Ah, Autumn...

Even though this hasn't been a textbook year weather-wise, it's still so nice to have Autumn/Fall here. You won't hear me complaining about the cooler temps and the fallen leaves. Granted, because of the wacky weather, the leaves are falling early--some even before they change color. But still, I just adore this time of year. There's just something about Fall. Love is in the crisp, sweet air. Hubby told me last night that he'd taken our Anniversary off (to surprise me) and that last week he'd also scheduled the following day off...making a 4-day weekend for us! He asked if I wanted to go away somewhere with him--just the two of us. YES!

So, what's your favorite season?

Tomorrow I get my kitchen back!

The tomato juice is made

the pizza sauce is made


and the last of the grapes were used up in making juice today.


Tomorrow the kids and I will pack away all the canners, rings and equipment and I'll have my kitchen countertops back. I've been canning for nearly a month and I am sooooooo ready for this stuff to disappear for another year.

Tomorrow I think I'll start making up batches of cookie dough to freeze for later--when it's baking season. You know, drop oatmeal or chocolate chip cookie dough onto trays, freeze them, then bag 'em up with baking instructions and pack back into the freezer. Then, when you've got the oven heated up from baking a meatloaf or a casserole, you can just pop a sheet of cookies in the oven in no time and VIOLA! there's dessert.

I love it when I look like super mom! :)

Besides, now that I'm in perpetual motion mode, I have to do SOMETHING lest I look like a slug. The winter cometh...and I really do turn into a slug on those dark, depressing days.

Oh...Allie, I just want to thank you for all your encouraging words. You don't know how much it means to me to find a friendly comment after I've posted. Thanks for being there for me, friend! I'm sorry for all the times you've asked a question and I haven't answered. You deserve better. I love you, man! ;)

Critters...again

In late July and early August I blogged about some of the critters in our world...and promised pics of others.

Well, today is the day, my friends.

You're barely able to contain your excitement. I can tell these things.

So without further eloquence, meet:

the salamander,

the baby bass,

and the uninvited bat.

Yes, that's a badmiton racket. You don't think bats let you pick them up and move them out of the house, do you? I don't allow my boys to touch a bat--and you KNOW that *I'm* not going to touch one. Besides, you have to STUN them before you can move them--hence the racket.

We also had three toads...but I made the boys turn two of them loose. It's really difficult to catch enough crickets for three hungry toads. And we have crawdads. I don't know how many we have today. The boys keep catching them and putting them in the same tank. Crawdads are territorial, you know. You can fill in the blanks on why the population keeps dwindling. I don't know why I don't have any pictures of these critters. I handed the camera to the middle child with instructions to bring me pics...but these are all I got for my troubles. Oh well, it will give me something to blog about later.

TTFN

Been a little busy.

This past month has been a doozy....both at home and at work. 'Tis the season and if you don't keep moving, you'll either get run over or you'll run behind. Speaking of running, I'm feeling a little *blah* because I've neglected my treadmill. More thoughts on that in a sec... First lemme brag on how I've been working on my homemaker skills:

So far I've put up 60 pints of salsa

12 quarts of grape juice (no pic) and 10 quarts of spaghetti sauce

and tomorrow I *plan* on working on pizza sauce. This time I'll *try* to follow the recipe.

You see, I don't usually use a recipe when I cook. We've been making salsa for several years now...and its still a question of how its going to turn out because I don't know how hot the peppers are this year. ...until I make a batch. Then I can adjust the heat for every following batch. Hubby gets to try the first batch of salsa...it's *usually* spicier than I like it. I'm selfish that way. He will tell me how spicy it is, then I know how many peppers to put in the next batch depending on if I'm making mild, medium or hot.

So when I still had **at least** another bushel of tomatoes left after doing up the salsa, I decided to make something else with it instead of just canning them straight. I'm stupid that way--thinking I need to pile more work on an already busy schedule. Up until this year, the only kind of tomatoes I've canned has been chopped (for soups) or salsa. So I looked up some spaghetti recipes and combined the things I liked about them and made a batch. ONLY...I thought they didn't use enough spices--oregano, basil, etc--so I added more. I think by the time I finished adding I had **at least** twice as much as the recipe called for. Yeah, it was overkill. So today when I made lunch I used a jar of homemade AND a jar of store-bought to dilute it. No complaints from the family. Maybe I'm just sensitive.

So...that's why I said I will try to follow the pizza sauce recipe. No guarantees....I'm not known for following recipes. I almost always add my own touch. My philosophy is that every recipe is just a guideline...a suggestion. If I choose to follow it, good. If I choose to add or take away, good. The bad part is that I rarely make something the same way twice--so if you liked it today, you'd better enjoy it...because tomorrow I'll try to improve it.

That's just how I ride. :)

I don't just mess up *food* recipes, either. I'm talented enough to mess up other recipes, too. I bought all the stuff needed to make homemade laundry (powder) detergent. One night last week I gave Timothy the job of grating the soap. He loved it. So then I let him be in charge of measuring the ingredients and mixing them up in the food processor until they formed a powder. I'm such a fun mom. He did a great job. So he ran to his room and got a load of laundry to try out the new detergent. YES! He's finally going to wash some clothes! (Don't get excited--it didn't last.) The homemade detergent worked wonderfully. So I did a load with those messy towels that the salsa leaked onto. Not only did it lift the stains, those towels looked whiter than the ones in the drawer! I was so pleased. So the next day when we put the ingredients away, I said something about the box of Washing Soda. My daughter corrected me...Baking Soda. No, it says right here on the box...Baking Soda. ACK! I *know* the crumpled box in the laundry isle that I reached behind to get this box said Washing Soda, so I never thought to look at *this* box. I won't make THAT mistake twice. {sigh}

I can get in trouble in my spiritual life by not following God's "recipe", too-- I can't take the same approach that I have with cooking. I will mess it up EVERY time if I pick and choose things from God's Word. We have to read the Word and follow it, no varying to the left or right. The gate is small and the way is narrow (see Matthew 7:14)...so we need to make sure we stay on the right path.

I hope and pray that all my cyber friends are spiritually fit. Keep working on those spiritual muscles. We're only in this world for a short time.