Canning

Josh and Zeke enjoying watermelon at the church's 4th of July picnic.

Robby and Josh taking turns holding Anna.

The boys (minus Micah) at the sign to a hiking trail we found near the park in Eureka.

Phew! We have been very busy lately canning all of the goodies that are coming our way. I am enjoying it very much. It is so rewarding to see that we are not wasting the bounty of food that the Lord has provided. Last week, Jeremy and I were working on harvesting all of the blackberries on the church property. It is disheartening to see all of the bushes around the community where the berries have gone to waste. Over by the river access across the street, there were just thousands of berries (literally) that were not picked, and are now dried and shriveled. We hope to get out there sooner next year to pick lots more. We got quite a few from the bushes on the church's property, but they were pretty overgrown. So as we picked, we also cut way back. So we hope to have more next year. Also, a man from the church has been bringing us lots of things. He brought a bunch of tomatoes (4 boxes) that we turned into seasoned spaghetti sauce, and also yummy salsa! We got those canned up last week. Then this week, he brought over a bunch of peaches. We all enjoyed eating lots of fresh peaches. Yesterday, I even turned some of them into peach butter! And I experimented with only using half of the sugar and half apple juice. Yum! Jeremy and I think that living in Alaska has taught us to appreciate "living off the land." If there is food growing, we should do something with it, so it doesn't go to waste!

Annalee is getting so big! Everyday it seems she is trying new foods. Yesterday, she tried pieces of Jeremy's chocolate chip muffin. She made quite a mess of it, too. It was so cute - she looked like she had a goatee - a chocolate one. But Jeremy fed her peach yogurt after the muffin, and she didn't have as much chocolate on her face afterwards. So I missed the great photo op. We are still making her homemade baby cereal. I had to make more the other day. This time, we just made it with brown rice flour and a little white bean flour. And as often as they can, Zeke and Micah stand right beside Jeremy while he feeds her to glean any little bites that their daddy might afford them. It is really funny to watch them!

The heat has seemed a little easier to bear ever since we have returned from up north. I'm not sure why that is. The boys do very little playing outside - at least during the hot part of the day. But if I don't cook, the house stays fairly manageable. We were doing our canning outside on the portable grill that Jeremy bought for camping. It worked pretty well so that we didn't have to heat up the house. It was supposedly 114 on Monday - or at least that's what the forecast said. I have no idea how hot it really got. But today and tomorrow are supposed to be 107, before it starts to cool down to the mid 90's on Saturday. That will be nice.

We are having company again starting next week. My parents are coming down to visit us a week from Saturday. And the kids are all excited! They will be here for Silas' birthday, which will be fun for him. Sometime after they leave, I think our friends from Yale are coming down to visit again. It is always fun to have them. I think they are on their way to Disneyland, and we are just the stopping off point! ;-)

Anyways, our summer has gone well - except that the boys haven't gotten as much school done this summer as I wanted them to. Right now, we are gearing up and trying to get ready for fall. We will probably start again once all of our company leaves.