At the zoo

The kids and I spent a couple hours at the zoo last week... We went on a train ride, which was very short, but the kids enjoyed it. Notice the lions in the background? We were so excited that they were both awake and facing us.

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I have been spending the past week canning and canning more stuff. Last Sunday I canned 9 pints of bread & butter pickles. On Monday I did 7 pints of green beans and 15+ pints of salsa. On Tuesday I did 12 pints of my Aunt Lucy's dill pickles! On Wednesday we went to Clint's parents where our garden is this year (we will have one in our backyard next year!) and got a 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes, some jalepeno peppers, green peppers, and green beans. On Thursday I helped Melissa paint their new house. On Friday I did green beans and 25+ more pints of salsa - 2 different recipes! Today I did 24 pints of green beans. I'm so tired of canning! I'm told that I will be getting more tomatoes next week so I'm thinking that by then I will be ready to do spaghetti sauce. ... Oh and I froze 11 quarts of fresh peaches too... so yummy! :)

I'm discovering that canning isn't hard work, it's just time consuming. I use the hot water (boiling) method so it takes longer. I don't want to invest in a pressure cooker if I don't have to. With the hot water I can walk away from it until it's done.

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Tonight we have the Covenant Christian School open house. We start school on Wednesday. I so am not ready for summer to be over!!! As much as I'm ready to have a routine for the kids and myself, I'm not ready to have the kids be gone for 6 1/2 hours of the day. I'm realizing that I'm really going to miss them much more than I thought. It will take some getting used to ... again. Bekah will be in school all day every day this year. For the past few years we've had our special times of having lunch together and now that's come to an end. :( I will be missing picking her up and having our lunch dates on Mondays and Fridays!

Ben and Bekah are really looking forward to starting school again. They're excited to see their friends and their teachers! It will be so good for them to have a routine again.