Our Family Jots and Tittles

Every Day Living:

Hailey is experimenting with our new baked corndog recipe. We've almost "got - it!". :-) Of course whenever food is being prepared there are always curious eyes and questions peeping over the edge of the counter!



Sunday - Windy Fun Ben and the kids went out in 40 mph winds to stop a 10x10 portable bike shelter from becoming a box kite, and to attempt to keep 10000 sq feet of black plastic from becoming a sloop sail. After 90 minutes, both tasks were complete but not without some adventure. Naomi had such a tight grip on one corner of the plastic that a wind gust took her a foot off the ground for a 10 foot ride...with a "safe" landing head first into a haystack. Chazaq wandered into the action, and was lost under the flapping plastic for far too long. When Ben was able to get to him, Chazaq had been laughing full blast the whole time, but couldn't be heard over the roaring wind. Eliana was told to sit on one corner to keep it secure, but didn't weigh enough to make a bit of difference. In the end, it was probably much more dangerous of a job than we realized, but nobody was hurt and memories were made. Sorry for no video...it would have been a sight to behold.

We canned 15 quarts of apple pie filling. That is when I realized, I was missing my apple corer peeler slicer! Surely I would not have put THAT in the Goodwill box would I? I am a homesteader now, for goodness sake - that would not be wise at all!! But my kids reassured me that I did. I was proabably having "storage issues" at the time and jabbed myself on it and in a heated little fit called out - "put it in the give bag". (Tsk tsk!!) So as I struggled in denial, and peeled, cored and cut, I had visions of how much easier it would also be to dehydrate more apples and make 10# of mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving, and sweet potatoes, and and and..the next thing you know I am on Amazon making a purchase! :-) I figure if it surfaces, with the volume we do things in, we can easily employ two machines in the kitchen! :-) I think I"ll wait to do any other apple preserving, until it arrives. I want to do another bathc or two of pie filling and have a couple other things I would like to do with them. I do however, prefer to have my pie filling in chunks instead of slices, but that is the easier part of the job, if the coring and peeling is done in one fast fell swoop...so it is still worth waiting for. :-)


Chazaq has discovered how to pull a chair over to get things he can not reach. Funny, this worked the other day for the screen door (that opens OUT), but it does not seem to be working today! Hmmm???



Monday - Hailey and Elijah volunteered there day at a nieghbors house helping them in what ever way they needed. The momma has been put on bed rest they are suppose to move out of state by the 1st of Dec! Ben and I wished we could have helped - but couldn't get away so we sent our right hands. They took their lunches with them and we picked them up after dark, while delivering dinner to the family. We normally do everything together. It was strange not having them around that day! We all said we missed each other. :-)

Tuesday - Hailey and I started working on a tune for Bet and Gimmel (the 2nd &3rd section) of Psalm 119. We got Gimmel mostly done - but Bet hangs in the balance....that is a bit of a problem...since that is thenext one to be memeorized and everyone is waiting on it! Maybe we will be able to get to it on out drive to Mich??

Wednesday - I have noticed, that while Naomi has become a very fluent reader and intuitive speller, we need to focus on area of vocabulary and reading comprehension. Which should be no surprise having just been exposed to English for 2 years. So...I started looking for ways some ways to encourage that. She LOVES worksheet type activities. They really build her confidence and it allows me to work with more than one small child in their school simultaniously (and also ensure that lessons continue when I am feeling crumby.) So we are using some free resources on line to help supplement that.

We found to families to help watch the farm while we are gone. (YES!)

Thursday/Friday- We got 36 Quarts of Turkey and 18 Qrts of broth canned in the last few days.


I have done more than that in one day before, but this time it took three days! It seems I am mooving at half capacity and it takes twice as long in this season, but we are still getting things done. I had to pop the rest in the freezer until I an get to them when I get back from our trip. But it did feel good to get some done. I really wanted to take some with for meals during our stay there. So I am glad or that. The first day was beautiful the kids played outside while I canned outside. The next day got pretty cold and colds started showing up in the tribe (just in time to take a trip to visit family! Why does that always happen????) - so they were inside and momma braved the cold and wind, so i could keep an eye on the flame. :-) I was wrapped in a throw blamket and Ben came out to tease me saying, "Is this how the Indians used to can?".

Shabbat at Home- This Shabbat we enjoyed a quite time at home alone. We watched ACTS - Visual Bible we hadn't watched it in several years, so that was a treat. The kids and papa did A LOT of playing outside together and momma did A LOT of resting inside. :-) The nieghbors horses got into our (baby) orchard and started munching on our trees - so Pappa shooed them out. I also got some snuggle time with all the littles...so it was a GOOD day!

I just found a BUNCH of pictures that were in the camera from the last several months, since we will be traveling this week (and away next Sunday) I think I will make next's week's Jot's and Tittles a "picture catch up" if I can get it together. :-)