I can feel the downslide of summer break gaining momentum. This past week has been filled with "inventory" and back to school shopping and that entails leaving my house for a few hours every day which I am not fond of. But, we are almost done and that makes me happy. Next weekend will be our father/son--mother/daughter parties (Fred and Abe are going camping and the "girls" are staying here and still planning our extravaganza). The following weekend will be a family campout (the extent of our summer vacation this year)and the weekend after that we go get Jordan and bring him home for a week. Previous to his accident he and Dillon had planned on going on a extended mountain climbing expedition (they were going to climb 9 different mountains!), but Jordan has had to pull out (much to my relief, though I am sad that he is disappointed) because he feels an added urgency to stay at work as long as possible before heading off to school. We haven't quite figured out all of the travel, since our younger children will already have started school during that period and Jordan no longer has a car, but it will all work out and I will be so glad to touch him for just a few days. I feel like this summer has just been a waiting period for him to finally come home and yesterday it finally sunk in that there is no finale--his time at home is over and visits are all that remain. I don't like to think about it; my heart gets all tied up in knots. (I better talk about something else.)
We gleaned apricots at the orchard two weeks ago and I dried some, (which we grazed on for a week and a half and finished off yesterday), froze some and made lots of runny apricot jam (the kind that Mom used to make to pour over pancakes). I even tried to make some freezer jam with pectin (because Mikayla wanted some) which was a failure because even though I got the "low sugar" pectin there was NO WAY I could force myself to put as much sugar as they say you have to put in to get the pectin to set up, so it didn't set up AND it is still too sweet. I only put in 1/4 c. sugar in each quart of pancake jam and I wouldn't go any more; I like it tart and relatively healthy. Anyone know how to make spreading jam without more sugar than that? The "regular" sugar pectin said to put in more sugar than fruit--YUCK!!! Peach season is upon us and though the thought of it fills me with dread, I'll be canning soon if there are any to glean at the church orchard. We actually have some on our tree this year, but those will never make it to jars :)
We've been doing a little decorating in the bedrooms this week. Mom, I know you thought Mikayla and Eden's room was bright in it's original theme, but you would be horrified now. The girls fell in love with some clearance fabric a month ago that is silky but has a marbled/tie dyed/ hot pink and lime green pattern with tiny silver glitter jewels on it and yesterday I made it into curtains. They have a lime saucer chair in the corner with a chocolate brown and white striped pillow, a cream short plush pillow and a hot pink shag fur pillow. They still have their white bunk beds and a white desk which doesn't fit the style, but there are no traces of "little girls" left. It is "becoming" very hip or hippy (as Jordan says). They still have a lot of plans in the works:) It is a fun room, but I couldn't live there. Lily and Sophie's room has accumulated all of the "garden hand-me-downs" so their bedroom is evolving as well and that fills my "sweet, innocent, old fashioned" needs. Fred, of course, is ever my go to man. He stands with his power tools ready, waiting for instructions, complaining about the "working conditions" and just raises his eyebrows at our choices. He says he doesn't know anything about "that decorating stuff", but I know better. That's just his wise way of saying, "I'm keeping my mouth shut":)
We went to an "adopted Fred family" reunion yesterday to a place near Fruitland/Parma, where a farmer has built the funnest water area in a very large pond on his property. There are two long docks and one of them ends in a tower that has a rope kind of swing on the 2nd level and a zip line on the third level. Water is shooting out continuously, from a huge PVC pipe sticking way up out of the ground right below the start of the zip line. On the other side of the pond is a twirly slide and the family brought 5 or 6 canoes. The kids (and most of the adults) played in the water for hours. It was so fun to watch them. Greg Jones was there because he married into this adopted family of Fred's. It's a small, small world.
Well, it is Monday, which unfortunately means that my house is a disaster and I need to find the shovel and dig out.
Love you all,
Rach
P.S. Mom, what a fun story about "Kolipoki". I haven't read any of Elder Groberg's books. I'll have to see if I can't find some in some library around here. I'd love to read about his experiences.
We gleaned apricots at the orchard two weeks ago and I dried some, (which we grazed on for a week and a half and finished off yesterday), froze some and made lots of runny apricot jam (the kind that Mom used to make to pour over pancakes). I even tried to make some freezer jam with pectin (because Mikayla wanted some) which was a failure because even though I got the "low sugar" pectin there was NO WAY I could force myself to put as much sugar as they say you have to put in to get the pectin to set up, so it didn't set up AND it is still too sweet. I only put in 1/4 c. sugar in each quart of pancake jam and I wouldn't go any more; I like it tart and relatively healthy. Anyone know how to make spreading jam without more sugar than that? The "regular" sugar pectin said to put in more sugar than fruit--YUCK!!! Peach season is upon us and though the thought of it fills me with dread, I'll be canning soon if there are any to glean at the church orchard. We actually have some on our tree this year, but those will never make it to jars :)
We've been doing a little decorating in the bedrooms this week. Mom, I know you thought Mikayla and Eden's room was bright in it's original theme, but you would be horrified now. The girls fell in love with some clearance fabric a month ago that is silky but has a marbled/tie dyed/ hot pink and lime green pattern with tiny silver glitter jewels on it and yesterday I made it into curtains. They have a lime saucer chair in the corner with a chocolate brown and white striped pillow, a cream short plush pillow and a hot pink shag fur pillow. They still have their white bunk beds and a white desk which doesn't fit the style, but there are no traces of "little girls" left. It is "becoming" very hip or hippy (as Jordan says). They still have a lot of plans in the works:) It is a fun room, but I couldn't live there. Lily and Sophie's room has accumulated all of the "garden hand-me-downs" so their bedroom is evolving as well and that fills my "sweet, innocent, old fashioned" needs. Fred, of course, is ever my go to man. He stands with his power tools ready, waiting for instructions, complaining about the "working conditions" and just raises his eyebrows at our choices. He says he doesn't know anything about "that decorating stuff", but I know better. That's just his wise way of saying, "I'm keeping my mouth shut":)
We went to an "adopted Fred family" reunion yesterday to a place near Fruitland/Parma, where a farmer has built the funnest water area in a very large pond on his property. There are two long docks and one of them ends in a tower that has a rope kind of swing on the 2nd level and a zip line on the third level. Water is shooting out continuously, from a huge PVC pipe sticking way up out of the ground right below the start of the zip line. On the other side of the pond is a twirly slide and the family brought 5 or 6 canoes. The kids (and most of the adults) played in the water for hours. It was so fun to watch them. Greg Jones was there because he married into this adopted family of Fred's. It's a small, small world.
Well, it is Monday, which unfortunately means that my house is a disaster and I need to find the shovel and dig out.
Love you all,
Rach
P.S. Mom, what a fun story about "Kolipoki". I haven't read any of Elder Groberg's books. I'll have to see if I can't find some in some library around here. I'd love to read about his experiences.
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