22 Years of Motherhood

Today is my celebration as much as it is hers. Twenty-two years ago she emerged to make me a mother - my much yearned for and much dreamed about daughter.

She came home from Calgary for her birthday. When I complained that she was leaving too little time for me and spending it all with her friends, she granted me the privilege of making dinner for her and all her friends. It was supposed to be 6 friends but somehow there ended up to be about 15 or so. Good thing I made 2 huge lasagnes. No left overs. And every plate and bowl I own is now dirty.

They have just left and I am exhausted in a happy way. It was such a pleasure to have so many of her friends here and listen to them joke and laugh and see the distance between my daughter and I get smaller and smaller as she becomes more of an adult. This year we pass the half way point. She is now more than half my age. My house was full of their young confident energy.

Of course, I make them all watch videos of her talking and singing at age 4. She was so cute! And I watch her at her party, my incredibly beautiful daughter. Happy. Sparkling. Nothing could be a greater gift to me.

Political Ramblings

So, it is true, I am back online. I have been back online since my last post. The difficulty for me with lack of posting is that I have TOO MUCH to write about! Too many posts itching at my fingers. One just has to start somewhere!

So, another election. I am left feeling like an alien. Or maybe that is wishful thinking that I have someplace else to go other than here... I look around my community and I just can't believe that I think that much differently for those around me! These are my disappointments:

1. Elizabeth May didn't get into parliament. Why did she run against a Conservative cabinet minister? Why?! I wish she had run somewhere she could have been more likely to get in.
2. No Greens got in. I can't believe with our environment in the shape that it is in that more people didn't vote with that in mind.
3. Lowest ever voter turnout in Canadian history. I wonder what it would be like if everyone actually voted? That would be a very interesting thing to see. It saddens me to see my fellow Canadians become more and more apathetic.

And maybe I don't have the right to complain. Here is my true confession. For the first time since I reached the age of majority, I missed voting. I waited for Dean to come home from work. I thought the polls were open until 8pm. But no, they closed at 7 and we drove up at 7:15 as they were carrying the stations out of the school. I felt so terrible. Of course I blamed it on Dean and told him if the Green's lost by 2 votes, he had better feel guilty! They lost by a lot more than 2 here in red-neck-ville anyways.

Love the One You're With...

No, really, everything is fine with Dean. It's the apples. I have mostly had access to an Italian Prune plum since I lived in Sidney and was going to UVic. I have come to love their golden flesh. When I moved here, two years ago, there were 5 acres planted in plums. I picked bucket after bucket and dried them and froze them and made plum pie and plum crisp. I went into last winter with 5 gallon jars full of dried plums. And that doesn't count all the peanut butter jars full. Well, my landlady cut down most of the plum trees and put in a horse pasture! And then from the remaining plum trees, she allowed me to pick a total of 2 buckets. I have one gallon jar of dried plums, no pie, no crisp and no frozen plums for making upside down plum cake in the winter... But my landlady couldn't care less about the 14 apple trees in front of my house. Right now the ground is covered in Spartans. Normally I make a few apple crisps, a few pies, can 12 pints of applesauce and make some apple juice and some apple butter. That doesn't even use up the apples from ONE tree. So I have told myself that it is time to stop moping about the plums. I am going to have to actually buy some but it probably won't be the 300 lbs or so I am used to. This year is the year of the apple. So far I have 41 pints of applesauce. And 3 gallons of dried apples. I have made many apple crisps and I am about to make apple juice and apple butter today. And Abbie is going to send me a recipe for canned apple pie filling. And I am going to go systematically through my Betty Crocker Cookbook and make all her apple recipes. Any other suggestions?