Canning Time!!!

Sustain me with cakes of raisins, Refresh me with apples,

Song of Solomon 2:5

Lexi left yesterday afternoon with Na-naw (our grandma) to go for her birthday shopping, dinner and sleep-over. She got some sparkly pink tennis shoes and stayed up until 11:30. On Wednesday night our friend, Ms. Miller,dropped off some things in our car. Alexis received lots of candy and a pretty necklace - Caleb, a ball and bat along with candy. (Thanks Ms. Miller, Ashlee & Sam!) Na-naw brought Lexi back this morning just in time for Balancing the Sword (balancingthesword.com).

Back to canning!

After they left yesterday afternoon (around 3:30) we all started canning. I (Kimber) did the greenbeans by myself for the first time with some instruction/overseeing by mommy! Everyone else pitched in with our HUGE bucket of apples. We got the apples from the lady who also provided us with all those pears.

The Apples.

It doesn't look like much from the picture - but it was a lot! We did about 3/4 of it. "Did" meaning peeling, soaking (in lemon juice for color), coring and cutting. After we did all that we had to put 2 of our big stock pots, full of apples, on our stove (let's just say the pots were a little big). After they cooked down enough to puree, daddy "went to town" and took out our potato masher and started mashing. We had previously pureed in our blender but it's not supposed to hold hot liquids so that didn't work out. Well, the potato masher didn't get all the bumps out so we did one stock pot full of apples pureed in a blender and the other by hand with a potato masher (an electric one). The pureed batch is really smooth and a lot thinner than the hand-mashed one. I had some applesauce (that's what we were making) this morning and it was really good! Now for the pictures!

Everyone in operation.

Daddy and Caleb peeled, Mommy cut and Seth worked the CD player (we listened to Alexis' Jonathan Park Audio Series that she got for her birthday). Josiah (that light yellow head by daddy) rolled the apples in lemon juice. After I finished the greenbeans I quartered the apples and cored a little bit. Hannah mixed in, helping wherever needed. She was also taking care of Lydia and making dinner.

Our peelers!

Cutting up the apples.

This is daddy hand-mashing the apples. His hand got really tired!

The finished product! Well, half. Altogether there are 14 quarts of applesauce, 12, 1/4 pints of applesauce (for Lydia) and 7 quarts of greenbeans! (Seth took this picture this afternoon)

After dinner we started finishing up our canning jobs. It took 'till around 9:30 before we were close to completely done. Everything was probably cooked, canned and cleaned-up around 9:40. It was a full night! The canning isn't very hard (I think it's pretty fun!) but the preparing the food is a little time-consuming and a great example of how to learn patience and willingness to help!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Tooth, Puppies, Birthdays & Pumpkins

"Like a bad tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in times of trouble."

Deuteronomy 25:19

Remember the post a few weeks ago (maybe a month ago) about daddy's tooth? Well, it started bothering him at the beach again. When he bit into a bagel (not a burnt one :) he felt something happen and part of his filling cracked and was on his tongue. Anyways, to make a sorta-long story short he got it pulled yesterday morning at MCV. He got it pulled for about $40 not counting the pain-relieving pills and a little bit of other things to help him. He took about a 4 long hour nap this morning before going out to work. He's doing okay now it just - well, he doesn't have a tooth. That causes a few problems like eating and stuff. It doesn't hurt as much as the last tooth that was pulled out but it does a little bit. Some prayers for a quick and pain-free recovery would be greatly appreciated! I'll keep you updated on his tooth - or lack thereof! :)

***

I have "Lydia Time" at 1:00-1:30 every afternoon. I found some puppy ears lying around and decided to see what Lydia looked like...

Isn't she cute? I think she looks more like a rabbit than a puppy! :)

We celebrated Caleb's birthday pretty much all day yesterday. Mommy made a really good cake (thanks Aunt Steph for the Recipe!)!

Daddy and Caleb are holding their hands against Josiah's mouth because he normally blows the candles out - even if it's not his birthday!

Pretty good!

Breakfast. We had eggs and...

Cinnamon & Sugar Pop Tarts left over from the beach.

