Apple Butter Day

Fall is a busy but fantastic time in our family. We usually visit an apple orchard and generally have many family related fall outings. One that we do every year when possible is called Apple Butter Day. Apple Butter Day is hosted by Gerald & Mary Jane White of Tennessee, IL. Gerald is a retired math professor at Western Illinois University where Amy and I went to college. Mary Jane is related to almost everyone in Mcdonough County. They are also the parents of one of my closest friend and the PIL's of one of Amy's closest friends.

In 1976 the White's celebrated the bicentennial by making Apple Butter in the same cauldron that according to Gerald's grandmother was used by her grandmother for the same purpose. This became an annual event on the White's farm each fall. The Whites would invite family, neighbors, church friends, WIU associates and students, and assorted others to a pot luck dinner and especially to take turns stirring the apple butter throughout the day. As the afternoon progressed the apple butter is put into glass containers and distributed to the guests. I have attended about a dozen times in the last 20 years. The above picture is of Amy and I from an AB day in the early 90's.

There are many distinctives about Apple Butter Day and these distinctives have evolved with the event, and as Amy and I have made the transition from college students to family friends. The highlight during my student days was playing football and volleyball and getting off campus. After we graduated, going was more of an opportunity to catch up with old friends. The past few years as our family has grown, the focus has also included keeping tabs on 3 kids and making sure they enjoy themselves. Our friends (Gerald's son & daughter in law) has 10 children and AB day gives Amy and I a chance to hang out with their family. The main highlights for our children besides hanging with the other kids, are eating funnel cakes, going on a hay rack ride through prairie land that Gerald is developing on his property and hunting for geodes.

Geodes are a type of geological formation common in volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The geodes that we find at the White Farm are part of a creek bed. The geodes have crystal formations that have developed within rocks. At first glance it is difficult to know whether you have found a geode or just a rock. A geode will break much easier than a rock and the crystalline formations are a give-away. Here is a picture of a geode found at Wikpedia. Here is a picture of a geode we found this past Saturday . . .

Apple Butter Day is generally held the first or second weekend in October and the weather is usually unusually gorgeous for the event. This year, according to Gerald the weather was the worst in the history of the event. It was actually below freezing when we left our house 5:45 Saturday morning. It warmed up to about 50 degrees and sunny but much chillier than we have been blessed with in the past.

Geodes aren't the only precious commodity that is easier for our family to get their hands on in Mcdonough County. Each year we stop my Macomb's Hy-Vee super market on our way in or out of AB Day and snag the following essentials: Caffeine free Mountain Dew and Sterzing Potato Chips. Now not everyone agrees with my gastronomical choices. Many people, including my dear sister, wonder why you would ever want to put up with Mountain Dew if not for the caffeine. I actually enjoy mountain Dew for the taste and there is little discernible difference in my opinion between the caffeine free and regular variety. For whatever reason caffeine free Mountain Dew has not been available in the Chicago area since the late 80's early 90's.

Sterzing's Potato Chips (click on the chip bag for more product information)are made in Burlington Iowa and are are in my opinion one of the seven wonders of the snack food world. They are a kettle cooked variety of chip that people either love or hate. Amy hates them I love them. They developed a less fat variety a few years back which are okay but since I am 4 hours away from being able to eat them on a regular basis, I don't mind at all getting the not-so-good variety once every year.

Apple Butter Day is a fantastic day for our family. Enjoyable day outings anchored in family traditions certainly work for us. Going down memory lane for junk food is just a perk. Special thanks to, Katherine at No Fighting, No Biting, for featuring this at the Carnival of Home Schooling; to see what works for others head on over to We Are That Family.

Next Time: Three Fears Thursday

What to do With Half a Bagel.

It's Thursday and that means it's time for another edition of 3 Things This Thursday. It's been a good week so far. I hope it has been for you as well!


1. Bagels were on special at the grocery store on Sunday so I bought 2 5 packs and we had them for breakfast on Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday evening we had 1 bagel left so I told the oldest 2 kids (the bagel eating 2) that they could split the last bagel for breakfast on Wednesday morning. Well come lunch time Wednesday I was whipping up lunches for everyone and when it came to my turn I was going to make a toasted triple decker chicken sandwich with cottage cheese on the side. I noticed there was still 1/2 a bagel left. So here's what I came up with. . .


2 pieces of toasted wheat topped with a sesame bagel top. It was delicious.


