Early to Bed, Early to Rise . . .

          Jenna has early morning seminary.  She started this morning.  Arrangements have been made for taking the students from the church to the school - though I had planned on assisting with that this morning.  From the time she left the house to the time I arrived at the church was one of the quickest hours I have ever experienced in my life. 

          I had forgotten about her being in seminary or school traffic or buses or how much I loathe driving in school traffic.  I had somehow managed to forget all of that during the summer.  As soon as I pulled out of my driveway and saw a school bus, I thought "Oh, no." And then I had to fight the brightness of the sun on top of that.  Good grief.

          How is it possible that my baby had just barely turned eleven before our official move to Oregon and now she's a freshman in high school?   It's been nearly 14 1/2 years since I had given birth to her.  Wow! Time flies.  The older I get, the quicker it goes.  Why could it have not gone this quickly for me when I was a student?  A junior high school student particularly.  I am theoretically a student now.  The class I am currently taking is halfway over.  I barely remember it starting.  Even my accounting classes have gone fairly quickly.

          As I type this post, I have been given the opportunity to contribute to a car pool starting tomorrow.  That means I won't have to drive!  or even feel obligated to drive.  There are three in the class that will be going to the high school.  Small class.  

          Jenna's brothers and I all had the option of making seminary an elective during school.  Jenna would have that option if she were attending school in Roseburg. I can't help but believe Jenna would be going for the early morning seminary regardless.  She wants to take choir and drama.  I think she would enjoy painting or drawing as well, but is limited to how many electives she can take.  Right now she seems to want to put the perfuming arts above the liberal or graphic arts.

          I hope she has a great year.

I Am in Awe

Ever since preschool, Jenna has had this unbelievable talent of being able to talk AND to listen at the SAME TIME! Who does that?  I could never work in telemarketing as I know I will have co-workers around me that will have louder voices than what I’ll attempt to be hearing over the phone.  I’ve always had a problem concentrating on one sound or voice when there is a louder sound penetrating my ears. I also find it hard to concentrate on speaking if my voice is in competition with other sounds.

Last night Jenna asked if she could watch “What Would You Do?” as it is truly one of her favorite programs.  The entire time it was on, she was jabbering at me – telling me about different friends, certain plans, responding to whatever might ail her, personality traits . . . on and on.  The entire time she was talking to me, she would also respond to the T.V. 

“No!  That isn’t right!  Why do people do that?” and then she would turn back to me, “. . . anyway . . .” and continue her thought.  She never once asked, “What was I saying?” 

At one point Jenna asked if she could remove the closed caption as it wasn’t running in sync with what was being said.  How could she possibly know that? 

I’m not certain how the topic had even come up, but I had told her about a murder that happened in the church parking lot when we were living in Kearns.  She was only three or four at the time.  Of course she wouldn’t remember.  She started crying.

It was nice to hear her enthusiasm.  She is more important to me than any program could possibly be.  I did find it amazing that she was able to enjoy the program though while I barely knew what the story focus was.  I did not see – let alone hear most of it.  I think only one story was new and the rest I had seen before – but still.  I do not have Jenna’s identic memory either. 

In preschool, she’d get upset that the teachers would mover her “away from her friends”.  I have tried to explain to her that not everybody shares her talent.  “When Miss Shelly is talking, you need to allow your friends to hear what Miss Shelly is saying.  Morgan cannot listen to you and Miss Shelly at the same time.  Kristopher doesn’t know what Miss Shelly is saying if you are talking” 

It really is a fascinating talent.  I hope she may never lose her ability to listen while she talks.  I am floored by this talent.  It is truly remarkable.

A Domestic Goddess, I am NOT

                After we had picked pears in Medford for the Church, we gleaned about four bags of pears for us to take home.  Roland took 24 pears to give to friends he had made at the theater, and  I took 18 to my friends.  Most of the pears were not ripe at the time.  We continued to pass them out to neighbors until they became too ripe.  It got to the point where we needed to do something - such as pear sauce or pear cake or something.  I made pear sauce last week.

                Roland is the one who loves to bake and cook.  I was disappointed that he didn't do more of it during his time off.  I prefer not being in the kitchen for a huge length of time.  But Roland has returned to work and more than just the pears have ripened - but bananas as well.  In addition to our ripened fruits, Jaime and I had picked two buckets of apples - which Roland cored and I cut yesterday.  We're currently drying some apple rings and have put the rest of the pieces (5 1/2 gallon bags full)  of apple pieces probably for pie.

                This morning I baked one loaf of banana bread and started on a pear butter recipe that my neighbor had given me.  She had also given me a sample of the heavenly deliciousness.  Exhausted with my morning workout in the kitchen, I decided I needed a break and went to the pool to relax - or at least attempt to. 

                The pool was a nice temperature, but there was a light wind that made the air too cool for the wet skin to enjoy.

                When I returned home, half of the banana bread was missing, and I decided I would have a slice with Maxine's pear butter (as I had not finished making my own).  I had to fourth the recipe as it called for about 15 pears (I would assume enormous ones) which would add up to about 8 cups of pulp.  I had only 11 pears, 2 unusable, and not many in which the entire cup could be used.  I barely had 1 cup of pulp and 1 cup of juice combined.  I had left it in the refrigerator while I was at the pool.  I think that helped, for when I returned, I used the strainer once more and barely had two cups of sauce.

                I followed the recipe as best as I could.  I was appalled with the tiny amount.  It reminded me of having the juicer and getting only one or two ounces out of 20 apples or whatever else was used.  I had to put a drinking glass in the photo so as

Maxine's nearly gone, mine in the middle is mine did not fill an entire marachino jar. 

 

to prove what a tiny amount it was. 

 

                Jenna and I have been putting the pear butter on what's left of the banana bread.  Delicious.  Still a lot of work though. 

