Braden was my willing helper one day. He washed all the dishes for us and this was the results.
His hands have a story to tell:
He had poison between his fingers and it was extremely itchy. Ice is one thing I go for a lot! In this case, ice cooled his hands and decreased the itch. See, when you rub and rub or itch and itch, your skin gets hotter. And as your blood circulates more, your itch gets itchier! So I've found the perfect itch cure and it happens to be ice. Now this is not a proper doctor prescription, unless that's what you want to call me. It's just one of those old fashioned remedies that we discovered works for us.
Braden had all these small lumps from the poison oak/ivy on his hands so he decided to get the finger nail clipper and take care of them. In so doing he created some really ugly hands and washing dishes showed all the marks of destruction. He now knows that self infliction/ cutting with a finger nail clipper was not a wise thing to do. I kindly told him 'not again' and in a soft voice he said, "O.K. Mom." It was sweet!
We have this old pear tree beside the garage. When we excavated a couple years ago, this tree got a pruning and started bearing some nice sized fruit. Last week Zach picked all he could reach and brought me a 3/4 bushel.
His hands have a story to tell:
He had poison between his fingers and it was extremely itchy. Ice is one thing I go for a lot! In this case, ice cooled his hands and decreased the itch. See, when you rub and rub or itch and itch, your skin gets hotter. And as your blood circulates more, your itch gets itchier! So I've found the perfect itch cure and it happens to be ice. Now this is not a proper doctor prescription, unless that's what you want to call me. It's just one of those old fashioned remedies that we discovered works for us.
Braden had all these small lumps from the poison oak/ivy on his hands so he decided to get the finger nail clipper and take care of them. In so doing he created some really ugly hands and washing dishes showed all the marks of destruction. He now knows that self infliction/ cutting with a finger nail clipper was not a wise thing to do. I kindly told him 'not again' and in a soft voice he said, "O.K. Mom." It was sweet!
We have this old pear tree beside the garage. When we excavated a couple years ago, this tree got a pruning and started bearing some nice sized fruit. Last week Zach picked all he could reach and brought me a 3/4 bushel.
He had plenty of help dragging this big ladder up the steep hill. His 2 younger brothers do everything he does!
Zach set this ladder down, looked up, and said, "Uh, that's too high!"
We let the pears ripen for over a week and yesterday the girls canned them. Yes, they did ALL of them and were rewarded with 14 quarts. Amber now knows the sense of accomplishment when a person cans. She said the best part is hearing that pop when they seal. I am so proud and thankful for my girls. It is such fun to teach them these things and have them enjoy the work!
Yes, we only did a bit of school yesterday morning. Then Amber said, "I just can't think anymore."
That's when we went to work.
With the girls doing pears, I was free to get some much needed things accomplished and run to town and it feels SOOO good to have that crossed off the invisible list in my head.
I finally filled out 8 papers to get the legal work done for homeschooling. And I know what subjects are expected for a freshman. I was pretty well on target, but didn't have health figured in which is a state requirement.
Our 2008 taxes are DONE! I picked up the copies at the accountant's office and sent them off. We will have a nice rebate coming and some applied to next year's return. The only bad thing with rebates is that you could have had that money in your bank account and been getting interest rather than the government making interest on it.
I got home from town and had a few tomatoes to can and ended up with 6 quarts of juice. I also cooked 1/2 pumpkin, a gift from a friend and that yielded almost 2 quarts.
As if that wasn't enough, Amber was really in the mood to work in the kitchen and we had this on our mind for the past 2 days. So she got to work and baked a batch of chocolate whoopie pies. It usually makes between 80-90 whoopies. So that's a special treat in the freezer. The sugar isn't the best thing for us though, I know.
Allison and Zach pitched in and helped to fill the cookies with icing and scoop the dough on the baking sheets respectively while I washed the dishes. When we all work together, we're happy and the work gets done FAST!
We got done around 9 P.M. Merv and Landon had gone to Pizza Hut for Landon's birthday.
This year Merv is taking the children to a restaurant of their choice for a birthday date and they are thoroughly enjoying it! We've got 1 more birthday to go and then it's my turn for a special date with my man! But this is sheer pleasure to watch our children's excitement in going out to eat all by themselves with their Daddy.
Today we started out with work and decided to school this afternoon for a change. So our cleaning is basically done. While the girls cleaned, I canned 14 quarts of apples.
The idea of canning apples was new to me this year. You can them just like you would peaches and you need a firm apple. Ideally, Ginger Gold apples are the best because of the flavor. But I didn't find those so I used Stamen apples. They were a tad soft while peeling and cutting them, but I figured they'd be O.K. I don't know what happened with the one jar as the lid didn't stay on while canning. So we got to try them - while hot. The apples are softer than they should be. But with our size family, they'll still get eaten. I'll have to try a different kind.
My friend had given me a quart and the apples were so good we ate them cold. But they way she was told is that you get them out of the jar, add a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon, and heat them up just like you would eat baked apples.
When you can the apples, you have to be careful that you don't can them too long or you'll be eating chunky applesauce. My friend canned them 15 minutes after it came to a boil. I canned the first batch 15 minutes and the second 10 minutes and they were both too long. I guess my apples were not firm enough.
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This is the first week since June 20 that we were able to run to town during the day while my husband was at work.
Merv finally got a truck, is able to drive it, and we have our family vehicle back instead of Merv using it for a truck. But that is a complete different story!!!
God is faithful! He gives us grace to accept our circumstances. And in the end, we are more thankful for the things we usually take for granted - like having 2 vehicles and the freedom to come and go as you please.
With that, I also went grocery shopping this week and while I saved 48% off my grocery bill, I feel I could have saved more but my brain would no longer function while at the store over supper time with two boys being very good, but fussing about being tired of shopping ("Let's go home!"). I wished my girls would have been there to help with the math. Yet, I was very thankful for the savings! It's incredible and the coupon savings of $80.74 was a blessing from the Lord!
I will not complain. We have plenty to eat and our pantry is bursting. GOD has supplied more than enough. He hasn't failed us, never will. The beginning of this month I was wondering how in the world we would ever have enough money to pay the bills at the end of this month. And the one day I was extremely stressed out about it.
In so doing, I showed disrespect to my husband which was very nasty of me. I then starting reading my recent purchase of the book, "Love and Respect" and it is teaching me so much about our marriage relationship. I saw my shortcomings and where I failed.
I promptly sought the Lord and my husband, asking them for forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a sweet thing!
My husband worked long, hard hours this month. Praise the Lord for a JOB!!!! And we're praising the Lord that we can pay every bill we owe which equals thousands. Thank you dear God. You deserve ALL honor and glory. That's you, Lord. That's the way you work - mysterious are Your ways! They are past finding out. All I know is that I can trust You!
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