Strawberry Jam

I decided to try out my new canning skillz on some strawberries.

First, I mashed them up:

leftovers

Then I added the pectin and sugar and heated it up:

I skimmed off the foam, don't worry

Then I used my fancy canning funnel and filled the jars with jam:

Into the canner they went:

15 minutes later:

Strawberry jam!

The recipe made 5.5 jars of jam. The half-full jar is in my fridge. Since we don't eat a ton of jam in our house, this might last us all year. Go me!

Canning House Party

Have you heard of House Party? I just learned about the site a couple of months ago. Here's what they say on their site: A House Party^™ is thousands of parties across the country, hosted by people like you. Each event is sponsored by a leading brand and focuses on something cool that the sponsor wants its best fans to experience firsthand and share with their friends.

I applied for and was accepted to host a House Party for Ball (canning). I was so excited. I have wanted to learn how to can for awhile, but I didn't know how to get started and I didn't want to invest in a canner until I knew whether or not I would actually do it. Ball sent me a canner, coupons for free jars, a Blue Book Guide to Preserving with directions and recipes, a Home Canning Discovery Kit, and stuff for my party guests to take home. It was awesome!

At the party we canned salsa and pepper jelly. I canned a batch of salsa on my own earlier in the week to try it out. It was so much simpler than I thought!

Here's my party:

Home Canning Discovery Kit and Utensil Set

If you don't want to invest the money (and space) in a canner, this is what you want. The Home Canning Discovery Kit comes with a plastic rack that fits in a standard stock pot, three pint size jars with lids and bands, and a pamphlet with directions and recipes.

The utensil set isn't necessary, but the tools made the canning process so simple.

The Blue Book Guide to Preserving.

I received two of these books, one for me and one to give away. I had my guests guess how many noodles were in the jar, the closest person won the book.

Design a label for your jars

I cut out circles to fit on the two different sized lids and had guests make labels.

The food!

I kept it simple since we were going to be chopping and canning. I made chicken salad croissant sandwiches, Parisian salad (from Costco), chips, and salsa (that I canned a few days earlier).

I forgot to take pictures until the very end, so I only have a few "action shots".

Denise putting pepper jelly into jars.

Carly and Angela snacking on some delicious salsa.

The finished salsa and pepper jelly!

Thank you Ball and House Party!

I have a new hobby! I love canning! It is so easy, it doesn't take a lot of time, it's healthy, you know what's in the food, it's cheaper than store bought, you can do a little or a lot... I could go on. It's great for food storage. I've already canned some strawberry jam (post to come). I want to can some applesauce and some peaches.

Let me know if you want to come over and can with me. It's more fun with friends!

Social Butterfly

We've been lucky to have some sunny weather lately (FINALLY!). That means more time at the park!

Lauren sure knows how to captivate a crowd of little kids.

First time in a park swing.

Lauren's first solid food

Lauren had her first solid food a couple of weeks ago.

Getting ready

First bite

Not so sure

Maybe it's not so bad. Arghhhh! (This is her pirate look.)

She's not a huge fan of rice cereal. She's also had sweet potatoes and she LOVES those.

Chore Chart

I made a chore chart for Kaylin. Don't worry, her chores aren't much work. They're just things that we expect of her and I want her to get used to contributing and having responsibilities. The chores I want her to focus on are:

1. Get dressed
2. Do hair
3. Brush teeth
4. Make bed
5. Pick up toys

Obviously, I'm helping with most of these. Kaylin does well with positive reinforcement and loves charts, so I'm hoping this chart will help us get ready in the morning and keep her things picked up without too many tears and complaints.

First, I made a magnetic chart. I based it off of this tutorial.

I took two 5" x 8" metal shingles, which I purchased from Lowe's in the roofing section, and glued them with E6000 glue to a thin piece of cardboard cut to 8" x 10". I then printed the chart onto a piece of scrapbook paper and trimmed it to 8" x 10". I attached the paper to the metal shingles using some scrapbooking adhesive so that I can easily remove it and change the paper when I want. I then placed the magnetic chart into an 8" x 10" frame.

Here are her chore magnets:

To make the magnets I found clip art in Word and sized it to about 1" x 1". I made a text box over the top of each picture (make sure the transparency is set to 100%). I then basically followed this tutorial. I printed my magnet images on card stock. I've found that works better. I traced each pebble (found in the floral section of craft stores) around one image. I cut the image out and mod podged it to the pebble. After drying, I put a layer of mod podge on the back of the paper. After that was dry, I used E6000 glue to attach a ceramic 3/4" magnet.

Here is the finished chart:

Kaylin immediately wanted to move the magnets from the "to do" side to the "done" side. As you can see, we hadn't made her bed yet today. We then had to rush upstairs to make her bed. Now she is begging me to help her clean up the bonus room so she can move the last magnet. We'll see how long the excitement lasts. But even after the excitement has faded, I think the chart will be a great visual reminder of what is expected of her every day.

