G Family Birthday Bash

My apologies for getting this up so late.  The Birthday Bash was August 18th this year.  We had a wonderful time with everyone who came and thank them immensely for blessing us with their presence.  As with every Birthday Bash, we request that everyone just come and don't worry about bring presents.  The greatest gift anyone can give us is themselves.  We value everyone's friendship so very much.  What a blessing all of you are to us!

The "J" family joined us for the party for a little while.  The zip line was enjoyed by all. :)

Evidence of that enjoyment.  :)

Mrs. J, Bethany, Rebecca & Kimmy with Caroline behind.  The arm in the picture is my JL helping to make sure it doesn't go too fast for Bethany.  :)

Bethany just enjoying the zip line.

David taking his turn while others watch. 

My Mr. G use to work as a lineman for a local power company and still had all of his harnesses, so that's what the kids used for the zip line. :)   He is so inventive!  I love it!  He found the aluminum guide wire sitting beside the road.  After a week of no one claiming it, he picked it up to use for the zip line.  We had an old weight machine with pulleys on it that have been used for it too.

Boots and Niaya who have graced our parties for the past 3 years.  What a blessing!  Bethany just loves doggies. :) 

Mrs. M helping D brave the zip line.

What a brave little man!

Mr. M enjoying Boots.  We're so glad he could come!  He just had valve replacement surgery and this seemed to be the perfect spot for him for the day. :)  

DA helping Rebecca with the harness.  :)  

I think she enjoyed herself.

New "old" friends enjoying the zip line.  (Try figuring that out!  LOL)  Dear online friends of mine moved closer to us 2 weeks before the party and they were able to come!  How wonderful it was to finally give Mrs. P a hug!  :) 

How wonderful to see them enjoying themselves!  The kids hit it off together so very well.  :)  

Water Balloon fun!  :) 

Rustie liked playing too! :)

The end of the water balloons.  My Mr. G. took the rain barrel and a couple other large bins down to the spring to fill them up for the water gun fight.  After the balloon fight the kids needed to play other games for a bit until he got back. 

All the little boys wanting a turn at the same time.

Rustie's friend for life. :)

Rich and Lois...aka...Mr. & Mrs. J.

He was only gone for a couple of minutes and was able to get these filled for the kids.

They were each given 1 squirt gun, then the little ones (3 and under) were given 2.  This was to level the playing field, but it didn't seem to hinder the older ones who used cups, bottles and eventually entire 5 gallon buckets to get one another wet.  

Watching all the fun.

Hooray!  Water guns!

Keeper of the campfire forks.

I bought 4 dozen little squirt guns.  It was comical and just plain fun to watch what they did with them.

Especially this little guy!  

I'm not sure who the target is here...

The level playing field between a 5 year old and an 18 year old.

Little guy in lower right went to Mr. M and said, "Stick em up!"  Mr. M. said, "But I don't have a squirt gun."  The little guy said, "Here, I share then!"  What a joy!  :)

Filling up safely away from the big kids.  LOL

Those who didn't want to get wet stayed away from all of it.  LOL 

The two "die hard" water bucket players.  He ran after her, but she knew all the short cuts and hiding places, so she had a hand up in the battle.  What fun!

When it's all over, we had the blessing and dinner.  The kids went off in to the woods after dinner with Mrs. P. When they returned we had cupcakes and they played even more.  

This is the last of the pictures.  I absolutely love this event every year because our friends come and have fun.  It's a great time to celebrate the lives of our 3 children.  

Maybe next year YOU can come too!  We'd love to have you!  :) 

Makin' Salsa!

How wonderful the flavor of this salsa!  I love it!  I made it a bit hotter this year than I have in years past, but how wonderful it is!  

I began this year with 2 jars of jalapenos, with the juice and the seeds that my wonderful Mr. G canned for me last year specifically so I can make my salsa.  The flavor is so wonderful coming from our garden instead of store bought, it is amazing!

I use a hand blender because my food processor bit the dust.  I'm saving up for a food processor attachment to my Bosche.  Until then, though, this works fine. :)

Yes, that's a HUGE bowl of tomatoes!  My kids are such wonderful helpers!  Yes, we like chunky salsa!  :) 

When everything is put together it looks like this.  I love making salsa!  The aroma is out of this world!

All the salsa finished.  The white arrows are more tomatoes to be canned in to sauce tomorrow.  The black arrow is green and yellow beans to get snapped tomorrow while the sauce is simmering.  The aqua colored arrow is what I depend upon to make dinner.  LOL  

How did I come upon my salsa recipe?  Why did I choose this particular one?  I loved the addition of cilantro and the flavor is so wonderful.  I did an internet search when we first began canning all these tomatoes years ago for salsa.  I looked at some, but none really impressed me with their ingredients.  I found this one and it originally called for Habanero peppers, Jalepenos and Cerrano peppers.  YIKES!!!  My Mr. G would have liked it, but HOLY MOLY it would have been H.O.T.!!!!!  I toned it down a bit more by just using 3/4 of a cup of jalapenos directly out of the jar, then filling the cup the rest of the way with the juice.  I zapped that with the hand blender/food processor because I don't know about anyone else, but getting a mouth FULL of jalapeno is just not my idea of fun!  LOL  I'd rather have the flavors spread throughout the salsa.  

Everything else is so very simple, it would astound you!

