And now it is July. The year 2021 is officially half over. I just can't wrap my head around this. We finished off our Sunday last week with a birthday celebration for Emily. The Southerland clan came to our house and we feasted on BBQ chicken wings and a beautiful gluten-free chocolate cake created by Emily.
We saw the Southerlands (sans Emily) again on Tuesday for the second Grandparent Summer Camp. It was bread and jam week. Steve helped the kids make their own little loaf of bread and they helped me make a batch of raspberry jam. Emily contributed four cups of raspberries from their backyard patch and we provided four cups of frozen berries that we got from the store (hopefully, next year we will have our own productive patch).
Speaking of fruit.....Steve and I noticed a fully loaded apricot tree early last week in the back yard of a house just down the alley and the fruit was just dropping and rotting on the ground. So, I wrote a note asking if we could come pick (and pay for) the fruit and left it on the windshield of their truck. Happily, I got a reply that we could get all we wanted and we didn't need to pay! He, Mark, stated that this tree was about twenty years old and it had never born fruit until this year. No big surprise. Apricot trees, being the first to bloom each spring, usually get hammered by a late frost at this latitude. Steve and I hauled out the tall, antique fruit ladder we got from Bob Eschrich several years ago and we picked about a lug of apricots. I am going to make jam tomorrow and share a jar with Mark. I grew up with two apricot trees in El Paso and it is so nostalgic to eat a fresh-off-the-tree apricot again.
In other garden news, about two months ago, I transplanted a redbud sapling from Emily's front flower bed (where it didn't want to be) to our back yard and I feared it didn't make the move well and had died. In fact, on Monday, I was all ready to pull it out of the ground but when I went over to it, look what I saw....new growth! I am so tickled. (although, redbud trees are kind of like a weed because they pop up all over the place but when they are in the right place, they are a beautiful addition to a yard)
Steve had a kidney doctor appointment in Columbia on Thursday so we spent our day there. I usually teach a cello lesson to Ethan during his appointments but that was cancelled so I actually got to go into Steve's doctor visit and meet Dr. Stein and ask some questions. And, I got good news: his kidneys are slowly getting better. The sarcoidosis will likely prevent complete healing but at least they are not getting worse. He is reducing his steroid intake. And, he doesn't have to be quite so rigid in his calcium intake because, if he doesn't eat enough calcium, his body will actually leach calcium from his bones! And, I can make potatoes almost potassium-free by peeling and soaking them in water for an hour. Hooray - Steve can eat potatoes again. Also in our visit in Columbia we ate lunch and had a good visit with Melanie. She provided her couch for a short nap. We had frozen Randy's custard with Elise. We stopped in to see Pat Rybolt at the Music Suite and even had a chance to be of service by taking out huge pieces of cardboard to the dumpster. We visited Elizabeth Crippen briefly on our way to Steven and Tamara's for dinner. Tamara fixed a yummy seafood chowder and we had a great visit. And, then back home. This was our first long trip in an air-conditioned-less vehicle and it wasn't horrible. With the windows down, I need to wear a hat so my hair doesn't blow all around my face. Beckie watched the dogs for the day. I had to take the following photo of Steve and Linus. Look at how he gazes up at Steve. He is such a sweetie. Both dogs are kind of wigged out by the fireworks going off in our neighborhood. Last night, two houses down let off a bunch of loud ones just as I was out with the dogs on a potty run and Sally dashed back into the house and under our bed. She didn't want to go out this morning as a result and Steve had to carry her outside! Poor thing.
We got to attend the temple again on Friday - it is so nice to be doing that again - and yesterday was a completely "open" day (meaning neither of us had any outside commitments) I fixed up a batch of gluten-free pancakes and I baked a gluten-free red/white/blue jello poke cake. Steve mixed up a batch of gluten-full chocolate cookies and I baked them with red/white/blue M&M's and delivered some to women I minister to. We started watching "Gettysburg" last night (Steve's July movie). We watched a couple of pottery throw-down episodes throughout the week and "National Treasure" was the Grandparent Summer Camp movie. I caught up on "Loki" and an episode of "Manifest" while Steve was at church on Wednesday evening. It has been a good week.
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