ure this should keep me busy for a bit. I am planning to can some pearsauce (like applesauce, but made with pears), and I want to freeze some for putting in cobblers, smoothies and crisps. Pears actually make really good ice cream. I use frozen pears, and blend it in my Vitamix. The texture is creamy like ice cream, and is really sweet. I add peanut butter too, which makes it extra good. It may sound weird, but you can't knock it until you try it :). Jeff thought it sounded gross at first, until he tried it. Now he is hooked! We are going to the beach tomorrow, and we are going to see about getting another 1/2 bushel of peaches. The pears are still a bit unripe, so I will have a few days to work on peaches before the pears are ready. And then there is the salsa I need to make, and then apples are going to be ready. Hmm, I wonder if I can figure out a way to clone myself.
I got a lot done this weekend. Evie helped me bake. And boy did we bake! We baked gluten free zucchini muffins, homemade granola, popovers, and homemade gluten free bread. I took a picture of Evie helping me, and then she wanted to take a picture of me :). I am shredding zucchini. Exciting huh? My kitchen was so trashed, but my wonderful hubby helped me clean up. Isn't he sweet? I also cut up half a bushel of peaches and froze them. Yesterday afternoon I made a small batch of soap. It is a recipe I have never tried before. It is made with olive oil, coconut oil and castor oil. I scented it with peach fragrance oil, and it smelled really good. It has to cure for 6 weeks, so I won't really know until then how it turned out. I also made a shea butter/coconut oil mix for my hair (and scented it with vanilla...yum!). With all that baking, my house smelled SO good!
I'm at a really weird place in my life when it comes to friends. Growing up, I had a best friend who I did everything with. She knew everything that was going on in my life, and I knew everything that was going on in hers. We were close even after we both got married, and then we slowly drifted apart. I have tried to reconnect that friendship, but we are two very different people now. When Jeff and I got married, we were really adventurous, and wanted to see the country. When we were married for one year, we bought a silver Avion camper and moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We moved away from all of our friends that we had had growing up. We had no jobs, and just lived off of savings while we tried to find jobs. We explored the amazing country out there, and tried our best to find jobs so we could stay. There were just no jobs out there. We moved to Kentucky after Jeff got a job there, and we stayed for a year. Then we started missing being near our families, so we moved again, about 2 hours from our families. We built a house in the country, and thought we were going to settle down. The area where we lived was very small town. Everyone we met was related to someone else we met. People had all grown up together, so Jeff and I had a hard time ever really fitting in and making friends. We moved again 2 years ago, and now live where we grew up. We love being here, and we love being close to our families. The hard part is that it seems so much more challenging to make friends now. I'm not sure why that is. I know that I am not a cookie cutter person, and neither is Jeff or Evie. We have different thoughts about things, and we have not had a typical life. I'm okay with that, and know that God made us the way we are. Plus I don't want to be like everyone else. That would be boring! Jeff and I figured we would make our friends at church when we moved back near family, because that is how we usually made friends in years past. We found a church where the preaching is amazing. We always walk out of there getting something out of it. The fellowship there is really lacking though, and there are very few people our age with kids our age. We had been going to a church where the preaching was okay (not great, just okay), but the fellowship was amazing. We know that we could have formed some great friendships. We visited a lot of churches, and basically it boiled down to those 2 choices. I'm seriously wanting to connect with people. Do you choose a church based more on fellowship than preaching? Ugh, it is frustrating. I find that my closest friends right now are online friends. I am really thankful for them, and they are a great group of ladies. It is crazy that I can be friends with people I have never met in person before. Maybe that is the way friendships are in the 21st century. I would really love to have some "live" friends too. When you get older, is that just not possible?
It has been such a beautiful day today. The windows are open in my house, and it is starting to smell like fall! Right now I actually have some alone time, which doesn't happen very often! Evie is at a nearby sprinkler park with a friend. Her friend's mom called and asked if she could take Evie, so she is going to be gone for a few hours. I'm sure she is having a blast too! Yesterday afternoon we went to the park as it was a gorgeous, cool day. We walked along the river, and Evie had fun chasing all the geese :). I laughed when I saw the picture of Evie, Sierra and I because Sierra was the one with her eyes shut! Normally the people are the ones with their eyes shut. I guess it was too bright for her. Evie kept saying she wanted to take our picture. We told her she could, bu
t she ended up cutting off part of Jeff's head. She still did a good job, considering she is only 6!
a fun day. Jeff and his dad went to a Promise Keepers conference, and were gone last night, so Evie and I went and stayed with Jeff's mom last night. We went out in her garden and picked some veggies, then we went and searched for a specific weed. I have been looking for Stinging Nettles to make a tea with. The tea is supposed to be really good for allergy and sinus problems, and is also very tasty for putting in certain dishes. I thought we found some, but then came back and looked at pictures on my computer and realized it wasn't the same weed. Hmm, I guess I need to print off a picture and take it out with me. We went to the Farmer's Market this morning, and had a wonderful time. I bought a huge bag of yellow squash and zucchini, and also a big bag of green beans. All were organically grown, so I was excited about that! Evie kept eating the raw green beans the whole time we walked around. She loves raw green beans (so do I!). I bought a pretty bracelet and a candle for a friend of mine who is having a birthday tomorrow. I also bought a bushel of peaches. They aren't ripe yet, so I am going to have to let them ripen before freezing them. The weather has been so cool here that the peaches are having trouble ripening. Hopefully they will ripen soon. They sure smell good sitting in my garage!
o put in there though, so I am going to have to get really creative. I don't even have the peaches in there yet, and I usually freeze pears and apples in the fall. It is going to be crammed. What a blessing though. There is nothing better than a crammed freezer! It will be so nice to be able to eat the produce all winter long. It helps me to eat healthier with all of this food available. This is the most produce I have ever frozen before. With food prices going up so much, I figured every little bit I could do to save money would help!
gs at church. Last night was great. It was awesome to be able to spend time worshipping God! I had a slight hair malfunction during prayer though. I sat by this really sweet, quiet teenage girl. We were sitting in the very front row, and there was a fan right in front of us blowing right on us. I thought my hair was blowing behind me. I didn't realize that all during prayer little pieces of my hair were flying in her face! Needless to say, I apologized all over the place! Note to self....wear hair up tonight!
