We have an old house. It used to be a shack, and now it's a cottage, but either way, it's old.
And it doesn't have a lot of things. It doesn't have insulation in most of the walls. It doesn't have walls that you can simply hang something on with a nail. And it doesn't have drainspouts along the roof.
The coolest thing about that is that we have the most beautiful set of icicles known to man. They put all those stringaling lighty icicles to shame... TO SHAME! Only you can't see them at night as well. But during the day they sparkle and drip and make my day.
That is the best part about winter so far.

"The Answered Prayer" BYU vs. Utah 2006

I love BYU football. I always have. I just love it even more when we win... a lot... especially against Utah. It's been a while. I almost tore my hair out watching this one. And then there was Daniel over in the kitchen telling us that we couldn't win it. That dogpile in the end-zone is what happened to Daniel in the kitchen after the game too!

A while ago I told my family that we were thinking of having a baby. They are really excited about having more grandkids, so every time they see me, they ask how I'm feeling. Then they're always all disappointed when I tell them I'm feeling fine.

They say you can't get a cat to come when you call it. But we have a cat, and it comes running every time I clap my hands a few times. He also comes running whenever you open the refridgerator, but I'm not sure if that's related or not.
But my cat is a beautiful thing in my boring, mundane life. We prefer him to the "pet" mice we had been getting on almost a weekly basis. This new pet cat is much more affectionate (even though he bites) and a little less likely to carry the hantavirus.
And now I can go home from work early.
Life is great.

One of the beautiful things about fall is raking the leaves. I stopped this week to think about how the leaves turn colors. I'm terrible at chemistry, as I mentioned before, but I know that people have studied it and found out that the leaves get less and less water and prepare for winter, and as they do so the different chemicals bring out different colors. I have some general idea of that phenomenon, but then this week I realized that it is different than leaves that just die. When leaves die, they just turn brown and crispy, without the fireworks before falling off.
So I raked a lot of leaves. I know some people wait for all the leaves to fall of the trees to be more efficient in their raking, but I didn't do that this year. I went out and raked whenever I couldn't see the driveway anymore. And I'll have to do it again before winter hits and they're not so dry and easy to take off the driveway with one brisk sweep of the rake.
And I'm also excited about having so many leaves for our compost heap. It's getting pretty big, so I'm hoping it will be big enough to do some serious composting before spring.

I want to update my claim to being an applesauce making fiend. I stand corrected.
The folks I had over to dinner the other night-- without knowing about my stint as the applesauce queen-- brought over 2 jars of applesauce for me and mentioned they'd be "doing applesauce again on Monday," and invited me to come.
Now I know what a true applesauce making fiend is like. This family was spending their second day making applesauce in its truest sense. There was a trailer about the size of a medium U-haul trailer, and it had been full, I mean FULL, of apples. Then in their side yard they had set up camping stoves, about 8 of them, simmering stock pots full of apples, and 2 of them had pressure canners. Apparently on Saturday when the true applesauce making machine was at its hayday, there were a total of 14 burners, not to mention the folks working the assembly line.
They had a crank-turning applesauce squisher. One person would pour the apples in the top, one would plunge them down into the squisher, while another person would turn the crank as fast as their little arm would crank. Then someone would be washing jars, one person filling them, while another person would wipe them off, cap them, and put them in the pressure canner.
On Saturday they canned 146 quarts or something, and we probably did upwards of 70 or 80 quarts last night. They were really scraping to find more jars. I was told to come only if I could bring some jars. :) But we had enough.
This applesauce factory apparently is an annual event. It started back in the day when the mom decided to learn how to can stuff. She would spend all day in the kitchen and finish the day with like 4 or 5 quarts of canned goods. The dad, an engineer, saw all this effort and didn't believe that the purpose of canning was just to learn how to can stuff. He then engineered the applesauce factory, saying that if they're going to go through all that effort, they are going to get results!
And this year I get to take home about 6 jars of that result!

I realize I've kind of been veering from my original design in starting this blog, which is to write about the simple, beautiful things in life.
And one of those simple, beautiful things is this: when you can finally get a sulky, sullen teenager to smile. At church I work with the Beehives, 12 and 13 year old girls who are generally really giggly and silly. But one of my girls doesn't smile or laugh as much as the others. Sometimes it seems like she doesn't like me or doesn't like what we're doing. She doesn't seem sullen or sulky, but she's definitely hard to read.
Then last night I had some people over to dinner, and she came over with them. It was really cute to get her to laugh or at least smile once in a while. And then she would just start talking with me like I was just one of her friends.
And that makes me happy.

I ride my bike to work. I used to think it took 10 more minutes riding my bike than driving. Then I thought it took 5 more minutes. Then today I realized it takes me just the same amount of time either way. So I either sit in my freezing car for 10 minutes while the heater warms up or I ride my freezing bike until my body warms up. And option B makes me keep in shape, saves gas, saves money from the gym membership I don't need, and gives my hair the nice squished, windblown look I've always wanted. :)
I don't know why more people don't ride their bikes.
Maybe they like gym membership fees.
I know, I know. I'm soooo funny.