A break from the house updates to bring you...Harvest 2008!

I know, I know. I am corny. But you love me...right?

So, here is what I did today and yesterday.

Here we are at Rousters Apple Orchard. The apples were already picked for the year so we just picked up a 10 lb bag and some cider.



Us with our loot.



Enjoying some hot cider.



Craig couldn't wait to wash them...I hope they were organic.



Here we are at Shaw Farms, just down the street from the apple place. I couldn't go without a pumpkin this year. We picked up a "spooky" variety pumpkin for $1! Yay!








So, we brought home a TON of apples yesterday. Craig desperately wants me to can them. I have been researching various recipe to can/cook them. Today I decided just to do some plain old cooking/freezing. Tomorrow I may tackle the canning.

Making homemade apple sauce is easy!
Step 1. Skin, core, chop apples.
Step 2. Cover halfway with water in a large pot.
Step 3. Add any sugar, cinnamon, or other spices you like.
Step 4. Simmer for aprox. 30 min.
Step 5. MASH
Step 6. Can, freeze, jar, refrigerate, or EAT!



Here is what the apple sauce looks like during the mashing process.



Canning some of the apple sauce to be refrigerated. Some will be frozen, and tomorrow I am actually going to make a batch to can for the pantry.



Making apple slices to freeze.



Ready to be frozen.



Is the bag half empty or half full? You decide!



Here is the pumpkin I bought at Shaw Farms.



This was my first attempt at carving and "sculpting" a pumpkin. It was tons of fun! I probably could have gone a bit deeper with the cat but, I like it. If you look closely you can see that I gave it eyes and a heart! ;-)





I always hate cleaning up...



I couldn't let the seeds from my pumpkin go to waste. I toasted them with worcestershire, seasoned salt, onion power, olive oil, and chili powder. YUM.



I don't know why I bothered to bag these. They will likely be eaten today. :-)




Ps. If anyone knows a faster way to put pictures on here PLEASE tell me. Even if it is a slide show or something. This one at a time thing is killing me. :-)

A house update 2:

Just a little note: These pictures were taken BEFORE we did ANY improvements on the house. We took these as we walked through it the first time. It was vacant for a year or so and an older lady own it so, little yard up keep was done. The day we bought the house we brought a chain saw with us...

The very over grown front of the house. Its hard to believe that a four bedroom/ two bathroom house with a finished basement is hiding back in there.


This is the dining/ living room. Under the carpet we have hardwoods throughout most of the house. We are not sure of the condition of them yet. The carpet is new so we want to wait until we need new carpet before we go pulling anything up.



This is the build in that is in our dining room. The 30 coats of paint on it are quite charming and are evidence that the house is 60 years old.


Here is our family room. It has is own door from the front of the house (we have two front doors which gets confusing when you hear the door bell ring) and a double sliding door to the back. This is the room that is connected to our garage (which I am sure you don't really want to see pictures of).



Here is our kitchen before we changed anything. We have future plans of tearing out a wall in it.


Here is a tiny little peak into bedroom #1. It has three windows and a nice closet.We are currently using it as our guest room. Please excuse the terrible picture. Our camera was SERIOUSLY on the fritz.



Here is a peak into bedroom #2. It has one window and a closet. It is currently my study/craft room/tutoring place.



Here is bedroom #3. It has three large windows and two nice sized closets. This is the master bedroom of the house. The next picture is the his and her closets. We now keep our beautiful oak entertainment center/chest of drawers between them





This is bedroom #4. It is part of the finished area in our basement. Craig has taken it over as his ham shack/drum/music/man cave room. It is seriously full of testosterone...



Here is some more of the finished area of our basement. My wonderful friend Shannon is living with us until she can get on her feet and we are in the process of turning it into a studio type living area for her. There is even a full bath down there for her to have all to her very self. :-)



By this point you may be bored. So. I will call it quits. I didn't think you REALLY wanted to see our bathrooms and stuff. Perhaps tomorrow I will post some of the work that we have done on the house and what it looks like now.

A house update:

So, one of my wonderful friends (you know who you are) asked me to update my blog about our house and house purchasing. I have posted many pictures on my facebook account so, if you already keep up with my facebook account you may just want to skim this blog posting! :-) Some of my friends don't keep facebook so, this is for you!

First I will start out by posting a few pictures of the house when we were just looking at it, before we bought it. These were the pictures that were posted online before we bought the house. The picture that looks like a park IS a park. The whole side of our property buts up against a park. This is the view on the other side of our tree line, into the park. It's nice motivation to go walk/jog/run everyday.

The great pear adventure!

