Apple Press

Preston and I had the primary program practice this morning. As we were walking there we saw Issac Bingham drive by. Mike had asked him what he was going to do with all the leftover apples from his cider party. He was looking for a way to get rid of them. Mike volunteered our house. This year was supposed to be an apple year for our trees, but we didn't get many. I don't know if that is because of the early frost or from the trimming we had done in the spring. Anyway, Isaac gave us plenty this year.

Apples from the Bingham's

We spent most of the day making apple cider. Preston LOVES it. He loves everything about apples. I have never been an apple juice fan, but pure apple juice with nothing added to it is just delicious. I have boring pictures to document how we spent our day.

First, rinse the apples ~ we figured one sinkful makes 14 jars of cider

 Second, cut apples and get rid of gross parts. No picture of that.

Third, put apples through the garbage disposal station ~ loud, but Preston loves it.

 The apples come out like this.

 Mike has some kind of mesh bag catching the apple goop.

 Fourth, tie up the bag.

 Fifth, put the bag on the press station with a wood circle thing on top.

 Sixth, have a bowl to catch the deliciousness.

 Mike stacks about five mesh bags with wood circles in-between them.

He uses a car jack to really get the juice pressed out.

 Preston loves catching the juice as it is running down.

Stockton, Preston, Mike and I went outside to pick whatever apples we could find from our tree. We were out there longer than we anticipated. Mike had jars of apple cider boiling on the stove to can them. When we came inside the smoke detector was going off. The smoke was everywhere. At least we didn't burn down our house.

Preston pretending he is Joseph Smith seeing a vision.

You can't see all the smoke here, but he made us all laugh.

 Burnt jars. Boo.

My dad came over today. Mike and I are going to Australia in a few weeks. My dad was going to sleep at our house so the kids wouldn't be alone. He came up to tell me he didn't want to do that. He will be close to his phone and the kids can text him if there was a problem, but he wanted to sleep in his own house. I don't feel good at all at leaving Jorja home alone. I'm not worried about the boys, but Jorja has never done well if I'm gone for a long time. Mike and I were talking about what to do. Mike came up with the idea of asking Hailey's mom if Jorja could stay with Hailey. I love that idea. Not only does Jorja adore Hailey, but Hailey has such a calming influence on Jorja. I really hope Melanie (Hailey's mom) says yes. I'm not sure what to do if she says no.

Speaking of Hailey, Jorja spent the day at a DFY conference. Day for Youth. She has been excited about this for a long time. It was a conference with all the stakes in our area and the Lone Peak stake. There were speakers, musical guests, a service project, dinner and a dance. Jorja went with Hailey. They didn't get back until midnight, but Jorja was pretty happy when I picked her up from Hailey's house.

Hailey and Jorja

I talked with Jorja until about 2:30 in the morning. She seems to be the most talkative late at night. Usually I am sound asleep at this time. I went to bed early today and had a few hours of sleep before I picked her up, so I was able to stay awake with her tonight. We talked about lots of different things. I told her that I thought it was important for her to date lots of different people when she turns 16. She said, "I know, it's just that that means Isaac will date other people and that makes me sad." I told her that she needed to let him do that. She said, "I just hope that he doesn't ask (girl's name that I don't want to say), she is so pretty. Sometimes I wonder why he even likes me." Really Jorja? It's not like you are some charity case. Another example of how oblivious Jorja is.

I actually talked to Mike a lot today about sending Jorja to Holly. Holly was Maysen's therapist, and I love her. I think Holly would be able to help Jorja a lot with her anxiety. The sad thing is Holly is no longer at the same place I took Maysen. She has started her own clinic in Bountiful. Great for her, sad for us. I don't think I want to commit to driving up to Bountiful, even though I would love for Jorja to meet with her. 

Short side note. A few weeks ago I was walking with Becky and she was talking about Isaac (her son) and his girlfriend named Lauren. I asked if it was Lauren Mitchell. It was. The name just seemed so familiar. I had no idea why I knew it or where I heard it from. It wasn't until a week later that it dawned on me. Loren Mitchell was my best friend my first year at college. That made me laugh so hard. I haven't thought about him in years. I remembered he was studying psychology, so I looked him up. He practices in Utah. Mike thinks it would be weird to have Jorja go talk to Loren. I go back and forth. He was so nice to me in college and I know how kind and understanding he is, I think he could be great for her. Mike thinks it would be better for her to talk with a girl. Maybe, but Jorja feels more comfortable around boys. Anyway, not sure what I'm going to do. I think Jorja would benefit greatly with having someone trained help with her anxiety and panic attacks. She doesn't get many, but wouldn't it be great to not get them at all?

(I just realized that I talked about three different Isaacs in this post. Who knew that name was so popular?)