Stockpot Love

 

Aren't they beautiful?

My brand new, 24 qt, stainless steel, American made stockpots .

Why so big? And why 2, you ask?

One is to replace my water-bath canner. I have an ancient, black spatter-ware, canning pot. It says you can do quarts in it, but, when you fill it with enough water to cover the quart jars and set it to boiling, it bubbles & dribbles & hisses & makes a huge mess. So we bought this beauty, which is in fact tall enough to do 2 rows of pint jars. And there will be no bubbling over!

Bliss.

Still, you ask, why 2?

Well, while the one is heating up to can the food I have to have one to cook the food. Take applesauce, currently my method with applesauce was to fill my nice (but small) stainless steel pot, my granite-ware pot & 2 others because I didn't have 1 pot big enough to hold it all.

No more!

Now I can cook all of my applesauce in my 1 lovely stockpot & can it all in the other. No switching pots mid-batch or using every pot in the house.

Ah, the joy.

Yes, we are simple people with simple pleasures.

In fact, shortly after pulling them out of the boxes they came in, my husband had one of them full of soup & rib bones & started a huge batch of beef broth.

It smells delicious .

Blessings.

Random photos

I don't have much to say but thought I would share some recent, random photos of our daily life

We believe in starting 'em early.

A tisket, a tasket, a Biscuit in a basket...

The best toy ever invented...the box!

Hot cocoa always tastes better over an open fire.

All together now....aaaaaaaaaawwwwwwww.

Blessings.

Just say "Yes"

The older I get, the less I say "NO".

As a young parent I often said "NO".

"No we can't do that" "No you can't have that" "No we don't have time" "No" "No" "No".

It was always on the tip of my tongue. Kind of a knee-jerk reaction.

Sigh.

I think I missed out on many, many opportunities that way.

Opportunities to build memories, to have fun, to make my children laugh.

But the Lord has been growing me. Softening me.

I used to be a perfectionist. Everything had to be 'just so' and that was often the source of my 'no'.

I'm much less of a perfectionist now.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I still want everything perfect. But I have learned that perfection comes at a cost. The cost of saying 'no'.

I have learned that it is much more fun to have imperfectly frosted cookies & cupcakes & messy, sticky, happy kids, than it is to say "no" & do it myself.

It is much more fun to put aside what I am doing & take the 10 minutes (how could I begrudge them 10 minutes??) to help them with their drawing or their Lego house or whatever it is they want me to help with.

I still mess up. I still say "no" without really listening. I still miss opportunities to have fun, build memories, be together.

But it happens much less now then it used to.

This morning was a busy morning. The house was messy & there was lots to do to tidy up, do laundry, make breakfast & get everything ready to leave for Bible study this afternoon. But The Little Man aksed for a 'blue cake'. First thing after getting up he asked for a 'blue cake.' I put him off a little while I started chores but he asked again. And again. I realized he wasn't going to 'forget'. It was on the tip of my tongue to say "No. We don't have time. Another day."

But something stopped me. (Thank you Lord) And I said "yes!"

We looked up a recipe for a simple cake. He helped me mix it all up (something else I used to say "no" to) & we added in enough blue food coloring to get us ALL diagnosed with ADHD  & popped that puppy into the oven.

The Little Man sat himself down in front of the oven & asked me to turn the light on so he could watch it bake. You guessed it! I used to would have said "no' to that too! I was a mean mommy .  But I turned the light on for him & he was happy!

How easy it is to make our children happy if we just take the time to say "yes".

So as soon as finish writing this (notice I took the time to write this down) I have to pull the cake out of the oven, hopefully have time to frost before we leave, get everybody dressed & loaded & on with our day.

So take it from an older, more relaxed mom.

Just say "Yes!"

Blessings.

Pictures from the road...

Here are a few pics from our last trip.

Tulare is only 2 hours from where our oldest is living now & he drove over & stayed the week with us.

We hadn't seen him in over a year so that was awesome.

Here are all the kids (& the dog & the famous "Pup")

 

 

Here is the Biscuit & how he traveled thru the Farm Show

 

Here is one of all of us in the hotel lobby

 

And just for fun, the snake warning sign at the rest stop in Red Bluff

 

Nice place to picnic, ya think ?

Blessings.

Love...

 Happy Valentines Day!

We made it home ! Whoopee!

We got home yesterday afternoon. It's so nice to be home.