Monday night Lexi went on a hot-cold search for a birthday present from daddy. She found them in the laundry room. They were gel pens!

Looking for the gel pens.

Mommy graciously took this photo so I could be in the picture!

Tuesday night we picked a few pumpkins - our big one too!

That's one big pumpkin!!!

Hannah with our biggest pumpkin - so far!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Bowling, Birthdays & Baby

"Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials"

Genesis 40:20

Friday afternoon my grandparents and cousin-once-removed, Stefanie (sp?), came down for an overnight-stay. They came in town because they were going to be part of the pit crew tour guides at the Nascar Race on Saturday. As some of you might know, it was canceled so we ended up spending time with each other instead. Caleb had left before they arrived going with our other grandma (Na-naw) to shop and stay the night. (Na-naw takes us each "out" on our birthdays and gets us some things and then we spend the night at her house and leave for ours the next day) Saturday morning, after playing "31" with Skittles, we all left (except mommy who had to do some billing and Lydia) for the bowling alley. There we met up with Na-naw and Caleb and played 2 games of bowling. Daddy won once and grandpa and daddy tied once. We all had lots of fun! Afterwards we went to Taco Bell together. After a wonderful meal, Na-naw bought some of their cinnamon twists and then we went home. Everyone left about 40 minutes later. I forgot my camera for most of these events so, no pictures!

This is a really random picture of one of our gardens that daddy and the boys worked on one of the days last week. They did a wonderful job - even though we were supposed to help them (we did canning instead). I just took a picture because I wanted to show y'all what a wonderful job they did!

Back to Friday and Saturday...

This is Miss Stefanie reading to Seth, Eden, and Josiah.

We celebrated Alexis' and Caleb's birthday on Saturday night. Alexis' birthday is today and Caleb's is tomorrow. Lexi turned 11 and Caleb will be turning 9.

We made pizza for their birthday dinner and camped out in the den. We watched "Horton Hears a Who" and "Milo and Otis" while eating dinner and ice cream. We didn't have time to make their cakes so we did ice-cream. We're making the desserts they wanted today.

Sorry about the pinkish-red tinge. I'm working on figuring out different camera settings.

Lexi.

Lexi made her own hats for her own birthday! I think she did a pretty good job!

Dinner in the Den.

Lydia. (I know she always steals the camera - she's just so cute!)

Seth and Caleb - brothers forever!

Lexi and Eden.

Seth and Caleb.

Caleb. He got a Jonathan Park Audio Series and some candy. (Tomorrow he's getting a Bible cover) We also got him "Boyhood and Beyond" by Bob Schultz. Both of these products are sold at http://www.visionforum.com/.

Lexi with a card drawn by Eden. It's a Christmas Tree. Lexi got a Jonathan Park Audio Series too (a different one), a "Catch the Sewing Bug" book, a bracelet that says "Daughter of Christ" (she's wearing it in the picture) and some candy.

Caleb and Lydia.

Servin' up the ice cream! Our flavors were: Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough and Chocolate-Coconut Duetto (daddy ate that one!).

Bumblebee Lydia.

***

One day last week, after eating home-made salsa and chips, Lexi came to me and asked her to take a picture of her creation...

NEW!!! You can teach your kids history and use trash at the same time! Wow! Teaching your kids about Ancient Egypt? Now you can learn about and make a hat on - QUEEN NEFERTERI! What a deal! Just eat a bag of chips, cut off 1 inch of the bottom of the bag and place on head!

LOL! :)

***

The pictures below were taken Sunday afternoon.

Daddy. He didn't know I was taking pictures of him (I turn the sound off on my camera so no one really ever knows I'm taking a picture) and this was his look. Maybe I shouldn't take pictures of people without them knowing...:)

Lydia was being the sweetest little thing that afternoon. I just sat there and took pictures while she played with Hannah and Eden.

Looks so relaxed - doesn't she?

Mommy likes this one!

When daddy came in for our book time he played with Lydia for a bit before. She loved rubbing her hands and feet on his face.

Daddy laid her on the ground and she started crying and then he started playing "Peek-A-Boo" with her and...

...she smiled!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber :)