Yesterday when I went to use my recipe notebook I realized that it was time to transfer the recipes to a new book.Many of the pages are now so stained that reading the recipes is becoming difficult.My friend Kari gave me for my birthday a brand new actual recipe book complete with dividers and little pockets,a perfect new home for my recipes.
 When I first left my mother's home I had started my recipe book,I wanted to take with me some of the recipes I grew up with and the ones that were family recipes.Like my Grandmother's pickles and my Great Grandmother's Dark Secret's.Over the years I have added my own collection of recipes and made little notes in the margins.
  On the page with the Sugar Cookie recipe I wrote "Do not double unless one million cookies are needed." I wrote that the year of Issac's first Christmas.I had doubled the recipe and invited my friend Lisa over to help me bake and frost the cookies.I had a grand scheme to make these mini works of art out of each cookie.I was young and filled with ambition.Did I think ahead about the reality of it? No.Did I think about the fact that I was nursing Issac and would have to stop to nurse the baby? No. Did I know that Issac who was normally a mellow baby would have a rare cranky day? No. The project took us all day and the note was written to remind me of my folly. Now speed the years forward and I now have not one but two boys, (well I am actually known to say I have three boys because Chance can be a bit boyish at times. )  two boys who love cookies so I now triple the recipe and hope and pray that will still be there for Christmas festivities.At the bottom of the new page with the Sugar Cookie recipe I wrote a new note about the old one because someday  one of the boys will own the book and I want them to remember our family joke about one million cookies.
  As I have been rewriting I have been taking the time to make sure each recipe has directions. I never gave this much thought before,I knew what to do and to save time and space I skipped writing the directions down.But as I said someday one of the boys will own my book and I want the book to be used.
  Besides rewriting my recipe book I have been working on writing the boys their own books.I am gathering up all of the recipes I use from all of the different books I use.Both boys fight over who gets which of my books when they leave home.I shake my heads at them,silly boys I won't be dead yet ,I'll still need those books and they would have to wait to pry them from my cold dead hands. Or maybe a dust covered shelf but you get the idea.So having a book for each of them will keep them fed until the day comes to divide the cook books up.
 All of this writing of recipes finds me in a pensive mood.The stains on the pages are reminders that time has passed rather quickly.How did I get here so fast, copying out recipes for the boys for when they leave the house? Add in the fact that Issac turns 16 in a couple of days and talks about learning to drive,finding a paid job and (gulp) collages with nursing programs.Nursing? Yeah , we are not talking about the babe at my breast nursing but Nursing as a profession,wow.And just behind Issac will be Sol. Issac and Sol ,my two young men who eat cookies by the million.
   What other news can I report? We are back to waiting out the weather.
   Hey our neighborhood Squirrel was just patting at our front window.Wanting in? I would want in by the looks of the clouds.And did our yappie little dog bark? No,even though the Squirrel was right above her head.Go figure,sleeping on the heat vent must plug her ears up.
  With the return of the pouring rain Chance and I have not been able to work on the Big Garden Project so that is on hold.Our garden though is growing fast and filling in nicely. I am seeing a few gaps in the beds which I am hoping to maybe fill with more flowers.
    I do have some sad garden news, we think the Gravenstein Apple we planted is dieing.The leaves are falling off and yet the branches still have some spring to them so we are hoping the tree will survive.We planted the tree in the same area as the plumb we cut down last year because it was dieing.I am wondering about what is wrong with the soil in that area.A few years ago the water company came through our neighborhood and put in new pipes for the sewage.It was a year after the work was done that we started to notice that the plumb tree was going.The sewer line runs along one side of the area where we are having so much tree trouble.We had thought that during the work some of the plumbs roots had been cut and that was why it was dieing but maybe not.I am thinking about calling the water company and asking them about this.
 That's about it for now,a quiet work and school week waiting out the rain yet again.
   Rois

P.S Our strawberries are turning pinkish!