When I was a kid, elementary school was K-6, junior high was 7-9 and high school was grade 10-12. I remember getting ready for the first day of junior high! I wish we took pictures back then 😂 my Mom always took us back to school shopping and let us pick out a few new clothing pieces, first day of school outfit and a picture day outfit. I remember picking out a neon pink, orange, and green outfit, hammertime pants with a matching zip up jacket and T-shirt for my first day at Hedges Junior High in 1991. You could have probably seen me from space! 🤣 My Dad LOVED it and I was so excited!
The day before school started, my friend called me and told me to meet him at Lakewood elementary school, the gang was all skateboarding at the back. When I got there, at first, everything was awesome! I was a pretty popular kid with a large friend group so sitting there hanging out with all my friends, was the perfect way to end the summer. Until something happened. Two girls that were going into grade 9, one who had a crush on my friend, stopped by. Actually, everybody always had a crush on my Best Guy Friend and because he was my best friend, a lot of girls hated me. Stupid but just the way it was. These two girls ruined my day. Actually, I didn’t know this then, but those two girls would ruin my first year of junior high. As I sat there, watching my friends, one of the girls ashed her cigarette in my hair. I remember sitting there thinking what should I do? Should I leave? Or should I stand my ground and stay? I stayed. Looking back, I think my year would’ve been easier if I would’ve left 😆 but I stayed. They warned me to watch out because they would make my little life a living hell and they did. One of the girls even ended up in my homeroom and we had lockers right beside each other, awesome 😒! But I made it through it. In fact, junior high was amazing! I had a ton of friends, I was involved in all the school clubs and activities, and I had lots of cute boyfriends. Oh… those really were the days lol. Looking back, I’m proud that I toughened up and continued to thrive despite the drama. I have learned that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and that is ok… I don’t even like tea 😜.
I am grateful that I had a great family and a strong group of friends. I had my WpgBesty, who always had my back. No matter what. I could’ve pissed off the entire school, and on some occasions I did, lol, but my WpgBesty was always there. I never ever felt alone. I always had a great group of friends that were guys too. Way less drama, way more fun, and a lot more loyal than the majority of girls I’ve met, well, ever.
SBean has found her WpgBesty, that one person that she can be completely herself around and will always have her back, in her cousin, SweetPea. I am incredibly grateful for that! However, SweetPea lives in Kelowna.
On Friday SBean came home in tears. Actually, she has come home in tears more than a few times this year. Last year SBean was in a grade 4/5 split class. She was in grade 4, but made some wonderful friendships with the grade 5 girls. This year they all moved up to middle school and SBean was left with 6 girls her age. To be clear, that means there’s 7 grade 5 girls in her entire school. You’re not going to like everybody and everybody’s not going to like you, but when there’s only 6 girls to choose from, that can be hard.
Long story short, I asked SBean if she wanted to have an elementary school graduation party and she didn’t want to invite all 6 of the other girls, so we scraped the idea. We didn’t want to leave anyone out. Unfortunately, 1 of the girls didn’t feel the same way. She invited all the grade 5 girls to a grad event, but left SBean out. In fact, they decided to make the event a day early so they will all miss the final day of school. Everybody but SBean. They rubbed it in her face that she would be there alone with just the grade 5 boys and a few grade 4 students. My heart broke for her. All year this Girl has tried to push SBean out of the group but now that she has the celebration upper hand, some of the kids told SBean, “we want to be friends with you but we can’t.” Ugh. That’s no way to end your elementary school career.
That was Friday. Over the weekend it ramped up over kids messenger and I had to be that Mom that said, “enough is enough. School is almost over, you all don’t have to get along, but you have to be kind to each other.” Thank goodness she was at SPea’s house having a blast and didn’t see the messages… until she did.