Stickler for Recipes

            Roland brought some ham home the other day and thought about making a sweet and sour with some of it.  We already had sweet and sour chicken leftover in the fridge.  I told him to make ham fried rice.  He said he needed a recipe.  I could not find one that listed all ingredients that we had on hand, and so I printed a couple in order to demonstrate that not all recipes contain the ingredients and that it is possible to alter ingredients.  People make mock recipes all the time. 

  

          I am a substitute who works with what I have.  Roland is a letter-to-the-law recipe follower - even down to the measurements.  I told him to half the recipe that he chose, but no.  He insisted on four cups of rice.  And yet we are only two people - sometimes three, but mostly just two as Jenna is a fussy eater.  The end result was enough to take to a ward potluck - which won't be until next week.  Don't really want a dish to sit around that long before allowing others to partake.

            Fortunately, the missionaries contacted us the following day.  We had forgotten we had signed up to feed them.  In addition to the ham fried rice, Roland was able to make his sweet and sour ham (which is almost gone) and we had watermelon for dessert.  Light and healthy. 

Outdoor Pooling

            There were thirteen of us in the pool this morning. 

            Most came believing the pool would not be crowded

and yet it was.

            Josh was behind the counter collecting fees

            I asked him if he would be teaching as

I had not seen Carolyn.

She was home sick.

            So everyone in the pool did

            his or her own thing.

No instructor

Not many lifeguards are left

            during the final week.

Many return to or

            start school.

            The sky rained upon us

while we were in the pool.

            I don't remember ever

            being in the pool when it rained

The skies alone would

            prevent outdoor pools in Salt Lake

            from being open

It was fun to be in the pool

in the rain.

            The water was cold.

            But not like June or July.

This is the last week

            this year.

change in hair and morning sky

        The roots of my hair are white like they were when I was one.  My last dye job was a brown or red.  The white is more noticeable against the dark color.

        I am sick of my hair.  Sick of changing the color.  Sick of putting it up.  Sick of the weight of it on my scalp.  I told Roland that I need it cut.  We cannot afford the expense right now. 

        He tells me to cut my own hair.  What?!?!?  I can't see the back of my head.  How am I supposed to make it even?

        I've been cutting his hair for the last six months.  I don't think I've done a good job.  As I look at myself in the mirror, I wonder.  What if I cut my pigtails off?  How would that work?

        I take the scissors to my hair.  There is no turning back.  I'm surprised at how it turned out.  I had a similar haircut before.  My head is no longer weighed down by a mass amount of hair.  I am happy with how light it feels.  

        I have a bottle of blonde hair dye.  It was on sale.  I may put it in next week to even out the contrasting colors. Jenna doesn't want me to be blonde.  I don't know why.  Could be because her sisters' mother tried to maintain a blondness and we don't want the reminder. 

        On the other hand, the white roots that are there are the same as my mother's.  The white hair she had when she died.  I can live with that.

        This week will be the last week that the pool will be opened this year.  I thought I would complete the summer by going. 

        The clouds are heavy and the air is filled with moisture - finally.  I notice all the gravel in the driveway is wet  - except for under the car.  I like the misty fog surrounding the hills and watching as it lifts into the air.

        Beautiful!

World Culture and Featured Films

            The class I am currently taking is a social studies class which was not part of the curriculum I had pulled from the 2016 student catalog.  Apparently, it's one that has recently been introduced into the system.  Many of the other students whose names I see are ones that I recognize from several classes before.  

           

            Most of the videos I have been watching are ones I can relate to the class - well sort of.  I have actually used one as a reference already.  Friendship Field is a story that takes place in Idaho.  Three sisters are obligated to work the farm as the youngest sister, Iris who goes by Ira, enjoys he last summer of "freedom" as she will be obligated to work the following year.  Meanwhile, a family from Mexico, hard on their luck, cross the border into the US looking for work and end up on the family farm in Idaho to assist the girls unable to get the crops in on time by themselves.

            The youngest boy, Oscar, befriends Ira and they spend the majority of summer together being kids.  Oscar enjoys meeting Ira at the cemetery as his culture recognizes the death symbols with peace and respect.  Ira, like many of us raised in white culture, sees the cemetery as something spooky and to be afraid of.  Oscar had explained his culture to her and I was reminded of the Disney movie Coco and how much time and respect went into the production in order to make it authentic as possible.

             The next movie I watched started with a flashback of a woman dying.  The story focuses on her husband and their daughter.  They are well-to-do financially, but no amount of money can buy the comfort of one's loss.  

I forget the name of the little girl who goes through a series of nannies but has established a friendship with a waitress, Faith, who "lives on the wrong side of the tracks" (so to speak) who eventually becomes a nanny to the girl.  Possibly more, as the story ends with the girl's father making a connection with Faith.

            I enjoyed the narration in Lost in the Barrens.  Jamie, a white orphan, tells the story about being removed from an all-male academic school and riding a train to live with his uncle.  I thought it was a part of rural Alaska, but as he took the train there, probably not.  He meets another boy, Angus, about his age.  Angus has a huge chip on his shoulders as he is treated with disrespect by the white man and doesn't seem to fit in with his own people although he'd like to.  He becomes angry with Jamie when his father goes on a hunt without him;  he feels like he has been asked to babysit Jamie who is curious about things but obviously has no connection to the wilderness.  He disrespects what Angus views as sacred.  It is a story about survival evolving to friendship.

            

            I tried watching Words by Heart and Girl of the Limberlost but couldn't get sound for either one of them.  I had seen both before but do not remember much of Words by Heart.  I was sad about Girl of the Limberlost as I do remember liking that show.  

            Tomorrow's primary lesson is about Wisdom.  I will be teaching the class in Valiants.