busy busy day...

went to curves early this morning...in the hopes that i'd have enough energy to get everything done today! i need to can both peas and tomatoes...and need to mop the kitchen, and clean the counters. i also need to clean the living room...and we're leaving tomorrow for my mom's. so busy day today. i promise to take pics...only of the canning, and perhaps the clean living room. the children cleaned the counters a lil bit today...and swept sorta. now to finish the laundry....oi, it never ends!

it's a rainy monday

so we're all inside...daddy has the day off, so he's on the computer as you can imagine. the girls thought it'd be fun to color....


course CG didn't wanna color, but did want mommy to take her picture...here she is saying "cheese"



and yesterday we bought Prissy the bully...i mean doggie....a collar to go with our invisible fence...to keep her safe. she hates the collar, and hates having her pic made...see?


eventually she'll learn her boundaries, but until then, she doesn't go far from my feet. lol.

Long weekend

and tons of fun! the kids played at a friends house on the fourth...complete with water slide!


they had so much fun!

yesterday after church we went to lowe's and got the rest of the stuff to finish our closet...now the only thing left is getting a dresser! i promise to take pics when it's all done....

starting off strong today...

and fading fast! yesterday was long...i picked and canned zipper creme peas...


today i had tomatoes to do....not too many, but too many for everyone to eat before they went bad. can't freeze them...no room in the freezer! i'm preparing for baby now, so the freezer will be filled quite soon!

here's the tomatoes from this week:


and just for big jon, a step by step tutorial of my canning methods for tomatoes. :)

first, core tomatoes and cut off bad spots


then drop said tomatoes into boiling water for a moment:


pull them out, and shock them to stop the cooking....drop them in cold water.


then peel them....skins come off easily!
see here, the skins are all wrinkly looking...


and here, skin just slides right off!


see all the skinless tomatoes? they aren't attractive, but they ARE yummy!


so, then you chop them, dice them, whir them in your food processor, or leave them whole if you'd like. i tend to dice them or whir them up.
these i diced.


then jar them up!


put nice clean lids and rings on them, and process them in your canner as the instructions say. don't forget to clean the rims before putting the lids on....this makes for a gross experience trust me!

mine are processing right now...woo hoo first tomatoes of the season! maybe i can be a farmer's wife...i do love canning!