2. Office Merger.
I will skip reviewing a new fall t.v. show this week and instead point out the special Jim and Pam wedding episode of the office tonight.

I did not always love the office. The year it first came out I caught a couple episodes and it took me a while to pick up on the humor of it. But somewhere in the second season, everything clicked for me. I worked in an office at the time and a lot of the stuff really resonated with me.

Also, I am not sure if I am the first one to observe this but Michael Scott is the Archie Bunker of the 21st century. An iconic bumbler rather than bigot. I have loved watching the developing relationship of Jim and Pam and am looking forward to catching the wedding.


3. Three Things Third Thursday

Next week we are going to have a themed edition of Three Things This Thursday. Same drill more defined. What you do is this. . . Blog any time between now and next Thursday about 3 things you are or have been scared about and then link up next Thursday as part of a special 3 Fears Thursday.

The third Thursday of each month I will have a special themed edition. October 15th it's fear. November 19th: 3 Thanks Thursday where you blog about 3 things you are thankful for. Then to end the year off we will have 3 gifts Thursday where you blog about 3 gifts you have given or received over the years. I will post reminders in advance at my blog. Participation especially on these themed weeks will help me gauge how this meme is doing at it's new home. So I encourage you to participate every week but especially on the third Thursday of each month.

That's it for this week. Now it's your turn. Blog about 3 things that are on your mind this Thursday and link your blog below. Have a great week and I will catch up with all of you soon.


Next Time: Apple Butter Day

Penny Winners

A couple of months ago, I had a crazy idea. I would give away 200 pennies to celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth year. 100 pennies to a commenter on my original post and 100 pennies to a follower of my blog. The contest was supposed to end on 9/23/09 I picked winners and emailed them to get their addresses so I could send the pennies and now a fortnight later I have still not heard from either of them.

I have decided to change course a little. I have picked new winners will announce they're names now as well as e-mail them. I also picked a third winner from all my post comments from the original announcement to 9/23/09. Confused? So am I.

Without any more hoopla here are the winners. The first winner is Georgie. The winner from my commenter's is Lizze and the third winner is Jennayouknow that blog. Hopefully they will all contact me so I can give these pennies away. Otherwise my life seems so incomplete.

Next Time: What to do with half a bagel

Cycling Update

On Saturday, I participated in International Teams ride for refugees. I wrote last week about my preparations here. Riding 30 miles was actually much easier than I had anticipated. Easy and worthwhile as I raised a total of $325.00 towards refugee work around the globe. I rode past many beautiful sights of Lake County, IL, including seeing some gorgeous horses. Incidentally I biked past a llama farm without noticing (we drove by them on Sunday, when I did notice.)

I was hoping to post some pictures of my trip, but in my hurry to bring my family, my bike, my helmet and my pledges to the starting point in time for registration at 8:00 am, I neglected to bring my camera.

On the way there I was reading to Charlie and the rest of the family a story about an inquisitive boy who constantly peppered his parents with loads of questions. This boy so reminded me of Charlie that I am interested to hear whatever became of him. The boy's name was Thomas Edison.

I was reading about how Thomas Edison had a job selling newspapers on a train. Since we were on the way to a bike ride, the story reminded me of my first bike trip almost 30 years ago.

It was Memorial Day Weekend 1980. My youth group along with several other local youth groups boarded a train headed for Wisconsin. Our bikes were packed in special boxes and handled as luggage. I think it may have actually been my first time ever riding a train. Once we arrived we stayed at a local church and biked 60 miles each day until we arrived back in the NW suburbs of Chicago on Monday.

I realized while I was riding that I was biking on some of the same roads as I had back in 1980. Some of the area has changed in 30 years but much of the countryside remained the same. Biking next to a teenager for some of my early miles, I realized the same could not be said of me.

I was glad that my family accompanied me on the ride. They're cheered really pumped me up as I embarked upon my journey. At the post ride lunch I saw several kids, my kids age who participated in the ride. While I feel I could have easily completed the 60 mile course this year and would like to do so next year, I think we will instead ride the 5 mile trek as a family.

After we got home I was not at all tired. Emma and I decided to go cycling on the bike trail before it started storming. We biked about 6 miles through Dundee and parts of Elgin. This is my favorite section of the trail as there is an underground bridge over the fox river as well as a castle. This time I remembered my camera and snapped some good shots of Emma.

