The first weekend in August, we decided to head out to our local orchard and pick some peaches. A friend had tipped me off that they had them for $0.90/lb. When we got there, however, we found out they were having a "Clean-up" sale to get rid of the last of the peaches. We scored 20 lbs of peaches for $0.45/lb!! Now, I'm not going to say it was easy picking - because there was a lot of overripe fruit rotting on the trees, but boy was it worth it! Ira had fun eating as many peaches as he could while Andy and I picked for about 45 minutes. I think he ate like 5!
After we were done picking the owner (who is a friend of Andy's family) and I were talking about how nothing compares to freshly picked produce. Then I found out an interesting fact. He told me that the sugar doesn't really set into the peaches until the last two weeks. The problem with store-bought peaches is that they are typically picked prior to that, then ripened on the way to the store. No wonder these peaches were so good and sweet!!!
We also picked 20 lbs of summer gold apples for $0.49/lb. Now they were easy picking! The trees were absolutely lousy with apples. I think we picked all 20 lbs. in about 5 minutes.
Then began the process of putting it all up! My oh my were we busy with that for awhile!
Now, not that I don't love fruit crisps, pies, and the like, but quite honestly, if we make them, we eat them, and who really needs to be eating that stuff all the time? So we were boring and just blanched and sliced all the peaches and froze them to be used in fruit salads or smoothies. Oh yeah, and I made about half a gallon of baby food out of them too. Unlike the baby food peaches that you buy at the store that are that nasty orangish/yellow/gold color, these are an absolutely beautiful coral color (I think the red is the sugar that sets in the peaches the last 2 weeks.) They will definitely be one of the later foods we introduce to Ruby - they are VERY SWEET!!!
We were also boring with the apples and just made applesauce. Although I must say, the applesauce is anything BUT boring! We didn't have to add any sugar, but we did add some cinnamon and some cloves. OH MY!!! It tastes and smells ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!!! I also made some up into baby food for Ruby.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
My sweeties
My two kiddos all clean after bath time and ready for bed in their jammies. I am SO blessed!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Ruby 5 Month Stats
Ruby turned 5 months old on August 5th. I just don't know where the time goes! She is growing up SO fast!!
Height: 25.75 inches
Weight: 15 lbs. 13 oz.
Fun things she learned during her 5th month:
- grabbing (and sucking/chewing on) faces and Ira's hair; laughing at Ira;
- flipping to her tummy in NO TIME FLAT during diaper changes and stretching her neck/head just so so that there is no possible way you can get her back on her back;
-touching her own hair (she pets it - it is SO cute!);
-turning her head away while nursing so that she can check out what else is going on in the room;
-showing favoritism towards her little wind up clock/music box that the Easter Bunny brought her.
5 month pictures:
Height: 25.75 inches
Weight: 15 lbs. 13 oz.
Fun things she learned during her 5th month:
- grabbing (and sucking/chewing on) faces and Ira's hair; laughing at Ira;
- flipping to her tummy in NO TIME FLAT during diaper changes and stretching her neck/head just so so that there is no possible way you can get her back on her back;
-touching her own hair (she pets it - it is SO cute!);
-turning her head away while nursing so that she can check out what else is going on in the room;
-showing favoritism towards her little wind up clock/music box that the Easter Bunny brought her.
5 month pictures:
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Swimming Lessons
Ira got to take swimming lessons in July. Our little city pool just two blocks from our house offered lessons for 4 year olds this year for the first time. Andy and I were excited to have Ira take lessons and become more comfortable with the water (he wouldn't even really put his face in.) He took to lessons just like a FISH and will now go under without even thinking about it. I was really glad to see him love the water!
He didn't pass Level 1, and let me tell you, even though I'd told myself that it didn't matter whether he passed or failed, it was a little hard for me to know that he didn't pass - even though when I saw the skills required to pass, I knew that he was not proficient at them yet. It was just humbling. It made me realize that as Ira grows, there are going to be things that are hard for him and that he doesn't get right on the first try and that's okay. That's how he'll learn and become a man (gasp... tear...)