Trip to Bham

My sister and her kids were in Bellingham for a week, so we of course had to join them for a few days. My brother and his wife are at my parents' house for the summer. Needless to say, it was a packed house. We had a great time.

We were able to be there for my dad's birthday. Here he is with his 4 grandkids. Yup, this is the best picture I got of all of them :-).


We went to Whatcom Falls Park. My cousin, Lorinda, was also in town with her two girls. Lucky us! All of the girls loved the waterfall.


My mom is currently in to hula hooping. So when we get together now we all have to hula hoop in the backyard.


Lauren and Miles! Miles is about 2.5 weeks older than Lauren.


We went to the children's museum in Burlington.

We are so glad that Kelsey, Macey, and Miles could come visit!

Lauren is 6 months old!

Half a year??? How did that happen?

Lauren went to the doctor today and it seems that her growth has slowed down. Her proportions are now closer to what Kaylin's have been since day one. Her weight percentile went down by about 40! The doctor isn't concerned since she's eating well, she's healthy, and the proportions are normal for our family.

Height: 27.25" (91.4%)
Weight: 14 lb. 15 oz. (24.8%)

Lauren just started sitting on her own. She leans forward some, but she can sit for a couple of minutes before falling over.

To compare, here's Kaylin at 6 months. What do you think?

Another reason why my dad is the best

I pretty much have the best dad ever. Picture this... it's 3:00 am and you wake up to a knock at your bedroom door. Your *almost* 30 year old daughter comes in and tells you that she didn't quite make it to the toilet and threw up in the bathroom sink. The sink of course didn't drain. She didn't want to wake you up, but she didn't know what to do. And leaving vomit in the bathroom sink overnight was not a good option. Especially since 4 other people were using the bathroom she decided to defile.

Hey... in my defense... At least I made it to the bathroom! I was sleeping upstairs and this bathroom was downstairs. I didn't use one of the upstairs bathrooms because one is in my parents' bedroom and the other was being occupied by a sleeping 6 month old. You don't wake sleeping babies, even for that.

Back to the story. Without complaint, almost happily, you get out of bed and clean up the nastiness. Then you go back to bed, probably have a hard time going back to sleep, and get up at 5:00 am for an 11 hour work day.

Oh yeah. One more thing. Did I mention that it's your birthday?

Happy birthday, Dad! You are the best. I love you!

Also, a big thank you to my mom and sister for taking care of my girls, disinfecting every possible surface in the house, and buying me Gatorade.

***And NO, I am not pregnant, so don't ask. :-)***

Twinners

The girls got their first matching dresses. Kaylin loves her dress. She's worn it almost every day for the past week. She only wears it for an hour or two and she says she's a princess whenever it's on. She also likes to wear the long dress all bunched up at her waist with a tutu on. So of course Kaylin wanted to wear the dress to church on Sunday. She insisted that Lauren wear her matching dress too. Kaylin was so excited that she asked if I would take their picture. If you know Kaylin, then you know that that is a big deal. She even smiled! Unfortunately, I couldn't get Lauren to smile.

Before bed, I was able to get one of both of them smiling.

Aren't they sweet?

When ye are in the service of your fellow beings...

.... ye are only in the service of your God (Mosiah 2:17).

This is the scripture that came to mind yesterday at Winco. Let me explain.

When I grocery shop I wear Lauren in the front pack and Kaylin rides in the front of the cart. It's just faster and easier for me that way. For now :-). By the time I get to the check out, I'm worn out. It takes me a long time to put all of my groceries on the belt because I'm always holding Lauren with one arm to make sure she doesn't hit something or fall out of the pack (not that that would actually happen). By the time I'm done putting my groceries on the belt, it's pretty much time to pay. I pay, then I take the cart to the end of the next belt to start bagging my food. At Winco you bag your own groceries. That part takes even longer. By this time I am starting to sweat.

Yesterday, I was slowly bagging my food, when a lady and her teenage daughter walked up to me. She said, "Can I help you?" I was a little shocked. I said, "Really? Sure, that would be great!" I was semi-surprised at my response, since normally I would just say something like, "No, I'm fine. Thank you." The two started bagging my groceries. I helped a little :-). The woman said that she has eight kids and knows what it's like to be at the grocery store alone with little ones making it tough. She also mentioned that she used to be a grocery bagger. My groceries were bagged in no time.

It was such a simple act for them to stop and help me. But it meant so much to me. I thanked them profusely and was fighting back tears as I left the store. I hope they know what an impact their service had on me. It took two minutes for them to help me, but it saved me a lot of time and energy and made me feel that people are looking out for me.

Their service reminded me how I need to be looking for ways to help others. Even small gestures can have a big impact.