Been Busy!

Yesterday I picked the first pears of the season, they weren't quite ripe but according to my Great-Grandmother's notes you need HARD pears for the Pear Honey.  It is just amazing that I made pear honey from the pears that are growing on the last pear tree in my Great-Grandmother's orchard.  It has never failed to produce pears, no telling how old the tree is though!  I didn't do it just exactly like Lina did it, I wanted more of a Honey texture (she pureed her pears in hers)  This is what my honey turned out like:

I think I am going to get some half pint or even quarter pint jars and make this again for Christmas gifts.  It is rather festive in my opinion.  And it is SOOOOO GOOD! Very easy to make too!

Basically you take equal amounts of pears and sugar (6 cups of pear = 6 cups of sugar) and cover the pears with pineapple juice.  Cook for 2-3 hours or until it is Honey Consistency.  Take pears out, can honey in BWB for 10 minutes.  You can then puree the pears and can them as Pearsauce. (Like Applesauce).  (I find it funny that my google spellchecker doesn't recognize pearsauce as a word but it recognizes applesauce as a word!)

Well my classes started again on Monday.  I think I am going to like them all except my online class.  It sucks.  The Homework for this week was 48 questions over Chapter 1.  I get all those economic terms confused and I find it very tiresome.  But I know I have to have the class so I better try my best.

Cooper starts school this week, on Thursday to be exact.  He has screening on Tuesday, shots on Wednesday and starts school on Thursday.  My baby is growing up! 

Church was good today.  Bro Zane preached a very uplifting sermon about the church and how we need to stick together.  It was very reassuring for me.  After Church we came home and the kids obviously were tired, as they fell asleep as soon as we got home.  Half Way had a baptizing at 2 so I went to that while Chris stayed home with the sleeping kids.  The baptizing was at Sunset State Park, on the Pomme de Terre River, the same river I was baptized in.  The candidates for baptism were Dashia and Troy Breesawitz.  They both were saved during Half Way's revival.  They are brother and sister, and what a sweet sweet memory and blessing for both of them.  I took a lot of great pictures, but wouldn't feel right posting them here.

When I got home from the river, the kids were still asleep.  I cooked Dinner- steaks and fried Zucchini. It was SO good.  This afternoon I did homework and laundry.  Didn't make it to church this evening, I feel like I really need to ration my fuel.  Especially when I am driving to Springfield 2 nights a week now.  It just isn't fair that I have to choose, but financially it is the only way.

I was thinking today that if this country doesn't get any better, money wise we may have to go back to riding horses and pulling wagons to town.  I can just see Wal-Mart with hitching posts!  I would do it.  Maybe keep a truck for long distances like trips to Springfield and such, but use the wagon for short trips to Bolivar (10 miles away).  I don't think it will ever get like that, but who knows? right?

God Be With the East Coast tonight, Hurricane Irene has hit and many are without power and have major damaging from winds and flooding.  Earlier today I heard that 4 million people were without power and that was this morning.  I don't know how many are without not.  A few people have been killed, not sure of that number either.  It is just all so scary right now.  There was an earthquake in that region last week and now a hurricane and some states yesterday had tornadoes in result of this hurricane.  I feel that God is telling us something and that He is trying to get more people to listen. God Bless them.

  

My life is so busy yet I can't seem to get anything done!

I have so many stresses right now and so many people ask me how I do it all.  I truely don't know and then my mom has ZERO sympathy for me when I am stressed out.  Ugh.  My mom and I used to get along FINE now not so much.  We see everything differently it seems.  It drives me insane, not to mention she only lives 1/4 mile away from me.

Right now I am finishing up canning peaches that I scored at the Amish store on Friday.  I found 25 lb boxes for $5.99 a box!  I have made peach jam and am now making peaches canned in a Mango/Apple/Pear Juice blend. They look awesome!  I love preserving and providing for my family.  The Bible says that money is the Root of ALL EVIL and I truly believe that.  Mom doesn't remember the times when we were little.  We didn't have a ton of money and she hasn't always had money to rely on.  She says she remembers but she treats me so differently because we do live paycheck to paycheck.  I am trying to get a forbearance on a student loan from Mohela.  Well Dad co-signed it 7 years ago and I am 2 months behind so they call him and harass him.  Mom wants to know why I am wasting money on peaches when I can't pay my bills.  Really! Really?!? I explain to her that I am working on a forbearance and the $12 I spent on peaches wouldn't put a dent in the $175 that I owe Mohela.  Plus it is $80 a month that we don't have extra.  The peaches are in a budget for food.

Peach Jam

Peaches in Juice Blend

I start classes tomorrow night at OTC and I CANNOT WAIT!  My classes this semester are: Economics, Public Speaking, Health, and Intermediate Algebra. I have already gotten started on some of it. (I know what a nerd right? lol) But I love school.

