Jammin' Like the Old Days

My childhood was filled with fresh vegetables.  My grandparents tended a garden the size of their entire backyard and when that wasn't enough, they crept over to the the neighbors.

I love sliced cucumbers in vinegar and water.  The closest thing to heaven is eating a freshly picked tomato straight from the vine... sliced... with a little salt. 

Seriously salivating right now. 

Everything that was grown, was also canned.  I remember spending days scalding, peeling and canning tomatoes.  We used pie plates for the scraps, aprons tied around our necks and tomato juice dripping down our arms.

Someday I want to do that with my own garden and my children.  But two little ones and a new house with clay soil means it will take me awhile to get to that point.  But in the meantime, I had a hankering to try something.  With recent berry sales at the grocery stores

($.88 and $.99 per pound!),

Strawberry Freezer Jam fit the bill.

My 2-year-old helped...or tried to help.  She did quite a bit of sampling and likes to pour ingredients, but measuring isn't quite her style.  Despite my assistance penchant for doing it her way, by following the instructions on the package of Certo pectin or Ball pectin, we had 24 8-oz jars of freezer jam in a short amount of time.   

I LOVE these decorative Ball jars. So pretty.  I am definitely planning to consume lots of jam, but I also plan to use these as gifts.  These particular set of jars came with labels as well.  I have already passed out a couple for thank you gifts and will probably decorate them a bit more at Christmas times. 

This was my first attempt at this and I am rather pleased with myself.  If catastrophe struck, we may not have alot of vegetables, but we could sustain ourselves for at least a few days on Strawberry Jam. 

Now the biggest challenge will be to not eat it all myself and save some for gifts. Maybe one more biscuit tonight though. :)

Summer Splashing

I saw this on Positively Splendid first in her Summer Survival Guide, but this is originally from House of Hepworths.  I love the simplicity of this. 

 It's like reusable water balloons. 

You can't replace water balloons, but they do take hours to make and are gone in just a few minutes leaving everyone wanting for more. 
 These fabulous little creations are so simple to make and can be used again and again. 

 

I first brought these out for the 4th of July and then used them again just recently for a playdate. 
These have been a hit with little ones and adults alike. 

The men boys in my family enjoyed them as much as the little ones.  My two-year-old is happy to carry them back and forth from one bucket of water to the next over and over again.  She is too funny to watch and a little OCD at times.  :) 

I found my sponges at Dollar Tree and I am saddened that I can't find anymore of these sponges there.  I am still looking at other stores. 
I like these particular sponges in particular
1) because of their bright, fun colors and
2) because these are more like foam and are very soft. 

The cellulose sponges are more stiff and dry very hard.  I am still on the look out for more. 

I cut each sponge lengthwise into 4 pieces.  Then chose 8 fun color pieces that I liked together and tied in the middle. 
It truly is that simple!

The first time I made these I used fishing line, but the line cut into my fingers as I tried to pull them tight and despite my best efforts, some of them fell apart after a few throws. 
 So I redid them with zip ties.  Using zip ties makes them much easier to construct, but you want to be careful to cut the excess zip tie length as close to the clasp as possible.  Otherwise, there might be a sharp part when being tossed around. 

I love that we will be able to use these for
many ages and stages and when we need more or they need to be replaced it's a quick, easy project. 

Rainmaker

All over the U.S., we are experiencing horrible drought conditions.  Our yard is falling dormant and walking across it sounds like crunching leaves in the fall.  My daughter is particularly tired of being cooped up inside to avoid the intense heat.  I hadn't noticed how difficult this was to her until we went shopping the other day and she took great joy in running up and down the aisles.  I know, I'm sorry my kid is "that kid", but if you had seen the joy of freedom on her face, perhaps you would have realized, as I did, that the poor thing has needed to do that for some time now. 

We fiercely need rain.  Not a light rain, but a good solid rain that comes and goes over the course of a few days.  My flowers are all shriveling up and trying to shrink from the scorching blaze that never seems to go away, even at night time.  (I know that doesn't make sense, but when the nightly low is 84 I have decided the sun must come out again while we are sleeping to keep things so hot.) 

The dry conditions remind me of a time when my brother and I were young.  We were both still in elementary school.  It had been hot and dry for awhile and everyone was complaining we needed rain.  I don't remember who had the idea first, but we got it in our heads to do a rain dance.  We took brown grocery bags cut and painted them for costumes.  We made headdresses with feathers on them and proceeded to do a rain dance in the middle of our driveway.  I can promise you that we shamed Native American culture with whatever moves and chants we made up.  I don't think the dance lasted long.  I have a feeling the preparation of the whole thing was the real time commitment, but we did it. 

No... I mean we DID IT...we brought on the rain.  Later that evening it did, in fact, rain.  More than three drops.  Seriously, a good, solid rain.  The details of the dance and even the costumes are fuzzy.  I am sure my mom has a picture of us somewhere.  What I remember is that feeling that we DID IT!  We were so excited.  I remember feeling so POWERFUL!! We defied science and the weathermen.  Ha! 

I have been thinking of that memory often.  Not just the whimsical thought of getting out on my driveway and doing a rain dance to give my poor plants some relief, but also the sense of power and accomplishment that moment brought into my elementary-aged life.  It was like someone pouring a pitcher full of hope and moxie all over me.  In the last couple of years my life has changed drastically.  Completing a master's degree and going from a couple to a family of four has been a whirlwind of change, not always easy change either.  In that short time, I have had days where I have needed a pitcher of hope and moxie poured over me again.  New challenges await everyday.  Sometimes you may be living in a drought.  I am reminding myself, sometimes the rain will come, but sometimes you gotta make your own rain... you just gotta dance!

A Grey Hair Made Me Do It

For over a year now I have followed several blogs and loved looking into the lives of others, especially mothers, who I wanted to emulate, to be as cool, as crafty, as creative, as talented, as thrifty as each one of them.  It never dawned on me that I would ever write a blog myself.  It seemed above my reach, my life and small ideas never seemed to be good enough.  The perfectionist in me would never want to put out something this public that might show any flaws or weaknesses. 

And then one day...my darling honey and I were chatting briefly in the sunlight when he said to me, "What's that?" and then with far too much enjoyment plucked a wayward hair from my head.  Upon examing it closely my darling gleefully demonstrated that he had found a treasure: my first grey hair.  I have to admit it took my breath away and not in that "Top Gun"-theme-song-by-Berlin-way, but in the someone-hand-me-a-paperbag-and-quick-because-my-lips-are-turning-blue-from-lack-of-oxygen-way.  In his ever-so-supportive way, my darling partner in life also reminded me that with this new development it will be harder to lie about my age now.  (At this point, I have no intention of stopping this little charade.  The important part is that I buy into my own denial whether others do or not.)

Crossing this milestone in my life made me think that perhaps I could write something that others would find interesting or humorous.  But more than that, I think I am looking for a way to rage against the "dying of the light" (the light, in this case, maybe my youth and then perhaps my relevance).  So I begin this new journey of sharing my thoughts, projects and daily life in a public realm.  I hope to learn something along the way and maybe find a way to be less hypertensive should another errant grey hair find its way to my head. 

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