Busy days

Enjoying the mild winter here, but am anticipating planting the garden.  I am yearning for fresh produce and I just can not bring my self to pay the ridiculous prices the stores are asking for shipped in fruit and vegetables!

I have been buying a few things that have been on sale...but not much.  I bought 2 pineapples the other day at Aldis and made 8 (4oz) and 2 (8oz) jars of pineapple jam.  It is so good!  I also made 7 (8oz) jars of grape juice jelly.   Right now the PC is jiggling with 3 pints of chicken gizzards and hearts, hoping that they hold up well enough for frying.  Chris said that his grandma always pressure cooked gizzards before frying to make them more tender.  Trying it as an experiment.  Going to open 1 jar tonight and fry them up.

We have decided not to do a canning kitchen... instead we are building a 19x12 addition onto the kitchen! I am so excited.  Worried about how this will effect my canning this summer, but I guess I could always move all my supplies to my mom's if needed.  Hoping to plant a VERY BIG garden so I can can up most of it.  Hate running out of food!

In my addition I will be getting new cabinets, open shelving and a new DISHWASHER! I cannot wait and am getting more and more excited as I think about it!  We don't know for sure yet how much it all is going to cost, but we got quite a bit back from our taxes AND mom and dad are going to help with some of it since it is their house after all.  Our construction guy came and looked at it, we are waiting on an estimate.  I think we are going with a concrete floor to save some money and luckily we have plumbers and electricians in the family.  Also Chris can do sheetrock... so that will help tremendously.  We are going to buy unfinished cabinets and stain them ourselves.  Going to go with a laminate countertop.  We can't afford to go super fancy, but I am going to have things how I want them - such as taller cabinets than standard because of my height.  I want my cabinets to be at least 4ft tall.

Chris bought me a new ring the other day.  My diamond wedding ring is so bulky it is always getting snagged on things.  Plus if I don't take it off while cooking it gets so nasty between the diamonds and in the cracks.  It is also too tight.  We are going to get it resized but then I am going to put it up.  I wanted just a SIMPLE band to wear around home.  I love it. It is made of titanium (so very durable) and says Forever Love around the outside of it.

Top left: New ring
Bottom Right: Regular wedding ring

And a few more recent pics:

Sophia and her toothy smile! She will be 3 in just a few months!

If you look really hard, there are Canadian geese on the bank!

Beautiful Sky!

I just love this sky!

Long Ago forgotten...

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
3T Olive Oil
3/4 C water

seasoning of your choice

Kosher salt

Mix flours together, add salt, oil, and water mix until dough ball forms. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Let dough set 15 minutes. Cut dough in half and cover 1 half so it doesn't dry out. Roll out dough super thin on floured surface, season with your seasoning of choice (I used Cavender's Greek Seasoning) - roll season in with rolling pin. Cut into pieces using a knife, cookie cutters, biscuit cutter etc.

Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray, put crackers on sheet. Prick crackers with a fork. Brush with water and sprinkle with Kosher salt. Bake for 8-9 Minutes

Amish Cookies

1 c butter, softened

1 c veg oil

1 c sugar

1 c powdered sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp vanilla

4 ½ c AP flour

1 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp cream of tarter

375°F

Grease cookie sheets

In large bowl, mix together butter, oil, and sugars until smooth.  Beat eggs one at a time then stir in vanilla.  Combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.  Stir in sugar mixture.  Drop by rounded tsp on cookie sheets.  Bake 8-10 minutes.

When cool add chocolate to the top of each cookie.

Chocolate

½ c milk

2 c sugar

½ c cocoa

½ c butter

1 tsp vanilla

Mix milk, sugar, cocoa, and butter in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil, when boiling point is rolling boil 1 minute.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Put up some shelves in the storage room...aka pantry!

Another shelf.  Hope to get some more in soon!

Cranberry Apple Jam - Christmas Gifts

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!

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...