Okay, enough seriousness - here are some pictures of Ira at lessons. He's on the right of these pictures. I love how I captured him getting ready to go under, under, and coming back up.
He didn't pass Level 1, and let me tell you, even though I'd told myself that it didn't matter whether he passed or failed, it was a little hard for me to know that he didn't pass - even though when I saw the skills required to pass, I knew that he was not proficient at them yet. It was just humbling. It made me realize that as Ira grows, there are going to be things that are hard for him and that he doesn't get right on the first try and that's okay. That's how he'll learn and become a man (gasp... tear...)
Okay, enough seriousness - here are some pictures of Ira at lessons. He's on the right of these pictures. I love how I captured him getting ready to go under, under, and coming back up.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Swing swing!
Ruby got to swing in the baby swing on our swingset for the first time! She really seemed to like it! I am sure that once it cools down a bit she will be spending a LOT of time in it!
Look at those chunky cheeks!!
Along the same lines (swing batter!) Ruby went to her first baseball game in July as well! Andy's company had an appreciation evening at the ballpark and it was like a million degrees outside, so she was kind of fussy until the sun went down (and it cooled off to just half a million.) She liked hooting at the field and eating her squeaky toys. Not so sure that little miss is going to be miss outdoors gal - she kinda acts like she hates it or something. Nevertheless, I took pictures:
Look at those chunky cheeks!!Along the same lines (swing batter!) Ruby went to her first baseball game in July as well! Andy's company had an appreciation evening at the ballpark and it was like a million degrees outside, so she was kind of fussy until the sun went down (and it cooled off to just half a million.) She liked hooting at the field and eating her squeaky toys. Not so sure that little miss is going to be miss outdoors gal - she kinda acts like she hates it or something. Nevertheless, I took pictures:
Friday, August 20, 2010
Freezer Cooking Day cont'd
Put your baking panties on and get ready to cook up some more awesome freezer meals!
Manicotti Roll-ups (ninetuple batch)
48 lasagna noodles
7 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
8 c. cottage cheese
2 jars grated parmesan cheese
7 eggs
(for eating: 1-1.5 c. spaghetti sauce)
Prepare lasagna noodles as directed on the box, being careful not to let them stick together. (You may have to do them in batches.)
In a bowl, combine the cheeses and eggs. Spread a heaping 1/4 c. of cheese/egg mixture over each noodle. Roll up and place seam side down in a gal. freezer bag (8 per bag)
To eat: place in greased glass baking dish. Heat at 350-375ish until they are warm, then pour spaghetti sauce over the roll ups. You may top with additional cheese if desired.
Okay, so this one below takes the cake for being the EASIEST recipe! It goes together in no time flat!
Marinated Chicken (Quadruple Batch)
16 boneless skinless chicken breasts, frozen
2 bottles Italian Dressing
8 large green peppers, sliced
8 large onions, sliced
In a gal. freezer bag, put 4 frozen chicken breasts. Dump in half of a bottle of Italian Dressing, a quarter of the green peppers, and a quarter of the onions. Fold the freezer bag in half (so the mixture only takes up half the bag) and stick it in the freezer, you're done!
To eat: cut bag off of frozen mixture, put in crockpot. Heat on low for 6ish hours (or as long as you like, quite honestly!) Eat over cooked brown rice (or white rice, whatever!)
French Bread Pizzas (Double Batch Supreme, Double batch pepperoni)
Supremes:
4 loaves French bread
2 jars spaghetti sauce
3 lbs. hamburger cooked with salt and Italian Seasoning
1.5 bags pepperoni
4 large green peppers, diced
2 large onions, diced
2 cans olives, diced
5 cans mushrooms
8 c. shredded mozzarella
To assemble: split loaves in half then cut in half (so you have 4 open faces) (an electric knife works SWELL for this!) Top with: 1/4 c. spaghetti sauce, spoonful of hamburger, 7-8 pepperoni, peppers, onions, olives, mushrooms, and 1/2 c. cheese. Wrap in heavy duty foil.
Pepperoni:
4 loaves french bread
2 jars spaghetti sauce
1.5 bags pepperoni
8 c. shredded mozzarella
To assemble: spit loaves in half then cut in half (so you have 4 open faces.) Top with: 1/4 c. spaghetti sauce, 1/2 c. cheese, and 7-8 pepperoni.
