Canning and cakes

What a busy day it has been already! My goal was to wake up at 5:30 AM and get started canning right away. That was my goal, but I was up with a 9 1/2 month old teething little girl at 1:30 AM and just couldn't drag myself out of bed. She woke not long after though, then we were all up! Went out and did chores, I have to admit every time I go in the chicken house I start getting excited at the thought that there may be eggs waiting for us very soon!

After the girls ate their breakfast we started on baking today's cake. It is red velvet and will be decorated with monkeys. By this time Ellie was ready for her nap and I quickly started peeling apples. I was about to make my first attempt at apple pie filling in a jar. My first batch of syrup got dumped to the chickens-they enjoyed it, for some reason it looked lumpy to me, like the clear jel didn't mix in with the other ingredients. The second batch was better and tasted great. I was able to do 5 quarts and they all sealed!

By now, Ellie is taking her second nap. The red velvet cake is frosted and looks yummy. So much for quiet time...Ellie is squealing. My hope is more apple pie filling tonight! :)

Holy Apples

The apples are ready at our house! This morning I canned 13 jars of applesauce. We will enjoy those this winter! Thankfully, Ellie napped through most of that, I don't like "playing" scalding jars with a 9 1/2 month old crawling around my feet. These are the days I love, but I don't love the mess!

Grace gets her school picture taken tonight and gets to meet her teacher. I think she is getting excited for preschool, but I am not sure about mommy! I can't believe I am not a parent of a preschooler. I remember teaching preschool and seeing those parents so nervous for the first day-now here I am in their shoes. I admit it I am acting exactly as they did!

Here I go again...

I am going to attempt to keep this blog more up to date! I am not going to recap the last 7 months that I haven't posted, but will just pick up where I am in my life. :)

Gracie is 3 years old and is all registered for preschool at a local catholic school. She is pretty excited and I am a little nervous! I can't believe she is going to start preschool!

Ellie is 9 months old and crawling and pulling herself up to everything! She puts everything in her mouth which makes for a nervous momma! She has recently started sleeping through the night (most nights) she is quite different from Gracie.

Rob and I recently celebrated our 7 year anniversary with a trip to the local race track to watch the horse races. This is something we used to do quite often, so thought is would be fun. We enjoyed our little break from reality.

Yesterday was a very busy day! Gracie and I canned 7 half pints of pizza sauce and 5 pints of salsa. When Rob got home from work his mom came over and we butchered 5 more broiler chickens. We have 8 more penned up for tonight, the 8 for tonight are already sold.

Off to unload and load the dishwasher and need to go to get groceries when Miss Ellie wakes up from her morning nap!