One Saturday I was off work and enjoying a quiet day at home for a change. I had been down in the basement checking my week old bottled beer to see how it was clearing up and had just walked upstairs to the kitchen and poured myself a fresh cup of coffee.

The curtains were blowing out from the kitchen window and the breeze was a welcome feeling on a hot day in late July. As I was sipping my coffee, I heard the sliding glass door in the dining room open and in walked my three children.My oldest son ( Jerry ) was four, he was directly followed by our three year old girl ( Jessie ), and beside her was our youngest boy ( Joe ). Now these offspring of mine are usually the loudest,most rowdy, and headstrong bunch I have ever seen. In fact, when I refer to them collectively, I call them "Odin's Little Wolves".

The four year old was holding onto a large apple and as he handed it up to me he said, " Dad this fell off the tree when the wind blew, Can we have it?" I looked down into the bright little eyes and sensed that this was going to be one of those special times,so I picked up one of the hand towels off of the counter top and slid open the silverware drawer and got a small knife.

"Let's go outside under the tree and eat this apple,"I said, and they all spun around and headed out the door like a stampede.

In a circle, sitting under the apple tree all was quiet while they watched and waited for Dad to peel the apple and start handing out slices. As I peeled the apple, I started to tell them the story of Idunn and her casket of apples.

" All in Asgard eat Idunn's apples ," I said, " even Father Odin." As the little bright eyes looked up at me and listened to the story, I wondered how many times in the far distant past that this story had been told sitting beneath an apple tree with some father peeling an apple and enjoying the company of his young folk. The story lasted longer than the apple but they still sat and listened intently.

When we had finished the story of Idunn and the last slice of apple I asked, " What will we do with our apple now?" "We can put it in the garden," said Jerry (The four year old) . "Yes, I think that would be a very good idea to return what we can to Nerthus so she will continue to bless us here but let's do this too." I sliced the apple in two and popped the seeds out of the core so each had an apple seed. Then we talked about how the apple tree comes from these little seeds.Each of them got to an apple seed to plant in a hole I dug with the kitchen knife and we then asked Frey to bless the earth and make the apple tree grow.

After the planting of the seeds and putting the apple peels and core in the garden for Nerthus to make more plant food,they were ready to go and play again.

I walked back to the kitchen, nuked my now cold coffee in the micro wave and started to continue my break. Standing by the sliding glass window I could see Odin's little wolves running and playing in the yard again but this time they would stop every now and again and go to where they had planted their seeds to see if they were growing yet.

I tilted my head up and said " Hail the Gods, Hail Odin. I think you should be proud of your little wolves this day Allfather,they grow strong in limb and lore, and thank you for these special times.

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