Talent and Ability

I'm not sure if anyone knows this about me, but I've always had a desire to be an artist. I've always craved the ability to draw or paint or do something artistic. Even just today I put pen to paper and wanted so much to be able to draw something. But here's the problem; I have absolutely no artistic ability. It's not that I haven't had the opportunity or inclination to develop a latent talent, I just do not have the ability. I've tried. Even things as simple as a step by step lesson on how to draw Mickey Mouse just goes over my head. Try as I might, I cannot get my drawing to look anything like Mickey. I know there are people who say I can and do express my creativity in other ways, but it's just not the same. I can't look at a blank piece of paper and imagine what to put on it, and even if I could, I am not able to bring that vision to reality. Something just doesn't connect. There is that story out there about when Michelangelo was working on the statue of David, he said that David was already in the block of marble, he was just removing the excess. It's a nice idea, but totally foreign to me.

This isn't a blog to complain about something I cannot do. There are many things I do, and even some I do well. This is more a blog about something that's been on my mind lately. Do we have legitimate limitations or do we limit ourselves? Are we capable of anything we're willing to put the work into or are there things, try as we might, that we just are not able to accomplish? I truly feel I do not have the talent or ability to be any kind of artist, and yet, I've always felt the desire to do it. I struggle to reconcile my longing to do something with the reality of my complete inability to do it. Does anyone have anything to say about this? Am I even making sense? I would love to hear what you have to say.

Full!

I haven't been able to make a dent in my quart jars (and won't be able to this summer) but I did spend some time filling up my pint and half pint jars this week. I made 6 kinds of jam, 5 of them new and different! I wanted to experiment with combinations, so when I was done canning my peaches and pears, I thawed some berries and went to work. This is what I came up with:

Peach
Strawberry Peach
Strawberry Raspberry
Blackberry Pear
Strawberry Raspberry Blueberry Peach
Strawberry Raspberry Blueberry Blackberry Peach Pear!

I just had to do one with all 6 kinds of fruit I had on hand. I have to say it turned out quite well. I filled up a total of 45 jars in pint and half pint sizes and ended up with approximately 36 pints of jam! Add that to the pear, raspberry peach, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, strawberry blueberry, and raspberry blackberry jam I already had on hand, and I think I'm pretty set for quite a while. I don't think we're going to be getting bored with any one particular flavor any time soon, do you? Anyone who wants to make the trip up to see me will most certainly be sent home with a jar or freezer container of the jam of their choice! So come see me! I'd love to share!

Fizzy Joys: a sense of accomplishment, snuggling, laughter, making new friends.

Empty?

I canned my pears yesterday, and it went surprisingly smoothly. I was able to do it all in about 3 hours. I only had 2 boxes of pears instead of the 3 of peaches I had, but I still got WAY less with the pears than peaches. I canned 42 quarts of peaches, but only half that with pears. Why is that? I don't know. I thought I would get about the same amount per box so I should have had 28 quarts of pears, not 21.
Then this morning, I took a little time to rearrange my canning shelves to get it organized. I am so surprised at how many empty jars I have. I have more than 4 boxes of empty pint jars, at least that many in empty quart jars, and a couple dozen empty half pint jars. Where did all these empty jars come from? I know I didn't do green beans or salsa this year, but I didn't think I did that many jars of either of those things, and that only takes pint jars, not quart. I still have jam to do, but only peach, and that'll only be half a dozen or so jars. I don't remember ever doing a whole lot more canning than I did this year, and yet I have way more empty jars than I should. I was looking forward to shelves overflowing with canned goodness and love, but I'm left with half empty shelves and boxes and boxes of empty jars. It actually makes me rather sad.

Fizzy Joy: the white beauty of pears when they come out of the canner.

Oh, one other totally unrelated thing. A few days ago, we had a really foggy morning. It burned off by about 10:00, but it was foggy for a while. Yesterday, when Becca woke up, I happened to be standing right by her bed. She opened her eyes, jumped up, looked out the window, and the first words out of her mouth (with great enthusiasm) were, "Hooray! It's not foggy!" How funny is that coming from a 3 year old?

Catch up time again!

I know it's been quite a while since I blogged last, so let me try to catch you up on what's been going on around here.

Last Thursday was Rachel's first day of school. This girl was so excited she could hardly be contained! The night before school she picked out which of her new clothes she wanted to wear and helped me make her lunch for the next day. She made sure she had every thing she needed, even double checking her supply list, to make sure she didn't forget anything. She was still in bed, but wide awake when I went to get her up. She got dressed faster than I've ever seen her get dressed! She was dressed and fed and ready to go in all of about 10 minutes, which meant we had more than half an hour before it was time to go to the bus stop! Of course we went down early. Of course the bus was late (first day, plus there's major construction near our house which slows down EVERYTHING). But she didn't look back even once. She was ready to start her day as a first grader! What's better is that she came home even more excited than she was when she left, and was up and dressed before my alarm went off the next day! This girl LOVES school. She likes her teacher, she has friends in her class, and she loves going all day long and eating lunch at school. There isn't anything she doesn't like about it!

