So sorry ...

I just can't manage to keep up around here these days. I have pictures I want to show, books to write about and craft projects to share with you, and yet, I can't find the time to get over here.

I hope and pray things will settle down after Halloween (of course, then it will be the madness of Christmas taking over my life!)

Anyway, today I will be celebrating my daughter's 10th birthday. She is psyched. I'm emotional. Double digits - this is a huge deal in our house. I can't believe she's growing up and am just amazed at just how fast her childhood is flying by.

I will also be making freezer corn today. I have 12 dozen ears of corn in my garage - I won't do a full 12 dozen - maybe 4 or 5 (a friend is coming over and we are splitting whatever we get through).

I mostly have all of Halloween costumes taken care of - photos will be coming!

And aside from that, just trying to get through everything that comes up in a normal day around here!

Busy, so busy!

That is my theme song.

So what have I been doing (without pictures to show you even though I wish I wasn't too lazy right now to at least snap a few!) I've edited this to add some pictures because it is more fun that way LOL!

*Making jam (I have about 20 half-pints and 20 pints. A friend helped one day, she took home another 15 half and 8 pints too!)

*Knitting a pair of socks. I started them a year ago and never made it far, so I'm restarting them. It's too hot to knit anything bigger!

*Sewing a quilt. I cut up our jeans. And then some fabric and made some 4 square blocks (very simple). Except I didn't have enough fabric or jeans, and so if I put it together right now it would be about a baby quilt size. Which saddens me. I wanted it to be a picnic blanket. So I will try to get more fabric (and cross my fingers both are ones they still sell) and hope next spring I will get more jeans to finish it to the size I want!

*working at the farm - pretty much just on weekends, but it's enough to keep my busy!
*working at the motherhood (but that is all fun and doesn't feel like work!)

And of course playing the role of mom, wife, cook, laundry washer, maid, taxi driver, book reader, bobo kisser, and a whole list of other things!

Frankly, I've been busy LOL! =)

On another note, I was able to go see My Sister's Keeper last night. I won't give away any spoilers. But I will say I was disappointed and wished parts of the movie were more like the book.

I heart my husband

Look what I got tonight as a surprise! He doesn't bring me flowers often, but when he does, he always has perfect timing!
I'm tired tonight. And probably a bit cranky. This working gig is HARD (ftr: I have always admired working moms and marveled at how they juggle work and home so well. This only reinforces how I feel about that). But it is wearing me out. It probably doesn't help that the three kids are with me when I work and sometimes that's harder than working frankly.
Also, the camera is still mia. I thought it would be waiting for me when I returned home tonight, but it wasn't there :-( I'm not sure what's going on with that all .... and I'm crossing my fingers it arrives tomorrow).
But my darling husband brought me flowers (and thank goodness for camera phones LOL! So I can show off my gorgeous flowers to you all!!!)
This weekend I don't have to work (yeah!) but my hubby does. So that's a bit sad. But this is a short season in time.
Tomorrow though, I'll be cleaning lots with all my wonderful new cleaning products and I can't wait to do that because my house needs it desperately after the week we have had!

On another note: last night I made 12 pints of quartered tomatoes and 7 pints of applesauce! I have 20 pounds more each of apples and tomatoes to play around with tomorrow. I'm not sure what I'll make for sure. I think I will just do more quartered tomatoes. It's the easiest thing for me to makebut I might also try some apple butter with the apples. And I should get more tomatoes Sunday and I think I'll use those for some spaghetti sauce! =)

I'm alive!!!

Phew - I continue to be quite busy and because of that, off-line for the most part.

This last week has probably been the busiest I've had so far this summer. But, I got what I needed done - although I still have lots more I need to do in the upcoming week too!

We threw a garage sale (with my mom) and I earned a little bit of money. I'm saving for a new camera. I am not sure specifically which camera I want to buy, but I want a digital SLR - well, I've wanted one for quite some time now - but I decided that it was time to get serious and save up for it! I still don't see me getting one for quite some time, but hey, at least I have something saved for it! LOL

I also had 24 pounds of strawberries to deal with this week! Yes, that is a lot of strawberries. I have a TON of jam now, a couple pounds just frozen in the fridge. Can I just say - I LOVE canning now. I just love it. I really enjoy it. I do feel slightly guilty - it takes a bit of water and lots of stove time - but I just love it. I love being able to take strawberries and making it into something else. I can't wait to work with other things - tomatoes, different berries and fruits, vegetables! I have so many plans! I filled 24 1/2 pint jars this week and 8 pint jars! Yummy!

Next week is another crazy busy week again. In August things will start to slow down a lot though and that will be absolutely fabulous! Not that all this business lately has been bad! It's been fun. But I do look forward to relaxing more and getting more sleep and "me" time! =)

Sorry again I've been so scarce. Expect it to last through the end of this month and then I should be back more!

