May 16, 2008 - I want a baby brudder...

Our 3yo found a robin's egg that had fallen out of it's nest.  She thinks her baby brudder is inside there.  She asked if we could put it in a nest so she can have a brudder.  My mother had given us some Land Before Time tapes and I didn't realize how quickly kids can be indoctrinated to different things.  Oh, ya, I know some of it, but this little one just gleans every bit of anything out of TV and I am having to watch her so much more closely than the other kids. 

For those that don't know... Land Before Time tapes are cute little dinosaurs that teach values.  However, it also teaches evolutionism (and yes the 3yo picked that up... so I am doing reverse training now on teaching creationism which was so natural to my other kids... but not to her, she just doesn't get the confused messages... yes she's three, but the others got it by this age... Jesus made the sunshine... Jesus made the green grass...etc.).  And, they personalize the little dinosaurs, in that, my little one thinks we lay eggs and put them in a nest and watch them hatch. 

While this is so cute... she went on and on about having a baby brudder.  She even sat down with a sad look with the egg in her hands waiting for it to hatch.  She went on for several days asking for her brudder... which Dh was just at ends with because as most of you know... Daddy's like to fulfill their daughter's requests and this was one he could do nothing about.  LOL.  (Trusting God, here!) The egg finally disappeared out of the house and she then was sad that someone took her brudder and threw him out.  Guess who she blamed???  Yup... MOM!  (I didn't take it, but  she still didn't believe me). 

Anyways, it was cute, but I learned a huge lesson, that I have been lax on the training of my 3yo... My other kids watched "Little Foot" (one of the dinosaurs) but it was when they were much older and already understood about creation and basic aspects of life... So, Mom got her hand slapped and is getting on with fixing her errors.  Yes, I know the issues with TV... I also know the issues my family has with NO TV.... especially Dh.  I also know that it isn't just our family, but our entire social circle at church and extended family that also are endeared to the TV.  So I won't get away from the TV as much as I'd like to... but I know that it can be combatted with a firm stand on what is OK and what isn't OK and limiting it at home as much as I am able.  I learned that with my other three kids.  But, I haven't been watching so closely with this little one.  I need to do better. 

Warmly, ~Melissa 

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May 15, 2008 - I'm SUNBURNED!

I managed to plant 3 rows of onions... 2.5 of red onions and a half row of white onions.  My skin started to hurt, so I hid for cover.    Tonight I can see that I am indeed sunburned on my arms. 

Today was a busy day.  But I feel good that something was accomplished.  Although, I was beginning to wonder, as my day seemed to get sidetracked every few minutes.  I decided not to get upset and that each step I made towards the goal, was a step closer than I was before I started. 

The biggest thing accomplished for me today was planting the 4 rose bushes that I bought last week.  I also planted a hydrangea bush by the driveway.  Dh smoothed out my old garden area (leveling it) and then put together a temporary campfire ring with some formed brick cement blocks.  I now have a pile of dirt to make my raised strawberry bed out of... someday. 

Second on my glad to get started list was the hauling of planting supplies to my garden, getting all the markers, string (for straight rows)... and actually getting some onions in the ground.  This process was interrupted by my 3yo who had lots of other things for mommy to do. 

We also found some baby killdeer birds flitting around the garden...and we caught one... and let it go.  Unfortunately, later on one of the cats or dogs caught one and killed it.  So sad!  I found it by the side of the house.  I was a bit upset.  Those little babies are so SOOOO cute.  We enjoy them each spring!  You can only catch them the first day or two... after that they are too quick for our clumsy bodies to catch them!   (And no, touching them has NEVER caused a momma or daddy bird to reject them). 

We set up one of our tents from farmer's market and put the sides on it for Paige to play in... she loved it... her own little house!  The wind caught it with all the sides on the tent and sent it rolling.  I'm glad she wasn't in it when the gust of wind blew it over.  I guess I will need to tie it down or put the weights on it, if we plan to use it with her again. 

Well, other than cooking and cleaning chores, that was my day. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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May 12, 2008 - JUST IN TIME!!!

