Peach Ambition

In my last blog entry, I stated that I planned to do some canning this summer. Well, wonder of wonders, I actually did it! I spent the better part of my morning messing up my kitchen canning a slew of peaches! How many are in a slew? I'm not exactly sure. And, why is it called canning when you’re actually using jars, not cans? Shouldn’t it be called jarring?

I started with this many peaches:



Which, I thought, would yield quite a lot of canned peaches. Well, by the time I blanched, shocked, peeled, cut, simmered, and jarred all those peaches, my final yield was:


2 quarts and 3 pints! I thought it would be more, but these will sure taste good in the winter! Besides, it’s only the beginning of peach season, and I have LOTS more jars. I can, if I choose, buy more peaches & can them, too. Can’t wait to taste the fruits of my labor! (pun intended… HA!) What do you plan to can, preserve, sauce, or jam this summer?

Lazy summer days

This summer, I'm not taking any classes. This is strange to me, because I have taken 2 classes every summer since I started graduate school, back in 2007.

This summer, my daughter is in preschool, full-time. She's been in preschool at least part-time for about 3 years, but never during the summer before. I would keep her home with me, but we had to pay for summer at her preschool in order to ensure her spot in the fall. Doesn't make any sense to pay for full-time preschool, then not send her. Besides, she's such a social creature - she has way more fun with her friends at school than she would have at home with me every day.

This summer, I don't have a job. The last summer that I didn't have a job was 2003 - the summer that I met my husband in a Red Sox chat room. I had a summer job lined up, but then it fell through and by that time, it was too late to get another summer job. Thus, I had all the time in the world to hang out in an online chat room and lay the foundation of my relationship with my future husband.

So what are my plans?

First: catch up on sleep. I did not know that I was so tired until I didn't have to get up at a prescribed time for the last 2 days. Yesterday I slept in until 10:00am. TEN A-M!!! That is very, very late for me. This morning, I was up and at 'em by 9:30. If I keep going at this pace, I'll be getting up at 8am by Friday! Then I can drive my husband to work and my daughter to preschool and actually have the car for the day. Oh, didn't I mention...

This summer, we only have one car. We had a second car until very recently, but it died a sudden death about a week before we left for our vacation in May. We will need a second one once fall classes start in mid-August, but until then we are planning to get by with the one.

Second: do some canning! If you have never had a fresh, Chilton County (GA) peach, you are missing out on one of the great joys of summer in the South. They are the sweetest, juiciest peaches I've ever tasted, and this summer I intend to buy a slew of them and can them! Then on those chilly, rainy Mississippi "winter" days, I can taste a bit of summer. (I put "winter" in quotes, because I grew up in Massachusetts. The winters here barely qualify - they're more like very chilly, wet, long, rainy fall).

Third: Bake. At least, I want to bake enough bread so that we don't have to buy it at the store. I tried to make some in the automatic bread maker yesterday and it failed to raise. I should have known better - my Gram taught me how to make bread by hand, and that's how I should do it! I also want to make muffins for breakfast and cookies for snacking on and try my hand at some of the Pioneer Woman's recipes, specifically her knock you naked brownies. I also really want to try making brioche, seeing as how I searched for a brioche pan for over a year and I finally found - and bought - one, but I have yet to use it.

Fourth: This is the one that I'm most hesitant to put into writing because it is the most difficult for me - clean and organize - my kitchen at the very least. HELP!

In addition to the above, I have also planted a patio container garden. I'm starting small - I have mint (transplanted from Gram's brook up North), basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, tomatoes, and crook-neck summer squash. I can't wait for those tomatoes & squash! Hopefully next year I'll add some lettuces and maybe some cucumbers.

What are your summer plans?

My bullying post

Okay... I've seen a few different blogs about bullying in the last week. Like this one at Parenting in Progress, and this one at Single Dad Laughing. Some of this, I'm sure, is in response to the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a young and talented Rutgers student, who jumped off of the George Washington Bridge after his roommate outed him as a homosexual on YouTube.

