Ponderings...

Think about the sound you make when you take a bite of the best meal, or when you find your favorite pair of slippers, or even the sound you make just as you lay down exhausted. This is how fall feels for me, despite the fact that it's one of the busiest times of the year for me. Football season is here, 9 credits of classes, full time work and the full time schedules of children. What will I do when they grow and go? What is spare time?
K and I were talking about the fall Sunday afternoon routine, boys watching football, we pretend to know what's going on  and that we care, then we quietly retreat to the kitchen. Bake, broil, grill, poach....you name it. Much of our problem solving, socializing as a family is done in the kitchen. The sounds of the game, the crisp air outside seem to make for some of the best munchies, big filling meals new experiments gone horribly wrong, and behind the strings of an apron it's never a problem.
Ajou recently sent me a really neat note about aprons, I will share with you;
The principle use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a holder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken-coop the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids; and when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled it carried out the hulls. In the fall the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes. 

I look forward to pot roast, chili, venison stew, pumpkin pie and the smells and warmth of the season. Think again about that sound, the one of complete and udder contentment.