Slipping September

Life here on earth is slipping away.  I've neglected this blog as we live.  We started school, hosted an estate sale, and celebrated first haircuts so far this September.  Today we woke to our first frost of the season. Earlier this month, RileyAnn turned nine.  And of course, her birthday wouldn't have been complete without a pinata.  She chose a cat design.

I cannot believe our baby girl is officially half way to adulthood.  It seems like only yesterday when I held her in my arms like Levi.  She was so alert, all red and wiggly.  At the time, I thought I wanted a boy.  I never knew the joy a mother could feel at having such a sweet baby girl.  God truly knew just what I needed.  RileyAnn, you are a gift!   I am so thankful to have daughters and sons.














Speaking of gifts, Levi is 3 months old today.  Look at that smile.  He's such a happy baby and RileyAnn loves being big sister.

Ruben had his first salon haircut and Riley cropped several inches.

He sat nice and still.  It went smoothly.  Although, he was thankful when it was over.  He does look handsome :)


















The plants are all covered.  It looks like another frost tonight.  Time passes and we're cruisin' on.....

Friday Flowers

Where oh where did summer go?  There's been a chill in the air the last couple of mornings.  Football's in full swing.  We've been back to school for three weeks.  You can read about what books we're using here.

As fall draws closer, I want to share with you some of RileyAnn's summer photos...

Peaches

Oh...how I LOVE home canned peaches!!  I recently bought a lug of peaches and canned them using my grandmother's recipe.  Last year, I canned two lugs.  We had a few quarts left over.  There were 48 peaches in this lug and we ended with 9 quarts.  RileyAnn was a big help this year.  

Canning peaches does make a sticky mess, but it's so worth it.  Home canned peaches are a wonderful winter treat :)

Super Babyfood

After inquiring on whether or not I could use our garden produce to make baby food, a friend alerted me to Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.  I checked it out from the library and loved it so much, I bought a copy.

So far, I've made 2 batches of green beans for Levi.  I cleaned and cooked down the beans with enough water to cover the bottom of the pan.  You do need to watch the pan closely, as I stepped away for a few minutes and burned the first batch :(

Once the beans are soft, I pureed them in the food processor.  You could use a blender, but mine is broke.

Then I froze the green bean puree in ice cube trays covered with plastic wrap.

After a couple of days in the freezer, I popped out the cubes and stored them in a plastic food safe container back in the freezer.  You could also use a Ziploc bag.  Don't forget to label the beans with the date. I think they should keep up to 6 months in the freezer.    

Thanks to RileyAnn's bountiful harvest, Levi will have fresh green beans this winter! 

Tomatoes

The good Lord has blessed us with tomatoes this year.  The kids have been picking a pan every couple of days.  

I've been busy canning them and making juice.  I found this recipe last year "How to Make Tomato Juice" and love it.  I canned 7 quarts of juice and used the rest to make a large batch of chili....YUM!  It's really quite simple if you have a food mill.  

Tonight I made homemade spaghetti sauce and it was a hit.

Now, if only I could find something useful to make with cherry or grape tomatoes......as it seems they multiply after they're picked ;-)

Checklist by Subject

RileyAnn is box checker like me :(  She's been begging for some time to have her own checklist for school.  Recently, I granted her wish and created these grids for each term.  The originals have boxes within each week of the grid that she can check upon completion.  However, for whatever reason they didn't come through when I cut and pasted them here.  There's a box for each day of the week that the subject will be completed.  For example, there are 5 boxes for Bible, 3 for history, 2 for science, etc.  So far, she's really liking it.

Term 1	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Bible
History
Geography
Math
Science
Nature Study
Language Lessons
Explode the Code
Pictures in Cursive
Spelling
Reading
Art

Term 1	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12
Bible
History
Geography
Math
Science
Nature Study
Language Lessons
Explode the Code
Pictures in Cursive
Spelling
Reading
Art