There is nothing like a good piece of pie. The way a truly flaky crust feels on the tongue. The contrast between the mellow crust and the burst of flavor that is the fruit. (The only real pies in my book are double crusted fruit pies. Creams, merigues, custards - those are just gussied up puddings and whatnot.) The smell that floats up as it bakes, that sweet spicy combination of sugar, fruit and nutmeg. The feeling of pride one gets when sharing a good pie with others. I love pie.

Pie lives in the shadow of the showier cakes. Cakes get all the events. Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, retirements. They all have cake. Pie, on the other hand, is family gatherings and potluck dinners. It's sitting on the front porch on a cool summer evening, visiting with the neighbors as the kids ride bikes.

Cake may have claimed all of the milestones, but I think pie got the better end of the deal. Pie gets to be part of the true essence of living.

I've got two pies cooling and another in the oven. Why don't you come on over for a slice and chat awhile?

I can tell that we are emotionally invested in the house again. We are almost done repainting the bathroom, we finally bought the window glazing we've been meaning to all year, Luis has replaced all the old switches and I've been going to town in the garden. I moved the sage out of my veggie garden and into one of the flower beds. It was getting way too big for the veggie garden, and it looks so pretty that it does well in the flowers. The plants were both very large, but I'm happy to say they are doing well after the transplant. I was worried.

I've been ruthlessly ripping stuff out of the flower beds. There are plants I no longer wanted, or had too many off. I'm trying to find a home for three rose bushes that were here when we bought the place, but I don't want. I'm also collecting the calendula seeds faithfully. I have been letting it reseed itself, but I want to move the patch next year, so I need to collect. I'm going to fertilize the west flower bed heavily with compost this fall and put the tomatoes there next spring, so I have to rip out or most of the flowers there. I'm also going to put in a lot more lavender over there.

I'm really into gardening again now that I know I'll have this land longer.

A friend got married last weekend, and it was just the push that I needed to finish up my Cape sweater. It's a little wider than I had hoped, but still fits pretty good.

I'm zipping down the sleeve on my Rosemary's sweater finally. I decided to heck with it and used my 24" circ until I got down to the point where I can use dpns. I still need those size 8 dpns to finish up the sleeves on the two sweaters for the kids. These are driving me nuts. I also am planning a new sweater for Vincent in the gypsy cotton I have left over from last summer. I think I might have enough of the yarn left from the stipey sweater to do a second sweater (in wide stipes this time) or at least a poncho for Isabella. I made Abigail a poncho last year, and Isabella really really really wants one too.

I think we are going to take the house off the market. It's been really annoying getting ready for all of these showings for the last year with no result, and what with refinancing a few months ago, we wouldn't have all that much by getting a cheaper house, unless we go under $90K and even in this area that will get a you a house that needs some to a lot of work. So, I think we are just going to struggle through Luis' winter layoffs somehow and stay here for a few more years. Now that that's pretty much decided, I want to move where the chicken coop is, modify the garden, and plant some fruit trees. I figure if I get dwarf ones, I could fit one on the garden, one in the side backyard flower bed and one by the driveway or in the front. Of course, I need to price them out still to see if that would even be feasible.

Apparently I've reached a new level of hippie-freakdom. Our microwave died about 5 weeks ago, and we haven't replaced it. *gasp of horror* I thought people looked at me like I was weird for not watching TV. That's nothing compared to the looks one gets for not having a microwave. *shrug* It hasn't been inconvenient, except for me having to remember to get the butter out to soften before baking cookies. It's actually quite easy to heat things up on the stove or oven, and I love not having the micro on the counter.

Abigail lost two teeth yesterday, in addition to the one last week. Both of her front upper teeth are gone now, and one on the bottom. Her smile is too funny. She is lounging one the sofa right now reading Amelia Bedelia. I love Amelia Bedelia books!

Isabella got her first library card today. She was so proud when we all checked out our books on her card.

I packed away Vincent's diapers today, except for 3 for nighttime use. He's been dry 12 of the last 14 nights, so I suspect those three will be boxed up soon too.

I love fresh summertime meals. Tonight's dinner is corn on the cob and bruschetta, made from garden fresh tomatoes and basil on homemade french bread. Dessert is blueberry pie made with fresh berries. Mmmmmmmm

I bought a case of the blueberries this week and indivually froze them, then bagged in 4 c portions. That's the perfect amount for a pie or a double batch of blueberry muffins. We've got 26 c in the freezer and another 6 c in the fridge right now waiting to be snacked on or turned into something baked. I'm on a baking spree these days. I got a baking stone free from my pampered chef party and I'm LOVING it. I must get more. These things are incredible!

We took the boat out today on an aborted journey. The water pump went out about 3 minutes upstream. So, we got out the paddles and played, making the trip back last about an hour. :) It's just a little boat, nothing heavy, so it was fine to paddle around. Luis would throw a cushion life preserver in, and then the kids and I would paddle to it and one girl would try to hook it with a grabbing pole we keep in the boat. Repeat about 15 times. It was great fun and we never even missed the motor.

We had a pretty nice weekend. The country fair sponsored by Organic Valley was very interesting. We took a tour of one of their dairy farms. It was a lot like the farm I grew up on, rather than the more industrial type that we've always seen at the breakfast on the farm. It was really nice to be able to show Luis and the girls the "real" small family farm that I remember. We didn't actually get to attend any of the workshops or presentation because of helping out Lisa and John. John decided to go with Lisa to her presentation, so I covered their booth for them and Luis had the kids. However, I had some really neat conversations wih some people walking by and some of the vendors in the market, and I finally got the name of the contact person for the Viroqua Waldorf School holiday fair. I plan on participating in that this year if the booth rate is reasonable. Luis and the kids took the tour of Organic Valley's new headquarters. It's amazing how enviromentally responsible the building is - almost everything is recycled, energy efficient, etc. The more I learn about Organic Valley, the more I like them.

Vincent is well on his way to using the potty totally. He's been out of diapers for a week now, and he's doing great. He's still having some accidents, while wearing clothes particularly, but only one or two accidents a day. Saturday at the fair I was concerned because he'd be spending the entire day in clothes, but he didn't even have a single accident.