Family Night

Wednesday is Family Night. We make a tasty dinner and eat together while sitting down. It keeps us all connected together since our lives are getting busier, and our brother moved out.

Stomper "helped" us choose what dessert to make and then kept himself busy with a bit of flour in some measuring cups. He thought the plain flour tasted yummy, but I'm not sure why.

Last night after dinner, Jason made a fire. Instruments appeared for the first time in a long time at our house and it was nice to hear the siblings play and fool around. I took out my knitting to work on the pattern I'm testing (for a moment I considered tossing it into the flames, but I didn't). I really enjoy these long summer(ish) nights and I look forward to many more.

Anniversary

May 30, 2001
I mean.. 
May 31, 2008

I cannot believe that it's been four years! I'm going to do my best to not get too sappy and cliche, but boy do I love this man! Many women say that their husband is their best friend, and it's true. Who else can I rattle on and on and on about my knitting to with out them rolling their eyes and interrupting? Who else would support all my crazy ideas, no matter how silly they are to him? Who else would travel around back roads with me just to see what is out there? Who else would stop the truck and turn around to check something out?

For Christmas his parents gave us a gift certificate to Adventure Suites in N.Conway, NH. We paid for an extra night and stayed two days. We had a great time. We did a lot of shopping, a lot of driving, a lot of eating, a lot of snuggling, a lot of time in a bubbly bath, a lot of reconnecting and relaxing together. 

We started out in this room aptly named "The Love Shack". Jason got us some champagne, chocolate, and bubbles for the bath..JOY! To quote a kids book here at daycare: "I'll relax and forget all my troubles. I'll take a hot bath and fill it with bubbles." 

The bed was a water bed..I'm not sure if it was the water bed, the shoes I wore for a few hours, the champagne, or the 30min soak in the hot tub but about 3am I woke to two charlie horses. Two! The pain was so bad I nearly screamed. We politely asked for a new room and were given one named "The Love Nest". If you ever get a chance to stay at this hotel do stay! They have big rooms and small rooms and ones in between. All the themes are so over-the-top that they are amazing! They are currently under construction, but not once did we hear a hammer, Jason did hear our neighbors at about 2 in the morning though, he suggested that they insulate a bit more during their construction.

View at the hotel

Mt Washington

Sorry Ladies, he's taken

 On the way home we stopped at Glen Ellis Falls. We didn't get a chance to go up Mt Washington since the fog was so thick we had to use headlights. Instead we stopped at a covered bridge and at the falls. It was a nice walk down, and a lot of stairs up. It was well worth the walk in the fog and mist to see the falls. 

Weekending

Helper

Chef

Sticky 

Wet

Cozy 

Clean

How was your Memorial Week-End?

Littlest Pet

At the farm we have some chicks.

Today Jason came home with a box of broilers.

In the box was a pet for me!

Can you spot the difference?

The slightly brown chick has feathers on its feet, I wonder what it will turn out to be?

Confused

I think these iris' are a bit confused.

Pineapple Preserve

The canning stuff has been out in the kitchen, due to Maple Syrup (don't forget to enter the contest!), and so when I saw the two pineapples languishing on the counter I couldn't just let them go to waste! Spring time isn't when I usually can, but why not? I would much rather spend a little extra time and effort to can than throw out food.

I didn't have a recipe or my canning book at our new residence, but thankfully the internet is always close  by. I googled canning pineapple preserves and found this recipe. I think the original recipe used already canned pineapple, like you would buy in the store, so I put mine in a food processor. I processed it a little too much and there aren't enough chunks for a thick preserve. I added 2 tsp of  ginger to give it a bit of flavor, but next time I'll do more to give it a stronger ginger flavor. I will use the preserves as a marinade or maybe in some muffins (or on top). It is really sweet, almost too sweet.

Pineapple-Ginger Preserves

yield: 3 pints 

5 Cups Crushed Pineapple with juices- approx 2 whole pineapples 

4 Cups white sugar

2 - 4 tsp ground ginger 

1. Bring pineapple, sugar, and ginger to a boil in a saucepan. Keep at a temperature of at least 200 and cook for 20mins. Stir often to keep from sticking. 

2. Pour hot preserves into hot jars and put in a hot water bath for 5 mins (check here for canning advice). Cover with towel while it cools to prevent drafts.

Uses:

marinade-pour 1.5 Cups over pork or chicken and allow to sit in fridge for several hours. Grill, crock-pot, or bake meat until done and serve with the remaining 1/2 Cup marinade on the side.

muffins-add 1/2 Cup to your favorite muffin recipe (here is one of mine)

appetizer-serve next to crackers for a little something different at your next party

::The Last Few Weeks::

:: Got new haircuts..finally.

::Played in puddles

::Got muddy at Mimi's

::Had a visit from Auntie

::Said good-bye to the last bits of snow with a romp in a snow puddle

::Played outside with Papa quite a bit

::Preserved some pineapple (more on this later)

::Crashed a birthday party and so furiously knit up a little gift

Together

It all started with the pipes. Well, honestly it started before then. It started at the beginning of winter when we realized that no matter how we budgeted our money we would never have enough check left at the end of the month. We prayed. I took on a very part time job working with my mother, Jason took a part time job at a store (in addition to his full time job at the jail), and still we didn't have enough. We considered having me find full time employment and considered what that would do to our family. We prayed. We asked ourselves: How much do we want to work to keep the house? Do we want to work and be away from home and our son in order to keep our house? Which was worth more to us: Owning a house, or a strong family bond? We prayed for guidance and direction. We apologized to the mortgage company for making a promise that we couldn't keep, and through negotiation agreed to sell the house. In the meantime they told us we could remain in the house, at least through the winter. We continued to pray. 

Once the decision was made to sell the house it opened up some opportunities. Jason had been keeping his eyes and ears open for a new line of work. He wasn't enjoying his job as a Corrections Officer. He took a job working at a factory making and packing plastic silverware only two miles from where my parents lived (and I was working part time) and forty-five minutes closer to home. We hoped with this change that he'd be able to volunteer at a camp near-by, be more involved at church, and possibly go to college. We kept our eyes and ears open for a new place to live. Both of our parents offered for us to live with them, we thanked them for their offers and told them we'd think on it.

Then disaster: the furnace broke, some pipes were busted, and we were forced to move in with my parents (who had the most space) temporarily while we sorted out all the issues. Three weeks later it was remarked: "We like you living here, you like you living here, we have room for you living here, so why don't you just live here?"

That was over a month ago. 

We have moved in. There is now four adults, one teen, one toddler, one small dog, one rabbit, one horse, five cats, and more animals on the way.

We are so excited to be living together. Stomper is showered in love, I get to bake and cook and never clean up (Mom likes to clean), Jason has places to do "things", my Mom gets the help she needs in the daycare, and my Dad gets the encouragement he needs to follow through with his projects.

Now that we are all living together we have started a new adventure....

Farming! You can read all about our new adventure here.

This Weekend We Are...

:: Discovering new blogs: Guns & Butter, Crappy Pictures, and Play Based Learning

 :: Dreaming of sewing these animals

:: Feeling I could make this  or this one on my own

 :: Welcoming a new life into our church family

:: Thinking I need to do this ASAP, because we all could use a bit of color

 :: Wishing Stomper was a bit bigger so we could do this for him

:: Thankful for a warm home to come home to