Nectarines & Peaches

What have I been up to the last few days? Canning. And canning. And tonight and tomorrow, more canning. Lookie.

15-500ml jars of nectarines and 12-1L jars of peaches. And I still have peaches left from the one bushel I bought.

Tonight I'm going to peel, cut and cook the peaches, puree and stick them in the crockpot over night. Tomorrow I will can the peach butter.

Don't have time to go into details, but wanted to get this out there. I'm pretty excited. This is the first time I have canned, other than cutting fruit for my sisters-in-law when they canned.

Hopefully I'll have a chance to blog more later this week and post some pics of the kids and their summer fun.

18 Month Check-Up and Other Things

Little Guy had his 18 month check up today. I know, it's a little late, but when it was originally scheduled our tires were too bad to make the long drive, i forgot to reschedule, then he got sick, so here we are at 21 months old having his 18 month check up. Little Guy weighed in at 25lbs 7oz and is now 31 inches long. This was a nice jump in his growth. So much of a jump in his growth that the doctor wasn't at all concerned that he's not that interested in eating. She told me to continue feeding him as I have been, but not to try forcing him to eat because the power struggle wouldn't be worth it; just keep offering him healthy food and he'll eat when he's ready.

Did I ever mention that I was planning on putting in a garden this year? Thanks to Husband's very hard work, we turned a section of our back yard into a decent sized garden. Unfortunately, the spinach didn't come up (older seeds) and I think the birds got most of our carrot seeds.

We have 12 tomato plants, 8 pepper plants, 6 broccoli, 9 cauliflower, a cucumber plant, a zucchini plant, a row of beets, a row of swiss chard, 3 boston lettuce, 4 head lettuce, 4 kohlrabi, a scattering of carrots and a few onions. I love how pretty the boston lettuce looks; I haven't been able to bring myself to use it yet.

Husband has acquired a new hobby.

I'm a little disturbed by it, but Little Guy loves having his nails painted and shows them off for days. It started because the girls were painting their nails and Little Guy wanted his done.

The second time, Little Guy had found a bottle of nail polish, brought it over to Husband and essentially asked to have his nails painted. I've decided that I'm going to chalk it up to Little Guy having older sisters whom he admires and wants to be like. He'll figure it out one day.

We are down to our final week and a half of school. I was really concerned about how this summer was going to go. The girls get bored so quickly and they are no longer allowed to play with half the kids in the neighborhood (bad attitudes). My outlook for a peaceful summer was pretty bleak. However, things are looking up. The girls are now enrolled in summer day camp at our church for the month of July. Even better than that, the girls are thrilled about it. August is also looking pretty good for daytime activities.

Strong-Willed One showing off her yo-yo skills.

And finally, Strong-Willed One and Kiddlet each earned themself a yo-yo. 

Malfunctioning Video or Maybe Not

It's been brought to my attention that the video I posted of the girls' opening one of their Christmas presents doesn't play. I would like to remedy that because it really is pretty funny.

Ok, well I can't find that one right now, so instead I'm going to show you something else. This is from my cousin's wedding. Both of my girls were flower girls. This is from October of 2007. Strong-Willed One turned 4 years old two days later and Kiddlet was 2 1/2 years old. We were waiting for things to start.

And this one is my cousin and Strong-Willed One.

I can't believe how many things have slipped my mind from when they were younger. I'm so thankful for photographs and video clips to remind me of these things.

And just for kicks, here is a clip of Husband putting cream cheese my sister's dog's nose.

Life Gets in the Way

Have you ever noticed how life gets in the way of your plans and good intentions? That's how the past few months have gone. I planned on blogging at least once a week, I was going to start making cards and scrapbooking again, get into a workable routine for housework, and a myriad of other things. Instead, the busyness of life totally took over. All those things I just mentioned that I had planned or intended? Not one has happened yet. I have been taking lots of pictures of the kids to scrapbook and I've had ideas for card designs. As for the housework - my current routine includes dealing with the dirty laundry pile when it has become so large that I can no longer push it out of the way with my foot, the bathroom sink gets cleaned when Husband or I cut our hair, and I vacuum when I notice Little Guy sitting every few steps in order to pull something off of his foot. Lest you think that my family is living in a hazardous environment, let me assure you that I am compulsive about having a clean kitchen and things aren't always as bad I as I just outlined. I am happy to open my door to anyone who drops in and rarely apologize for the state of my house. I think of my house as lived in and happy. I have come to the point where I have chosen time with my kids and short periods of rest over housework and I'm okay with it. My kids are happier because I spend time with them rather than cleaning and my physical and mental health are much better since I'm not unreasonably pushing myself to meet the perfectionistic standards I had had in my head.

Anyway, now that I'm done with that tangent (I had no idea that was waiting to be said), would you like to see some pictures? I have a bunch. Let's start with pictures from the park.

Little Guy peeking through the bench.

Strong-Willed One pushing the merry-go-round.

Little Guy

Don't you love the tongue?

This next picture is typical Kiddlet when she's being silly.

These are of the tired boy.

Fell asleep with a breadstick in his mouth.

 

 

 

Too tired to finish lunch.

This last picture is Strong-Willed One and Little Guy looking at a video on Husband's phone. Seeing the two of them sitting still together and not screaming is unusual.

