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.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

I *LOVE* August! I'm tellin' ya, that first bite of ripe tomato straight from the garden...UGH! So good!

Another of my favorite things about August is....it's Blackberry season!

My boys went Blackberry picking today.

HeHeHe {skipping around the house with joy}

So what did I do? I baked a pie, of course!

It was delicious. With ice cream.

Then I put the rest in the freezer on a cookie sheet.

Hello, my pretties. I love you. All of you. I show no favoritism.

Once they were frozen, I measured them and bagged them to be put in the freezer--to be made into pie another day.

I usually mix the pie filling and freeze that, but I decided not to do that this year. I'm flexible that way.

Shhh...don't tell anyone...but those two bags aren't the first ones to be put in the freezer this year. I have more. HeHeHe {skipping around the house} {again}

I am SOOOOO having Blackberry pie in the dead of winter when it looks like THIS outside. That's a link to my very first blog post, BTW.

{sigh} All is well in my world. Well, it will be as soon as I buy three bushels of tomatoes from the Amish farmer down the road and can 30 quarts of chopped tomatoes and 50 or 60 pints of salsa. I predict more skipping around the house to come.

Finally made it to the Teacher's Store

It might be my last trip for a few years. Maybe forever.
Why?
Because the local Teacher's Store caters mainly to the Elementary sect now.
We searched for an hour to find enough stuff for my 11th-grader. We ended up finding a few things in the clearance sections (spread throughout the store--including upstairs where there is NO air conditioning). We worked for that discount, I'm tellin' ya.
It's a sad, sad thought that I won't be going back and fingering through all that neat, schooly stuff.
My 6th-grader will be working on the same stuff he did last year. Sadly, he decided he didn't need to do school last year...and didn't. So I'm ordering replacements for the few workbooks that he wrote in and he's doing it all again--and then some. Yeah, you guessed it. Welcome to puberty, child.
OH! This year's fun item from the Teacher's Store was.....drum roll please...PENCILS. Pencils of all things! But, that's all they wanted. The 11th grader got one that says, "My Teacher thinks I'm SPECIAL!" ....which cracks me up--and did him, too. The 6th grader got one with his favorite critter...frogs. And for my graduate I got a West Virginia pencil . We live in Ohio.
So...what's new with you? I want to visit my folks this weekend...but it's filling up fast, so that might not happen.

My life is uber exciting.

Or not.

I have a list as long as my arm of things I SHOULD be doing....but I'm not.

Why do I put things off?

I have to send a letter to the school Superintendent about how last year went (good for one child, not so well for the other) and pick up the application to homeschool for this coming year. Public school starts next Wednesday in our town. I really, really need to get these things done.

I had a birthday last week AND I remembered to get the license renewed on the vehicles. {using finger in the air to strike one up for me for getting something right}
So there's that.

I NEED to get over to the teacher's store to pick up school books for the high-schooler. Then I need to place the order for the 6th-grader online. The little darling needs a few replacement workbooks in the same curriculum he used last year....sixth grade...again. What IS IT with boys at this age? They suddenly have no ambition to do anything but play. Oh wait...little boys have never had ambition to do schoolwork...just play. Sorry...was freaking out about normal everyday stuff.

But then...lately I have only wanted to play, too. So, I guess I shouldn't feel so bad about the boy doing it. Only I'm an adult and I have to snap out of it. I have responsibilities. I have duties. I have....oh nevermind. I think I'll go bake some zucchini cookies. A lady at the library gave me a new recipe.