1 c. butter
2 large onions, diced
2 c. celery, chopped
8 c. uncooked rice
8 chicken bouillon cubes
4 cans cream of chicken soup
4 c. milk
3 head broccoli, chopped
2 chickens, cooked and cubed (cook in crockpot for 6-8 hours on low)
1/4 c. Montreal Steak Seasoning
(for eating: 1 c. cheddar cheese)
Cook rice according to package directions, adding chicken bouillon cubes to the water. Saute onion and celery in butter. Add broccoli towards the end and cover briefly to steam broccoli slightly. Mix milk & soup. Mix all ingredients in a LARGE bowl & place in greased foil in 8x8 glass baking dish. Pop it in the freezer and when frozen, cover with excess foil and put it in a gallon freezer bag.
To eat: Peel foil off and put back in the 8x8 pan. Bake at 350-375 until warm, then top with cheese and bake until hot.
So there you have it! That's all the recipes we used for Freezer Cooking Day in July. We were pretty proud, because we spent $159.19 TOTAL (not per person!!) Some of it was from our gardens, and some of it we lucked out because we get milk and beef for free. That figures out to $4.82 per meal (not per person) for a 4 person meal. In my opinion - you can't beat that! Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the day:
Manicotti Roll-ups (ninetuple batch)
48 lasagna noodles
7 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
8 c. cottage cheese
2 jars grated parmesan cheese
7 eggs
(for eating: 1-1.5 c. spaghetti sauce)
Prepare lasagna noodles as directed on the box, being careful not to let them stick together. (You may have to do them in batches.)
In a bowl, combine the cheeses and eggs. Spread a heaping 1/4 c. of cheese/egg mixture over each noodle. Roll up and place seam side down in a gal. freezer bag (8 per bag)
To eat: place in greased glass baking dish. Heat at 350-375ish until they are warm, then pour spaghetti sauce over the roll ups. You may top with additional cheese if desired.
Okay, so this one below takes the cake for being the EASIEST recipe! It goes together in no time flat!
Marinated Chicken (Quadruple Batch)
16 boneless skinless chicken breasts, frozen
2 bottles Italian Dressing
8 large green peppers, sliced
8 large onions, sliced
In a gal. freezer bag, put 4 frozen chicken breasts. Dump in half of a bottle of Italian Dressing, a quarter of the green peppers, and a quarter of the onions. Fold the freezer bag in half (so the mixture only takes up half the bag) and stick it in the freezer, you're done!
To eat: cut bag off of frozen mixture, put in crockpot. Heat on low for 6ish hours (or as long as you like, quite honestly!) Eat over cooked brown rice (or white rice, whatever!)
French Bread Pizzas (Double Batch Supreme, Double batch pepperoni)
Supremes:
4 loaves French bread
2 jars spaghetti sauce
3 lbs. hamburger cooked with salt and Italian Seasoning
1.5 bags pepperoni
4 large green peppers, diced
2 large onions, diced
2 cans olives, diced
5 cans mushrooms
8 c. shredded mozzarella
To assemble: split loaves in half then cut in half (so you have 4 open faces) (an electric knife works SWELL for this!) Top with: 1/4 c. spaghetti sauce, spoonful of hamburger, 7-8 pepperoni, peppers, onions, olives, mushrooms, and 1/2 c. cheese. Wrap in heavy duty foil.
Pepperoni:
4 loaves french bread
2 jars spaghetti sauce
1.5 bags pepperoni
8 c. shredded mozzarella
To assemble: spit loaves in half then cut in half (so you have 4 open faces.) Top with: 1/4 c. spaghetti sauce, 1/2 c. cheese, and 7-8 pepperoni.
Make-Ahead Butterhorns (makes anywhere from 24-48 rolls depending on how you slice it)
2 Tablespoons dry yeast, heaping
1/3 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
9 cups flour, divided
2 cups warm milk (110-115 degrees)
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
6 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
3-4 Tablespoons butter, melted
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add 4 cups flour, milk, butter, sugar, eggs and salt. Beat 2 minutes or until smooth.
Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto floured board and knead lightly. (Or, knead in mixer until sides of bowl are clean, then knead two more minutes.)
Place in a greased bowl, turning dough once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (1-3 hours).
Punch dough down and divide into four equal parts (When we made it for freezer cooking day, we made a double batch, then each family got a half of a batch. Some people divided their half into thirds, then made 24 rolls - because I'll warn you, if you make four equal parts, then 8 wedges from each part, the 32 rolls will be pretty big
Cut each circle into 8 pie-shaped wedges. (Alternately, you can cut a circle into 6 wedges, which are a great size for sandwiches.)
Roll up each wedge for wide edge to tip of dough and pinch to seal. Place rolls, top down, on baking sheets and freeze. When frozen, place in freezer bags and keep frozen until needed.
To bake: Take out as many frozen rolls as you’ll need and place them on a greased baking sheet. Thaw for five hours or until doubled in size. Bake at 375 degrees until lightly browned. Brush with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven. Remove and serve immediately or cool on wire racks.
1 c. butter
2 large onions, diced
2 c. celery, chopped
8 c. uncooked rice
8 chicken bouillon cubes
4 cans cream of chicken soup
4 c. milk
3 head broccoli, chopped
2 chickens, cooked and cubed (cook in crockpot for 6-8 hours on low)
1/4 c. Montreal Steak Seasoning
(for eating: 1 c. cheddar cheese)
Cook rice according to package directions, adding chicken bouillon cubes to the water. Saute onion and celery in butter. Add broccoli towards the end and cover briefly to steam broccoli slightly. Mix milk & soup. Mix all ingredients in a LARGE bowl & place in greased foil in 8x8 glass baking dish. Pop it in the freezer and when frozen, cover with excess foil and put it in a gallon freezer bag.
To eat: Peel foil off and put back in the 8x8 pan. Bake at 350-375 until warm, then top with cheese and bake until hot.
So there you have it! That's all the recipes we used for Freezer Cooking Day in July. We were pretty proud, because we spent $159.19 TOTAL (not per person!!) Some of it was from our gardens, and some of it we lucked out because we get milk and beef for free. That figures out to $4.82 per meal (not per person) for a 4 person meal. In my opinion - you can't beat that! Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the day:
The Catholic Company Review: Simplify Your Life
Simplify Your Life by Woodeene Koenig-Bricker
Awhile back, I stumbled onto the Catholic Company's Reviewer program from a friend's blog. Anyone who has read this blog very much knows that I struggle with keeping things simple, so I chose this book hoping that it would help me simplify my life.
On the cover, the book says "30 Minute Read." Now for some reason, when I chose it to review, I was under the impression that it was a longer book composed of 30-minute lessons/chapters. However, the entire book is a 30-minute read. Initially, I was disappointed because I wanted something with more meat, but as I reread the book, I discovered that everything I needed to know really was there in a quick 30 minute read. How simple!
The book is divided into chapters consisting of different areas in which we can bring simplicity to our lives.
The first chapter encourages the reader to "envision what a simple life would look like for you" by imagining the "perfect" day. She says not to limit yourself by what you think is possible, but to allow yourself to listen to the master of imagination, the creator Himself. This was hard for me, because my mind kept saying "that's not realistic." But I think there really is something to really deciding what is important to you in your day.
The second chapter talks about simplifying the objects in our lives. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest ways to simplify our lives. Our possessions really do possess us if we let them. The author encourages you to ask yourself "Do I love this? Does this make me smile? or Would I regret it if I lost it" with each item in your house. It definitely lit a fire in me to go through our house once again and get rid of things that we really don't need/use.
Chapter 3 talked about simplifying relationships. Relationships are something that were scarcely on my radar screen when I thought about simplifying life, but really, they are something that can complicate life significantly. When I put this chapter into practice in my life, I ended up going through my friends on Facebook and paring down my list fairly significantly. Staying abreast of everyone that I've ever known's lives really was sucking up a lot of my time and energy.
