September has been a crazy month for us. Trying to sneak in some last minute summer fun amidst processing our food for the winter. This first picture is of Hailey on a "bull" at the Pendleton Round-up. The kids decided they wanted to ride the mechanical bull instead of go to the carnival. They loved it! 
Besides processing veggies from our own garden, we've been blessed with lots of fruits and veggies from other's gardens. My parents gave us a bunch of potatoes, so I decided to make a whole bunch of Twice-Baked Potato Casseroles. Here is the mess of mashed potatoes with cheese, carrots and spinach all mixed together for the topping of this delicious casserole. 
This picture creeps me out, but Josiah is showing off his VERY loose tooth on his birthday. He lost it that night.
Josiah blowing out his seven birthday candles without his two front teeth. 
Amidst making 2 1/2 gallons of sauerkraut, freezing massive amounts of zucchini, green beans, diced tomatoes, green peppers, beets and making gallons of peach jam, I took the time to learn how to make my own laundry soap that I use in my homemade laundry detergent. 10 gallons of laundry soap will now only cost me around .75 cents. How awesome is that? My sweet friend, Laurie, taught me how and I'm going to do a blog post on it soon. 
Last week was the first week of AWANAS. Hailey and Josiah are both members now. They were both very excited that Hailey gets to go now. A friend of ours blessed us with paying for both children this year. Thank you, Lord! I love that they are memorizing scripture every week through this program.
We got a bunch of peaches from my mom and we made two gallons of no-cook freezer jam. This stuff is good enough to eat with a spoon!This weekend, Michael and I were finally able to use the free gift certificate for a local bed and breakfast that I won at Curves almost a year ago. We had a wonderful romantic getaway for one night while Grandma Kricket came over the mountain to watch the kidlets. It was a real blessing as we've had an extremely challenging week with our son. Praying for wisdom to parent him. Today is a new week and I'm praying some lessons will be learned so I can successfully parent him. Never has parenting been such a challenge for us. I guess this is a period of testing. I would covet your prayers for us on this issue.
Thank you and God Bless! Hope you all have a great week.
God Bless,
Jackie
12 comments:
Praying for you Jackie! Sometimes parenting is tough...been there, still there. :)
Thanks for sharing. That peach jam looks so good.
Bri loves Awana. She got her first badge. She was so excited.
God bless and have a wonderful day.
Jackie,
Boy, have you been a busy girl!!! All that food! What a blessing! The casserole looks yummy! Will be praying for you as well abou the parenting. Parenting certainly isn't for cowards is it? So glad you had a time away with your husband. We all need those moments of refreshing!
Love,
Jackie
This month has just flown past at our home too! Keeping busy certainly helps in that area! That is the biggest bowl of potatoes ever!
Will certainly be praying for you.
Had to laugh at the tooth picture, my daughter leaves them dangle too until they literally fall out on their own. LOL
Thanks for sharing the peach recipe looks good! Those mashed potatoes look so yummy!!
Blessings,
Jill
I know, I know! The end of summer harvest, everything happens at once and then some. Love the feeling that the pantry is full before the cold weather comes.
Okay I know this should be a no brainer but sometimes I learn the hard way (ha, ha) but I am finding the older the kids get the harder they are to parent, so I'm right in that boat with you. Sometimes my kids will listen to my "wisdom" and some days they know it all, especially E. I will definitely pray but you could send some prayers my way too!
Bethany was doing that with her tooth recently, but I didn't take a picture. I shiver just thinking of it :)
Jackie,
Your food looks and sounds so yummy!!
There is always a parenting "thing" going on. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Evaluation, prayer and sometimes change are always going on when it comes to phases of raising childre. And, just when you think you have something figured out, the next kiddo in line is different in how they re-act or think.
Took me a long time to get that, even thought I knew God made each one different...
Stephanie
Whoa girl you have been busy...I've been runnin' here too. I'm pretty much done with my preserving except for applesauce.
Sounds like you are having a lot of fun preserving the harvest. I have to try that freezer jam recipe one of these days.
We've been busy here with preserving apples and more, and then cooking apple butter for our church fall festival. That time of year, Jackie! That peach jam does look yummy. Praying for you and your family. Thanks so much for sharing.
Wow! You were busy! I can't wait to hear about the laundry detergent. (I tried it once but my family didn't like it as much. I'll look forward to seeing your recipe.)
In His love,
Tina
Post a Comment