What I'm Up To Lately...

Here are a few bits and pieces of what I'm up to lately.  None of these are worthy of their own blog post, but they are things I've been doing, and learning.

The garden is in full swing!  Not only have we been harvesting some stuff from our own garden, but we've had several drop offs from church members with yummy stuff they've grown.  We've eaten some of it, but we've also been saving it.

I made refrigerator pickles  (kind of based off of this recipe, but without the sugar and coriander) with several cucumbers.  I did this last summer, and I was really bummed when they ran out sometime in September or October.  They're delicious!  The kids will occasionally have some when we make bean burgers, but otherwise they're all mine.

I also learned how to blanch veggies from this post, which was perfect timing!  We got a ton of cabbage in one week, so I made Polish sausage stew and that ramen noodle salad everyone always brings to pot lucks, but we still had extra.  So I blanched the rest to save for a future batch of stew.  I blanched a gallon ziploc bag full of extra green beans from our garden as well.

I shredded up about 16 cups of zucchini and froze that in 2 cup portions for future muffins and breads.  We actually didn't plant any zucchini this year, and one of the reasons was because we haven't gotten around to getting a chest freezer yet, and I know it's one of those plants that kind of takes over.  So I'll enjoy everyone's extras for now...

On the not so happy front for gardening, we've learned about mildew on our pumpkin plants, which resulted in hacking off about a third of the plant.  And we learned about sap beetles in our raspberries (they like over-ripe fruit), which are harmless, but it's kind of gross to pick berries and then have to wash the bugs out.

We finally got Elizabeth a real bed, and I put it together with just a little help maneuvering pieces from Jesse.  The girls are adjusting to sleeping in the same room, and I love not sharing our room with a baby any more.  It's one of those things that is hard for me to give up in the baby stages, but I'm always thankful when I do.

I ordered most of our homeschool books.  I'll be writing a separate post soon on what we picked and how I'm lesson planning this year.

I still love my coffee.  I use this iced coffee recipe and this chocolate syrup recipe, plus a spoonful of sweetened condensed milk.  I top that all with milk and a few ice cubes, and enjoy during afternoon naptime.

So that's life here.  Food, kids, coffee...sounds about right!