Back in Time

When I was young, we had a garden and fruit trees, and in late summer and fall it was CANNING SEASON. I can remember canning bushels and bushels of peaches, pears, apples, tomatoes, string beans, etc. etc. (We had a family of 10- hence the 'bushels and bushels') When we were first married, I continued this tradition. Mel's parents had a wonderful farm, and they would give us fresh produce to can. So when the opportunity came a week ago to buy a box of pears to can, I couldn't resist.

Don't get me wrong, canning isn't my favorite thing to do in the world. The endless peeling and cutting is tedious, and you use just about every pot and pan you own in the canning process. The floor and the countertops get sticky and messy. Even after you think you've wiped up all the mess and thoroughly cleaned the kitchen, you find sticky places that you missed.

Processing the jars on a hot day didn't make the kitchen cool and comfortable.

But after the work was complete, there was always a sense of accomplishment and appreciation upon looking at the colorful jars filled with food.

So it was good for me to go back in time, remember my past experiences, and again feel that sense of accomplishment and appreciation for the blessing of the harvest.

Look What I Made!

Cooking isn't my favorite thing in the world, but I had so much fun making this fruit pizza, and I had to share it with you. It's really an easy thing to make, it's VERY delicious, and it's great fun decorating the top with the fruit. So here's the recipe, with my own tips to help you through the process.

FRUIT PIZZA

Cookie Crust:

1/2 c softened butter

3/4 c sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 c flour

1 t cream of tartar

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

Cream butter and sugar til smooth. Mix in egg. In small bowl, mix together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Stir into creamed mixture til blended. Press into ungreased pizza pan. TIP: Put plastic wrap over dough, enough to cover pizza pan. Roll out with a rolling pin, and then pull off gently when dough is spread evenly around pan. Bake at 350 degrees 8-10 minutes or til light brown around the edges. Cool.

Cream Cheese layer:

Soften 8 ounces cream cheese and mix with an 8 ounce container of frozen topping til blended. Smooth over cooled cookie crust.

Fruit layer:

Cut fruit into pieces. You can use strawberries, mandarine oranges, grapes, kiwi, nectarines, peaches, raspberries, blueberries, canned pineapple, bananas, etc. etc. If fruit tends to darken, dip in water/lemon juice mixture before putting on pizza.

Glaze:

1/2 c sugar

1 pinch salt

1 T cornstarch

1/2 orange juice

2 T lemon juice

1/4 water

1/2 t grated orange rind or orange zest

dash cinnamon

TIP: I used 3/4 c mandarine orange liquid in place of the 1/2 oj and 1/4 water.

In a saucepan, combine cornstarch and sugar and mix. Add all other ingredients (except grated orange rind) and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, til it comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from heat and add grated orange rind. Allow to cool but not set up firmly. Spoon over fruit. Chill for at least 2 hours. Cut into wedges and serve. Delicious!

Riverbend Treasure

Audra put together a fantastic book of pictures and personal notes congratulating Mel on the opening of the new Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend. Not everyone got to see the finished product, so I have taken pictures of some of it for you to see. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to David, Jessi, McKenna, Lydia, Emily, Summer, Mike, Audra, Kyle, Jordan, Tanner, Josh (he didn't write anything, but we know he wished he could), Adam, Jessie, Abbi and Chad!!! This is so meaningful - we will treasure it forever!

Thank you again Audra for all your work making this wonderful book!
Thank you Adam and Jessie for taking such great snapshots of Riverbend!

New Diaper Bag!

When Jessi visited us in June, we went fabric shopping and found this great stripe and print. It wasn't exactly what Jessi had in mind for a quilt, but then we realized it would be a perfect diaper bag. So, tah-dah! Pack up the diapers, formula, extra clothes, binky, burp cloth, etc. etc. We are ready to go!

You can't beat all those great pockets for organizing baby's things.

Memory Tag

Memory Lane...the tag that gets everyone involved. I got this from Audra's blog. I hope you will play along. Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Olympic Track & Field Trials - Great Weekend!

