peaches, peach pie, and other stuff

We had a bit of a rough week arriving home from vacation and starting school, as I mentioned before. Within about a week's time, two toilets went kaput and had to be replaced, the dishwasher leaked on the kitchen floor and had to be replaced, we began school, the kids all got sick with a 36/48 hr virus, one after the other, Caleb broke his leg, and Duke broke my blender by getting into a cabinet whose lock had broken and pulling out the blender and smash--glass all over the floor. The irony was that I was right beside him doing something on the counter above him, but he was so quick.

Well, the good things that came from all that? We got new toilets. We got a new dishwasher that is QUIET (our other was the noisiest thing on the planet!). And I finally got that Vitamix blender I've been waiting for for years!

All that to say, by Friday of that week (and just prior to the leg break), we all needed a field trip. Yes, only 4 days into school and WE NEEDED A FIELD TRIP! We had to get out of the house. So I called my friend Amanda who also homeschools and we met up at the orchard. It was a beautiful day! We picked apples and then tried to pick peaches, but were in the wrong section of the orchard, or rather I think we walked through every part of the orchard except the part that was apparently loaded with peaches. We gave up and called it a day. Before we left, the kids and I stopped by the barn to just buy some peaches, because we had to have some peaches! We bought a bunch.

On Sunday, the day of the leg break, I made this delicious peach-custard pie. In fact, I left it cooling while we went on our lovely little family walk/bike-ride...that didn't quite end that way. In fact, Maddie, Braden and I quietly ate pie while Caleb slept on the couch and Braden and I talked about whether or not his leg was broken and whether or not to take him to the ER. So much for the lovely early fall family walk and peach pie time I had envisioned! Oh well. Life is far from perfect. The pie was still good, and Caleb's leg is healing nicely. We're grateful for that!