Ok, I went out this afternoon and picked my violets again.  I saw they had bloomed a second time after all our picking... so I quickly gathered the purple violets that I might try to perfect our violet jelly recipe.  I noticed a few dandelions out, but not as much as last year, but I figured I could get one small batch in with the dandelions in the yard.  (Last year I got to pick in the pastures, but Dh let the horses out before I got to pick the dandelions... boo hoo, LOL). 

I came in and made my violet infusion.  I rested.  I started preparing my dandelion infusion and I hear the mower... the mower????  I quickly go outside to see Dh cleaning up what is left of the dandelions and violets. 

It's hard to see, but the white spots are my white violets.

I just shook my head.  It truly was just in time that I went to pick flowers.  Dh was paying no attention to my day and had no idea I had been picking flowers from the yard.  This, by the way, is our first mow of the year.  We've had such a cold spring, we hadn't needed to mow until now. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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May 12, 2008 - Dandelion Jelly...Link

Many have asked me for a recipe for dandelion jelly.  I may yet share a post on our own adventures, but for now, here is the site that I have used in the past.  I love that it has pictures.  Although, I will comment on one thing...  Dandelion Jelly

When clipping your petals, if you are very picky and don't get the green sepals in your petals, you will not need to worry about the greenish hue that your infusion may make.  However, that will add alot of time to your preparation time.   I did not separate the sepals and my infusion looked much like the pictures on this site.  I did not add food coloring, either, but after cooking, some of that green-ness came out.  My end product looked like honey... without food coloring. 

I also tried another dandelion recipe, found online, but I don't have it handy... and the infusion was made by boiling the petals and the water together, and then straining... the result decreased your time, if you need to make jelly that SAME day and without the wait of the infusion time.  So, look around. There are more recipes out there.  Both tasted the same, by the way. 

AND, I doubled the recipe without any trouble with it jelling.  I found in nicer to get 7 to 8 half pints done at one time, rather than 3 to 4 half pints and starting the process all over. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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May 12, 2008 - Violet Jelly... a tutorial

VIOLET JELLY?

Yes, indeed!  Violets are an edible flower and purple violets will make a beautiful pink-violet jelly.  Want to learn how?  Join us as we share our pictures from our violet jelly making adventure.

First, I will share the recipe that we used.  I searched for it online and found that there are several different ways to go about getting to the final recipe, but ultimately the recipe was the same, as far as ingredients go. 

Violet Jelly Recipe:

2 cups fresh violets

2 cups boiling water

juice of one lemon (4 tablespoons)

1 package of powdered pectin

4 cups sugar

Make an infusion with the violets and boiling water.  Pour water over the violet flower heads (remove stems if they have any).  Let sit anywhere from 2 to 24 hours (put in fridge if longer than 2 hours).  Drain liquid from flowers, squeezing to get every last drop of liquid for the recipe.  Add lemon juice.  (notice color change!)  Add one package of powdered pectin.  Bring to a boil.  Add four cups of sugar.  Bring to a second rolling boil.  Boil vigorously for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Skim foam, if necessary.  Ladle into jars.  Seal with paraffin wax OR can with lids and waterbath for 5 minutes (1/2 pint jars). 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

TUTORIAL

Our Violet Harvest!

Our yard happens to be filled with WHITE violets, and a few purple violets.  We picked about 1/4 of the white violets and all of our purple violets.  These are quart jars and you can see we got about 6 cups of white violets and about 3 cups of purple violets.  To make the infusion, there are various ways to make it, depending on how much jelly you plan to make.  (our white violet jelly was an experiment...white violets are edible as well, but we were unsure what color the jelly would end up being). 

Though we didn't try it, I would think you could double the recipe with NO trouble at all.  Alot of times you are not supposed to double the recipe, because it will interfere with the jelling aspect and often times not set up.  But the jelly we made was very thick, and because of that, I feel you could likely double the recipe without worry. 

Ok, back to the infusion.  One recipe said to fill a quart jar with flower heads (no stems) and cover completely with boiling water, all the way to the rim.  In the picture below, you will notice we did that with the white violets.  Other ways were to pack violet heads down to one cup and add 2 cups of boiling water.  Some just said, measure 2 cups of violet flower heads and add 2 cups of boiling water.  If you chose the full quart jar method, you measured out 2 cups of the liquid for the recipe.  If you measured the 2 cups of boiling water method, use simply used that liquid. 

As for preparation, many said none, just watch your flowers, make sure they are clean, bug free, etc.  One recipe said they rinsed their flowers, but I would recommend measuring out your flowers before rinsing as they wilt to nothing once wet.  We just looked at our flowers, we figured the boiling water and boiling with the jelly preparation would kill what we missed.  *grin*

Violets Infusing.

The set time to infuse was a minimum of 2 hours and a maximum of 24 hours.  We chose 24 hours for maximum color, since our purple violets were a mixture of true purples and crosses with whites (so less purple color).  The white violets made a murky yellow gray color.  The purple violets it was a murky blue color.

Strain Infusion.

(Don't we look so happy?  LOL)  Anyways, this is a picture of the white violets being strained.  We used a jelly bag.  You could also use cheese cloth.  Once drained, you still want to squeeze as much liquid out of the flower heads as possible for ultimate color and liquid for recipe. 

Squeeze Liquid.

This is a picture of the white violet infusion.  A yellowish-gray murky coloring of liquid.  Did we really want jelly out of this???  We were wondering about our experiment! 

Purple Violet Infusion.

Here you can see the purple violets makes a dark grayish greenish blue.  You don't really see the green in the photo.  In real life it looks more dirty like, lake water, just with blue in it. 

Add your lemon juice.  (notice the color change!)

Wow!  Wasn't that pretty? The liquid now should look pretty clear and ready to be jellied.  What about the white violet infustion?

Is it changing?

Oh my!  It did (thank goodness!)  LOL  It now looks like a grapefruit pink.  Once canned it looked light peach in color.

Add Pectin.

Now this step is one you may want to pay some attention to, for this is where our story goes bad.  LOL.  Don't just dump in the pectin.  It will thicken almost immediately, even before cooking it.  Pour it in slowly and stir evenly (but not too roughly to cause bubbles) to dissolve the pectin.  You can do this step in a pan on the stove before heating... to save the mess from transferring it to the pan as it will now stick to the bowl once it thickens.  (This we learned). 

Our mistake with the first batch was that the pectin went in all at once and was lumpy.  It created jelly that had thicker spots than others, although it all jelled, it was like gelatin in jelly.   Our second batch, we whisked it, after my daughter again dumped it in... *sigh*... and it created bubbles that would not even cook out.  This step ended up being crucial for our final result in jelly texture. 

Bring to a Rolling Boil.

You want to be sure the boil is big enough not to be pushed out with the spoon.  It should boil even with a quick stirring motion. 

Add Sugar.

Return to a rolling boil as in the step before.  This time let it boil for 1 minute.  stir constantly so that the sugar does not burn and that you are watching closely for it could easily overboil. 

Remove from Heat, Skim Foam, if needed.

Use a metal spoon to skim foam.  Why metal?  I found that the foam tends to cling easily to a metal spoon and it IS what is recommended in my canning books.

Ladle quickly, but carefully into hot prepared jars.

I realize this is not in the directions for the recipe, but it is a necessary step with canning.  Prepared jars are cleaned and then boiled for 10 minutes on top of the stove.  Keep the jars hot as you are preparing your jelly recipe.  Once ready to ladle, get your jars out and fill them.  This jelly we found was quite thick, and if you weren't careful, you could create bubbles along the sides of the jars.  Using a plastic utensil designed for removing bubbles may have helped, but this jelly was really thick for us.  My daughter took more time than I might normally with skimming and the jelly may have thickened more than had we filled the jars more quickly after removing from the heat. 

At this point, you want to clean the jar rims from any spilled jelly.  You can either opt to fill with hot paraffin wax to seal, or do as we did and seal with hot prepared lids (lids set in boiling water for one minute... I use the teapot and put my lids in a bowl.  I boil the water while making jelly.  When I add the sugar and am doing the last boil, I pour the water over the jar lids to help soften the rubber.)  I then put the 1/2 pint jars in for a 5 minute waterbath.  Recipe yield is 4 half pint jars.

Excuse my jars!  They still need their vinegar bath!  After canning, especially with waterbathing with hard water, you may get a residue on the outside of the jars.  Washing with a rag, wettened with vinegar, will shine up your jars.  I shared these photes so you could see the bubbles and clumping of the jelly.  In the violet colored jelly, it is not so much bubbles that you see, but rather thick gelatin areas of the jelly...which I was unable to cook out.  The white violet jelly, below, if you look closely has lots of tiny bubbles from us whisking, and we were unable to cook them out as well.   I hope to make another batch tomorrow and be able to add a finished photo of jelly gone right.  LOL. 

