All Thumbs

My mother had the greenest thumb of anyone I’ve ever known. Seeds, cuttings, dry dead twigs, it didn’t matter, if she planted it, it grew. I have inherited a lot of things from my mother. My straight, thinning hair, my pixie face, my small wrists and ankles, a strong streak of creativity and an affinity for needlework of almost any kind. What I did not inherit was her green thumb. If I had no fingers at all and just had ten thumbs, none of them would be green. I have the ability to kill a fern in less than two weeks and, while it takes a while to accomplish, I can even kill a Snake Plant, (also affectionately known as a Mother-In-Law’s Tongue) which are supposed to be virtually indestructible. The only green growing things that survive in my care are those which thrive on neglect. I have a few Christmas cacti inside that have not succumbed to my loving ministrations- yet.
I bought a couple of mums the end of last summer (I am ever the optimist) to spruce up Beloved’s house when we had it up for sale. His question was, get this now, “Who is going to water them every day?” My thought was, well, the rain, of course. However I did not take into account that they would be located on the porch by the front door- far away from the rain. So, sure enough, they died. Actually one of them died. The other brave little thing made a comeback in the late fall and made it almost to the end of the year.

So what has prompted these musings?
I killed a papaya today.
Even the fruit of a green growing thing is not safe with me.

A friend gave DD4 a HUGE papaya to try. It came all the way from Belize. It was lovely! I like dried papaya, so I thought fresh would be even better. I went online to find out how to use papaya and gather some recipes. I was ready for this football sized fruit to ripen. Today I gathered my supplies to make Papaya Muffins and began to prepare the fruit. The color was beautiful and the seeds looked great as I set them aside to use later. About halfway through, I noticed a strange odor. Kind of like barf. This is NOT an odor that should be in my kitchen- ever. With a sinking feeling in my heart I sniffed the beautiful papaya. WHOA!

I went to the papers that I had printed out and re-read them. “Ripe papaya should have a sweet smell.” This was NOT sweet! Here is where logic and rational thinking left me completely. I thought, maybe it’s not really the papaya FRUIT, maybe it’s the seeds or the skin. Maybe if I finish processing the fruit it will have that sweet smell it is supposed to have. Right. Because wishful thinking always works on stuff like this.

So, I finished peeling, scraping and cutting the fruit. Guess what?! It still smelled bad. I gathered it up and sadly tossed it away, bemoaning its loss all the while. Re-reading the papers AGAIN, I realized that I should have put the poor thing in the refrigerator to ripen rather than leave it on the counter.

So, the fruit that survived heat and disease and bugs, grew big enough to make it to market, traveled all the way from BELIZE to the US, survived the shipping and inspections and packing and trucking and displays in a BIG grocery, was hand picked and delivered to our home, could not survive my kitchen counter.

Apparently the only way I’m going to get a green thumb is to use paint.
As long as it’s not vegetable based.

It's just the beginning

First the bad news:
The ceiling moved to the floor
The tree is still up
The house looks like we’re moving
I have the flu


Now the good news:
No one was in the room when the ceiling fell and nothing was under it to be ruined
I am FINALLY starting to feel better
The fridge works great
God is still in control

The news that has not yet been categorized:
The insurance adjuster is coming today


I refuse to accept that this is the way 2007 is going to go. This is simply an anomaly. A blip in the calmness that is my life. In a few days all this will be over and everything will get back to normal.

Did I mention that I’ve been running a fever?

Welcome to a new year!