So, while on vacation in Williamsburg, Craig's parents and I stopped for a day trip to visit my grandparents. It is always great to see them for many reasons. One of which is the fact that they always send me home with yummy home made things to eat and look at. This trip they sent me with pears from their pear tree, pecans from their pecan tree, home made pear preserves, and a crocheted piece for my dinning room table. While we were visiting, I enjoyed eating some of the various pear preserves that my grandmother makes and vowed that I would try to make some. It has been about a week since my visit and since the pears were picked, the perfect amount of time for the pears to be just ripe enough to can (however, not ripe enough to eat). The week also gave me time to research, and become knowledgeable of, the preserve canning process. The following is a quick version of what I did.

Yesterday, I pealed, cored, and sliced all of the pears. I probably had somewhere around 10lbs prior to pealing. It seemed like TONS of pears. Really, it was only half of what my grandparents sent me back with. I split what they sent with Craig's parents. After I sliced all of the pears I coated them with some lemon juice and added around 4 cups of sugar to them (2 cups to each bowl which held approximately , 2 quarts per bowl). I let them sit overnight, covered, on the counter. Here is what they looked like right after I added the sugar:







This morning, when I checked on the pears, they were practically covered by the juice that they had produced. I proceeded to dump them in a large pot and I cooked them for about an hour and a half until they were translucent and the liquid that they were in became a golden colored syrup.





While the pears cooked, I washed and sterilized the jars, rings and lids. I poured the hot pear preserves into the hot jars, placed on the warm lids and screwed on the room temperature rings. Oh! I also made sure to wipe off the threads and rims VERY well. I then processed the jars according to the recipe and the jar manufacturers directions. It was about 10-15 min. of boiling. Then I took them out, being sure not to tip them, and placed them on a tea towel to rest for the next 24 hours. I was so happy when I heard each of the jars "pop"! Oh, I almost forgot! I poured the left over pear preserves, which was not enough to fill a jar, into a jar and put them straight into the fridge. It was nice that I did not have to wait 24 hours to have a sample! Here is the finished product! Pretty if I do say to myself!

Lovin is what I got! I said remeber that!

1 Corinthians 13:4-13 (NIV)

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

So, I know that this may be the most common verse for weddings, (it was central at our wedding too) and that most people find it corny, but I really love it. It shows the completeness of God's love for us. We can strive to follow this tall order with our spouses but, we easily fall short of its completion. There is only one love that is this type of love. Agape- as the bible refers to it. The never ceasing, all encompassing, love that only God can have. I think that this is a great type of love to strive for with everyone that you love, not just your spouse. What better an example for relationships could we have than this?

At the moment I am counting my blessing to have such a wonderful husband. You may think to yourself, what special thing has he done thing week? The answer is, nothing. I just really missed him while I was away on vacation with his parents. I could not imagine what it would be like to be without him for more than a week or so. I kept wanting to tell/share with him every experience that I had while I was gone. It was like my other half was missing. Matter of fact my other half WAS missing. The bible says:

Genesis 2:24 (NIV)
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

So, Craig, and I, take this literally. You can find it again in:

Ephisians 5:22-32 (NIV)

22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."[c] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

I can only hope to live up to this kind of long lasting love. I am sure that we will have our moments, as we have in the past, but I hope that I can slow down occasionally to say thank you to God for providing me with such a wonderful gift of love and for Craig for loving me as much as he does. We may not be perfect but, we are sure going to try our best. If my parents and Craig's parents (who are in the picture holding hands) have been able to get through almost 80 years of combined marriage, I know we can too.

Because how is one half of the body supposed to live without the other half?

It doesn't.

A day to myself!

Today I have the whole day to myself.
Yay for resting!

Since Shannon came to live with us life has been busy. That is not exactly a bad thing. I have spent loads more time off of my butt and out doing things. It has done wonders for my spirit. The only bad thing is that I have been totally exhausted. You would think that with the 8-10 hours of sleep that I get each night that I would be somewhat rested. Not a chance.

Yesterday, Craig, Shannon, and I went to Craig's parents house to celebrate his birthday. Amidst all of the fun and commotion, I proceeded to lay down on the couch and take a nice long siesta. Everyone was so nice not to wake me. It was wonderful. I was still tired when I woke up. Matter of fact, most evenings Craig and Shannon stay up long past me. I either fall asleep on the couch with them giggling and carrying on well into the wee hours, or I trudge my way to the bedroom and proceed to pass out.

Today, I decided to take a rest. Craig and Shannon are taking today and tomorrow to drive up to Wisconsin to get Shannon's boxes and such that were trucked from Washington. I would have made the trip with them but, 1.) They need the entire back of my parents mini-van empty to fit all of her stuff in so there is only room for the two front chairs and 2.) I am going over to the Harbeson's house tomorrow to get ready for my annual trip with them to Williamsburg. I figured that today would be a good day to rest before a week of tourist style walking from sun up to sun down. I am not sure how much of that I will be able to handle. I told them that they might just have to park me under a tree occasionally while they go off and visit some historical houses/palaces/taverns/reenactments or whatever Williamsburg sites they want to see this time.

