The way of things

He's fearsome.

So are those zucchini.

What does one do with borage?  I mean, BESIDES admiring those dainty, dewy jeweled hairs?

One of the trees that Matt pulled over to split was ginormous.  Making those three cuts emptied the entire fuel tank of the chainsaw!  

The Steadfast Tin Soldier stands beside it to prove its' enormity.

The first time I made potpie for Matt, he called asked what was for supper on his way home from work.  When I replied "Potpie" he got this panicked sound in his voice and then it cracked.  "Potpie?" he asked incredulously.  Do you not like potpie?  I asked.  I couldn't fathom a person not loving the creamy vegetable base, chunks of meat and encrusted with a buttery top.  Turns out his idea of potpie was those individual ones that come frozen from the grocery store- he grew up on those.  He loved MY potpie- but whenever I make it and he asks what is for dinner, his voice still falters for a nano-second before he recalls which potpie I am referring to.

Speaking of Matt: How I spent the latter half of last week... just admiring.  ;-)

Dehydrated cukes... an experiment for winter.  My hope is that, pulsed in a food processor, they will be a great addition to yogurt (in homemade Tzaziki sauce) or make a pretty mean dip for veggies.  Or maybe it will be a total fail.  We'll see how it plays out.

 

When you come to visit me in summer, you go home with flowers.  It's a rule.  (And that is my lovely Mom!)

I never intended to be away from the blog for so long...in fact, I didn't intend on being away from it at all.  But I suppose that is what life these days dictates.   Canning.  Sweating.  Celebrating our anniversary (13 years!) Sneaking in last summer trips and visiting before the busyness of schooling begins.  Splitting the rest of the winter wood- which should have been split in early spring but never is. (19 face cord and a few more still to split! ugh.) This is the way of things in September.

Matt had last week off in a wonderful turn of events and while he had a weeks' worth of projects already in the works, I absolutely insisted that I needed (and the children...and him too!) a real, bonafide vacation- the first family vacation ever.  We went to a place for no friends, no funerals, no church retreats- only to be together- and stayed at a HOTEL for TWO nights and spent an exorbitant amount of money getting into an aquarium (ouch!) and showed the children the closest thing we could find to the ocean and ate dinner out at restaurants (sometimes) and, well, it was amazing.  I have a bazillion pictures but I didn't have the heart to upload them all tonight.  Another time.  Tonight I would just like to chat.

We are slowing tucking away those carefree summer days and the thrill of looking only at what the very next moment or hour dictates (Shall we walk?  Ride bikes?  Make dinner?  Gather flowers? Visit Nanny? Swim?) to spending our days looking forward to what comes next and preparing for it...the structured homeschooling days, the winter stockpiles of food, the woodpile needed sooner than I care to think about, the life to come with a newborn.  The shift is subtle but I feel it in the air just as I feel the strangeness of the cool wind that whipped 'round the house this evening with the occasional leaf dancing upon it.  A leaf?  Floating in the air?  Summer is fading.  Cooler weather is on its' way.

But in the meantime, these last few weeks all I can seem to do is sweat and lay about in this awful heat.  I am not nearly as productive as I want to be or OUGHT to be and it bothers me- but 90 degree days with high humidity are pretty unpleasant things- especially when you are out in the sun splitting wood and hossing it into tidy rows or stuffing tomatoes in jars and plunking them into boiling pots.  But I am making myself out to sound too productive.  Those productive days are not nearly as prevalent (and usually involve Matt being home and guilting me into productivity with his ridiculous work ethic) as the ones where I lock myself in my bedroom, strip down to nothing and lay on the bed with the fan blowing on me because I can think of nothing else I could possibly do for an hour.  Or two.

There are so many big and necessary things swirling around in my head and it seems, so little time left to do them.  Prepare for the school year.  Finish the canning.  Two huge things.

One of my biggest goals for the year was UNCLUTTER and let me just say, despite that lofty goal for 2015 this is one of the most 'cluttery' feeling years I've ever had.  I don't know why exactly...I am sure it is several things but I suspect a large part of that is that the upstairs is in a constant state of 'going to gut the boys room but can't do it yet' so everything is out of sorts upstairs and has been since spring. Another pretty good possibility is that I am growing another little body that, though will be tiny in the beginning, will require many more times its' weight in baby year.  I get to bring the handmade cradle back to the house from the Granary...I remembered the day we took it out and I cried because it felt so final to be taking our cradle out to the barn.  I am excited to bring it back in- overjoyed to- but I have no idea where it will go.  I have to find a spot for those baby clothes and diapers and blankets that a wee little one needs- even though all the dressers are already full.

