This Christmas season I have been so busy! I made about 10 aprons and then I made 2 quiet books. (I am trying to remember how to add the pics to this~~so hopefully I will add them soon.) I love to sew and have had so much fun making and GIVING the cute aprons. Now I need to make myself one so I can take a pic of it and put that on as well.
I am painting the house. In our entry, I covered my chili pepper red wall and painted it a light blue. I added a few dark brown accent walls, and I really like how it all turned out. The colors look good with my "muddy river green" color.....I am going to start painting the basement this weekend. Brent has torn out the complete bathroom downstairs and we are going to start making that over, along with all the painting.

STILL CANNING

So, last night I finished 65 quarts of applesauce. I am giving some to my sister, in return for the free apples. The applesauce is fantastic, but SO much work. I am freezing pumpkin tomorrow and then I am THROUGH!!!! I should have kept a running total, but this fall we have frozen corn, pumpkin, green beans and green tomatos (to use for chile verde) and canned apricots, green beans, mustard pickles, relish, salsa, tomatoes, plums and spagetti sauce....I get so tired canning, I really CANNOT understand why I love doing it~~it has to be the great feeling of full shelves in my pantry and plenty of good food for the winter!! I am so greatful for the fantastic garden we had again this summer. It blows me away to see all the food that little piece of ground provides us with, year after year! Can I just say again, how happy I am to be finished canning!!!???

H1N1?

I have been SO sick the past couple of days. At first I thought it was my allergies and sinus'. On Friday my head hurt so badly I just wanted to cry and make it feel better. I did not go to a cousin's baby shower on Sat, in case had something which could get everyone there sick. I really wanted to go and felt I should, but when I thought about it, I realized if the tables were turned and it was MY daughter's baby shower, I would be upset if someone came not sure if they were sick. I stayed home and later that night, after being wit 5 of my grandchildren that evening, my sore throat and deep chest cough came with a vengence. BOY, was I ever glad I did not go to Amber's shower. I called my doc this morn and they told me to go to the insta care, but I opted not to, since I am already on a pretty good antibiotic, and even though I am pretty sick, I am feeling a little better....and have no fever, throwing up or hard time breathing.. I guess I just have to wait and see if I get better. I have not been this sick in a LONG time, and I hope it is a very long time until I get this sick again!!!
The past few days I have been freezing pumpkin and green tomatoes. I am using the green tomatoes for chili verde, and the pumpkin for pumpkin waffles.... we tried the pumpkin as squash for dinner tonight and it tasted exactly like squash....so we could have that as a veggie, as well as using it in the waffles. YUMMM!

today I am feeling a little frustrated about not getting much done. I cannot figure out if I am just slower now that I am getting older, or if I am really that disorganized...hummmm. I feel like I want everything to be in order before I start the HUGE task of copmpletely reorganizing my home. Maybe I will just have to take a room a day and make that work. It seems like in the fall I am so busy canning, and just keeping things up, I GET NOTHING DONE!!! I thought with my kids grown up I would be free to do more and I swear my time is more busy than it was with 5 little kids~~~ how does that happen? I just finished some canning tonight so I better get to bed!!!

The past couple of weeks have been feeling a little lazy. I canned my crazy head off, and the I BURNED out bad! Luckily the past couple of weeks, I was able to give away my tomatoes and I am going out after this to pick the last of the tomatoes I will probably get this year. I want to make some more salsa and some more spagetti sauce!! YUMMMM...
I made choc chip cookies and some fresh wheat bread with homemade strawberry jam for Ethan today. I hope he likes them, I have been meaning to send him some goodies in the MTC and he is about 1/2 way thru and still NOTHING from me. Oh my good intentions!!

So today I am starting over with my blog! I was making it for everyone to see, and I decided that did not especially work for me. Now I am writing it for me!! I am going to keep somewhat of a journal about what I am doing and what I am interested in.
Today I amgoing to pick tomatoes and green beans from the garden and Kailey and I will can them for her new storage room. ALthough it is so much work, it is so great to see the results of that work when you have shelves full of things put up for the winter. After canning the beans we will make more salsa~~~ I got a great recipe from the Utah State extension service website. I have several I really like, but I make this one because it has been tested and is a safe recipe. It scares me to use recipes from people who just make them up!

Salsa using paste tomatoes (Roma)
7 qt peeled, chopped tomatoes
4 c seeded, chopped long chiles (can use some green peppers, if desired)
5 c chopped onion
1/2 c finely chopped, seeded jalapenos
6 cloves garlic
2 c lemon juice
2 TBLS salt
1 TBLS pepper
3 TBLS oregano leaves
2 TBLS cilantro
Combine all ingreds, except cumin, oregano and cilantro in a large pot. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, reduce heat and summer 10 min. Add spices and simmer another 20 minutes. Ladle into hot pint jars, leaving 1/2" jead space. Procss in boiling water canner 20 minutes.

Using Roma (paste) tomates works best, as slicing tomatoes require MUCH long cooking time to get desired consistency.