Self Reliance

I am all for self reliance. Unless it involves home canning. Ok, so I'm not against home canning, unless I have to do it. My mom did it while I was growing up. We all had to help. Turning the crank on the food mill thing and watching the tomato skins and seeds "poop" out the end while the juice squished down into the pan. That's the one memory of home canning I can actually remember. I know we did it more, I just don't remember all the other times.
Home canning is not something I enjoy. I rarely do it on my own. (In fact, I think the last time I did it on my own was when we lived in Dammeron Valley and I juiced grapes.) My sweet husband is the 'instigator' in any home canning we do. I'm not completely opposed to helping, I would just rather do just about anything else (but I don't, because I love him and know he would help me with stuff even if he would rather do anything else).
Our current canning project is apples. And more apples. We have, I think three or four apple trees in our orchard. Two or three of those have decided that this is a good year to produce apples. Thursday evening Travis peeled, cored, and cut apples while O and I placed them on the dehydrator trays and then in the crock pot for apple butter. We also did a batch of applesauce. (I really cannot stand home canned applesauce. I can barely stand commercial applesauce.) Today, Travis hoped for an all day extravaganza of apple production. This morning we did, again, apple butter and a dehydrator full before he had to take kids to Rexburg for cleaning and volunteering. But somehow, it also ended up as shopping too. After they returned home, more apple production.
While they were gone, however, I was looking through some cooking magazines and decided I needed to bake. Coffee cake for lunch. Carrot cake for whenever (it still needs to be frosted). Oatmeal cookies to take as bribery tomorrow when I substitute for the Sunbeam class (the children in that class are 3-4 year olds). I even was so good, I cleaned up after all my baking excursions.
I'm so thankful for my sweet, hardworking husband! He keeps me sane!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shoes

Shoes are interesting things. Weird, I know. But I recently bought a new pair of shoes. Why would this matter? Well, in reality, it doesn’t. But here’s the thing, I don’t buy anything with a heal. Except now. Not a huge heal, maybe only an inch or so, but it’s a big difference to me. While the shoes are currently quite uncomfortable, I know they will stretch out and work better. I have other shoes of this same brand that I wear to work because of their arch support. So, I have some confidence that these shoes will also be comfortable. But these shoes somehow make me feel different about myself. More confident maybe, or more dressy, or more feminine, or sexy, or something. They aren’t fancy or really very fashionable (not that I know anything about fashion). I really think the heal makes a difference. I can’t really explain it because I don’t understand how a simple shoe could change “me”, but it does. And then I go home and immediately remove the shoes because they a...
Read more

Let Go of Control

This morning on  my way to work I had an epiphany. I realized that I am more patient with my children because I stopped trying to control them. For years I felt like I needed to control everything they did and said and thought. I had trials/struggles/lessons over and over again in patience. Apparently, I’m a slow learner. But I guess I slowly started figuring it out. I can’t put an exact moment, just maybe a lot of years of ‘learning’. I guess I finally realized that the only thing that I really have control over is me. (What!?) I can certainly beg, bargain, remind, and plead – er, I mean, guide – my children to do their chores and homework and piano and viola and, and, and….. but I can’t force them. Ultimately, they choose their path. I hope that  my “guidance” helps them, somehow, somewhere, with their life decisions. I really just want them to be happy, responsible adults – but I can’t FORCE them to be happy or responsible. (I can, however, get them out...
Read more

Moving on....

My daughter is moving on. While I've waited all her life for this moment, I'm more sad about it than I thought I would be. Maybe because she and I talk a lot more than we used to. Maybe because she and I are temple buddies and go to the temple as often as we can. Even though she was gone for five months last year and we were able to adjust, and then re-adjust when she came back, I am still a bit sad to see her go. I want her to go and figure out life and be an adult. I think she's ready for that. I am a little comforted to know that she will be renting a room from my sister. She won't just be thrown into the big bad world on her own. She will also be sharing a bathroom with my niece/her cousin. With all those schedules, they may or may not see each other much, but it will be a familial environment far away from home, that might help ease her into reality. Backing up a couple of months.... In February, I just felt so strongly that B needed to go to the temple. She was...
Read more