 One big part of uncluttering was to downsize our clothing bins stash by about half.  I've saved clothing in every size so that I wouldn't need to buy new as new children came along.  Smart and frugal idea, of course, but through hand-me-downs, cast offs and yard sales...the quantity has gotten out of control.  I realized last month that I hadn't even begun that huge, big, no fun job and the summer was practically over!  So, I went out to our barn and sorted through 15 bags of teenage boy clothes dropped off by a cousin just that weekend and the first four bins closest to the door.  The bins happened to be the newborn baby girl bins- sized newborn to 12 months.  FOUR BINS for one gender, and a surprisingly small sizing window.  It's an issue.

As I was sorting I realized I had made that goal while a bit desperate that no babies were being made- I remember wondering if it was time to maybe let things begin to go a bit, to force myself to move beyond the clothing waiting to be useful again and into a fresh season.  Since we now have a long-awaited one,  I have discovered it is a lot harder to be ruthless in the purging of clothing when there could be a new little baby girl or boy to fill those cute little clothes!  But I still want the 'fresh' season and a big part of that is uncluttering my mind by uncluttering my life.  The fact is- even if we have a little body to fill them coming soon, we still have so many clothes it is unnecessary.  And much of what we have is, after many years of storage, stained and yellowed so could be easily discarded anyway.  I haven't given up on the idea of it- in fact, I think my brain NEEDS to do it- but it will have to be a fall job instead of a summer one.  Because ain't no way, no how I am going out there on a day like today was.  :-)

Speaking of baby things and Tiddle-baby... I intended to do the whole 'weekly belly shot' deal this go 'round.  (Never know if I'll be given another, you know.)  But this too, has fallen by the wayside.  The closest I've come so far is in the BLT making photo.  Lunch time sandwiches with a little Tiddle pouch snuck in the corner.  I'll get a real picture soon...though as chubby as I've become, I can't guarantee I'll post it.  ;-)  Almost 26 weeks now~only 14ish weeks to go and Friday is ultrasound day.  I could not be MORE excited to see this little squirming creature keeping me company all day.

Tiddles' official 'due date' (which is never official for me) is December 20th.  As I often run a few days late, I am fully anticipating having a Christmas baby.  Not because I want it to be that way- oh no, no, no but because that is just how things roll with me.  The most inconvenient moment is when it normally goes down.  In preparation of this, I decided to make sure all Christmas gifts were wrapped and ready by November 30th but I hadn't been making handmade gifts every month as I had hoped I would this year (see?  Slacker. Slacker!).  Thankfully, I hit upon some wonderful 90% sales at Hobby Lobby a few months ago and it totally got me off the hook!  I was able to get almost the entire extended family gifts for a pittance.  Not only do I not have to worry about handmades (or the time to make them!), but here I am well on my way to getting the Christmas gift shopping done long before Christmas...and on a dime.  Win, win, win!  I hope to spend a bit more time, now that almost all the handmade birthday and baby gifts are done (the above Octopus and bib were a recent baby gift- and my first time ever using safety eyes.  They are neat!) and the Christmas gifts are covered, making a few little things for Tiddle.  I am not sure how much I will accomplish or what, but that is my hope.  Tiddle needs a bit of handmade, wouldn't you say?

So- homeschool prep.  finishing up canning and buttoning up the garden.  sorting through a Granary full of clothes.  Getting the house ready for Tiddle.  Christmas.  Baby Handmades. Paint the porch.  Finish splitting wood.

So many BIG things on my plate to do so very soon.  It weighs heavy.  So heavy, I think I should go upstairs and lay down in front of the fan...

Peaches

There has been swimming, parties and even a cheap matinee for the whole family (INCLUDING popcorn!) but by far the MOST exciting thing about this summer so far has been the PEACHES!

The fruit trees we planted just last year were beautiful this spring but we didn't expect to actually harvest anything.  Especially since the cherry trees both produced exactly ONE cherry which we took 6 teeny tiny, delectable, divine nibbles from.  But the peaches- they blew us away this spring by producing a ton of babies which I dutifully thinned (be still my heart!) and the leftovers actually ripened into beautiful fruit!

We let Papa have the very first ripe one and I love the series of pictures above if only for the nearly-salivating girl in the background.  It is a series of close-ups of Matt's face but, had you been in that moment, you would have seen him entirely swarmed with children anxiously watching his face to determine how amazingly wonderful that first taste undoubtedly was.

Since generously giving the first fruits, the children and I have had PLENTY of peaches since- don't worry.  Two a day some days!  I couldn't bear to can any of our delicious homegrown fruits so we just ate and ate.   I bought a bushel of bruised 'seconds' to make cobbler and jam with and to freeze into wedges for smoothies.

The very best part is that of our two peach trees, one is an earlier producer and one is a later producing variety...so we have ONE MORE tree to eat from!

I've never loved juice running down my chin quite this much.

The 2014 Canning Tally and A Clean Slate

The canning season has begun!  Despite trying to can a bit each day, I am still woefully behind.  The porch has a permanent fixture of squash and cukes outside the kitchen door...I finally get them done just in time to head to the garden for a new picking.  It's a happy conundrum to be in, I must say.  

