Well, there are so many things I have wanted to blog about, but just haven't gotten around to it. Let's see...A couple weeks ago we had the cool experience of making our own maple syrup out of the backyard. We have been slowly enjoying the fruits of our labors and it is so yummy! We collected sap from two trees and only got to do it for about a week. We collected about fifteen gallons and boiled it down to about two quarts. I did it in the house in our electric cooking pan (I don't really know what the thing is called, but it holds a lot of liquid). The main batch I did, I let cook in there for two days and then when it got near the end, I finished on the gas stove. It is the best syrup I have ever tasted and I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that I processed it myself.
Jedaiah turned six months old last week. He finally rolled over about a week before that. He keeps trying to sit up, but he can only lift his head off the ground (picture, "I've fallen and I can't get up). He has started eating some foods, but not real regularly yet. So far he has only had cereal, squash, apple sauce and bananna. He is quite adorable and many people say he looks like his Momma.
Jesse is still potty training. He's still pooping in his pants too. I don't really make a big deal about it and I figured out today that making him clean his underware would not really deter him from doing it. I caught him going in the bathroom today, taking off his pooped in underware and cleaning them in the toilet (but they weren't getting very clean since he didn't turn them inside out - I'm okay with that). I took over, but he didn't like that, he wanted to do it. So, I let him do a little and left the room for a minute. When he got done, he brought the underware (dripping wet) to me in the laundry room. Yuck (at least it wasn't on carpet)! He is quite a character and I see a lot of Josh in him, but he doesn't seem quite as stubborn.
This past weekend the kids played in the AWANA games. Jon and Josh's team got first place and Jay and Josiah's team got third (out of three teams). Rachel got to play on her brothers' team because they didn't have enough girls. It was quite fun watching her. I hope to get some video uploaded in the next few days.
Baseball has started. Jonathan is one one team and Josh and Jay are on a team together (what a blessing!). We don't have grass to play on yet and we won't for this season. We're supposed to get it seeded this Spring. So that leaves them practicing on the driveway or out in the field. I'm looking forward to watching them play games this year.
Projects I've been working on:
Loosing weight - that is going well, I've now lost around 15 pounds since January. I think Bob beat me and reached his goal already, but I'm in second place in our biggest loser contest. I've only got 2 pounds to reach my goal, so I think I'm going to set a new goal and go for five more pounds. It will probably take until the Fall to reach that goal (after I'm done nursing). I can get into my jeans again, but they are still tighter than I'd like.
I'm in the midst of spackling the garage. I didn't get to work on it last week because I was too busy. There is a lot still to be done, but I'll work on it as I can on rainy days.
I've been doing some researching and thinking on the garden. I bought some berry bushes to plant (Blueberry, rasberry, blackberry, strawberry and gojiberry). I hope to get outside this week and start working on the ground for the garden. I bought a bunch of heirloom seeds that I plan to plant. I also want to harvest the seeds and dry them and start a seed bank for future years. I got the seeds from the Sustainable Seed Company online. This will all be great learning for both me and the kids!
The kids started making their own Easter candy today. I decided I don't want to go out and buy a bunch of candy this year. I thought it would be fun to have them make their own. Today Jonathan and Jay made Tootsie rolls and they were pretty easy and very tasty. They also plan on making Butter fingers, Twix bars, and probably another kind or two. This year we plan to do an Easter scavenger hunt around the house here (per their request).
I'm still in the process of eating healthier and serving healthier foods for my family. Last week I had a few ladies over to teach them how to grind wheat and discuss ways to eat more nutritiously. I learned lots of things. I learned what coos coos is (I don't know if that is how you spell it). It is a grain and works well as a side dish. I think I'll try it one of these days. I also learned about different natural sugars like Agave necter and others. One thing I'm going to try and do more of this summer is making yogurt pops instead of popsicles. I am also going to try and make hummus (another foreign thing to me). We'll see if the kids go for it. I'm looking forward to having a big garden and getting lots of veggies to preserve and have throughout the year.
Today I bought rope for a clothes line. I want to try drying the clothes outside and see how much that takes off our electric bill. My sister-in-law said she saved quite a bit of money doing it last summer. I think I'm going to start by drying the clothes under our back deck. I can set a line there easily and take it down if I decide it is not for me. I never really enjoyed doing it as a kid, but I'm hoping it will be more enjoyable now, it will be a good time to pray. The only thing is there is dirt under there and if I drop a wet something, it will probably need to go into the washer again. If I send the kids out to do it, I think it would be defeating the purpose of saving energy as I'd probably have to rewash stuff. The hope is that someday we'll have a patio under there, but for now we have dirt.
We should finish up the school year at the end of April, but we'll keep going and try to get some hours in when we don't have much else to do (does that ever happen??? it does for the kids, not for me). Well, I'm sure there is more I could write about, but it seems the minutes in a day just fly by and I'm out of time.