The only disappointing part of the day was when I read on facebook shortly after returning home with Emma that a friend from my high school bike trip days who I haven't seen since Reagan was president had stopped by at the ride location at noon to see me. By noon we were already on our way back home. So, Joel and any more of my old bike riding buddies: let's all get together same next year and do the ride for refugees next year. We can even train together. I know this great spot with a bridge and a castle.

Next Time: Penny Winners

Differences

Martians are from Mars; Venusians, Venus.

Women are different than men, no duh! But men are different than men and women are different than women. So if I want to understand Amy, I don't need to understand all women and then branch out to Amy. I need to understand Amy, her needs, strengths, and intricacies.

Not sure exactly where I am going with this, except to say that interpersonal relationships are best explored individually rather than holistically. I think I have observed this more keenly because both Amy and I are more atypical than typical representatives of our respective genders.

Example: 12 years ago I bought Amy her engagement ring. I had been friends with Amy for about 7 years and we had discussed rings as friends. I knew she liked Emeralds and wanted an emerald engagement ring rather than a diamond. So I brought her an emerald engagement ring. I then went about telling friends and co-workers of my purchase. They were all sure that I had made a dreadful mistake in not buying her a diamond, or in just not letting her choose the ring she wanted. The only dreadful mistake was bringing the subject up with any of them. It turns out that while Amy's taste in engagement rings was atypical, my knowledge of her preferences was accurate. She loves that ring and I am confident that if I would have succumbed to pressure and purchased a diamond ring for her rather than an emerald all I would have communicated to her is that I did not "get" her as much as I thought I did.

So those are my Six words for this Saturday. To see what other word sextets are sweeping the cybernation head over to Show My Face dot com.

Next Time: Cycling Update

Three Things This Thursday

Hi! Welcome to another edition of 3 Things This Thursday. I'm Dave I'll be your host.
Welcome also to October. Which brings me to my first item which I have titled
#1 (catchy huh?)

Our family does not celebrate Halloween. Other families do and that's just fine with us. What really bothers me is that there have been Halloween displays up since late August early September. I mean early September. The kids and I were shopping for Amy's birthday (which is 9/10) and Walgreen's already had a full display of Halloween candy up. That was at least 52 days before Halloween! I mean how in the world are you going to keep Halloween candy around 52 days without indulging? Or perhaps that is the point of putting it out so early. I think that October first should be the first official day for Halloween displays. 30 days to sell costumes, candy and other finery should be enough!

2. Glee
I watched the premiere of Glee this week (The premiere was about 3 weeks ago, but I've been busy.) Glee is a new show on Fox this year about a high school show choir. It is supposed to have biting humor and good musical numbers. I liked the first episode although I am not sure I liked it enough to watch a second. It did not surprise me that the meanest and nastiest of the high school girls was portrayed as a hypocritical Christian girl. The musical numbers were good but unlike Fame I'm not sure that this show will live forever.

3. This year has been cycling intensive at our house and we have had some difficulty getting our oldest on the bicycle bandwagon. Emma was never that much into biking when she had training wheels. It was always like pulling teeth to get her on her bike. This year however she showed a little more interest especially when Charlie's training wheels came off before hers did. Within a week she was biking training wheel on free on Charlie's bike.

Emma has grown a lot in the past year and the bike she's had since she was 6 just wasn't cutting it. So we bought her a new bike that was just a tad too big for her. It was possible for her to ride it but she was so scared of falling off that it was becoming too difficult to coax her to ride it and put up with all the angst. So we tried this: we let her use her take turns using Charlie's bike and she took a real shine to it. She has been riding it almost everyday for the last two weeks.

So today with about 20 minutes left of daylight, I told her it was time to give her bike a try. She was far less than thrilled. What I expected to happen, happened. Over the past few weeks she has been learning how to balance herself, and when she tried her bike today, she was mastering it within seconds. Before we started biking, she insisted that she only have to ride once around the parking lot. We biked until dusk and even then she wanted to stay longer. On the way home she actually thanked me for insisting that she try her bike again.

As parents we often have a plan for the well being of our child. This plan is not always embraced by the child at the time. It is very rewarding when occasionally the child can get a glimpse that the parent has a pretty good grasp on what's best.

Those are my Three Things for This Thursday. Now it's your turn just link up below.

Next Time: Penny Winners Revealed