Blessings

As many of you have probably heard, the freeze that hit CA for over a week has destoyed many orchards. The orchard growers are sufferring greatly with this loss as are others. It is hard to realize how far the loss can reach. For those that do not live in the valley, it may be hard to imagine. Having grown up in the midwest where farms are mostly harvested by machines, it was amazing to find that here the produce is harvested by hand. A very romantic type of harvest that I have learned to love. To know that hands pick the produce that not just my family but people all over this country bring to their tables each night brings warmth and a familiarity to the veggies and fruits as I stand chopping and preparing them each night. These weathered hands are beautiful people that because of this freeze, can no longer feed their own families. They are now without work because there are no oranges to pick. The strawberries and avocadoes have been ruined as well as many other types of beautiful types of food that we so often taken for granted. I remember last summer stopping at a stand with my mother to buy strawberries that had just been picked. This is a stand that I go to often. A small wooden hut built on the edge of the field. Workers spend their days in the sun and the owners are some of the warmest people I have ever met. This day, as my mother and I walked to the hut, there was beautiful song shining from within. This dear weathered soul was singing as she sat waiting for customers. She stopped as we came close and I asked her not stop her singing because her voice was beautiful. Through tears this beautiful little woman explained how her husband was at church but that she had to be at the stand to keep it open to make money for their family. She had decided to make this her church and so was singing. She then continued to explain the horrors that her family had lived and told us to cherish our relationship as mother and daughter as she no longer had her mother. Her family had known such horrors in the "old country" and yet she could sing through tears. We took a moment to bless her and pray with her. At this time I think of her and all those beautiful hands that harvest the food that we so often take for granted as we run to the grocer to grab the food we need for dinner. Please take a moment if you have the time and finances and donate to the Orange Aid. Please help these brothers and sisters of ours to bring food to their tables and to feed their children through these cold months where work is no more. I thank you for your gifts and for the love we have to share. The following link takes you to Orange Aid through the Salvation Army site. They have pledged that all monies that come in for Orange Aid will be given 100% to the workers and that none of the donations will go towards adminstration fees.

https://secure4.salvationarmy.org/donations.nsf/donate?openform&projectid=USW_GS-Fresno-Freeze

Blessings-

Cold Times and Memories

The Holidays have passed and life is slowly getting back to normal. Anticipation of the holidays and prepping has always been so exciting for our family. The children are used to the same traditions. Even as they grow and begin their own lives, we work hard at keeping the traditions from their childhood. Bry arived home early for his break which was nice. He had time to sleep and recover from Finals and the stress of having completed his first semester at school. As he arrived, the house again filled with all his old friends. His days started about 2PM and ended between 2-5AM. Not an easy schedule for the rest of us to try and continue work, etc. with. Having the house filled with his friends and Brit adding her friends to the cluster made for a full house of teens and lots of fun!! We were happy to find time to share with our friends here and still have plenty of family time. Bry has returned to school and Brit has just finished finals and winter formals. Our time is ready to slow down. The last weeks have been unbearably cold and the news continues to update us on just how much food is being destroyed in the orchards and in the fields. This has been the topic of discussion with most those living in the valley. It is quite a concern for many. We have lost many landscaping trees and plants with the freeze. We walked this weekend to oversee just all we have lost. What an unusual time for everybody. We have focused on warming ourselves with blankets, food and fire when the air allows. Living in the valley where clean air is a problem, we must only burn on days it is permitted. Being this cold had been something of the past for us upon leaving IL. I now remember how it can bring you inward. Not just physically but emotionally as well. I have found more time to read and am spending more time chopping veggies to place in to the slow cooker for yet another soup. Anything to warm the soul! The smells of soup in the air are enough to warm me as I enter the home after a long day. It has been good to be able to find the time to chop the vegetables and herbs to make our stews as Brit studies or sits at the computer. Life is slower which is good during this cold time. It is nice to snuggle in at the end of the day with a book or doing my favorite activity, Sudoku. Working puzzles and the smells of food cooking takes me back to my childhood. The smells of food has always been a sign of warmth and love for me as I was growing up. Add puzzles to that and I am taken back to time spent with my grandfather. My love of puzzles most surely came from this man who would spend time with mindteasers, etc. The smells of food was always wafting from grandma's kitchen as we played board games or dominoes for hours. My other grandparents' home was filled with the smells of food as well as they had a large family and grandma spent much of her time feeding us all. To listen as she took time in later years to teach me how to make her wonderful egg noodles was a time I will always cherish. We would then snuggle in to watch one of her favorite movies or musicals. My mother was an amazing cook and we were spoiled to have beautiful meals always at our table. I still spend hours calling her from miles away for yet another recipe or to ask just how to prep a certain ingredient. We have always been lucky to have had friends in IL and here who love food and plan activities around food. What a wonderful and nourishing way to spend life. The smells of food always were part of the main way we shared during Willow. Rather it was with baskets of food pouring out onto a blanket as the children were young and always hungry or later as we joined friends next door to share foods and stories. Bon and I spent many years raising our children together and having them help as we planted, harvested, put up the food and then magically turned it into meals that our families would share. All these memories come back to me as I cuddle in and stay out of the cold. Life has been filled which so much change this last year. There have been many adjustments. Our family has known great sadness with the loss of my cousin's husband. This has been a time of questions for me and knowing these questions will have to go unanswered is not easy. Some things just have no answers. For this, I am glad there has been a bit of cold so as to bring me back into the house and back to the simple task of chopping veggies and stirring warm soups to be served with warm bread and a simple salad tossed with oil and juice from our own lemons. To cuddle in with blankies and listen as my daughter returns from formal with stories. To listen as my son calls from school to update me on his studies and the activities he has been up to. A time to remember the past, put healing on the last year and dream of the future and all it holds for my children and Wayne and I. As this new year begins and the world seems a bit confused and anxious, may we all take the time to show those around us love and help to spread peace throughout our communities and out to the rest of the world.