October 20th, day 20 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. A cloudy cool morning. The sun is trying to come out as I speak. It is the second anniversary of my mother’s departure. I am hoping to whip out a post before I start to tackle the making of my first apple pie. The dough for the crusts are resting in the fridge. My apples are weighed and washed, waiting to be peeled and slice. I will try to make my mother proud by completing the fete.

I’ve come to this baking and pastry thing late in life. My sister’s the chef and pastry master. She inherited that part of our mother. Our mother was always trying out making all kinds of things. She had no recipes. She figured out the measurements herself. Back in the days, you could say we were poor. We lived in a rental with a hole in the floor. She did not have an oven in a stove. What she had was a toaster oven. She made with what she had. She did pretty well, too. I’m finding myself tearing up with the memories. That is understandable, remembering and missing our mother and the way we were.

Difficult as life sometimes can be, we’ve come a long ways. There’s no regrets or complaints from me on how life turned out. It is what it is. I am missing my mother but I am at peace that she is freed from her physical and worldly pains. So now onward towards making that apple pie.