CA Beach and VA Salsa

 

I knew I was going to be hitting the ground running once I got home from CA, because we must start school on Monday to be ready for CC starting the next Tuesday. In spite of working all summer, I am not quite ready for either.  

As if that isn't enough, the grass needed to be mowed, (which is all me this year since JD is building the garage), the back room of the basement finished clearing for karate, all four girls' hair needs to be done and a thousand smaller projects are staring at me. I continually have to remind myself of all we do get done, rather than the forever "needs to be done" list! 

I want to show a few pictures of the last day in San Diego, when we went to the beach. This is the military beach on Coronado, so nice and not crowded at all. The bonus was the helicopters patrolling overhead, which was additional excitement for Nathan.

Nathan and Alayna

"Go Daddy go"

It was my turn for the milk run to the Amish a few days after I got home. A friend went along to order a kitchen table. A nice thing about the Amish is that they let you hang out with their animals wherever we go. This little guy was staked by the furniture shop eating the edge of the corn field. He liked the kids and tried to follow when we left; he cried when he got to the end of his rope.

When we stopped at the Amish selling area in the library parking lot, I couldn't resist buying tomatoes to make a batch of hot salsa for JD. At this point, I had only made one round of mild. So in spite of not really having time, I bought 50 pounds of tomatoes.

Everyone "gets" to help - here was Elijah getting down the huge "salsa" pot we use. JD is the only onion and hot pepper chopper; it doesn't bother his eyes at all even when the rest of us flee the kitchen.

I got up at 6:30 a.m. to start the first batch. I finished the final canning at 8:30 p.m. My only break was a few hours in the afternoon that I took Bella to a birthday party and I left the salsa simmering.

50 pounds of tomatoes yielded 41 quarts of salsa. The total cost (not including jars) was right at $100 after buying the other ingredients. That comes out to about $2.50 for a quart. I believe that's a good deal, but it sure is so much better than store bought either way!

Back to my long list - Happy Saturday!                     Jenny

Heading Home

I'm at the airport about to head home; I am going to miss San Diego and my favorite Grandson and his parents! We packed in a lot yesterday - the Safari park and the beach; pictures will follow. I'm proud of the kiddos at home, especially James and Tori who

successfully milked morning and evening without me! 

Here's a few random pictures to spice up an otherwise dull post. 

Guess Where I Went Yesterday

I spent yesterday getting to the other side of the country to see these boys and my daughter in law -

Today I got to have lunch with this cutie -

Gabriel is re-enlisting on Friday for three more years; JD is also on the way right now for the ceremony. Praying for the kids at home and their caregivers!

Life Gets in the Way

My hectic life gets in the way of my blog! I am winding up the summer, as I leave on a trip tomorrow, and have less than a week until we start school once I return. I have accomplished a lot of cleaning and decluttering this summer, but there is always more waiting. We have to finish clearing the back room in the basement upon my return, because James and Elijah are going to have at home MMA lessons starting in September. I sold the large items, including the pool table, but there are still countless small items to be relocated to other places.

I have also done quite a bit of school prep, but I still see a few late nights before we can begin the new year. We had a Classical Conversation meeting a few nights ago here where we presented how we do CC at home, it made me want to change around the way I do a few subjects.

Socks, our CVS kitty, went to her new home yesterday; we are happy she has a family with kids for lots of attention.

I also did a pepper canning session on Saturday. These are banana peppers -

And even more jalapeno peppers -

It appears that we will have to buy a batch of tomatoes at the farmer's market if we decide to cram in a hot salsa batch before school, because the guineas aren't leaving me enough to use. (Pretty sure the white guinea flock is up for sale...) The grey flock is annoying in the barn but they don't get in the garden.

I will post from my vacation destination tomorrow -

                                                                                   Jenny

Guess Where We Are?