We hope that by sharing some of our goofs, you can prevent your own.  Jelly making is usually quite easy, but can have it's unexpected AAAAaaaacks!   Don't be afraid to try again!  You'll be glad you did!

Since this recipe is backwards from many I've tried before... I may try doing as I have before, which is to switch the order of the sugar and pectin.  Adding the sugar to the drained infusion and lemon juice mixture and boiling, then adding pectin and boiling for a full minute.  I imagine the result will be much better.  Adding the pectin too early just made it hard to work with.  With fruit jellies, you tend to use 3-5 cups of fruit juice or fruit and with flower infusions you use only 2 cups of liquid for the package of pectin.  (dandelion jelly recipes are very similar to this, and the one I tried last year has you adding the pectin after the sugar, not before, as well).   I will let you know how it goes by reversing the order of the recipe.  If it turns out, I will redo my tutorial to reflect the happier ending with the jelly. 

**I retried the recipe swapping instructions.  I found it did not set up.  However, I can see the pectin is still grainy inside the jar.  I made a second re-do batch and the pectin did the same thing...so I am thinking the pectin is bad (I bought a three pack).  I won't be able to retry again this season... my flowers are fading!  If you try, leave a comment and let me know how it went.   

Warmly, ~Melissa

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May 9, 2008 - We did it!

We made the violet jelly today.  The pictures are all on my daughter's camera and now I will wait patiently for her to download them to "my" computer.  *grin*  Once done, I will get going on my violet jelly post. 

I'm not exactly happy with the jelly, but I will try again next year and see if I can learn from our mistakes.  It is fine really, tastes fine... just with the order they have you combine the pectin in, it tends to clump up and cause bubbles and is really really thick jelly.  But it is pretty and worth the looks on others faces when we share it with them!  LOL. 

We went shopping today and I am a tad bit excited.  I saw they had roses on sale for half price... and I found some climbing blaze roses.  We had these at our other house and I was happy to grab them up at $2 each.  I also picked out two other rose bushes to try and add to our yard, as well as a hydrangea bush.  All for $2 each. 

We got our tax rebate money today.  We also got our state income tax refund back today as well.  So, Later when I sit down to do the bills, I will put a bit extra on that Sears card we are working at paying off. 

That was basically our day.  I enjoyed shopping with my girls and with my DH!  He rarely goes shopping, but he came with and endured shopping with me.  HE says he hates shopping because he always gets stuck... hear that... Stuck with the little one and everyone else gets to SHOP.  Well, I said I needed to look for strawberries (didn't find any) and he takes off with the little one... I had to call him on his cell phone to find him again... he then WALKED away with the little one three more times in the store.  I say, he likes it... he just doesn't remember it later when his back is aching from carrying her around all day.  LOL. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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May 8, 2008 - Violets are blooming!

Today the yard is covered in violets.  Last year I saw you could make jelly with violets, so I decided I would try this year.  Unfortunately, the lovely jelly is made with purple/blue violets and my yard is full of WHITE violets!  But, we did go out and pick.  We have enough purple violets to make one small batch of jelly. 

We are experimenting with the white violets however as the violets DO have flavor, so we will see what the jelly ends up looking like when using the white flowers, as well.  I suppose I could always add food coloring, but we are trying to stay away from food colorings as my youngest seems to have a sensitivity to them. 

We also thought of mixing half blue/ half white flowers, but we only had enough purple violets to make one small batch... not a smidgen more!  Oh Well! 

I love spring.  I see I have some dandelions popping up as well.  I thought of making a batch of Dandelion Jelly as well, but I don't have enough in the yard right now.  Dh let the horses out into ALL of the back pasture, which is where I gleaned my dandelions from last year.  I'm thinking I'll be lucky to get enough for one batch with what is in the yard.  Perhaps I'll have to head to the neighbors and ask if I can "pick" their dandelions... I'm sure they'd get a HOOT out of that request! 