The weather has been perfect for canning this past week...warm but not so warm you don't mind heating up the kitchen a bit. Rainy and cool- just right for keeping a summer-wandering Mama at home and being productive.  My flower circle is looking sad and droopy these days though, the rain knocking the Outhouse Bush into humble and languid submission.  Poor things. 

Seems like now would be a good time to begin the new Canning Tally for the year (over in my sidebar) and as is customary, I'll post last years' here for posterity.

A clean slate!!!

The 2014 "Put 'Em Up List"

~Canned~("jars" unspecified means I used a variety of sizes)

* Green Beans- 34 qts
* Zuke "Pineapple" Tidbits- 17 pts

* Beef Broth- 7 qts

* Dill Spears- 21 qts

* Zucchini Relish- 21 jars

* Peaches- 12 qts

* Volcano Pickles- 10 qts

* Vanilla Peach Preserves (no pectin)-10 jars

* Bread & Butter Pickles- 21 pts

* Whole Tomatoes- 94 qts

* Dill pickles- 14 qts.

* Spaghetti Sauce- 32 qts

* Pizza Sauce-14 pts

* Spicy Salsa- 18 pts

* Pickled Beets- 15 qts

* Beets- 18 qts

~Frozen~
* Huckle/Blueberries, 23 lbs

* Zucchini (shredded)- 43 cups

* Butter- so much

* Mozzerella- so much

* Chicken Legs - 25 lbs (.49 a pound)

~Dried/Dehydrated~

~ Other ~

Maple Syrup- 2.5 gallons

Vanilla extract- 2 quarts

orange extract- 1 quart

Garlic- 55 heads

Batches of Soap- 2 (more than that due to the anniversary party favors.)

Pickles and Parenting

There she stood, by the kitchen counter and surrounded by empty milk jugs as Mama made cheese. She arranged the dishes just so and then declared "Well!  I just need to take a picture of that!"

I thought it was hilarious.  And then, for a moment, I was taken aback.

I wonder who taught her to take random pictures of humble things that strike her fancy?  An arrangement of dirty dishes perhaps, or shadows on the wall, or pockets full of rocks or a ridiculous number of photographs of food being prepared or immediately before we consume it?  ;-)

Our children become like we are- we rub off on them- with or without realizing it. Until, that is, one day a child says or does something that so clearly represents who we are. Tragically, it isn't always a cute or hilarious thing that they have learned.  I have a particular child who tends to be impatient with siblings...and when the words coming from within are spoken, they come out in nasty, impatient tones.  Tones that sound an awful lot like mine when I am being frustrated and impatient.  Those moments make me shudder because they have learned those things from....me.  

 Sure, I homeschool my children.  I am in charge of their education.  I 'get' that.  But somewhere along the lines I put home education in a tidy box.  Schooling here. check.  Life here. check.  The fact is, however, we parents are educating our children whether or not we homeschool.  Indeed, whether or not we even notice.

That is a weighty, weighty thing indeed.  It makes me yearn to be better, to be more kind, more generous, more intelligent, more clever, more patient, more godly...more EVERYTHING.

That is the challenge of mothering.  That is the gift of mothering.

Children make you stop thinking about what you can receive out of life and replaces it with this deep, intense desire to be better and give more.  It is a gift to the mother who becomes more glorious; it is a gift to the child who will thrive in such conditions and will, ultimately, surpass the parents' in wisdom and goodness; it is truly, a gift to the world.  A world full of people who think less of themselves and their desires and strive to do good?  The world could use more of those sorts of people.

~~~

I hauled the children to the blueberry patch twice last week in order to get stocked up on blueberries. We had just finished our stash from last year, so it was perfectly timed.  We picked 34 pounds total and I froze it all.  I hope to get out there one more time, using those berries to eat fresh and make something elegant out of.  Matt loves himself some blueberry pie...

It is getting very late in the season and I am not sure if I will get the opportunity to do it...the weeks fill up quickly and the garden work is shifting from outside work to kitchen work which is keeping me busy.  But I hope to.  Even just an hour or so would be a fair amount of berries when picked by 10 hands, albeit mostly little ones.  On a sidenote, having a berry bucket taped to your belly when in your 2nd trimester is a very odd thing. Awkward.

A few weeks ago we picked our first zucchini...and it was ginormous.  It is a bit disheartening to have the very first zucchini be the size of a baseball bat.  I know it usually ends up that way toward the end of the season- that is the way of zucchini's, after all-but in the beginning?!?  Sheesh.

Naughty Ruby dog made another hole in the chicken fence and the chickens found it...and then escaped to the gardens and feasted on my beautiful tomatoes.  The plants have been hanging on after a very rough go with all the rains we have had in early summer just for the chickens to ruin many of the beautiful fruits!  It is going to be a depressing tomato year for us this year.  *sniff*

On the docket this week is cucumbers, squash and beans.  We may not have many tomatoes but we won't starve.  There will be pickles and squash.  LOADS of pickles and squash.