My husband surprised me last night with 5 dozen flowers! 1 doz red roses, 1 doz orange roses, 1 doz tiger lillys, & 2 doz red & pink carnations. He said I got 1 dozen per child. Isn't he sweet?

 

Pretty! Pretty!

I taught Junior Church this morning & we  read "the love chapter" 1 Corinthians 13 & made valentines. And ate valentines cookies of course

I love Valentines Day, can you tell?

I made each of the family an edible, personalized valentine. We even had heart shaped biscuits with dinner.

 

Normally we decorate & get even more carried away but with being gone so much this month, it's pretty scaled down.

But we're still feelin' the love

Blessings.

World Ag Expo

 

Today is day number 4 in our hotel in Tulare CA.

We are here for the World Ag Expo. Today is the last day. We get to pack up the booth tonight & start for home tomorrow. But, seeing as it is a 9 hour drive with 4 kids, we will go partway tomorrow & finally get home on Saturday.

Tuesday was the first day of the Expo & it was pouring.

 Acres and acres of mud everywhere.

 The  little boys were riding in their wagon & it tipped over dumping them in the mud.

Poor little Biscuit went face first into the mud & split his lip & got a bloody nose. He was a mess. Little Man was muddy & crying but unhurt. I think his brother broke his fall.

Once we got back to the truck we discovered that “Pup”, the Little Man’s must-have stuffed animal, was missing.

My husband retraced all of our steps & no Pup. Back at the hotel I did a frantic internet search to find his replacement. Finally after an hour I found Pup’s long lost twin. The price of the toy was fine. Shipping was more than the dog.

Sigh.

What are you gonna do? A sucker is a sucker. We ordered.

The next day , while window shopping, my 13 year old suddenly says “OH NO!”

He sheepishly walked up to me, reached into his huge coat pocket & pulled out…………..PUP!

He had stuck it in there earlier the day before, for safe keeping & in all of the hullabulloo of the wagon tipping he totally forgot.

He felt sooooooo bad.

I actually find it kind of funny

And at least we’ll have a ‘spare’ Pup.

Yesterday, in the course of the day, The Little Man managed to lock himself in the bathroom, almost take an unauthorized, unaccompanied elevator ride & do a little free lance landscaping for the hotel (he pulled up a plant by the roots).

Never a dull moment.

We're off this morning for a last go-round of the farm show. Keep your fingers crossed that we can make it thru without any injuries, tragedies or mishaps.

And Pup is staying in the truck.

Blessings.

Olive City

Corning California is known as the ‘Olive City’. The surrounding countryside is full of olive orchards and thousands of gallons of olive oil are pressed there every year. Today we visited the Corning Olive Oil Company and took a tour. It was awesome. We didn’t get to see the olives being pressed but we got to walk thru the entire facility and have the whole process explained to us. We know how the olives are pressed, how they separate the water from the oil & strain out the pulp. We know what they do with the water (filter & reclaim it) what they do with the pulp (use it as fertilizer) how long it takes to go from olive to bottle (6 weeks) & so many other fascinating facts. We learned the process for making seasoned dipping oils & the kids each got to run the machine to fill the bottles. They got to cap the bottles & run them thru the shrink wrap machine. We got to tastes various oils from the huge 300 gallon totes where the oil was ‘racked’. We also bought 4 gallons (yes, gallons) of their house blend & a bottle of dipping oil, lime infused oil & a pomegranate vinegar. Filling the dipping oil bottles with Josephina. Capping the bottles Learning how they crush the olives with Luis. The centrifuge where they separate the oil & water The filtration vat and the final product: Jim next to a BIG box of olive oil So, if you are ever in Corning, stop by the Corning Olive Oil Company & take a tour with Jim, Josephina & Luis. They were great. And taste some of their cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil. So good & so good for you. Getcha some. Blessings.

Bull Sale

Here are some pics of our trip to Red Bluff.

The kids & I went to The Ide Adobe State Park. It is named for William B. Ide who was the first & only president of the Republic of California. Remember our trip to Sonoma? We took a pic in front of the Bear Flag monument? That is where the flag was raised & California declared a country. It lasted for 22 days .

 

 

Here is the adobe

 

It is really very cool. We used to go there all the time when we lived in Red Bluff. They have Adobe Days in August & a Pioneer Christmas party evey year. Those were always a lot of fun.

Here are the kids in front of the house

 

And here is just a cool shot of a huge old oak

 

And last but not least: everybody at the booth at the Bull Sale

 

Blessings.