The fourth chapter encouraged the reader to simplify "more stuff" which the author described as "the factors that are so big we don't consciously think about the on a regular basis." Things like: big ticket items in our homes, media/entertainment/communication, routines, and commitments. One statistic that the author shared was particularly thought provoking. "The average American consumes 34 gigabytes and 100,000 words over the course of about 12 hours every day." That is a LOT of information to consume. I have definitely made efforts to make sure that the information that I am consuming is worthwhile and important to me since reading that little fact!
The rest of the book focuses on simplifying your life from the inside out, by giving ideas for handling stress and by encouraging the reader to live a life of gratitude. She talked about looking for something each day for which to be thankful. I think I'd like to incorporate that into our dinner conversation somehow. It would be good for all of us.
One chapter which I didn't feel really made sense in the book was a chapter on the environment and taking care of it by recycling/reducing/reusing. Although I truly believe that those things are very important, the chapter just didn't seem like it belonged in this particular book. It was one of those "one of these things is not like the other..." things. It just didn't make sense for me in this book.
Overall, I was grateful for the suggestions in the book, and I think the author did a nice job highlighting the main areas in which we can simplify our lives.
This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program. I have not received any payment for this review, but I did receive a free copy of the book Simplify Your Life. Learn more about joining the reviewer program here.
Awhile back, I stumbled onto the Catholic Company's Reviewer program from a friend's blog. Anyone who has read this blog very much knows that I struggle with keeping things simple, so I chose this book hoping that it would help me simplify my life.
On the cover, the book says "30 Minute Read." Now for some reason, when I chose it to review, I was under the impression that it was a longer book composed of 30-minute lessons/chapters. However, the entire book is a 30-minute read. Initially, I was disappointed because I wanted something with more meat, but as I reread the book, I discovered that everything I needed to know really was there in a quick 30 minute read. How simple!
The book is divided into chapters consisting of different areas in which we can bring simplicity to our lives.
The first chapter encourages the reader to "envision what a simple life would look like for you" by imagining the "perfect" day. She says not to limit yourself by what you think is possible, but to allow yourself to listen to the master of imagination, the creator Himself. This was hard for me, because my mind kept saying "that's not realistic." But I think there really is something to really deciding what is important to you in your day.
The second chapter talks about simplifying the objects in our lives. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest ways to simplify our lives. Our possessions really do possess us if we let them. The author encourages you to ask yourself "Do I love this? Does this make me smile? or Would I regret it if I lost it" with each item in your house. It definitely lit a fire in me to go through our house once again and get rid of things that we really don't need/use.
Chapter 3 talked about simplifying relationships. Relationships are something that were scarcely on my radar screen when I thought about simplifying life, but really, they are something that can complicate life significantly. When I put this chapter into practice in my life, I ended up going through my friends on Facebook and paring down my list fairly significantly. Staying abreast of everyone that I've ever known's lives really was sucking up a lot of my time and energy.
The fourth chapter encouraged the reader to simplify "more stuff" which the author described as "the factors that are so big we don't consciously think about the on a regular basis." Things like: big ticket items in our homes, media/entertainment/communication, routines, and commitments. One statistic that the author shared was particularly thought provoking. "The average American consumes 34 gigabytes and 100,000 words over the course of about 12 hours every day." That is a LOT of information to consume. I have definitely made efforts to make sure that the information that I am consuming is worthwhile and important to me since reading that little fact!
The rest of the book focuses on simplifying your life from the inside out, by giving ideas for handling stress and by encouraging the reader to live a life of gratitude. She talked about looking for something each day for which to be thankful. I think I'd like to incorporate that into our dinner conversation somehow. It would be good for all of us.
One chapter which I didn't feel really made sense in the book was a chapter on the environment and taking care of it by recycling/reducing/reusing. Although I truly believe that those things are very important, the chapter just didn't seem like it belonged in this particular book. It was one of those "one of these things is not like the other..." things. It just didn't make sense for me in this book.
Overall, I was grateful for the suggestions in the book, and I think the author did a nice job highlighting the main areas in which we can simplify our lives.
This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program. I have not received any payment for this review, but I did receive a free copy of the book Simplify Your Life. Learn more about joining the reviewer program here.
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