if you tell me what you did at school"
Em: "I can't mom. That would ruin the surprise"

hmmmppptt...I thought I had a few more years at least before they quit freely sharing their life.