crawling, then fast-forwarding, then speeding up...

m When I look back to my youth, life stretched before me, time wasn't precious, I had tons of it.  When I had baby Emily, the days were long and blissful.  Those early years were so full of idealism, I didn't know those babies were growing up to be their own people.  The whole point being to get them to stand on their own two feet, in the process cutting out their neediness of mama:  SUCESS!  They can function without me, 12 of them, and the four youngest aren't too far behind.  Why does it sort of hurt my heart, when it is the goal all along?

Maybe it's the holidays that brings such longing for days gone by.  My two youngest went to spend the night at their friends' house, Paul is hunting, it's quiet here for now.  Later, it'll be bustling as we make a dozen pies for Thanksgiving...19 pie crusts (shh, I made 18 and pinched a bit from each to make the 19th!)

One stick for each crust, so a double crusted apple pie has over half a pound, because you have to put some little pats on the apples before that top crust goes on!  

Sam and Grace and Grant and Ruth will not be coming to Thanksgiving, they're staying in Virginia.  Grace is a teacher, and one of her students was sick with a stomach bug last week...so yeah, they are suddenly stricken, no turkey dinner for them, so sad.  

As I have broken two pie plates recently, one beautiful one got chipped and had a sharp edge, I had to ditch it...I find myself short of pie plates, one double apple pie in a 9"x13" pan wouldn't be the END of the world, but I think I may go brave Walmart before I start baking...off I go.