Getting serious ...

Okay, we are getting serious over here!!!
Operation Purge is a go in our house!

Right where the entire family will see it multiple times a day - on the door leading to the garage. Because I am serious about this now. I know, it does seem strange to count the number of things, but it seems more fun to get the kids to help get rid of 1000 things than to say get rid of lots of stuff. Because, what is "lots"?
Anyway, if you can see it, it stands at 150 right now (but the tick marks below the number are the things we've purged since making that sign earlier today!).
Anyway, we are all excited about the thought of getting rid of things, but I had to explain to the kids that getting rid of everyday garbage does not count for this! LOL!

Also, I made more jam tonight -

Some yummy strawberry-kiwi jam!! I can't wait to eat it - which I might add we have almost polished off one of the strawberry rhubarb jam jars! LOL I think the family likes it =)

And just to prove exactly how weird I am to you all - this was my dinner tonight:

Potatoes and meatloaf, both cooked inside my grill!! And you should know, the meatloaf was SOOOOO good!! And I love meatloaf, but I hardly ever make it in the summer because it heats up the house way too much. Ha!! Now I can have my meatloaf without heating up the house. This surprised my dh a bit because I have NEVER grilled before in my life. I figured today was a good day to learn though, and much to my relief, it worked! It's exciting to be trying and doing all these new things (well, new to me anyway!).

This summer in general just might go down as one of my most fun/memorable summers ever. The kids and I are exploring more places - mostly around town and close to home. I am getting out of the house and hanging out with other people. I am trying new things and just enjoying a lot of it. And to make it worth it all - the kids are saying how much fun they are having this summer as well. Which is music to this mama's ears!

Ramblings ...

Oh my darling husband - gave me some great birthday gifts!!
First:

Simply In Season Cookbook
I can't wait to make some recipes in there!! It all looks so yummy!!!

Second:

Complete Canning Set
I have been wanting this since last fall - so I was extremely excited to get it!

Excellent gifts that made me smile for sure! =)

In other news, I'm not sure that I told you, but I am now working weekends out of the house. Overall, it's a good job to have and it's good for me. But, truthfully, I hate it! I hate leaving the house on the two days that my husband is not working. I miss being home and with the family. And it's tiring work! I am so tired! I'm working at a nursery right now - so I'm constantly on my feet and I'm moving plants and helping customers and watering and rearranging and all sorts of fun things like that. Although I am learning a lot about plants. My first weekend (3 weekends ago) I could not answer any questions at all. Now I can answer about, oh, maybe 30% of what I'm asked. Thankfully I never work alone and I can always find someone else to answer the question (and then I listen carefully to try to learn the answer!).

It has come in handy because today we broke up the ground to start preparing for the garden. We have the fence up to keep the bunnies out. And I have brought lots of plants home to go in (I think I have too many actually and I doubt it will all fit, but that's okay! We have tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, potatoes, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and a few other things. I can't wait to get them in the ground, but for real, the weather has been AWFUL. We haven't had two good days in a row on a weekend yet. May 15 is our frost-free date and well, we aren't planting anything yet because although I doubt it will frost, it is getting down close to 32 around here still.

I promise though take pictures of it through out the season. And I'm hoping we get enough out of to allow me to use that canning kit a LOT as the year progresses. Regardless, I'll be canning lots because I'll get veggies from the same farm I am working at right now.

Aside from all of that, I have been knitting a bit, sewing a bit, and reading a bit lately. Promise to update it all soon, but this week is going to be crazy busy.

Stuff

Last night I finally finished one sock. I still need to start and finish the second, but I'm glad it's done. I love the sock. It's gorgeous. I want to wear it ROFL!
I have to say though, I found a few things in the pattern that I would rewrite if I could. BUT seeing as I've never designed a pattern, had to write it up, nor wonder if other people could understand things as I understand them, I truly have very little to judge here LOL!

Also, I am in the middle of freezing a LOT of corn. I started with a little over 8 dozen ears (although quit a few have not been edible and been tossed straight to the garbage. I have 60 ears right now ready and waiting to be blanched, but I ran out of ice. I have already taken care of about 15-20 ears, so that leaves me with a fair amount of corn to put in my freezer LOL! However, the corn will be shared with (at least) 2 other people. I am also trying to get my hands on another 5 dozen ears (knowing that again, some will have to be tossed).

I have to say, I know I will enjoy eating the corn at a later date. And I certainly will enjoy not having to pay for corn (because we were blessed and given all this corn) but it gets really boring to boil about 7 ears at a time, then cool them, then cut all the kernels off, then freeze them on a cookie sheet (so that they don't freeze in one big chunk), then put them in the final freezing bag. Very repetitive and well, I keep eying that second sock I should be knitting because it looks a lot more fun than the corn is ROFL! But that's okay. A little hard work never killed anyone, and certainly won't kill me either ;-)