PRESERVING FRUIT MARATHON

A few weeks ago, Keith bought home a huge amount of Golden Peaches and Granny Smith Apples from one of his jobs.  I have had great desires to learn how to preserve fruit for ages.  I think it is great to prepare for tough times and what better way to preserve than to preserve fruit that is free!  I was blessed by a family in the ward who gave me one dozen large never used agee jars.  

The Horsfords (our inlaws) came over to help with the process of peeling, cutting, stewing and  bottling one million Grannie Smith apples.  It still took us collectively about 4 hours so I hate to think how long it would have taken if I was alone!  Bless them all,  they always come to our rescue and help us with so many things.  They are so a family who gives of their time!  Thanks so much Horsfords!

Below"  Me, Lucas, Morgan and Nicole Horsford in my kitchen.

This was my Preserving shelf prior to our Apple day.  Golden Peaches

and My Plum Jam from Christmas.  (Plums from our tree).  We call

them Christmas Plums because they only come out once a  year and

you need to make jam like mad if you want to make the most of them

before they rot and go to waste.

See the factory line below!  Thats a lot of apples!

Nicole going for it peeling!  Thanks Nicole!

My Delicious girl, eating the peeled apples  LOL!

Look at me  'Home making Queen'  HE HE!

Terina with Nicole,  she loved this day as

she got to spend the day with one of her favourite cousins!

This sounds real weird but I love looking up at my shelf with my preserves on it.

Either I am strange or just the satisfaction of knowing it  is there to  grab whenever

you want after all your hard work is something very satisfying.

Tonight for example when Keith came in at 7.30 after a very long day at work,

I thought I will make him apple crumble for a treat tonight as it is his favourite.

So I grabbed a small bottle of apple and shoved a quick topping on it and 

he asked, "Why are you being so nice to me tonight dear?"  (SAD)

But I thought about that question and usually I can't be bothered peeling

apples and stewing them etc at the end of a long day because it takes ages but now that all the hard

work is done,  I can whip up Apple Crumbles or Peach Crumble too with a swirl of 

plum Jam in the middle perhaps in just 5 mins.  How exciting and it makes Keith think

I am going the extra  mile but actually it is so so easy and fast.

Nicole now calls me a...

'DOMESTICATED GODDESS'. 

MORE TEETH FALLING OUT!

I don't know if you can read these letters below but Terina still just keeps loosing teeth,  she has huge

gaps in her mouth and had a pretty bad lisp going on right now.  She said this morning, "Mum look, I have another wiggly tooth"!  Thank goodness I am not the tooth Fairy  LOL!

Thanks Poppa for playing such a cool game with the kids and keeping this tradition strong

 in our home.   Niwa will be next LOL.

Arama gave Poppa another tooth yesterday too.  

OUR ZOO TRIP

Yesterday we went to the Zoo.  Keith was working so I took the kids as we had promised them and their cousin Kyla came too!  Here are some of our Zoo photos.

ARAMA STARTS GROWTH HORMONE TREATMENT

As many of you know,  for years now Arama has not been growing very well along with many other health challenges.

He has finally qualified for funded growth Hormone treatment.

This means daily injections!

He started these  on Thursday the 8th of this Month and he is 

doing so well,  he makes no fuss at all we are so proud of him

as initially he was determined he was not going to do them as

he is so scared of injections but with lots of faith and prayers 

we all knew that we needed to give this a try, even he knew this too!

He loads his cartridge which lasts 12days and cost the govt $400 I must add (thanks to everyone for paying their taxes).  Then each night he loads his injection pen with the needle and sets the dial at 1.0ml of the drug  GENOTROPIN.

He is getting very confident at this and so brave too!

Below is the sharpies box which he puts used needles into, 

his injection pen in its case and a little cardboard box

with needles in it.

His Sister wanted to pose for this photo with the Sharpies box LOL!

This is his pen below he was able to choose the outer casing,

he picked the racing car one.  If he gets sick of it though, he

can put the purple cover back on.

Below is him injecting himself.  He can inject into the stomach, upper leg or bottom. So far he has always done his puku!

Funny you know we always thought of all the cons of this process,

but when you feel in your heart that you need to do something, we are firm believers of the fact that you need to follow your promptings!

So that is what we have done and so far the process has been very

easy and simple.  Arama went to school last Monday and showed 

his class what he does and talked to them all about it all.  His teacher said ...... 

He was in his ELEMENT explaining it to the class, he spoke for half an hour and the kids were really interested in what  he had to say - it was fabulous! He did really, really well! It is nice for the class to know a little about the lives of some students in their class. It amazes me how much some kids have to go through in life. Puts things into perspective for me too!

 Great suggestion getting him to do that!

BLESSINGS ALL ROUND AND I FEEL CONFIDENT THAT THIS OPTION

 WILL HELP  MY SPECIAL SON GROW!

NANNY HALL'S HAIR

The other night the kids cousin, Kyla came to stay the night.  

Nanny Hall came over to baby sit and she let down her hair, 

the kids were amazed at how long it is because she always has it 

 up in her silver bun and they never see it down.

"Rapunzel Rapunzel let down your White hair"!

OUR LAUNDRY SYSTEM

This is our Laundry System!

I don't usually put up things like this but it might help you if you 

hate folding washing as much as I do!

Everyone has their own bendy container.  

Terina = Pink

Arama = Blue

Niwa = Black

Keith and I  = Black

You can see the pile of washing in the background! (about 4 days worth  LOL)

The kids throw (its like a basketball game) the clothes into the correct container. 

They then take their clothes to their rooms and fold and put away. 

(Some are better than others at this job)

The kids then fold the towels and the face clothes etc.  (all the easy stuff)

All hard at work!   

They love the basketball game!

They could improve on the folding and putting away.

We haven't got it perfect yet but it sure is easier than doing it all alone, 

even if all they do is sort, that still makes your job so much faster,  it 

only takes us about 2 mins  to sort the washing together.

These containers are perfect because when they are finished 

they just stack neatly on top of each other again and go 

back in the laundry!

Give it a go, you will love it and the kids love it too as it gives them ownership!

The insides of their drawers are not as good as they could look if you did it,

 but hey who cares,  they did it!