Tuesday 13 November 2012

Time Flies

This year is just flying by. I can't believe we're nearly half way through November already. It seems like just yesterday Kiddlet was in kindergarten and Little Guy was brand new. Now Strong-Willed One is 9 years old, Kiddlet is in 2nd grade and Little Guy is 2.

Summer flew by this year; it was a busy one for us. The girls were in day camp at our church for all of July and they did 3 different vacation bible schools in August. They loved every minute of it. I also ventured into the world of home canning this year. I started with nectarines. Then it was peaches. Oh, the peaches! I had bought a bushel of peaches to can and learned that the girls both love fresh peaches. They were eating 5 and 6 peaches a day, each. I happen to live around the corner from a wonderful Mennonite market where I was able to get a half bushel of peaches for about $12 while they were in season. I must have bought 3 or 4 bushels of peaches. I canned 12L of peaches and then started making peach butter. I made a lot of peach butter, mostly because the peaches would ripen so quickly they were good for little else. Turns out, I love peach butter. It is so much nicer than jam and contains considerably less sugar than jam.

After peaches were no longer in season, I went to a farmer's market with one of my sisters-in-law and picked up a bushel of tomatoes, half a bushel of assorted peppers and a few other things. I made tomato sauce and more salsa than I thought we would eat in a year. (Turns out, Strong-Willed One loves the salsa and we've already gone through half of it.) The tomato sauce tastes so rich; I never knew it could be so good! I contemplated buying more tomatoes and making enough sauce to carry us through winter, but realised that my family needed me more than we needed homemade tomato sauce, so I let that idea pass. Although, I also did applesauce last month.  I definitely want to do a bigger garden next year and more canning.

Strong-Willed One and Kiddlet were very happy to go back to school and see all their friends again. They both like their teachers and are doing well. Little Guy spent the first week or two the girls were back in school wandering around looking for them. Boy did he miss them at first! He's adjusted well, but still is very excited when the school bus stops in front of the house and lets them off.

Husband is still travelling for work, although he did work locally for most of October. We really enjoyed that. Now that I am done canning for the year, I'm working on de-cluttering and organising the house. The more I manage to do, the more I want to get done. There is something so satisfying in watching unused items leave the house and seeing clear spaces where there was nothing but piles before.

I'll leave you with a few images of the kids. The first is a video of Little Guy playing with one of his birthday presents.


Little Guy doing "what's going on" and getting rice all over his head.

Here are 2 pictures from Halloween. Kiddlet was a koala bear and we didn't know what to call Strong-Willed One. Little Guy was a monkey, but he refused to wear the hood that has the face on it.



2 comments:

  1. I'm touched by all your canning and wish I could do more to support your effort. It sounds like your immediate and extended family are terific. Remember to take time to enjoy your self and cherish your family.

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    1. I've been blessed with amazing family, both mine and my husband's. Thank you for the reminder to enjoy and cherish; it's an easy thing to forget.

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