Earlier this year, Phoebe Prince, a young lady from South Hadley, MA - not too far from where I grew up, committed suicide after being viciously bullied by some of her classmates. With bullying being such a predominant theme in the news and the blogosphere lately, it's my turn. This is tough for me to share - but if I can help anyone out there to avoid the fate of Tyler and Phoebe and so many others, it's worth it.

My bullying story started in Kindergarten. I was walking home from school (back then we walked to Kindergarten. It was only a block away and it was a pretty safe block), when I spotted some pretty red berries on a bush. I picked a few and squashed them between my fingers. Pretty normal behavior for a 5-year-old, wouldn't you say? (Thankfully, I knew better than to eat them.) As I was enjoying the feel of these berries between my fingers, two of my classmates came up behind me and saw me. "Katie, those berries are giving you cooties! You have the cooties!" From that day until the end of my high school career, I was known as "Katie Cootie." I kid you not - when I was a SENIOR, someone called me that. I don't remember who, but I DO remember who the two boys were that gave me that moniker. And no, we are not Facebook friends.

Now, "Katie Cootie" may sound silly to you. But let me reassure you, there was nothing silly about going to school and hearing the kids call me that every. single. day. It was difficult for me to make friends, no one wanted to associate with me for fear of the social repercussions. All through elementary school, I looked forward to Junior High, because that meant a bigger school, with kids who didn't know me, and a chance to make some friends. Oh, how naive I was. Not only was Junior High not any better, it was much, much worse. Instead of having more kids to befriend, there were more kids to pick on me. The popular girls would pretend to be interested in me, and ask me questions, then make fun of me when I answered them. The cute boys would ask me out, then laugh at my dumbfounded expression (I was not so naive as to think they were sincere).

I did manage to make a couple of friends in Junior High, but one of them - my best friend - told me that she could no longer associate with me in public because the other kids were picking on her for hanging out with me during lunch. That was about a month before the end of seventh grade, and it broke my heart. Even now, remembering that pain, tears are welling up.

I was physically bullied as well. One girl used to beat me up on a regular basis, starting around the 4th grade, I think. I remember quitting Girl Scouts so I could have one day a week when she wouldn't pick on me, because she would be in Girl Scouts, and I could walk home safely. One day after school in 5th or 6th grade, she got hold of me and pulled my pants down. I was humiliated beyond words. Ironically, my mother had some "spider sense" or something that day, because as I was getting up, I saw her drive by, looking for me to give me a ride home - but she didn't see me. We were behind some bushes. In 7th grade, the same girl beat me so badly that she almost broke my arm. I had to wear a sling for a week, and my parents finally had had enough. They took her to court, and she was forbidden to touch me again. So at least that one thing was taken care of, but I was still socially and emotionally bullied by many others. I begged, cried, and pleaded with my parents not to go back to school. But there was nothing they could do. They did not have the means to send me to private school, and home schooling hadn't really gained any momentum yet. I didn't even know that was an option, and I don't think they did either.

There were times that I thought about ending it all. Never really seriously, but I would be lying if I said that the thought of suicide never crossed my mind. I know now that it would have ruined my parents, and many others in my family. I am thankful for their love. Certainly my family life was not perfect, but I knew that my parents loved me. And my grandparents. Oh I thank God for my grandmother. Her house was a sanctuary. No fighting, no harsh words, no meanness or cruelty, just an air of love, acceptance, and peace.

Although those two years in Junior High were the worst years of my life, things got slightly better in High School. My fellow students started to grow up a little, and the upperclassmen just didn't have time for that kind of garbage. I joined the soccer team and I got involved with the yearbook committee. I made a few more friends. Slowly, slowly, the misery abated... and I am here to tell you that I came out of it. I survived. By God's grace and the skin of my teeth, but I am here and I am happy... now.

What does this have to do with you?

Well... a lot. Are you in high school or junior high? Say a kind word to the kids who are picked on. One person saying one nice thing to them can be the highlight of their day. That sounds trite, but I am telling you from experience that it is ABSOLUTELY true.