That's it for now. Little Guy is hitting my leg telling me it's time to play, so I better go. More next time!

A Great Disservice

For years, I've done my husband the disservice of not sharing the entirety of my worries and fears with him. I figured, he's on the road, there's nothing he can do about it and I didn't want to do or say anything that would make him feel guilty about being away from home. Husband doesn't choose to travel for work because he prefers to be away, he does it to provide for us. I've always strived to be a supportive and encouraging wife, to make our home a haven for him. I was afraid that if I told him how much I struggle when he's gone, let him see how negatively his absence affects me, he would feel even worse about being on the road, that he would begin to dread coming home to this needy wife. What a fool I was! I'm learning that I've underestimated my husband, his love for me, his insight into me, and his ability to handle my fears and insecurities.

After being on the road and only home on weekends for nearly 3 years, Husband worked locally, coming home every night, for nearly 4 months. It was a wonderful 4 months. He's been back on the road for 4 weeks now. Now that Husband is gone again, I realize how much his being home has done for our family. I'm recognizing that all the time we spent apart had caused a distance between Husband and I. While he was home that distance was overcome. We got to know each other again, our lives again became one. As we grew closer our communication improved greatly.

This week my fears emerged. I'm terrified that the distance between us will come back. I've already begun to feel that he has a life completely separate from me. Yesterday at Bible Study, I admitted to the group that I was struggling. Right then and there they surrounded me and prayed for me. I'm fairly certain that this is the first time I've admitted my fears to anyone when they first emerge; in the past, I've kept quiet until I've reached the point where I'm barely coping. After Bible Study, I spent the day reflecting on what I was feeling, why I felt that way and determining if it was a rational fear or an irrational fear.  When I talked with Husband last night, I admitted it all. That I was afraid we were going to grow apart again, that I miss our daily interactions, the opportunity to take 2 minutes to scratch his head simply because I needed to touch him. I told him that I wasn't sure how to deal with these fears, that I'd felt them the last time he was on the road and never said anything because I didn't want to make him feel badly about being away. I also explained that I have no doubt about our commitment or loyalty to each other, that I trust him completely. We had rebuilt so much when he was home, our communication had grown so open and that the last thing I want to do is to close off from him again.

My husband is an incredible man. His response? We'll make sure to keep more in touch throughout the day. He told me to always spit it out when I was struggling or afraid; he would much rather know than to wonder why I'm so quiet and not know what I need. When I reach a point where I need him home for a week to regain my steadiness, he'll find a way to make it happen. Husband said absolutely nothing that made me feel like a foolish emotional female. Instead, his response was validating. I now know that the distance that developed in the past, I bear a great deal of responsibility for. In trying to be supportive and protecting him, I built up a wall between us. This whole time he's been waiting for me to let him in, waiting patiently and giving me space to come to him on my terms.

I am so blessed to have Husband as my husband. He gets me like no one else does. He loves me completely, accepts me unconditionally. 

Healthy Eating

I hadn't intended my next post to be about food, but I just have to talk about these muffins.

See, I'm on a quest to feed my family more nutritious food. These muffins contain pureed carrot and pureed avocado. There is a richness to them that I wasn't expecting. They are moist, tender, and oh so very, very, good. And the fact that they contain carrot and avocado pleases me. Even picky Strong-Willed One loves these muffins. Basically, I took the Double Chocolate Muffin recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and modified it.  Here's the modified recipe:

          Chocolate Muffins

          1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

          1/2 cup granulated sugar

          1/3 cup packed brown sugar

          1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

          2 tsp baking powder

          1/4 tsp baking soda

          just under 1/2 tsp salt

          1/2 cup pureed carrots

          1/2 pureed avocado

          1/2 cup vegetable oil

          1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease 12 standard muffin cups or line with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture.
3. In a small bowl, combine purees, oil and egg. Add wet mixture all at once to the flour mixture; stir just until moistened.
4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake 18-20 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes; serve warm.

Next time I make these muffins, I'm going to substitute whole wheat flour for half of the all purpose and use applesauce in place of the oil. I don't like to make too many changes to a recipe the first time; it can be hard to know what went wrong.

from allrecipes.com

I also made a Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake for dessert tonight. This is the first time I've made this cake, but I had it at Bible Study last week and couldn't believe that it's main ingredient was chick peas! We'll see tonight if mine turned out as well as my sister-in-law's did.

Since we're on the topic of food, let me show you what I've been eating for lunch/dinner the last few weeks.

Drinking green smoothies has really changed what I want to eat. I crave vegetables and don't really want the rice, potatoes or noodles that are usually a part of our dinners. A nice big salad made with romaine lettuce, green and orange peppers, cucumber, avocado, shredded carrots, shredded beet, grape tomatoes and diced chicken. The meat changes, based on what I've cooked for dinner and have left over.

On a completely different note, Little Guy got all excited when I pulled out the camera to take pictures of the food. So, of course, I took some pictures of him!

He's such a ham!

Videos

I said in my last post that I was going to get some video clips posted. It's taken me longer than I thought to get around to it, but here they are.

Little Guy loves bubbles.

 

 

Little Guy being entertained while at a restaurant.

This one is from Christmas. We'd given the girls mp3 players. What's so funny is that they were all excited before they even realized what they'd opened.

That's all I've got for now!