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.