A Peace of the Pie

The other morning I printed out a snail mail letter, placed it in an envelope with appropriate postage, and took a little stroll of about a third of a mile or so to my mailbox. I asked, “Who wants to go with me to mail this?” I could have asked one of the kids to take it for me, but it was a nice day and I wanted to be out in it. So did they. My three younger children accompanied me.

Slowly we walked down the hill, sometimes holding hands, sometimes not. We checked in on the wasabis and the senecio. We snuck into the garden to check how many field mice we had caught -- it was only one and we fed it to the garden dog who’s whole and entire job is to discourage other four-leggeds from being there. We talked about this and that and the other thing. They told me dreams and asked questions I couldn’t answer and we were quiet all together. We mailed the letter and repeated the process back up the hill, stopping to talk to the pig and let the biggest of the grazers into a different pasture for the day. This is socialization; a family spending time together and not confused about where our priorities are, not saying our family is most important while spending the least time together. The children learn to be competent in the world because they actually see their parents being competent in the world, and they themselves get to actually be competent in the world and not anesthetized in the false milleau of age-mate isolation.

Later in the day husband and daughter made apple pies together. The children now help me grind the wheat from start to finish, are capable of doing it with only a call that it needs to be done. They used the freshly ground whole wheat and butter they’d also made to make pie crusts, then peeled apples (those were not our own) and quartered them and added spices then put that into the shell with more butter and put on a top crust. She did two entire pies, every step, with no help except example of him making two pies too. And when they were baked and it was time for desert, she ate with her brothers and sister the pies she had made and knew they were good. She is the kind who after a couple of times doing this with her dad, we will be able to say to her, “What do you think about apple pie with supper? There are the apples for it,” and there will be a pie with supper. A real skill. Useful.

(hummmmmm along with that song from The Sound of Music)
These are a few of my favorite things.