I have to figure tractor pull results/points in the morning and meet Wendel with the new flyers for the Labor Day pull (that I made tonight on Publisher).

Today is Cooper's Birthday.  He is 4 years old today.  We went to the zoo yesterday.

My house is a mess but I don't know when I am going to be able to clean it.  Hopefully I can get it decently cleaned this week. ugh.

Took this pic yesterday at the zoo and then edited it last night.  I love it!

A few pics...okay a lot of pics... :)

These two pics I took a few nights ago when I had to make a trip to Bolivar, Missouri.  I just happened to have my camera with me and couldn't resist.  The sunset picture was featured in the Wednesday edition of the Bolivar Herald Free Press (August 10, 2011) after I uploaded it onto a website affiliated with the newspaper.

Sophia was having a blast rolling down our front yard which is a slightly downhill...

Then she ran to the slide...

Cooper loves our little kitty, Tiger

Some closeups of the kids-

And some random pictures...

We have been having wonderful revival services

I have went every night except 2 nights so far and have really enjoyed the services.  We have had from 2-5 people in the altar at a time, great singing, great preaching, great testimonies, and everything in between.  No one has been saved yet that we know of in our revival but have heard of others saved in other revivals.  I know Half Way had 2 saved two nights ago and 3 joined the church.  I assume they will be baptizing on Sunday if the river is deep enough.

Chris says he doesn't have the calling to go to the altar anymore and that he is confused.  He thinks he was saved 4 years ago but he doesn't know.  I told him that if he only thinks he better be finding out.  I know he is confused about some things and it is hard for me to tell which way because I have thoughts about the same things.  I hope he can figure it out all soon.

We have been really busy around here.  I start school on the 22nd, Cooper turns 4 on the 21st and he will start preschool sometime.  I hate how slow and unorganized Half Way is about preschool.  Most schools had screening in March and Half Way hasn't done squat.  I finally got ahold of the Elementary secretary and she said oh you aren't on the list. Well DUH! HE has never been to school.  How do they expect for people to find out these things?  She asked for all his info- name and date of birth and our phone number & address and said the teacher would be in contact.  UGH this is exactly why I don't want my kids to go to Half Way.  They are a small school, yet they act like they are dealing with 100's of kids.  I would like for Cooper to go up there and have a tour of the school and everything, because he is scared about it.  But who knows what they are doing.  Erylene (the secretary) said they usually start after Labor Day.  The rest of the school started 2 days ago.  I think after the kids have been in preschool and possible Kindergarten I will home school.  We will see.  I know my parents will hit the roof about it, they don't like the idea, but oh well.  I would like to teach them the important things in life.  30 minutes a week is not enough Bible Study time.  I just want what is best for my kids.

Tomorrow we have another tractor pull, kinda hate to go b/c I will miss church, but I have to go.  At least it will be a bit cooler.

Next Saturday we are taking the kids to the ZOO for Cooper's birthday.  Hopefully it won't be too crowded and hot.

Can't Wait Salsa

Can't Wait Salsa

4 Large ripe tomatoes
4 Large Green Tomatoes
3 cans Tomato Paste
1 1/2 Cups Vinegar
1 large Bell Pepper, Chopped
2 Tbs Brown Sugar
2 onions Chopped
12 Jalapeno peppers seeded and chopped (leave seeds in for a hotter flavor)
4 tsp garlic powder or 6-8 garlic cloves chopped

Thoroughly process all ingredients in a food processor.  Place in a large pot and bring to a boil.  Process in a hot water bath canner for 35 minutes for pints (40 minutes for quarts).  Yield: approx. 6 pints.

Trying to total the canning progress

I know I canned some soups and things in late May but we have already started eating some of those things.  So I am not counting those things.  This list is mostly tomato based products.

Spaghetti Sauce:

 17 Quarts

Pizza Sauce

13 pints

Ketchup 

29 1/2 pints

Chili Base

10 quarts; 3 pints

V8 Juice

9 quarts; 1 pints

V8 Juice with Jalapenos

5 quarts; 13 pints

Tomato Onion Juice

11 pints

Stewed Tomatoes

7 pints

Rotel Style Tomatoes

7 pints

Potatoes

6 quarts

Green Beans 

3 Quarts

and no I am not done!!

And some pics...

