growing up fast

Again, as I scanned over all those pictures last week these got a category on their own.

As we wait to ride out hurricane Sandy today, I'll be sure to enjoy this day of family together-ness {sneek in a few little extra hugs} and be grateful that we are forced to slow down and think about what matters most, our love for each other and how amazing our lives are.

Here's to hoping every one gets through this storm safely!!  Enjoy your family today!

Together-ness

As I sat and scanned through the several hundred photos that I downloaded recently onto my external hard drive I realized that were was this pattern of together-ness throughout all the photos.  The first emotion that came to me was a sense of gratitude for how our family loves one another and also a great appreciation for the way everyone gets along and values their time with each of their siblings.  Despite all the challenges we have faced with Rosemary having so many medical needs and all the nurses that have been in and out of our family home, we are now in a place where everyone who comes and goes does feel like family.  So together, we can all relax and enjoy one another, look after one another, and love one another in peace.  In this moment, peace and gratitude fills my heart in a big kind of way.  What a lucky girl I am.

this sweater ~

This pattern has been neatly tucked away in my knitting notebook since I first came across it in this book in 2008.  So naturally when we found out last fall that we were pregnant with Nathaniel, out it came.  Not so sure why, if it was the yarn or the pattern, but I had a really hard time getting into a smooth knitting rhythm with this sweater.  I must have frogged it three times before I got it right.  For me, it was one of those patterns that was hard to imagine coming together until all the pieces were knit and laid out before me.  In the end it came out beautiful and was worth making.  I love seeing him in it!





 

canning apple jelly ~ 2nd batch

10 apples went into the Breville this afternoon, juice was cooked with 5 cups of sugar and almost 2 boxes of pectin.  My vote is that 5 cups of sugar has a better taste than the 7 I made earlier in the week, just like I thought ~ intuitive cooking!  This was a really really good batch!  I realized as I stood by the pot stirring that  the pot had a familiar aroma and that it was essentially apple cider made into jelly.  Yum, next on the agenda will be apple cider with mulling spices from Williams-Sonoma.  Hopefully there will be a chill in the air again soon!

Apples to apple jelly ~ a quick course

Autumn is here isn't it?!  Where has the time gone.  Wasn't it just last week when we were in birthday mode around here?  We have three September birthdays which makes the month of going back to school, that much more fun and hectic.  As I opened our last jar of apple jelly from my pantry recently, made two years ago, I knew what we were going to do with our apples this year.  Make more jelly!



I looked back through my blog and realized I have never explained how I make apple jelly.  There is a quick post about it here, but no mention of how I made it.  So today we are.  I've done it two different ways.  The old way was to peel and cut the apples and boil them, drain the juice (you need 6 cups of juice), then add 1/4 cup of sugar with a pack of Sure-jell pectin, bring to a boil, then add the remainder of the sugar (about 6.75 cups).





This year I came up with a new way.  I first juiced the raw apples with my Breville Juicer (lots of instagram photos floating around of that brilliant machine!).  All the apples in that pic rendered 6 cups of juice.  What I love about juicing the apples, is that it is pure apple juice, not watered down from cooking the applies, and its quick, no peeling involved!  The juice then goes into a pot, brought to a boil, then the same process of 1/4 cup of sugar and box of Sure-Jell pectin is added.  Once that comes to a boil, I added the 6 3/4 cups of sugar (7 in all).  After checking the gel consistency, I ended up adding almost the whole second box of pectin to get it the way I like my jelly, not too firm, and not runny.  Then I scooped it into sterilized jars, and sealed them.  This batch tasted a tad too sweet for me, so I'm making another batch using 5 cups of sugar to see if I like it better.  Either way, they will both be delicious, fresh from the farm to my kitchen to be stored and opened and enjoyed for many seasons to come.



{The two jars with white tops went straight into the fridge to be eaten this week with my family, they are not properly sealed for storage.}