I tried to post a picture of Rachel on her first day, but it's not allowing me to post it. But if you want to see it, check here: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/lizzybb/rachelschool.jpg

While Rachel was at school, it was time for me to start processing my peaches (pears should be later today, so more to come on that). I don't know why, but this crop of peaches was harder to process than others I've done. Usually I can soak the peaches in hot tap water in my sink and the skin peels off pretty easily. Not this time. I had to cut away much more than I wanted to and it took much longer than I remember it ever taking before. It was frustrating and my back ached terribly by the time I was done, but when I got up the next morning and saw that all 42 quarts of peaches had sealed, I was thrilled! 75 pounds of peaches is a lot to do in a day, but it is so worth the effort it takes. Plus my very kind husband helped with my last box after kids were in bed. Thanks Babe!

Scott had Monday off, and instead of just sitting around the house like we would normally do, we decided to actually do something fun as a family! We got up and packed a picnic lunch then made the long drive out to Sequim. Yes, Sequim. We took a slight detour to look at Troll Haven, a couple of houses made to look like a castle and other medieval buildings with lots of carvings of trolls (we forgot our camera so we don't really have pictures to share). Then we stopped at a little country store that has really great produce and interesting foods. Scott goes there for a ginger ale that is so strong I can't even drink it. They also have local flavored honeys, lots of organic foods, and lots of small brand (often local) foods. You're not going to fing Nabisco or Kraft in this store. They also have samples of some of the fruits in season. I got to try a kind of melon I'd never even heard of before, and Scott tried some golden honeydew. It's remarkably busy, but I totally understand why. We had fun just walking up and down each aisle looking at everything. We did get a few things from their bulk department. My choice was dried cantaloupe slices. YUM!! They're sweeter than candy and oh so good! Rachel wanted some raspberry flavored yogurt covered pretzels. We haven't tried them yet, but they sure do smell good! We got some more ordinary things as well, then head off to our real destination of the day. We drove down to Dungeness Spit. I knew the walk down to the lighthouse was probably more than my kids would want to do, but I thought it would be a fun place to go. Just out of curiosity, anyone remember just how far of a hike it is to the lighthouse?? Anyway, when we got there, our sun seemed to disappear. The hike down to the beach was fun, but chilly. When we got onto the beach, with the wind off the water, it was downright cold! My kids wrapped themselves in their towels while they ate lunch. They abandoned them soon after though so they could go play. There was a little fort made out of driftwood that someone had started to build that my kids played in. Rachel spent most of her time trying to make it better, looking for more sticks to plug up the holes. Tyler found some driftwood clumped together that he said was a spaceship. I got to climb up and be the look out for aliens and asteroids! Rebecca just ran around, doing everything and seeing all she could. Sometimes she would be helping Rachel, sometimes playing with Tyler, sometimes just doing her own thing. We walked long pieces of driftwood pretending they were balance beams, Rachel found a stick that looked just like a sword (and gave it to Tyler!), and they tried to build a sandcastle, but we didn't have any buckets (oversight on my part). We were told we couldn't take our frisbee or kites down to the water because it is a wild life preserve, so that particular activity was out. It was high tide so there wasn't much beach to play on, but my kids still had a blast. They definitely want to go back to the beach again. But next time we'll check the tide chart and take jackets. After a couple hours on the beach, we went a little farther west up to Port Angeles where we met a friend for a quick dinner at McDonalds. They had a pretty cool play area, so my kids played some more, running around like they hadn't just spent hours at the beach! Overall it was an exhausting, but VERY fun day.

Scott did manage to get a picture with his camera, but again it's not loading. Here's the link: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/lizzybb/spit.jpg

Today is Tyler's first day of school. He was up even before Rachel this morning! He's in afternoon kindergarten, so being up early isn't actually necessary for him, but he was up anyway! The moment Rachel left for the bus, he started asking me when was it HIS turn to go to the bus stop. I told him we had a few hours, but that didn't mean anything to him. I told him it would be after lunch, but that just got him asking if it was lunch time. I told him what time on the clock it would be when it was lunch time, but he kept saying we missed the time and we were late! Finally I just set a timer and told him when the timer went off it would be time to make lunch. Then after lunch we would do his spiky hair and take a couple pictures and then, finally, it would be time to go to his bus stop. He ran out the door so fast, he ran right past our neighbors without even knowing they were there! He was down to the bus stop before I was even down the stairs! His excitement definitely matched Rachel's. I can't wait to see how his first day went.

I know Scott and I really talk up school to our kids, but even I am amazed at just how excited they get over it. I really hope this excitement continues throughout their entire education. As a parent, it makes me so happy.

Fizzy Joys: dried cantaloupe, cozy blankets, old friends, tylenol, blogs, school starting, the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a large project, fresh peaches and pears, books that can be read in a day, surprise good mail, afternoon church, good advice.