Gratitude 10/16/09

Gratitude for this week:
-No school yesterday, so we spent the day with my sister and her kiddos, who also had no school. We went to an apple orchard near Whitewater and let our kiddos pick their own apples for the first time! It was so fun to watch them pick and nibble - my sister's youngest is 1, and INSISTED on eating her way THROUGH an entire apple, through the center and all!
In the evening, L and I made apple crisp from those apples, working side by side in the kitchen. A good experience for me on so many levels - I loved building that connection for her that the farmer grows these apples and makes his living by selling them, we pick them, and then we make them into our food. And I loved working with her in the kitchen - she is getting so big and I love that feeling of passing on the skills that I have, that she will hopefully also use in her future.
-We have made it through another day and night HEALTHY. It hasn't hit us yet, although people around us are dropping like flies and I assume that it is just a matter of time. One of L's good friends that she plays with every day after school is sick, and the kids that she plays with at PTO and library meetings, and I work in "the cesspool" of germs...it's probably just a matter of time, but I'm enjoying every healthy day God gives us. I have a HUGE unreasonable puking phobia, so if we can just avoid that...
-Today's the day that L and I are going to try making zwiebach again. We tried last weekend for the first time, and it was a miserable failure. I learned afterward that I didn't let the milk cool enough and the heat killed the yeast. The zwiebach were like weapons to throw at your enemies' heads - terrible little round bricks. Stuart ate one anyhow, bless him, insisting for the first couple of bites that they "aren't THAT bad"...what a good guy. I called his mom to tell her thanks for instilling such good manners, because they were appalling. :) However, we're going to give it another go today, armed with increased yeast and temperature knowledge!