1 Bushel Tomatoes cubed-no need to cut skins off or blanche. 
3 VERY large onions or 6 smaller ones chopped 
6 Cups Vinegar 
4 TBSP Black Pepper 
2 Cups Dried Cilantro (or 2 large heads of fresh cilantro) 
1-16 ounce jar of Jalapenos with juice finely chopped in food processor 
4 TBSP Minced Garlic 
5 VERY large green peppers chopped 
1/2 Cup Lemon Juice 
1/2 Cup dehydrated Parsley (or 2 bundles fresh parsley chopped) 

Prepare quart & pint jars, sterilizing them and lids and rings. 

Heat mixture up to 180*F, fill jars and hot water bath for 10 minutes. 


This year, I added a little bit of the juice with all the wonderful veggies.  That way I don't have jars of just salsa juice.  I love to put that salsa juice in to my chili, but I really love making nachos with my salsa too.  LOL

This is what it has looked like it times past.  It's very much the same as I've made it today. :)  

No Poo

For those of you who are completely bored with the topic of personal hygeine, please feel free to skip this post.  I don't mind.

On the other hand, if you're interested in my own personal findings of going "poo" free for 1 week, please read on!

Disclaimer:  This is NOT about bodily fluids.  I promise!  LOL

I am convinced that this method of washing and rinsing hair (mine in particular) has caused such a change on my hair's manageability that I'm hooked!

No Poo Recipe
1 Cup Baking Soda
1 Cup Tap Water
Mix and pour over your hair leaving in your hair with it pinned up in the shower while you wash everything else.  Rinse well....scalp...everything.  There will be no bubbles, but your hair will have a squeakier than shampoo feeling to it.

Conditioning--
1 Cup Vinegar (I've been using Apple Cider)
1 Cup Water
Mix and pour over hair leaving hair pinned up while you finish rinsing or shaving or brushing your teeth (like Mr. G does).  Rinse well...scalp...everything.

There is NO residual scent of vinegar, just gloriously smooth hair.

This is a picture I took with the webcam the first day I did this method.

This was day one of no shampoo.  I dried my hair like I normally do, it's still a bit frizzy, but it gets better!  

This one seems a little fuzzy to me, but it could be the lighting.  Anyway, just a little frizz left on the ends, but everything is getting smoother and smoother with each use.  

Beans

From the bean patch...

To the finished canning jars.

God is good...all the time.

Investing

When hearing of so many friends' loved ones passing away or getting ready to, it makes one stop for a bit, days even, to contemplate and reflect. None of us are guaranteed a tomorrow. If there is something unsaid or more time needed to do something with someone, don't hesitate to do that thing today. Once they [you] are gone, those opportunities are too. 

Priorities, just the word begs to question--where are they? On things of an eternal nature, like people and relationships, or are they on things of this world, like...things? 

The saying, "People before things" that I use to say to myself when my kids were young still rings true today, just in a bit of a different light. 

Take time to invest in another person, your children, someone you love. You'll never regret that you did.

Last summer--dinners on the back porch by Citronella candle.

Canning Time

Years ago, when my Mr. G and I were still newly weds, he taught me how to can.    Growing up, I had always watched my mother and step-mother can all sorts of things, but my mother always told me to watch.  By the time I was in my teens, my step-mother just did all the canning while I was at school, so I never really got in to canning "up to my elbows" so to speak.

Fast forward to today (Monday-Labor Day--coincidence?  I think not!) and my Mr. G is still canning.  

He's making stewed tomatoes, putting all sorts of yummy goodness in to the mix to make it taste good.

Here he's showing JL what to do with the jars and lids.   

Since he did the first batch of stewed tomatoes, it was only right that HJ and I did the 2nd batch.  We love working together in the kitchen and often times, she'll "kick me out" telling me "Momma, I've got this!  You go sit down and rest your back."  What a wonderful blessing she is!  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of she and I working together.  But, we have memories and smiles of silliness and laughter.

This morning (Tuesday) my Mr. G and I went to look at the gardens before he left for a meeting.  He looked in the back corners, under some shadows and found this interesting tomato.  He told me that it was picture worthy.  LOL

Here it is from another angle.  Sadly, we will not be canning this one.  It has a rotten spot on the bottom.  If you look closely at this picture, you'll see the rotten area in the lower left of the tomato.  This tomato is still a good one for us though.  It will go in to the compost where most likely, it's seeds will produce some volunteer plants for next year.  :)  That's always a good thing!  :) 

If you look on the table in the background, you'll see our stewed tomatoes.  We were able to make 11 quarts yesterday (Labor Day).  Mr. G asked me this morning (Tuesday) if we were going to can all of the yellow and green beans we're growing in our garden.  I told him that I'd like to keep filling our shelves, canning some every day.  I love doing this so that we can have the fruit of our labors through the winter.  An added plus is that our food is chemical free, GMO free and it teaches our children about the importance of putting up their own food for the future.  We can see what goes in to our foods and we can pronounce those things.  We can know without a shadow of a doubt that we know our food is good for us.

We've only just begun our canning time.  I know many people have been canning since the end of July.  Our produce has only just come on.  Our cucumbers haven't done a lot this year either, but the year isn't done yet.  We'll see how much we get from those. 

I'll be adding more pictures as the week progresses.  :) 

Many hands make light work!

Everyone gets in to the bean works!  

Contrary to what one might believe, these are "volunteer" helpers.  =0)

There were more to come in after I took this picture.  The sink was full!  What a blessing!

Today's canning~12 quarts of yellow beans to add to the 5 we did on Sunday and just the beginning of the green beans-2 quarts.

Yes, we pressure can these.

Me and my beautiful daughter.

As with every year, it is a learning experience.  We are ever and always thankful to God for His provision for us.  What a wonderful blessing!