Delayed Gratification

I have recently started to can fruits and vegetables in order to take full advantage of the amazing harvest period that we have here. We were over at dinner and a friend offered us tomatoes that they had picked from their garden that day. I had to decline because we already had too many. Now that I am honing my canning skills, I hope to never have to decline fresh, free food again. I really enjoy the process of canning. It is a slow and very methodical process. I have found that with many recipes the longer it takes, the more rewarding it is. Today I made apple butter and grape jelly, neither of which went very quickly. The jelly had to be made in two different sessions because I wanted to make sure and get it right. The apples butter simmered for hours as the sugars caramelized and our home filled with the aroma of harvest. As I sit now and listen to the final jar pop closed I have such a wonderful sense of accomplishment. To go along side that, Jared asked, "So when do we get to eat this?" He had a hard time understanding the concept of making food for later and not now. It made me stop and think, wow, that is so the world that we live in. Maybe that is why it is so hard to set aside time to do this. I am so consumed with meeting the needs of now, it is hard to look to the future. I think that instant gratification is something that has become embedded into our culture and I am seeing that we are slowly starting to break from that, thanks to the forces of Claire. Because of her severe apraxia and dyspraxia (sorry about spelling) she doesn't have the luxery of instant. She has to work so hard and have so much patience. Until we get a more progressive communication system in place, she often has to wait until I figure out the right choices to offer her. Talk about delayed gratification, she sees something that she wants, looks at it, smiles at me. I am in my own world, who knows how long it takes before I figure it out. But she is patient, waiting for me to see the cues. I do think that she has something going for her, that the delay before the reward, certainly makes it richer. Since I assume that you have come to my blog to see and hear about Claire and not my rantings, here are some pictures from Saturday. We went to the pumpkin patch and then to lunch in Half Moon Bay. We had a lot of fun, and soon we will have pumpkin soup.