Friday, September 07, 2007

Boys and Blackberries

Wild blackberries are both a pest and a blessing in Oregon. They take over any vacant area if left uncontrolled, smothering old machinery and small buildings and anything else in their way.
But every August they produce a crop of delicious berries, nestled among millions of vicious thorns, free to anyone brave enough to pick them.

I’ve found this is a good enterprise for Ben and Steven, who like to wear jeans and rubber boots, go exploring, and attempt brave feats. So every so often I send them out and they return with an ice cream bucket or two of berries, which I have been turning into pies, cobblers, and a number of jars of pie filling. Their best picking spot is about half a mile away, across the fescue field, along the railroad tracks.

The other day I realized the berry season is about at its end and it’s going to start raining soon, so after supper I sent the boys on one last expedition, letting them out of doing dishes as a bonus.

An hour or so later they came back, but with only a third of a bucket of berries. Uh, well, you see, it’s like this. They picked a full bucket of berries, plus a third, and then they climbed the fence back into the field and headed home and Ben was like, "Hey, big wide-open field--let’s see if we can walk 200 steps with our eyes closed!"

Steven traversed his 200 steps safely and opened his eyes to see that Ben had veered off north toward Substation Drive and a fence. He yelled, but Ben just figured Steven had tripped or something, and shortly after at step 181 Ben crashed into the fence and spilled his entire bucket of berries irretrievably into the dirt and straw. Yeah.

When I heard this doleful tale I opened my mouth to say something, then shut it, then opened it again, then shut it again.

The boys saved their hides at this point by quickly saying all the proper things such as, "We know it was really stupid, we're sorry, we’ll never try that again, we’ll pick more berries tomorrow."

Then Paul did not improve matters by saying in his wise-father voice, "See, what you have to do is look around and make sure there’s no fence within 200 steps in any direction before you try that."

My silent tongue was loosed at this point in a shrill, "What??? That’s not the POINT!!! The point is that you THINK ABOUT THE CARGO IN YOUR HANDS BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING THAT STUPID AND YOU DON’T WALK WITH YOUR EYES SHUT WITH A BUCKET OF BLACKBERRIES IN YOUR HANDS, FENCE OR NO FENCE!!!!!!""

The guys all looked at me like, "Poor Mom, off on one of her rants again."

I called my friend Arlene for comfort. She was soothing and wonderful. My boys are nice, she said, and smart, and they really are going to grow up. Then she told me some comforting stories about her own children, and said,

Quote of the Day:
"I’m so sick of worryin’ about my kids!"
(Me too)

And Paul also had this wisdom for me:
2nd Quote of the Day:
"Well, that’s one of the disadvantages of having creative kids."

4 comments:

  1. Quote of the Day:
    "I’m so sick of worryin’ about my kids!"

    Love this quote!!!Here I sit worrying about my adult son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter who are traveling over mountains right now on very little sleep. (I have had just slightly more sleep then them the last 2 days from all my worrying too--feel that I am living their journey)
    The worry never stops...even when the kids grow up. My mom worries about me though I am middle aged; I worry about my kids who are in their 20's and 30's. A mother's heart remains the same in concern over her kid's physical, spiritual and emotional well-being.
    At least it helps knowing all moms worry about their children and that God is listening when I take those worries to HIM in prayer!I am still working on the totally releasing all the worry to HIM though..

    I just started reading your blog recently and absolutely love it! Thank you for using your God-given talent!

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  2. I think it's wonderful that your kids are enjoying the wonders and benefits of living in a rural area like you do! I am in an urban area but there's an area that's not been developed, until recently. I would go there in early July and pick wild blackberries for hours! (It seems like it takes so much though to make a dent in my bucket!) I would can some of it into topping for ice cream, freeze the remainder and make pies! The best so far has been a blackberry-rhubabrb pie! Yummy! Sadly, the whole area is being turned into a medical development with doctors of every known and unknow disease and ailment is building an office! I might try and see if I can dig up a couple of them plants and bring them home. Poor birdies, there used to be tons of them in that area as well as other little critters. All pushed out for the sake of progress!
    Connie

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  3. Good gravy, look at the grammatical errors in that entry of mine! Maybe I should've proof-read that before posting!
    Connie

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  4. I read your blog and enjoy it so much. Sometimes I can feel quite alone in parenting and not know who to share with, your absolute honesty about life with your family is so refreshing and gives me hope.. thanks so much..Kim

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