Apples, Jelly, Tombs, and the end of Autumn

Autumn.
Don't you just love that word? Instead of Fall I prefer the term Autumn. The word sounds beautiful and ugly at the same time. That's pretty much how I would also describe the season. The change in the tree leaves are beautiful at first, but then they fall to the ground and turn brown. Yuck! The weather starts as a nice breezy 65 degrees and then it gets cold, rainy, and grey. Yuck!

So this Autumn I thought I'd try something new. A few new things actually.

First, I went to an apple farm. Now before you assume the wrong farm (big, commercialized Patterson's Apple Farm) let me enlighten you. Cara and I specifically searched for an apple farm in the area that was not Patterson so that we could avoid the masses of people. Everyone goes to Patterson's. Great. What else is there? Well after some online searching and suggestions from a coworker we discovered Eddy's Apple Farm. Perfect! Ironically, it's right down the street from Patterson's. This farm was great. For just a few extra minutes of walking you could bypass the area where most people were apple picking and enter a field full of trees overflowing with a variety of gorgeous, plump apples. There were so many apples and varieties that Cara and I didn't know where to begin. In the end we picked about an average of two apples per variety. Cortland, Melrose, Jonathon, Jonagold, Wine, Golden delicious, Fuji, and the list goes on. I had a ton of fun. This was the first time I'd ever picked an apple straight off an apple tree. They looked so plump and healthy. How can I ever go back to just getting apples from a grocery store. Apples are much more attractive when you pull them straight off of the tree. We plan to make applesauce and apple cobbler with the apples we picked.

Second, while at Eddy's Apple Farm we discovered another treat. Concord grapes! Wow, I've definitely never picked grapes before. So off we went to the grape vines. They were beautiful. Golden leaves with dark bluish/purple grape clusters hanging from the vines. We picked a lot determined to make them into grape jelly. Once home we acquired all the necessary ingredients and utensils for making jelly (basically pectin, cheesecloth, and jars). Then we set about extracting the juice from the grapes. A process which left my hands slightly purple when I tried to squeeze as much juice as possible through the cheesecloth. Next time I'll wear gloves. Then we added the pectin and tons of sugar to the cooked and boiling juice. I found a great recipe that explained step by step with pictures how to make and jar the jelly. It also gave great tips for making the jelly thick enough and easily processing the jars. Cara and I had a great time jelly making and ended up with 4 1/2 jars of jelly. Yum!


Finally, on a mildly warm day last week, I went on a picnic to the metroparks with my sister and two new friends from church, Aubree and Ben. Lunch was fun as we sat at a picnic table eating ham & turkey sandwiches and discussing a variety of grown up, intellectual things like Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings. I'm sure if we'd talked long enough we would have made it to the latest X-men cartoon Cara and I had recently watched online. Ah, I love hanging out with friends. Afterwards we drove to Lakeview Cemetery to view the variety of wealthy grave stones. Cara wasn't too excited about this, but hey, it's the perfect thing to do around Halloween right? We discovered that president Garfield was buried in the cemetery so we went to see his crypt/monument. It was pretty extensive inside complete with stained glass images of different people who represented something I didn't understand and a huge marble statue of president Garfield. We were told that his body was downstairs so down we went. Whoa! Who knew that the coffin was just there on display. I thought it'd be locked in a room where all you see is the door. But no, there were bars so you couldn't touch the coffin but there it was, including the coffin of his wife and the ashes of his daughter and her husband. Weird. What is our obsession with preserving and glorifying a dead body? Getting out of the crypt we went to the roof of the monument and saw an amazing view of the city with a sea of multicolored trees in front of it. It was so peaceful because you couldn't see the cars and people moving below the trees. Wow, what a view!

And now that the beautiful part of Autumn is ending I'm glad I made the most of it. On to November.

I'm Still Here

Yup.
That was to let you know I haven't given up blogging, I just never really feel up to writing. This is what I do to myself. When life isn't going the way I want it to go I either complain about it in a blog or don't write. I'm feeling kind of convicted about complaining so thus no writing. But I thought I should say something. So...

Work is pretty much the same, too little pay and too early shifts. I work an average of 3 to 4 openings a week. Blah. In the summer I thought it was a temporary thing that I would have to endure for a little while but now that it's October I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that the majority of the time I work I'll be half asleep. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength....They will walk and not faint. ~ Isaiah 40:31

Theater? Nothing. Done a few auditions. That's about it. I gotta get out of Cleveland.

Music? I've gone to quite a few concerts. Family Force Five, All Left Out, Red, Mutemath, Jars of Clay. Those experiences were fabulous! I really love dancing and singing and rocking out. There may be one more in the future. We'll see.

God? The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. ~ Nahum 1:7 I'm really trying hard to trust in Him. Today I learned that I am like Gideon. He questioned the Lord's actions and presence in his life right to His face, he made excuses for why he was ill equipped to obey the Lord's command, he asked the Lord to prove He was who He said He was, he questioned if the Lord would truly do what He said He would do...multiple times. Just like me. But the comforting thing is despite all these character flaws and lack of faith God chose Gideon to be a part of His miraculous work. The same goes for me. It's not about me but about what Jesus will do through me. It's about grace and love. Right now I'm involved in two Bible Studies. One group is studying the book of Romans and the other the Book of John. I love them. I'm learning a lot about the character of Jesus. I'm also learning a lot about myself. This is good. It's challenging me and helping me to grow as a christian. It's also helping me to spend that much needed time with the Lord.

So...I'm glad I wrote something today.