On Fire

This morning I woke with a desire to try something new! We still have a crisper full of peaches in the downstairs fridge that desperately need using, so I pulled a bunch up and snagged some homegrown onions and peppers. I followed a new recipe for fire roasted peach salsa and couldn't wait to taste the final product.

 

Part way through I ran to town and grabbed my girl for lunch. I also stopped to quickly grab some groceries. It was nice to be able to leave Sawyer in the care of Camilla so that I could grab a few things. 

When I came back she showed me these pictures. He was giggling so hard he was snorting and it made us both crack up. We swung by Daddy's office to drop something off and then I brought her back to school for the afternoon.

 

I spent the afternoon getting my salsa into jars. It turned out so pretty! I made just a small batch so that we could try it and see if we like it. If we do, it will be something I'll make again next year. 

The sky was on fire at days end. After a busy day it was nice to pause, reflect, and enjoy the view.

 

Baby Bonnet

 

We woke to the gentle sound of rain, which just made me want to sit and knit all morning. I finished a bonnet for baby girl and am so pleased with how it turned out!

 

Sunday Sunrise

This morning I got the chance to go for a quick walk before church. The sunrise was glorious and the quiet let me ponder. There are so many beautiful things in this world if we are looking for them! I've been thinking a lot about joy lately and where our joy truly comes from. 

 

 

A friend shared an acronym for JOY that I love.

 

Jesus

Others

You

Tonight when everyone left the dinner table I felt a lump growing in my throat. Often I find myself alone at the table, surrounded by half eaten plates and a crumb filled table cloth at days end. The littles are finally getting to the age where they are learning to clear their plates without asking and helping out a little bit more, but we still have the odd evenings where everyone clears out in a hurry. 

 

As I sat tonight I wondered to myself how it is possible to feel so alone and forgotten when I'm surrounded by so many people. When I finally finished my cold plate of food, I cleared the rest of the table and did another round of dishes while tears silently slipped down my cheeks. In these quiet moments when my family doesn't notice and my needs aren't being cared for, I offer a quiet prayer. It is often in these moments where I feel closest to Him. When no one else understands, He does. Often when I think of Motherhood, the acronym for joy comes to mind as I selflessly serve. Even though there are sometimes feeling of loneliness or defeat, the eternal joy that comes from fulfilling this divine calling is incomparable to anything else.

“The work of a mother is hard, too often unheralded work. Please know that it is worth it then, now, and forever.” ~Jeffery R. Holland

 

 

 

 

 

Full Swing

Harvesting is in full swing around here. I brought the pumpkins in yesterday and we have been cooking down tomatoes into sauce and whatever else we can. I wandered up to the top garden with Grampa and Sawyer this afternoon and they managed to find a handful of raspberries to snack on. The weather has been so weird this year and because the berries were late, they seem to be lasting just a little longer. 

I enjoyed watching the two of them search the patch together. Of course that loving grampa let Sawyer eat pretty much every berry they found. Sawyer gobbled them up as quick as they could pick them. Soon his cheeks started to stick out and he looked like a chipmunk. That boy sure loves his berries!

I've been cherishing my late night canning sessions with my mamma. After the tomato sauce has simmered all day on the stove, it is usually ready to jar just after the littles are tucked in for the night. I am almost brave enough to use the pressure canner myself. We've made around 24 quarts of tomato sauce already and the shelves downstairs are almost full. While we wait for the canner to do it's thing, we sit around the kitchen table in the quiet of the night. We talk in hushed voices while keeping an eye on the pressure gauges and set timers and such. Tonight while I finished the last piece of apple pie (ate it right out of the pie plate) my mom swept my floor and tidied the kitchen. "There. Now you're ready for tomorrow." I feel blessed to able to spend this time with her and to learn from her. 

 

 

 

Harvest Time

We have been busy harvesting things from the greenhouse. This time of year is always so wonderful as we get to use and preserve the things that we grow! Grampa's greenhouse always provides us with an abundance of yummy things. I can't count how many batches of salsa I've done already this year! We are so blessed with tomatoes and have shared quite a few with friends. I think we get around 1200lbs of tomatoes each year. This year we made space for more peppers and tried growing more paste tomato varieties. My Mum and I have been busy in the kitchen making things like tomato paste, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce and the like. The shelves are slowly filling up and so are our hearts. Oliver loves working in the greenhouse with Grampa and helped him snip the tomatoes from the vine and clear things out. Slowly but surely, one row at a time, we are getting the produce into crates and preparing to bring it inside to finish ripening. We managed to grow four decent sized pumpkins this year and even got a few zucchini from the garden!