Are you a parent? Tell your kid(s) that you love them, every single day. Don't settle for one-word answers when you ask how their day was. Ask specifically how their friends are, how the other kids treat them, and if anyone said anything mean to them today. Make sure you know what's REALLY going on with your kids.

Are you a community member? Consider getting involved in youth ministry, or an organization such as "Big Brothers, Big Sisters." If you are friends with any teenagers (or parents of teenagers), make a point to get to know them better. Ask their parents if you can take them on a special outing. Sometimes, teens need an adult perspective from someone who is not their parent.

Bullying is an epidemic. It is mean, harsh, unnecessary, and in some cases, deadly. And it is preventable. What will you do to help it come to an end?

Tribute to my grandmother

My grandmother's memorial service was Sunday, September 19th, 2010. This is the remembrance that I shared at that service.

My grandmother was always busy. Whenever I would visit, whether by myself or with other family members, she was always baking, cooking, or sewing something – sometimes all three at once! Walking into her house, I would be struck first by the smell of baking bread. Then, I would hear her voice sing out, “Oh, hi Kate! Come on in, I was just about to take the bread out of the oven. Would you like a cookie?”

By the offer of “a cookie,” I always hoped they were her signature oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, best enjoyed with a cold glass of her mint iced tea in summer, or hot Red Rose tea in winter. Sometimes she made different cookies. Peanut butter, or snicker doodle, or chocolate, and from time to time she would try her hand at perfecting Ruth Loomis’s congo bars. I don’t know if she ever did to her satisfaction or not, but it was fun tasting the experiments.

“Try this, Kate,” she would say.
“It’s really good, Gram!” I would reply.
“But it doesn’t taste like Ruth’s! I’ve tried this recipe a hundred times but I can never get it quite right. I don’t know how she does it.” Then she would sigh, and in that sigh, I could hear her determination to try again.

As good as the congo bars and other cookies were, when she didn’t have the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, it was always a bit of a letdown. When I was going to my first high school party, I asked her for the recipe, and I made her cookies. I’ve made them many times since, and I’m convinced that they helped me to win my husband. The first time he tried one, he said that they were the best cookies he’d ever eaten. Now, he knows how to make them, too. So does my Aunt Shirley, and my brother Dave, and of course Uncle Paul, and I don’t know how many others.

Gram was not a wealthy woman in terms of money, but she was rich in the ways that counted. By sharing her cookies, her bread, her dinner rolls, her sticky buns, her corn chowder, her knitted hats and blanket-stitched flannelette baby blankets, her smiles, her songs – she had a song for every situation, and all it took was one phrase, or even one word that reminded her of a song, and she would burst out singing, - her stories, and her pearls of wisdom, she passed on to us a heritage that wraps us in the warmth of family and memory. She leaves us 4 children, 7 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren to date, plus spouses, and cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews. What better gift could she leave us with than the gift of family, the gift of each other?

She was always happiest when her whole family was together. It got more difficult as years went by, children and grandchildren moved away, and the family grew bigger. But we managed it a few times, and those were the times that Gram had the biggest smile on her face. I’m going to end with a bit of word association… things that I will always think of when I remember Gram.

Game suppers… Grandpa’s pheasant pie… fleece jackets… teddy bears… Raggedy Ann… camping in Vermont… church hymns… old folk songs… fabric shopping*… church fairs… corn chowder… bread… dinner rolls*… sticky buns… mint iced tea… Red Rose hot tea… the Cummington Fair… family reunions on Auntie Mae’s porch… Uncle Red’s pipe tobacco… matriarch… slow driver… blue sweatshirts with red birds on them… little earrings… phone calls about cooking questions*… bathroom sink shaped like a seashell… baby blankets… and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Thanks for everything, Gram.

A must-read from "Single Dad Laughing"

Maybe you've already seen this blog post on Facebook but if you haven't, please take a few moments to read it.