The part of the trip with them that I look forward to (other than spending time with them, being silly, eating tons, and getting neat souvenirs) is going to visit my Grandma and Grandpa in Smithfield Va. I see them so little and as I get older I really cherish the time I do get to spend with them. Its nice to "get back to your roots" and spend time with people who are from an entirely different era, mindset, and part of the country. I always feel as though time has kind of slowed down when I visit them. Its a nice breath of fresh air from a normal pace of living.

Oh BTW, as for the picture in this profile, I was going through some old stuff and some new pictures on line and came across this. It was taken in 1989 or very close to then. I would have been around 5 years old when it was taken. I think that it is super cute and I hope that I have a little girl one day so that I can put soft curlers in her hair and dress her up in pick dresses only to have her make this face! ;-) I can wish!

Love alway!

~Me

CHICKEN DAY!

So, I knew I would get around to posting this eventually!

Thursday, Craig and I went to Columbus to help our friends, Ben and Ket, slaughter some of their chicken (I believe they have around 100). The chicken were fairly young but, were getting to the point that they were eating Ben and Ket out of house and home and were beginning to be less cost effective. They had to go!

Craig and Ben slaughtered around 14 birds all together. They painstakingly dry plucked the first bird or so to find out "just how hard it was." Yeah. It took them an hour to pluck one. After that they dunked the birds in boiling water for around 10 seconds. It shortened the plucking time to around 5 min. Not too shabby.

While Craig and Ben were slaughtering, feathering, and dressing the birds, Ket and I froze, cooked, pulled, and canned the meat. We also cooked a nice big roasted chicken dinner with homemade rolls and mashed potatoes while we took care of the meat from all of the birds. I can't forget that we watched little Mori while we did all of this.

All in all, it was a productive, long day. By the end of it all, we all were ready to go to bed and didn't want to see another chicken that day!

The FRESH roasted chicken dinner sure was good though! Yum!

ba*by*i*tis:

ba*by*i*tis: Relating to or characterized by a total obsession with babies; current babies, things baby related and having babies.

I thought I was home free from this affliction because I had been without it for months. I was sadly mistaken. It all started when my friend Sara came over with an incredulous look on her face that led to the dreaded, "I have big news," statement. Of course, she thought she was (and still doesn't know yet) pregnant. Immediate thoughts of babydom and living vicariously through her popped into my mind. It was impossible not to be giddy. Impossible.

Then I went to my friend Ket's house hoping to get past it after being around her one year old daughter Mori. No such luck. Ket is pregnant with baby number two, also not helpful.

To put the icing on the cake, another friend/acquaintance, Erin, is keeping a blog about her pregnancy and just posted a beautiful sonogram picture. Its a fact, I am doomed to babyitis for forever...

Oh wait. Tonight I spent some time with my sister in law's three year old niece who is ADORABLE. I was hoping that being around a three year old HAD to help. Nope. I loose.

Without pen and paper.

I often find writing do to lists very therapeutic.
I get to clear my head of all of the "things" that I was supposed to remember to do. No longer having to remember them because they are written down. I also have the pleasure of ticking off each thing as I get "things" done. That makes me feel accomplished and as though I actually spent my day wisely. Then, I can look back in my planner the next day to see what I did. I can also look back at the past weeks and months and give myself a pat on the back when I realize how much stuff I got done (and can be depressed about how much of my life has been spend doing the same mindless things, ie. cleaning cat boxes). Tonight I am sitting down on the couch thinking about what I have to do tomorrow. I don't have my planner handy so, I will put in here just this one time.

To Do:
-Make salt water
-Clean salt water fish tank
-Replenish cat food and water
-Scoop cat boxes
-Take out garbage
-Call tutee's parent
-Tutor new student Hunter
-Print out/organize new tutee's math work
-Call back new tutoring family
-Help Shannon job hunt out in the world
-Vacuum
-Put out Halloween decorations
-Sweep family room
-Return Caroline's phone call
-Frost bedroom windows
-Caulk Shannon's room
-Unload dishwasher
-Hang a few more pictures
-...


I am sure I will think of some more things to do in the morning! Night!

The Shannon cometh!

Yay! Shannon is here forever! I am so happy to have her back in town and to have someone to "take care" of me. Craig flew into Seattle and drove across the country with her to make sure she got here safely. I will have to post a nice long blog about their trip!

In the mean time, enjoy an old picture of the two of us!