a dream is a wish

"I still dream that someday I can support myself without an office job, and maybe someday I will. [...] After a few months on the farm, even the biggest crisis at work was just something to be dealt with calmly and rationally.  Other employees would act like a deadline was a hurricane, but when you'd spent the morning deciding whether or not a rabbit with a broken spine would be put down, you couldn't really stress over PowerPoint presentations.  Ironically, it was starting my own homestead that made me happier at work.  Go figure."

--Made from Scratch, by Jenna Woginrich

canning peaches

It's peach season! And while peaches are cheaper than they are for the entire year, I thought this would be a perfect (and seasonal and local and good-for-us) time to try canning them.

The most helpful tutorial I found online for canning peaches is here.  I'll leave you with a short summary version from my own canning adventures, but it would be a good idea to read the longer version.

Blanche the peaches to easily take the skin off, slice them, and put some lemon juice on them to keep from going brown.

Heat up some water (you won't need as much as you think), and add sugar as you bring it to a boil.  When the water reaches a boil, add the peaches and boil for 5 minutes. Put the lids in a small sauce pan with some water, but make sure the water doesn't boil. You want the sticky stuff on the lid to be sticky, not falling off and ineffective.

With hot jars and hot peaches, load the peaches into the jars.  Use a butter knife to run along the inside of the jar to release air bubbles.  Add juice to the jars if necessary.  Don't leave too much space.

Put the jars back in the canner, fill up until the jars are completely covered and have an extra 1 - 2 inches of water on top, put the lid on, and process for 25 minutes (for sea level locations.)

Voila! Canned peaches!

live simply

Look what my lovely husband got me for my birthday!

I told myself I wasn't allowed to start it until I finished the other project I was working on, but once I started, I was done in just two evenings.

Now to find a way to frame it!

be cheerful!

I have always believed that being cheerful was an important part of life.  Life doesn't always go the way you want it to: things aren't always happy, your home isn't always clean, family isn't always perfect, flowers don't always bloom.

Sometimes, it is a blessing just to be cheerful.  Sometimes, that's the absolute best thing you can do that day: put on a smile and enjoy.

“We have a mission to others--to add to their cheer. This we cannot do unless we have first learned the lesson of cheerfulness ourselves.”

-- J.R. Miller

cleaning my home...better

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Recently, I started paying attention to statistics and facts about household cleaning products, home goods, and foods.  Things started showing up all over blogs, I saw books on living healthier, and I have to admit, I was curious. Apparently, women who stay at home and are around household cleaning products have a significantly higher risk of cancer.  And not eating healthy foods affects your daily health even more significantly.  I don't mean just eating green beans, I mean eating fresh, non-canned, still crunchy from the farm green beans.

I'm trying to change some of the foods we eat, and I also decided to change the way we clean and, I must admit, it has worked out for the better so far.

I did tons of internet research on products to use, ratios for mixing your own, and all the different ways to make cleaning products.

I landed on a fairly good resource here.  Just about everything can be cleaned with vinegar and baking soda, oddly enough.

I tried the all purpose cleaner to begin with.  It turned out well! It cleans well, and with the oil, it smells good, too!

My recipe:

At least half a cup of vinegar.  The amount depends on the purpose: more for all-purpose, less if you also want to clean glass. Max amount should be 1 part vinegar to 1 part water.
Water -- to fill up the rest of your spray bottle
Good smelling essential oil.  My current favorite is lemongrass because it smells clean.

Steps:
1.  Put vinegar into spray bottle.  Fill up the rest of the bottle with water. Put in two or three drops of essential oil.
2. Shake.
3. Use!

The only comment I would add, is that if you're not using the cleaner for glass, I would add a bit more vinegar -- just for good measure.  Because that's how I clean: if I'm going to put in the effort to clean it, it better be REALLY clean.

sunday funny: procrastination

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