September and apple pies

It's ironic (well maybe not that ironic) that Matthew's whole week in school this week is themed on apples.

I have always loved September and October with the change of the leaves and a little cooler. Not necessarily the drastic New England weather we have been having lately. One day 50 degrees, the next 70. Yesterday morning it was 58 and today it is supposed to go up to 80.

I love it until all of the leaves fall from the trees. Once it gets bare and grey and bitterly cold, I hibernate. I don't want to, but I am a very thin person and living on the lake just adds to that frozen feeling in my bones. I don't want to get out from under the covers and get undressed to take a shower!!?!?!?!? It's like sending all of the wrong messages to my brain and my body. My brain is saying take one, but my body is so frozen that it takes over sometimes how well I function when I'm cold.

One thing though that I have always loved about September is apple pies. I started making them about 15 years ago, when this wonderful woman named Janet at a company I worked at, gave me an interesting recipe for Crazy Crust Apple Pie. It has no top crust, just the apples and a combination of sugar and other ingredients that you melt on the stove and then pour it on the apples and then bake. After that I was hooked.

I started becoming addicted to making all kinds of apple pies. I was telling Matthew yesterday that our neighbor Pa Man, used to love when I would give him a pie and then (New England thing) he would melt cheese on it? I never heard of that but he loved my pies so I was happy.

Yesterday, in school Matthew's class sang a song called "My Mother is a Baker". So far he has learned a Bubblegum song, an Alligator song and a song about turtles. I have to get the words to these songs so I can sing them with him.

I had taken my two and a half hours yesterday to do some much needed food shopping and it was so awesome to just walk through the store with my mind unclouded, with a list in my hand and even to have ideas pop into my head. That never happens when Matthew is with me because he is always putting the ideas into my head for me.

In the afternoon I mentioned to him that we could go to a farm and maybe get some apples to bake a pie. We went and took some pictures and he had fun. He even ate a whole red apple on the way home. Usually he will only eat the Granny Smith, so I was impressed.

He is constantly asking for snacks anymore, so while he was eating the apple he mentioned "Maybe when we get home we eat the apple pie too!" I told him with peeling and making the pie could take some time and that we could look forward to it for desert after his pork chops for dinner.

He replied "Mommy, Spartacus - When he eats candy he gets tired, When he eats an apple he have more energy!!" (first of all I am happy that he finally got this message even though I never cared for the show he is mentioning - Lazy Town)

I was so surprised to hear him saying that after all of these years (I know only 4) of denying anything that we want him to eat because it is good for him.

I think school is having an awesome affect on him regarding trying new things, maybe seeing other kids eating healthy snacks is helping him.

Matthew helped me bake our apple pie and it came out unbelievable!

Here's to more baking and fall weather!