We Be Jammin'

Well, really 'Jellyin,' but you get the idea. My second year doing jelly. Our berry bushes are not producing much this year, but the grocery store had a super deal on blueberries, so I decided to make some blueberry jelly.

I love my food mill for jelly prep! I put it on top of a large measuring cup so that I can keep track of how much juice I have for recipes. 

The juice goes in the pot with sugar & pectin to cook.

I am lucky to have several canning books at this point. I had trouble finding a jelly recipe specific to blueberries (though there were several for mixed berries). I found one recipe for blueberry jelly that asked for liquid pectin, which I hadn't used before. So, I bought a box of liquid pectin to use. It seems okay, though I feel like it is a softer set than what I typically like to have for my jellies. In the same book, I found a split recipe using blueberries (syrup & butter). Since I used my juice for the jelly, I saved the pulp to make the butter. 

Blueberry Jelly

I have made several batches of apple butter, which I love. I put all my apple leftovers in a crock-pot and leave it to cook down for about a day. Though the recipe that I used didn't tell you to cook it in a crock-pot, I did anyway and it turned out beautifully! For those of you who might not know, fruit butters use fruit pulp and cook/set without the aid of pectin. Being able to use the crock-pot makes the process super-easy, and I love that it uses up all the leftovers that would normally end up in the compost heap. I hope that I can do more fruit butters in the future. 

Blueberry Butter

Riders' Camp at Liberty Farm

Sent our darling girl off for her first all-day camp this week! I don't think I was quite sure, but it was the riders' camp at the barn, and she wanted to do this more than anything else this summer. So, I cleared the calendar and packed her lunch each morning before getting her up and ready to go. And she loved it. One afternoon at pick-up, the head of the barn (Kathy) stopped me to tell me about Kyrie's private lesson that day. She had struggled with keeping her arms strong and the reins together, but she was able to pull it together. Kathy told me that camp is often a defining moment for these kids, showing the instructors and the parents who really wants to stick with it  and progress after full days of riding and chores around the barn. I can say that Kyrie loved it every day. Even though it wasn't what she had imagined it to be, she came home every day having had a good day. She enjoyed her time in the barn and with the horses, and she is looking forward to continuing her regular lessons next week and into the fall. Thank you to all the barn instructors for a great week!

These photos are from the final afternoon when parents could come and watch their riders show off what they had worked on during the week. 

Kyrie with Ms. Colleen who has worked with her since she was on lead-line! We are grateful for Ms. Colleen!

I am just including the above photo because it is something that is very 'me' and that Darren thinks is crazy! I made this simple chart for Kyrie to choose what she wanted for lunch each day. She filled it out the night before, and it made it very easy for me to quickly put together her lunch each morning (usually before I had to wake her up). Organization makes me happy! 

Camp Degen: Day 5

Last day! Whew! After we dropped Kyrie off, we headed home so that Degen could decorate his 'camp' t-shirt. We talked about what he wanted on it, and I helped him with some of the harder drawings. Then we headed out to play mini-golf!

A fun day on the golf course! We were surrounded by lots of other families soaking up the perfect blue sky & cool temps during one of the last days of summer! This was a laid back game with lots of do-overs and little regard for the typical rules, but lots of fun for a 5-year old boy who just wants that golf ball to get in the hole!

Picture Degen took of me!

Look at that form! 

Me and my baby!

And after our golf game, we couldn't just walk past the arcade and not get some tokens and play games! He loves playing games and loves winning tickets! At the ticket counter, two teenage boys ahead of us in line gave us more than 500 of their tickets. How nice! Degen picked out some prizes for himself and something for Kyrie. Leaving, we found the boys in the parking lot to thank them for their generosity. A great end to an amazing week of fun with my fast-growing-but-always-my-baby boy!

This photo just says 'hoodlum' to me! Ha!

Camp Degen: Day 4

We started Day 4 with a haircut! Though I am not sure that he loves short hair, he does love getting his hair cut. He looks all grown up with his shorter hair, and it made me think about our friends who are sending their babies off to Kindergarten this year... and sigh in relief because we have one more year before he is officially a Kindergartner.

After his hair cut, we headed to a nearby mall to use a coupon and spend a gift card at Build-a-Bear. He picked out some things for his bunny and even something for Kyrie to have. That evening, both kids disappeared to their room and were so quiet that Darren & I thought they had gone outside to play, but I found them playing with their BAB toys in their room. So sweet! After BAB, I let him run around in the space-themed play area at the mall. Then we went out for brunch- just me & my guy!

 "And sitting in your classrooms many months from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here as children and tell our parents that they may send us off to school...but they will never take our SUUUUUMMMMMER!" (William Wallace, age 5)

Camp Degen: Day 3

Well, when you ask a 5-year old boy what they would like to do, you can't be surprised that Chuck E. Cheese comes up! We got a LOT of tokens and played a LOT of games and even won a LOT of tickets! This was a fun afternoon even though CEC was a bit busy with other families trying to soak up the last fun of the summer. 

Camp Degen: Day 2

Day 2 of Camp Degen was a last-minute play date & lunch with some of our friends before we had to head towards gymnastics. On the way, we stopped at a beautiful cemetery that Degen had asked to visit on previous drives. Honestly, I am not a macabre or dark person, but I do love cemeteries. I find them peaceful. And surrounded by monuments honoring the departed I find them filled with love. I prefer older cemeteries for the sense of history, and this particular cemetery was filled with both old & new headstones. It was a picture-perfect afternoon for a walk. We talked about the headstones we saw and how much the people were loved. Degen liked the headstones decorated with flowers & figurines. He would run ahead then call me to come see a headstone that he found. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we look forward to going back again. 

Camp Degen: Day 1

Kyrie was off this year to her first all-day camp: riders' camp at the barn where she takes lessons. Since she was going to be off all day, I decided to give Degen his own special experience with Mom. And so began Camp Degen! Each day, we did something fun that was often his choice/idea. The week went by quickly with lots of special time for this little guy who has only ever known what it is like to be the little brother! It was good to spend one-on-one time, and we had a lot of fun in just one week!

We spent most of our first day at COSI and to make it extra-special we did lots of the stuff that we usually don't on a typical visit. We saw a 3-D movie, ate in the cafe and rode the simulator. All fun! We look forward to trying out some of these again with Kyrie!

Lunch!

Movie time!

Degen's choice for the simulator experience!

The simulator