Eugene has been gearing up for the Track & Field Olympic Trials for years, and the exciting day finally came!

Jessie and Adam arrived at the airport ready to celebrate and enjoy the trials.

You just gotta have your picture with the Eugene Olympic track duck.

A couple of hours later Abbi and Chad joined us.

Abbi, Chad and the duck.

Here we all are, heading through the University of Oregon Campus on our way to historic Hayward Field. The 1980 Olympic trials for track & field were held here also.

Adam knows how to dress appropriately!

We ran into Bryan Floyd on our way into the trials. He is a family friend who was on the Churchill High School track team with Audra a few years back. It was so fun to see him again!

Here we are catching up on all Bryan's news.

At the Friday evening trials we enjoyed dinner as well as the events.

Here we are after Friday Evening's events were complete, Hayward Field in the background.

One last parting shot after Saturday's events. Now we can't wait for 8-8-08 and the Olympics begin in Beijing, China! But the BEST part of the whole thing was having Abbi, Chad, Adam and Jessie with us! What a great way to celebrate the 4th!

Swim Suits!

I don't know if Marylyn Eyer wrote this or just forwarded it, but I love it! It's great to know I am not the only one with a bad attitude about swim suits! Thought you might enjoy it too.

"When I was a child in the 1960s, the bathing suit for the mature figure was boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered. They were built to hold back and uplift and they did a good job. Today's stretch fabrics are designed for the prepubescent girl with a figure carved from a potato chip. The mature woman has a choice - she can either go up front to the maternity department and try on a floral suit with a skirt, coming away looking like a hippopotamus who escaped from Disney's Fantasia, or she can wander around every run-of-the- mill department store trying to make a sensible choice from what amounts to a designer range of florescent rubber bands. What choice did I have? I wandered around, made my sensible choice and entered the chamber of horrors known as the fitting room.

The first thing I noticed was the extraordinary tensile strength of the stretch material. The Lycra used in bathing costumes was developed, I believe, by NASA to launch small rockets from a slingshot, which give the added bonus that if you manage to actually lever yourself into one, you are protected from shark attacks, as any shark taking a swipe at your passing midriff would immediately sufferwhiplash. I fought my way into the bathing suit, but as I twanged the shoulder strap in place, I gasped in horror - my boobs had disappeared! Eventually, I found one boob cowering under my leftarmpit. It took a while to find the other. At last I located it flattened beside my seventh rib. The problem is that modern bathing suits have no bra cups. The mature woman is meant to wear her boobs spread across her chest like a speedbump. I realigned my speed bump and lurched toward the mirror to take a full view assessment.

The bathing suit fit all right, but unfortunately it only fit those bits of me willing to stay inside it.The rest of me oozed out rebelliously from top, bottom, and sides. I looked like a lump of play dough wearing undersized cling wrap. As I tried to work out where all those extra bits had come from, the prepubescent sales girl popped her head through the curtain, 'Oh, there you are,' she said, admiring the bathing suit. I replied that I wasn't so sure and asked what else she had to show me. I tried on a cream crinkled one that made me look like a lump of wadded up masking tape, and a floral two piece which gave the appearance of an oversized napkin in a serving ring. I struggled into a pair of leopard skin bathers with ragged frills and came out looking like Tarzan's Jane, pregnant with triplets and having a rough day. I tried on a black number with a midriff and looked like a jellyfish in mourning. I tried on a bright pink pair with such a high cut leg I thought I would have to wax my eyebrows to wear them. Finally, I found a suit that fit...a two-piece affair with a shorts style bottom and a loose blouse-type top. It was cheap, comfortable, and bulge-friendly, so I bought it. My ridiculous search had a successful outcome, I figured. When I got home, I found a label which read -- 'Material might become transparent in water.' So, if you happen to be on the beach or near any other body of water this year and I'm there too ... I'll be the one in cut off jeans and at-shirt!

You'd better be laughing or rolling on the floor by this time. Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain."

Thanks Marylyn. I can identify!