38 weeks 1 day

I hate that I'm feeling so impatient and done being pregnant, considering I still have 13 days until my due date!  I didn't start feeling like this with the others until around my due date.  Maybe that means he'll come early?  HA!  I wish!  Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it but wait.

Yesterday I took the girls out to Fair Oaks Farms for the day. Tyson worked the night before so he was sleeping, so I asked grandma if she wanted to come along and help me keep the kids wrangled.  It's only about 45 minutes from us, but we had never been!  The girls had a great time.

Of course, as usual I forgot my camera, so I had to use my cell phone!

Where the cows are milked.  The girls called this the "cow merry go round!"  I don't think Riley could see much of what was going on, but she's a happy camper and loved the bus ride.  We got to ride all around the dairy farm on a tour.  We also got to see a baby cow being born at the Birthing Barn!  Apparently mom had some trouble because two people attached tethers to the baby's legs and yanked him out (it seemed like it took forever and it was painful to watch!  Poor mama).  Grandma asked Bailey later if she had learned anything, and she said "yeah- cows having babies is disgusting!"  (She refused to look, she preferred to look at the one that was already out!)

Rory and I conquered the "string cheese maze" while her sisters bounced on some huge pillow thing.  She cheated, though!  Going under the ropes :)

So that was yesterday.  Today we're going to Latin Mass with Bailey, then dropping her off at grandma's with her sisters and doing some baby shopping (STILL no student loan, but we got some money from a class action law suit against Tyson's former employer, so at least I can get a changing table and a few other things!)  Then out to dinner sans kids for my birthday, which is tomorrow (I will be 28!)  Tyson finally got our bedroom painted and I've got most of the baby's clothes washed and folded in a box, so I'm excited to get a changing table and get the room all set up for him!

I did get some canning done, a few more pints of pickled peppers and a couple pints of peach butter.  So sad I didn't get any tomatoes this year, but oh well!

I'm feeling very productive with my canning this year! So far I've canned-

3 pints of strawberry jam
12 half-pints + 2 pints of zucchini relish
3 quarts of dill pickles spears
3 quarts of bread and butter pickles

I'll be ready soon to do another round of zucchini relish and dill pickles. I'm hoping to do them in my parish kitchen so I can sell some of them at the farmer's market (legal issue, has to be prepared in a commercial kitchen). The only disappointing thing is that I wasn't able to spare the money to buy a pressure canner (once again, sigh) so I'm not able to can my green beans. We've just been eating green beans nearly every day! My bean plants are about done though, I think. Also, it doesn't appear that my peach tree is producing any fruit this year, which is terribly sad because I love making cobblers and jams with my peaches!

Aren't we supposed to be on summer vacation? It's been so busy! My sister-in-law and her family were here for the weekend from out of state, I don't think I quit moving the whole time. We had what was supposed to be an informal birthday party/cook out (our middle daughter turned 4 recently) and we ended up with 20ish people! It was fun, though! We were at the local amusement park all day Sunday and then the county fair on Monday. Our oldest has day camp all next week so I'm trying to take a breather now!

My garden is doing great. I made and canned zucchini relish today, I'll post a picture later. For now, here's a picture of the lovely strawberry jam I made last month-



Very yummy! I love canning, especially things that come from my garden. It's a bit of work, but I think it's very rewarding. I don't know if I save a lot of money, but it's satisfying preserving foods you've grown with your own hand in your own yard! Plus, the "conspiracy theory" side of me says it's a good skill to have "just in case!" ;)

rotten tomatoes

I'm not sure if the tomatoes I canned were a success or not. They had a lot of teeny air bubbles which has never happened to me before, I think that's the "moving air bubbles" the directions always say mean things went wrong somewhere. Hmmm. So I popped them in the freezer after after they cooled. Hopefully we won't die when we eat them, that way.

There are so many things I could say about the election stuff that's going on. It's really just shameful how people are acting, how hateful and vicious people can be. All I can say is we should stick to debating people's policies, not criticizing their family lives, and certainly not spreading ridiculous rumors.

That said, I tend to lean to the left when it comes to social issues, so while I really like Sarah Palin, she's very socially conservative, and it gives me pause, I admit. I'm not necessarily in support of universal health care, but something needs done, and every one needs taken care of in that regard. I, of course, accept the Church's teaching on homosexuality but I also don't believe the government has any business defining marriage (I want smaller federal government, not bigger!) and support government civil unions...or something... for all instead (with marriage being left to the church, as it should be...though I don't think that's probably a strictly Catholic viewpoint...Hmmm. More on that later.). My baby brother is gay, too, so certainly I want him to be safe and free and not treated poorly and discriminated against. Homosexuality all too often becomes the scapegoat for all of society's ills and it's unfair and un-Christian. I think sometimes Christians fear that showing love and compassion to our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters is akin to condoning sin, but of course it isn't. We're all sinners, we all fall short, being demeaning and cruel to homosexuals doesn't somehow make us better people and we can't justify it by saying "well, their sin is worse than mine!" (This could be a whole 'nother post, I suppose) I support the concept of welfare (a hand-up to people who've fallen on hard times) though I'm sure it needs reformed. And other things I can't think of right now because I'm tired!

Anyway. As I said, I tend to be fairly socially liberal. I've only ever voted Democrat, actually, so this will be quite a change.

Canning this season

I've been a little more adventurous about canning this year! Here's the rundown-

• Kosher Dill Pickles (FAIL- soggy!)
• Zucchini Relish (SUCCESS!)
• Bread and Butter Pickles (SUCCESS!)
• Tomatoes (processing as we speak)

My peaches are just about ripe, too, so in the next few days I'll be adding peach jam and plain ol' canned peaches to the list. I've learned a lot so far and I've definitely improved over last year. If anyone is thinking of trying out canning, I definitely suggest it! It can be hard work but it's definitely worth it. I've mostly been using Canning and Preserving for Dummies, which is not perfect but pretty good and explains the very basics. And check out The Simple Woman's Cannery for tips.

Sad, Soggy Pickles

I'm very much a novice canner. Still, I was a bit disappointed when my first try at pickles went so bad. They came out very soft, which is really unsettling when you bite in expecting a nice Vlasic-esque crunch! I'm fairly certain I know what went wrong. The water boiled over at some point and I turned it down, but didn't check to see if the water put the flame out...which it did. So when the timer went off and the water wasn't boiling, I was dismayed to find the flame was out and that I couldn't remember how long they had processed before the spill over. In the interest of safety I brought it back to a boil and started over with 15 minutes processing time from the start of the boil, so I'm sure there's no ikcy bacteria, but I was left with soft pickles! Yuck! I think I'll run them through the food processor and use them as relish.

Sigh. Thankfully it was a small batch so I didn't waste all my cucumbers!