Applesauce

Hello,

I made a batch of applesauce in my soup pot. This will be plenty for us to eat as much as we would like at any time that we would like. I mixed some red and some yellow apples. It is quite good. This evening, someone gave me a grocery bag full of pears. They are quite big, green and hard. The woman did tell me that she cooked some of them and they were very tasty in spite of being so hard. I told Leroy that when we make cider again we should put in some pears. We have been so blessed.

I hung jeans out to dry this morning. I was quite pleased that they were dry by noon. I thought since it was so cold it mighty not dry very well, but there was enough wind and I think it is dry outside.

Tomorrow I will have to do something about all of the flowers that froze. I thought I might spade them into the ground so they can provide mulch for next year’s plants.

I thoroughly enjoyed our visit yesterday with the young pastor. This woman was between the ages of our oldest and second children. I think she was a little unsure about how it would be to visit us, but I believe she liked it too. I made spaghetti sauce with TVP (texturized vegetable protein) and she even knew what that was. She grew up on it. She has only been in the parish for about two months. I suspect she needed to see someone outside of the church and talk about some of the things that did not fit her idealistic picture of what a church should be. Leroy was sympathetic, but also laughed from the point of age and experience, as he said, "Welcome to the real world."

Our library is having a book sale. We have gotten quite a few books for ten cents a piece. Yesterday was the start of the bag for a $1 close out. Leroy and I went down as soon as it opened and hauled home a bag that was bursting. I kept telling Leroy it would tear and he would add one more. When our visitor came we knew that her town was smaller so we went back to the sale. She only got two books, but Leroy and I found about three more books and three videos to slip into the bag. Today I gave one of the books back to the sale as Leroy had finished it. They may as well try to sell it again.

Paula