Twelve of 12 - June 2011

Check it out! I actually remembered to document my twelfth this month! I'm so proud of myself. :)

1. My mom gave us these tracks for Hot Wheels-type cars. Of course, we have no clue how it goes together, but the boy doesn't seem to mind. He connected them up to his parking garage and played for hours today.

2. The reason why we hauled the tracks out - I woke up with a LOT of pain in my knee this morning. We missed Pentecost mass because I could barely walk, let alone consider kneeling. I know this sounds bad, but when you're half the age of most of your congregation, you HAVE to kneel. Those old people are judgy. (I guess that statement makes me a bit judgy too. hee hee!)

3. So, instead, I made jam. I found some great sales on berries yesterday (grocery shopping is what did that knee in, I think) and I had to use them quickly. Standing is okay because I can put all my weight on the "good" leg.

I'm really getting this process streamlined. I hardly made any mess today at all, especially when I compare to the first couple of times I did it.

4. Today marks my third day of having a green smoothie for breakfast. While I am surprised at how not gross they are, I have to say that they really really really make me crave carbs and salt something fierce. Also, although I'm drinking almost a full blender jar of pureed fruits and veggies, I'm still really hungry afterwards. Those people who tell you to snack on fruit if you're hungry are full of crap.

This is why I'm a fat kid.

5. I got the best email this morning from a friend. It said, "I don't think that I like it that when I hear about roaches, I think of you." Oh my goodness how that made me laugh! I guess most people don't talk about it if they have them, huh? I assure you though, they're JUST IN THE COMPOST HEAP!!! I swear!

We think we may have gotten rid of them though. Last week I woke up to ants on the patio. Since it would be another day and a half before the exterminator would be out, I put a homemade ant killer (1/4 cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons borax) out there and darned if they weren't all gone by the end of the day! The exterminator asked about it and when I told him what it was, he said that I had actually made a really effective barrier to not only ants, but roaches as well. This made the little lightbulb in my head go off.

We sprinkled borax under the pile the next time we turned it, and today when we went to turn it, there were no roaches! Just one very annoyed spider. I added to the mixture with some baking soda per my friend's email today when I resprinkled under the pile. It mentioned in the notes that using this was exceptionally cruel because it causes their stomachs to explode, but hey, they're ROACHES.

No one call PeTA on me, okay?

6. In the box with the Hot Wheel tracks were some little cars. The boy took a particular shine to this one, much to his father's delight.

7. Look! Baby pumpkin!!!

8. The zinnias have these little balls at the tops of the stems. Dare I say I may have blooms soon???

9. Why do children like playing in the dirt? This kid was SO FILTHY when he finally came inside.

10. I was on my third batch of jam when I ran out of freaking sugar!!! I was about 3/4 cup shy of what I needed to finish, so I totally became a cliche and sent my husband to borrow a cup of sugar from the neighbor. I sent along a jar of peach jam in trade though! HA! I couldn't believe how long it was taking him when he finally came back and explained one neighbor wasn't home, one only had about a half cup in their house, and he finally had to hit up someone three doors down from us!

11. Dinner, recipe courtesy of Pinterest. I am addicted SO HARD to that site. This was Lemon Garlic Spaghetti and we topped it with some grilled chicken. Very good.

12. The results of today's labor. Well, the pickles and two jars of peach jam in front of them were already on the counter, but the rest I made today. I made more StrawberryBlackberry and BlueberryLime because I sold out of those before. I also tried a new flavor today - CarrotCake. According to the recipe, if you put this on a piece of toast that has a thin layer of cream cheese on it, the taste is just like carrot cake. I haven't tried that yet, but I will say that the jam is GOOD.

I sell these, so if you want some homemade jam and you're local, hit me up! I'm saving up for a crazy blender because mine is dying a slow death, haha. Prices are as follows:

StrawberryBlackberry 4oz: $3 8oz: $5

BlueberryLime 4oz: $3 8oz: $5

PeachPreserves (I picked these peaches myself!) 4oz: $3 8oz: $5

CarrotCake 4oz: $4 8oz: $6