It is the season of local honeycrisp apples fresh from the tree. I know I wax eloquent about them every year, but they really are marvelous explosions of tangy sweetness. Also, the local carrot harvest is in, and they are also so, so delicious.
My husband was cleaning a shed at Grandma Kathy’s and came across four extremely rusty and nasty cast iron pans. He brought them home, scraped off the rust and grime, seasoned them, and they are magnificent! Two of the pans are skillets with really tall sides, and they are a dream to cook with on the stove. One of them has a lid that also matches a deeper baking pan that is perfect for the oven. Actually, we’ve been using the skillet with the lid in the oven too. There is also a tall sauce pot that Dr. Peds built a new wood handle for which we haven’t actually used yet, but it is unlike anything you’d normally find anywhere, so it feels like we are rich in cast iron treasure.
Peanut Maximus spends quite a lot of time strapped to me in the moby wrap or in the Ergo. He usually zonks out and rests deeply, and then I can work at the computer or practice the piano or do a number of other things. The tricky thing is that it isn’t easy to do things that involve bending over, so sometimes I wander around looking for things to do at the right height. While cooking supper the past week, I managed to organize all the magnetic poetry words on the refrigerator and compose several poems, because that was just the right height, and let’s face it, cooking is kind of boring.
When my walking buddy and I are out and about with the stroller, I have been listening to my collection of classical music playlists systematically. I’ve been enjoying familiar favorites mixed in with some works I don’t often actually listen to. I love that I’ve been listening to some of these pieces since I was a teenager and that some are new discoveries.
One of my favorite places to read poetry remains to be in the car when I’m waiting to pick up kids. I have a poetry book right next to the driver’s seat, along with a tin of book darts to mark my favorite poems. It works so well because poems are so easy to stop and start. I might read one or twenty three while waiting.
All three of my resident students in the family have been in charge of packing their own lunches this year before school. It’s great that I don’t have to pack lunches anymore! What is not so great is the complete devastation that they bring about to the kitchen every single morning.
Two weeks ago I took both Mr. TOF and the Devious Snail to the first symphony concert of the season. During intermission the Devious Snail said to me, “I really do enjoy the symphony. It’s really great.” This makes me so very happy. He’s right. It is great. I never take for granted that I have the opportunity to have season tickets and go to all the classical concerts every year. I love it so much.
Singing is one of the few ways to curb the soul-scraping sounds of a fussy Peanut Maximus, and that means I sing a lot, every day. A few days ago I decided to embark on a hymn memorization project. I’m going to try to memorize the first verses of 50 different hymns. I have five down so far. I’m working my way through my hymnal collection.
We’ve had a couple of frosty mornings in the last week or so, but most of my flowers in containers are somehow still going strong. It has occurred to me as their glory starts to fade that it was probably an intentional design that the beauty of flowers fade just as the magnificent explosion of color in all of the trees begins. The vibrant leaves fluttering around make saying goodbye to the flowers a bit easier.
Every Monday evening The Banana and Mr. TOF are at orchestra rehearsal. It’s always a little hectic getting there, but when I pick them up, they are so happy they are nearly levitating. I love our youth orchestra program. I am so grateful they can participate and that they like playing in an ensemble so much. It’s been so motivating for them.
Dr. Peds used a mini blower (it kind of looks like a little leaf blower) to clean out nine years of dust and eraser shavings out of the soundboard of the piano today. A couple of years ago I asked the piano tuner what to do about the accumulation of gunk in the piano, because using a regular vacuum hose to suck it out did not work. He said the only thing he knew of that worked was using a leaf blower. I’ve been too chicken to actually try it because I could only imagine the dust cloud that would result. Today when I came home from watching The Banana’s swim meet, Dr. Peds surprised me by having the task all completed. There wasn’t even any noticeable trace of the dust cloud on the furniture or bookshelves or anything. The air purifier was running, and you would have never known. The interior of the piano is spotless.
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