Crazy Mom!

. . . but never "lazy" 

(sharing a note my 8 year-old wrote me)

Homemade Gifts ~ Poncho

Here is a pattern I am using for my 8  year-old's poncho.  I am using leftover yarn from two different projects.

 I will make 2 rectangle pieces and sew them together, creating a diamond shaped neck hole.

Canning Candy Apple Jelly

With simple ingredients . . .

. . . and sterilized jars and lids (we don't have a dishwasher to do this) . . .

And after a 5 minute boil bath, we now have about 3 1/2 pints of homemade jelly.  I used organic apple juice

Here is the link for the Taste at Home Recipe:  Candy Apple Jelly.

First Day at the Horse Rescue

Here are three of the rescue horses

A few more pictures.  These are not all of the rescues.  Some are are in the barn too.

The drive here was very scenic, with many farms.  I snapped this photo of an old abandoned house that intrigued me.  I made my husband pull over so I could take a photo. I can't wait to buy a nice zoom camera.

This photo holds a story for sure.

Laundry in the Snow

I was probably the only one in my county that put laundry out to dry while it was snowing.   It proved to be worth it.  The wind kicked up, and the sun came out.  Everything dried.

On another note, I finished a crocheted shawl for my 16 year-old for Christmas, using the 1/2 dc stitch.  Then today I made this "poncho" for my 11 year old with a rose colored yarn that would look great over a white turtle neck sweater.  Apologies in advance for the poor lighting in my house when I took this photo.

I did not use the yarn that the pattern called for, but used yarn a friend gave me.  It worked pretty well and I'm happy with the final poncho.  Here's the pattern I went by:  Posh Poncho.

Canning Apple Pie Filling

I am starting with a 1/2 bushel Fuji apples.  My wonderful mother brought me these from the orchard.  I have never canned apple pie filling, so I hope the lady at the orchard picked out a nice apple for canning (as she said they would be).

We peeled and sliced and filled the 7 quart canning jars.  My 18 year old son, who was home, and didn't have to leave for work real soon, helped me.

I took the extra sliced apples, and leftover syrup, and made 2 pies for dinner.  Yes, those are frozen pie crusts.  You caught me. I have cheated a bit today.  They were in the freezer, and the needed to be baked anyway.  I added a crumb topping with flour, brown sugar, butter, and oats.  They are still baking.

And I have these many apples left.  I may can 7 more quarts if I have enough jars.  Probably tomorrow, not today.

Here the the jars after the boiling bath.

And the final jars cooling!  Phew!  I did it!  Now we just have to make some more pies and give this recipe a taste.  Of course, the two baking, have the same syrup too.

First Snow of 2010

It actually started snowing last night, but not enough for any to stay.  This morning it's snowing those beautiful, fat and lazy snowflakes.  I wasn't the only one excited to see the snow.  My kids loved it too.  We'll see how long their excitement will last when it's snowing so thick we need to shovel snow - ha ha ha!