Wednesday September 28th

We were talking about apples in the car, on the way to the Park and Ride. Harper says, "only pick the red ones." I say, "you know who likes the green apples?" "Mamaw and Papa." "Mamaw likes to cut the green apples into small bite-size pieces, and put them on top of her oats for breakfast." Harper: "We had popsicles at Mamaw's, and cookies." Ava: "Mamaw has sugar-free popsicles." Me: "That's because she has diabetes. " Harper: "Mom, do you have diabetes?" Ava: "No, Mom doesn't have diabetes. She just likes to eat salads."
I called the Efland apple orchard. They are organic, but all the apples are gone. Note to self, pick apples earlier next year.
Ava finished reading, Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 Days, while I finished making gluten-free crust. Good jokes from the book- What are the seasons? Salt, pepper, ketchup, and mustard. How does dew form? When leaves sweat.
We finished the muscadine pie, most labor intensive pie I've ever made. We peeled and seeded 4 lbs. of muscadines. We have enough filling for an extra small pie. Delish! I loved making this pie with Ava. She was really helpful.
We picked up Harper from school, and brought a little pie filling to share. Mixed reviews: two mothers don't like muscadines. All of the kids liked it except for Rowan, who thought it was tart. The children were excitedly talking about Michaelmas, and the dragon hunt.
We came home and made piggies in a blanket. Harper came over to me while I was working with the dough, and said, "I love you." She tells me this all the time. I like to take note of what we're doing when she feels the need to say it. Ava added cinnamon and sugar to the dough scraps.
We pulled the tomato plants out of the summer garden. Ava had a lot of fun pulling up plants. I cut the grass in the backyard. Ava wanted to ride on the lawnmower with me, until Harper discovered Disney channel on Roku. I wanted to show Ava that riding the lawnmower was more fun than Disney music videos. So, I started making figure 8s in the backyard, and ran over the water hose. I can see my parents rolling their eyes, right now.
Jump in the shower. Tegan arrives to cook dinner, Irish banger sausages (the girls' favorite). And, I'm off to work. While driving to work, Roy Orbison was playing on the radio. I look down at my hands, still slightly soiled from gardening. I see my Dad's thumbs in my thumbs.
I waited on violinist extraordinaire, Jennifer Curtis and friends. We saw Jennifer perform an original piece on UNC campus a few months ago. Terry was with us, and can attest to her genius.
Colin and the girls picked me up after work. Ava was still awake and her dogs were barking, so I gave her a little foot massage- and she fell asleep. Colin was rushing to get home and on Ode Turner he had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting two raccoons. We have a lot of wildlife near our house; several deer, two bucks, a fox, opossums, and now two raccoons have been spotted.