 

 

 

 

Welcome Autumn

This afternoon Sawyer and I wandered down to the birch tree to check out the colorful leaves! Autumn is one of my very favorite seasons! The smells, the sights, the colors...It was glorious. I pushed him around in his little car and then we sat under the tree and watched the leaves swirl to the ground. He let out a few of his contagious giggles and we enjoyed a little snuggle! I also snagged a bump picture. Baby is twenty-eight weeks now and time is flying by! I'm cherishing the time I have left with Sawyer as the "baby" of the family and soaking him and all of his adorable toddler-ness up! I am so glad that Autumn has come!

 

 

 

Quiet Times

 

Naptime...

 

Bedtime...

 

Peaches for Days

Today my Mum and I processed another few cases of peaches! We had snagged a few cases from a local grocery store and also bought a few extra from a friend of a friend who drives out to B.C every year to pick up a huge load for people. Camilla was home from school and asked if she could help. She happily threw her hair up, tied on a apron and helped us scoop and fill jars. Since I've done this once before I knew what I was doing this time around! We got both pressure canners going and did a double batch because while you have everything out, why not? When Camilla had finished her part, she took my camera outside and snapped some creative pictures of the fresh eggs and sunflowers from the garden. She is such a creative girl!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for Autumn

The chilly mornings have been a welcomed treat. I leave a few windows cracked each night before bed and wake to the smell of fresh Fall air. Our house is torn apart right now as we wait on some flooring to be installed and sometimes it can be overwhelming to have things out of their place and toys scattered all through the house. 

Lately, I've enjoyed watching Ollie and Sawyers relationship grow with the big kids away at school. For the first week of school, Sawyer would cry every morning and bring me his shoes and coat when the kids got ready. Now he just waves at them and shouts "BYE!" Today the little boys played catch with the velcro paddles and ball. Ollie also made his own water table with a cooler, metal bowls and the kids chairs. He spent most of the morning stirring potions and singing to himself. 

With the big kids off to school and harvesting picking up, I haven't felt like I've quite caught my breath yet. I have a new book on my shelf waiting to be read, but I need to wait another week or so until I'm all caught up and the house is back in order. I love this season and time of year! Foggy mornings and warm drinks, the leaves changing, harvesting veggies, chilly nights, clear skies. 

My mamma and I were able to whip up six apple pies this morning. She is the pastry chef and I am just the peeler/slicer of the operation. No one makes apple pies quite like my mom! They are my favorite thing and I have eaten a slice for breakfast the last few mornings. The kids have also been lucky enough to have warm pie after school.  We are slowly working our way through a few cases of apples and freezing pies for Winter. 

After family prayer tonight the littles all grabbed an apple as they walked by the new case of Mac's. They cozied up in the bunk room for our read-aloud and all I heard was the quiet crunching of apples while I read to them by candle light. Ollie crawled up on my lap half way through, rested his back against my baby bump and his head in the perfect place on my shoulder. Tonights story was particularly funny, leaving us all giggling together. Oliver's belly laugh is one of the best sounds. It makes you want to laugh right along with him. Joe wiggled his tooth all evening and still didn't get it out yet. I'm sure the toothfairy will be making a visit tomorrow night though!
 

Processing Peaches

This morning started early, like most mornings. The one thing I love about the Autumn months is that the sun comes up a little bit later and I am able to enjoy the sunrise each morning. After purchasing a few cases of peaches this week, today was dubbed a canning day. My Mum and I spent the morning together peeling, slicing, jarring, and pressure canning. My gas stove has enough room to put both canners on at the same time, so we were able to do two or three batches today and get rid of a case or two of peaches. I'm grateful to my Mum for teaching me this skill! Near the end, I was feeling more confident with the pressure canner and the process. It was nice to be able to work together and get so many jars filled for the shelf this Winter!