Comparing Apples to Apples!

This week we have been studying about apples…planting, growing, harvesting, marketing, and cooking. DD and DB visited our local farmer’s market and saw many different types of apples. Who knew that there are over 7,500 different kinds??? Of course they weren’t all at the market. We bought a variety of types to compare and contrast. Our focus is not actually about apples; it’s about the Fruits of the Spirit. The theme is: “If I stay in Jesus I will have much fruit.” In order for an apple tree to produce qualitiy apples it must be planted, nourished to maturity, pruned at times, and then harvested. This process takes several years. Likewise, if we want to produce the “fruits of the Spirit” we must accept Christ, mature through God’s Word being pruned along the way, apply his truths and live accordingly. This process may take several years for us as well.
Below are some pictures of the girls involved in learning:

Making homemade apple sauce

Yummy!

Making homemade apple pie

Mmmmmm!

DD and DB have learned many things about apples and orchards this week. They even learned about the adventures of Johnny Appleseed and how to make (or not make) an apple pie.

I learned a few things too:

• Frozen pie crusts do better when you leave them in their original containers. I read somewhere that a glass pie plate would make a prettier pie..ha ha ha Mrs. Smith’s aluminum pan would have been just fine! Guess that's why she makes the big bucks for her baked goods!
• If you are going to change the ready-made crust to a glass pie plate, make sure that it is the right size…duh! It doesn’t work well when the pie crust is TOO SMALL for the plate.
• A play dough rolling pin doesn’t work well on pie crust. (Hey, it’s all I had!)
• The correct temperature for cooking a pie is NOT 450 degrees! Let me explain. I’m really not as dumb as I sound. The recipe said to bake the pie for 10 minutes at 450 on the lowest rack, then change it to 350 and move the pie to the center rack. I was in the process of moving the pie when Doodlebug tripped and fell hard. She was crying, so I went to comfort her… forgetting to change the temperature on the oven.
• My family will eat anything (even if it is a little too brown!) At the end of the day there was only one tiny piece of pie left. LOL
• Most importantly, the girls had fun!

Lest you think this study of apples was all in vain…
DD demonstrated that she has a very good understanding of what I have been trying to teach her this week regarding the Fruits of the Spirit when she told me that she was experiencing “long-suffering” as she worked beside me in the kitchen. lol Gotta love that girl!