On Monday SBean didn’t want to go to school. I totally get it! I remember that feeling in the pit in my stomach on Monday morning, knowing what was waiting for me at school from those 2 girls. When SBean came into my room, early Monday morning, I wrapped her in a big hug and reminded her of how great she is. How smart, funny, confident, creative, talented, beautiful, kind, silly and amazing she is. I reminded her that even if every person in the world disliked her, I would always love her. I said, “oh, my Bean I love you so. How much is so? Much much more than you’ll ever know.” 💛
I was so proud of her! She wore her necklace with her cousin, SPea’s picture inside of it! She said she wanted to keep her close to her heart, because she gives her courage! Ninja dropped her off at school, and said she squared her shoulders, and marched right into the school full of confidence and spirit! So proud of that kid!
Bring on middle school! 😳🥴🤬😂
Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? Episode #334: Mean Girls HERE! This week we get together to chat: new computer, volunteer tea, reading, summer cocktails, quitting, shower seats, last days of school, bullying, submersibles, LPGA & Visionquest.
When I was a kid, summers meant Ticky Town! That’s what we called it, nowadays we call it Penticton or better yet, home. My grandparents picked us up at the end of June and we took the long drive out to their house for the summer. As soon as we got there, it was cherry season! My grandparents had friends that were the caretakers at the old Naramata Inn, nothing like the beautiful Inn that it is today mind you 😉, that first week of summer holidays meant driving to Naramata and spending the lazy days picking sour cherries and rainier cherries. The next week were the bing cherries, my favourite! I used to sit underneath the weeping willows, reading and popping cherries into my mouth all day long! God memories 💛.
My Nana made the absolute best, and I mean the world’s greatest, sour cherry pie. My mouth is drooling just thinking about it! As I am not a baker, I thought I may never taste that delicious cherry pie ever again, but I was wrong! Our elderly neighbour has many fruit trees in his large backyard. He is quite self-sufficient and his garden and his trees feed him over the winter. His rainier cherry tree has never given him very many cherries, until this year! Bumper crop! He gave us a giant flat of cherries for the first time, and I couldn’t wait to try my hand at baking Nana’s delicious, sour cherry pie. I took two family recipes and mixed them together 😀. My MIL makes the BEST pie crust, it melts in your mouth! I used her pastry recipe and my Nana‘s cherry pie filling and voila! You have a delicious cherry pie that almost caused a divorce in my marriage! 😂 Just joking, but seriously, rolling pastry dough is no joke! I’m thankful that Ninja has so much patience and will roll out pastry dough for me when my hand isn’t working to the best of it’s ability. Thank you Ninja 😘!
We found that the easiest way to do it was to lay down saran wrap tightly on the kitchen counter and roll the dough right on top of it. It was easier to lift the saran wrap off the counter to place the dough into the glass pie plate that way. Also, the key is to do this quickly! You don’t want the dough to get warm, or it just sticks to the rolling pin! 🥴
Even though this was our first cherry pie, actually our first pie period Lol I think it turned out pretty incredible! I can’t wait to try again and make the next one… Right Ninja? 😂😘
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vinegar
6 cups sour cherries, pitted
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1 tablespoon sugar
Combine the pitted cherries, sugar and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Cook, over medium heat, until the cherries release their juices. Mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water in a bowl. Stir in the dissolved cornstarch into the cooked cherries and continue cooking until the filling thickens, about 3-5 minutes.
Remove the filling from the heat and stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Let the cherry filling cool before assembling the pie.
Pour the filling into the crust, spreading it evenly with a spatula. Then, dot it with cubes of cold butter.
Roll out the second disk to 12-inch round and use a pastry wheel (sharp knife or pizza cutter also work) to cut ten 3/4-inch wide strips. Arrange the strips on top of the filling, forming the lattice. Trim the excess dough and flute or crimp the edges of the crust. We didn’t;t weave the lattice or crimp. The dough was warm and tearing so we just filled it and baked it!
Brush the crust with the egg wash, then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.
Bake for 15 minutes at 425ºF, then lower the temperature to 375ºF and continue baking until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly, about 45 to 60 minutes more. If the crust is browning too quickly, cover with foil to prevent burning.
1 thought on “Bring on Middle School & Nana’s Sour Cherry Pie”
That sour cherry does look divine.
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