Well, stop back, I plan to post pictures of the jelly making process as we go.  I just took pictures of our jars of blossoms, but I haven't downloaded them yet.  I will put them altogether from start to finish once we are done. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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May 3, 2008 - Debt-free Journey...Federal tax refund

I just checked our bank account and surprise, surprise!  We got our federal tax refund back for 2007's taxes.  I was so excited, I paid bills tonight and guess what... it is all gone already!  LOL. 

I am not going to be distraught over that fact.  Instead I will praise God that we paid off our Discover card in full!  While that is a relief, that wasn't ever in our budget, so it did not help the initial plan to get back within our budget.  But it did help me not to have to depend on Dh's overtime as much anymore. 

Next on our to pay off list is our Sears Credit card.  That is sitting at $8341.06.  This is at a low interest, we took advantage of combining bills at one time with lower interest offers.  But it is now time to pay it off completely.  I put $2000 of our tax refund onto this amount, so I am down to $6341.06.  We plan to put money from the tax rebate on this card as well, whenever that comes.  And our overtime money will also go towards paying off this debt as well. 

My next project with our finances is to come up with a budget and make accounts to accomodate the budget.  We are currently in process of refinancing our home.  When that is finished, we will be settled on monthly amounts of all our current bills and I will be able to set up a budget that is current.  We've been switching funds from one thing to another in effort to save on interest that we are paying.  I've found that hasn't really saved me any money in the current state of affairs, but we will be saving thousands from interest paid had we left it the other way.  But since we (both Dh and I) agreed to get debt free... we have been trying new ways to manage our money and I tell you monthly it changes because we find a better deal with interest or a better way to pay for items.   Making up a budget hasn't been easy, especially with all the financial changes.  We hope to settle our refinance of our house shortly and hopefully that will be the last of our moving around of the finances for a while and I will be able to concentrate on a budget and keeping it, rather than moving funds here and there. 

It is exciting to see that debt-free counter moving down... Tax refunds can make a big difference if we are faithful to apply it to debt! 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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April 30, 2008 - FINISHED! Quilt Block Exchange!

Well, after getting sidetracked on Monday... I finally completed my last 5 sets of blocks.  I headed out at 3 pm and mailed them off.  I enjoyed the opportunity to share with others in a project that kept me motivated.  Even as simple as this project may have been, I learned some tips as I progressed through my blocks.  My blocks were not perfect...this was a new project for me.  I hope that whoever gets my blocks will still enjoy them with the little imperfections. 

It would have been much easier for me to have cut the blocks a little larger.... but I guess that is part of learning.  I had gotten some clear plastic things for quilting years ago... I finally put them to good use!  (See, I don't even know what they were called! (6 by 12 inch clear measuring pieces.  It allowed me to see if my blocks were ending up the correct size)).   I mismeasured as well and have lots of blocks left over.  However I cut it close with the thread.... I will need more thread to do anything with the leftover squares that I have left. 

I am excited about the blocks I am to receive.  I am still trying to figure out what to do with them.  Pillows seem an easy obvious choice, but I'd like to get creative.  I'm sure my little one would like a doll quilt.  I could even do a small quilt hanging with matching squares.... or maybe a small lap quilt.  We will see what I come up with once I see all the blocks. 

Deanna, thanks for hosting this swap!  It was fun.   ... now back to cleaning out our basement and decluttering the house!!! 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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April 27, 2008 - Quilt Block Exchange ...

Today I have been working on the last 5 sets of my blocks.  So far today, I've sewn the first two squares of each line of the square.  I just marked and pinned the third of each line.  Tonight I hope to sew the lines pinned.  Then I will need to iron and pin together the strips of three to make the block.   It is getting close. 

While pinning and marking the quilt squares, I am listening to some training videos for Homeschool Tracker Plus.  I have been using it already for nearly 6 months, but there are parts of it that I am not taking advantage of... so I thought I'd learn how to better use it.   Of the parts I don't use, I'm not sure I want to use it as I do the same thing with something else and I'm not sure I need to take the time to input it into the program... so maybe I have exhausted my uses... which is fine... I am completely happy with the program and how it tracks my school records. 

I am also baking oatmeal cookies tonight between activities.  Some are plain, some have cranberries and pecans, and others have raisins... Mmmmmm smells so good and I just heard the stove beep... sooo Off I go.

Warmly, ~Melissa

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