Grandma DeHart

She has got to be toughest old woman I know.  I have never had so much respect and love for a woman whom I have only known for a few years.  She is a great listener and will tell you what is on her mind- it may hurt your feeling but she doesn't care because it is always the truth.  She is a hard worker.  She is 79 years old and has many a miles on her, but my oh my she has lived through them all.  She has raised 4 boys, and several of her grandchildren, including my husband.  Which is how he turned out to be such a great man.  It is hard to put into words how much I love this woman.  Today the kids and I are going to her house to help her put up her corn.  She is so proud of her garden. Or at least she was.  Weaubleau is in a bigger draught then we are, but she was watering her garden every day for 3 hours.  Sunday a storm came through and blew her corn over.  She was devestated.  This is what her garden looked like on Saturday:

I don't want to leave Grandpa out in this post either.  He is a great man too and stubborn as they come.  He won't give up- he can't hear, he can barely walk, and aches all over but still keeps a going. 

As for aches, Grandma has plenty too.  She takes every kind of medicine there is it seems.  Her neck is always hurting her along with her cchest, and she has low blood pressure problems.  This picture is from Saturday.



Saturday was a perfect day.

Saturday (after I had an emotional break down over money) turned into a wonderful day.  Chris got me calmed down and told me where he had some money so I could go put gas in the car.  I drove down to Weaubleau where he and his dad were baling hay.  If you knew my husband and knew his dad this was a BIG thing.  He and his dad never do things together.  I was so glad that his dad was stepping up and helping for once.  I took some pics.  They look so much alike and act so much alike in mannerisms it is just weird though.  Here are some pics of them: Steve-Chris's dad is on Chris' John Deere 70 running the hay rake, and Chris is in Grandpa DeHart's tractor.

They only got 1/2 the field done, but with these 100 degree temps they didn't need to be out there any longer.  It is baling up quite nicely considering no one has touched these particulare 20 acres in several years with a tractor.  Lots of weeds and wild blackberries, but lots of nice undergrowth too.  In a way reminds me of a lot of people that get away from the Lord- they look rough on the edges, but with a little care they turn out nice. (My mind thinks about these things all the time) The Lord is in everything if we look for Him.

Later in the afternoon Chris decided he wanted to go down to the river to see if there were any fish.  Well his dad wanted to go to and Chris' sisters were all there.  So we all piled into our truck.  Chris, Stephanie, and Steve in the front seat- Cooper, Emily, Sophia, and me in the backseat.  I held Sophia on my lap- which I know isn't the safest but it was safer than having Emily or Stephanie in the back of the truck.  We took mostly gravel roads to the river anyway though.  The water was perfect.  We all enjoyed swimming and Cooper found some mussels.  He thought that was AWESOME.  No fish, but what a wonderful day.  I wish I would have gotten some pics, but I didn't.  It was a great time though.  Chris said he couldn't remember the last time he did something like that with his dad and sisters.  Emily is 13 and Stephanie is 11.  I hope we have more fun times like that in the future.  I think it is great that Cooper and Sophia are getting to know their Grandpa Steve.  We didn't make it to church Saturday evening, but I think God understood.  I think he would have been glad that we were spending time with family.  The kids and I did go Friday night and we all went on Sunday.

Sunday services were long, but very uplifting.  Brother Dusty Armstrong preached the morning service, had a HUGE lunch then after lunch the Tri County Baptist Group had their meeting which took longer than normal.  Brother DeWayne Burdette preached the afternoon service and we dismissed around 4pm.  Chris and the kids went home after lunch.  Chris sold some straw yesterday afternoon and the kids took naps.  The AC went out on the church yesterday, but thankfully Chris had the part at the house and got it fixed.  I know that is not the reason that God sent us to Rock Prairie, but I was glad that we were there so we could get it fixed for them before the revival services.

Revival starts tonight at 7pm with Brother Troy Smith as the evangelist.  Usually our revivals last at least 2 weeks sometimes longer.  The revival I was saved in I think almost lasted 4 weeks.  It was a great one.

Yesterday I was listening to the congregation singing.  It was serene.  You see on older movies where the old country church is in session and the men all have on their suit pants, white long sleeved shirts, and suspenders- the old men.  Singing with all their might.  It was like that.  There were several preachers there and we were singing On the Jericho Road- if you know the song you know there are several bass parts.  It just sent chills down my spine to watch and listen to the elders of the church singing.  There is nothing more beautiful than hearing God's People singing.  We don't get fancy, just a piano and a song leader-a member of the church.  We don't use anything modern like microphones, there is no need.  It is hard to explain the feeling into words- no one can describe the feeling of God without feeling like you are selling Him short.  If you have never felt the sweetness of peace I cannot describe it.  If you have not witnessed the peace I have in my heart in your own experience I will pray for you when I pray for the lost and undone of this world.  If you do not have a time and a place I will pray that you will soon have one.  You do not need to have a preacher there- I was saved under a tree behind the church during revival services.  No one can tell you how to be saved- you just have to repent and follow the LORD.  Only He can save you and He will if you submit to Him.