Life....and a Bowl of Cherries

  The saying "Life is like a bowl of cherries" is sort of misleading.  Life is not like a bowl of cherries in the least.  Cherries are good...always. Unless they are rotten...then they are bad...always.  But Life is not that clear cut.  We are setting ourselves up for a major disappointment if we have it in our heads that everything is always hunky-dory.   (Hunky-dory being a phrase that Mom used to say when things were nigh on perfect or use in jest when things were just the opposite.  As a kid, I could never differentiate between the two uses of the same term.)  In real life, there are days when those cherries are good and bad at the same time and it is up to us to choose which fruit to eat.  Pick out the fresh fruit and all is fine...pick the rotten and we wallow in despair.  

  Today, things were more than just a bowl of cherries even though they were involved.  Late afternoon found me exhausted and things going a bit down the wrong path.  It was just one of those days where it seemed that Murphy's Law was the rule for the day.  I could not find things, four of my jars of jelly did not seal and chairs would not fit through the doorway...just to mention a few of the frustrating things occurring during the day.  About three in the afternoon, I just quit.  I was tired after a sleepless night and did not need this aggravation.  I plopped down in my rocking chair to sit and contemplate just why I was having such a day when I heard a familiar call.  Ahh, my sweet sister-in-law was in the yard.  I yelled through the open windows for her to come on inside.  (Just a Southern thing there...."Come on in and sit a spell!  The door is open!)  Down in the Deep South, yoo-hooing is a common greeting and "sittin' a spell" is done with either a cup of coffee or glass of sweet tea depending on the weather.  

  Cynthia made her way inside and handed me a grocery bag.  Inside were the most beautiful cherries!  "These are for you!  You always share everything with anybody that visits, so I brought you something this time."  Aww, my heart forgot all of the fine things that Old Murphy was conjuring all day.  Those cherries brought a smile to my lips and a bit of joy in my heart and even though it was a stifling 90 degrees outside, we had coffee.

  Sometimes life does hand us days that are not to our liking.  It is times like that when we have to make the best of things and not sweat the small stuff.  We pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and carry on.  Then things can change in a heartbeat such as when someone kind offers a bit of pleasant company.  Throw in a bag of fresh cherries and nothing that Old Murphy can throw at you is worth the worry.  Eat the fresh, delicious fruit and do not wallow in rotten thoughts.  Life is good.

Cherries, Chopsticks and Cousins...

I wonder if it was mere coincidence or perhaps one of those things that was just meant to happen.  Mark came home with four large bags of cherries the other day.  He knows that I love fruit of any sort but cherries rate right up there as one of my favorites.  The first bag was washed and eaten fresh but that still left three bags.  I needed to do something with the fruit but what? That is a lot of cherries to pit!  I pondered the fact.  Then I read where my cousin, Helen, had just picked some cherries and was making a wonderful pie!  Yum!  That sounded incredible!  Cherry pie! She had written that she pitted her cherries with a chopstick!  I had never heard of doing this!  I learn a lot from my cousins!

Two pounds of cherries that needed pitting.

Michael and I had to bring Ms. Put, the cat, in for her yearly visit to her veterinarian but afterward, I intended to make a pie or two!  While we were battling the cat (trying to crate her), a severe thunderstorm worked itself into a frenzy. The booming and banging did not make the crate thing much easier but finally we succeeded and off we went. (I have to admit that the sounds effects were most perfect for the ordeal in getting a windmill of cat claws inside a crate that seemingly shrinks to the size of a match box when in use!)  The rough weather brought back a flood (hehe) of memories!  I started beleaguering Michael with tales of thunderstorms during my childhood.  I always loved rainy, blustery days while at school.  Not so much at school but on the way home.  We rode the school bus and  it would pass Pop's fields before coming to a halt in front of the house.  From the open fields, we could see the house and if I saw the kitchen light on, I knew that something good was being baked!  Occasionally, Pop would be in the kitchen baking turnovers!  Aha!  Thunderstorms and Turnovers!  The idea hit me..I would make Cherry Turnovers!

Since we had no chopsticks, we used a wooden skewer.  Remove the stem and insert the stick.

Firmly push against the pit until it plops out the other side! Cherry is pitted!

Once we were home, Michael and I searched for chopsticks.  Hmmm..the Little Bayou House seemed devoid of any such devices!  Well now, where there is a will, there is a way!  Skewers! I had a multitude of those little rascals!  Using the back or larger end of the skewer, we poked the pit right out of the cherry!  This was rather easy!  Pull out the stem, insert the chopstick (skewer in our case), and push!  The seed shoves right out the other end of the cherry leaving a nice, clean hole but the cherry intact!  Easy-peasy!  It took Michael right at twenty five minutes to do two pounds of cherries.  While he did that, I made the dough.  After a bit, the house smelled divine with nine large turnovers baking in the oven!!!  Three of these will be given to my brother.  It is always better to share baked goods!

Three of the nine Cherry Turnovers that were baked today.

Now you tell me..coincidence?  I had cherries..Helen picked cherries.  I had no idea how to pit cherries..Helen told me!  Terrific thunderstorm hits..jogs memory of past storms and baking. I was to make a pie..Pop used to make Turnovers.  Hehe...So, I was taught to pit cherries with a chopstick so I could make Cherry Turnovers during a thunderstorm!  Personally, I think it was just meant to happen! Thank you, Helen!  I would have never thought of pitting cherries like this!