Pear Crisp

We have a pear tree in our yard. It's weird though, I don't think it gets enough sun... all the pears grow at the top. I climbed up it the other day and still couldn't reach any pears. So I gave it a good shake and pears fell down like rain. The kids gathered them up for me and now we have a 5 gallon bucket full of pears (and oh so many more that can be shook down!)

So tonight, after the kid went to bed, I made some pear crisp.

I reminded me of this time a few years ago when my youngest, Ethan, was still at home with me...he was probably in pre-school, but we still had a lot of time together every day. We picked pears one day and made pear crisp and he kept calling it "crust", which sounded so umappetizing!... and it makes me sad because I miss him. I mean, he's still here, but he's getting older and moving further away from being my "baby" and I miss him at that age. Tonight when I put him to bed we talked about tomorrow's school day and he said, "I love first grade, but I miss you Mom. I miss you when I'm at school." It broke my heart.

I've had a rough couple of days here. My husband has been away for a week, and I've been dealing with some "stuff"... just stupid stuff that makes me question my parenting, and then to hear Ethan say that on top of everything else was almost too much to take.

So I came downstairs and made some pear "crust". It smelled delicious as it baked... and I cried a little bit.