trying to get back into it!

I know I haven't blogged in a couple weeks, and it was MUCH longer before that. I really need to just get in the habit of putting something up, even if it's just to say "I don't know what to write!"

I guess I'll have some more exciting stuff coming up -- I'm going to go visit my sister next week!!!

So what have I done in the past 2 1/2 weeks?? I'm glad you asked! I really haven't done much . . . .we DID go "Black Friday" shopping, though! I FINALLY GOT MY IPOD TOUCH!! I'm SO addicted to it now!




It's a thing of beauty!!

Also, I woke up to this!!




Again, a thing of beauty! I figure it's about time we got some snow!! I think I need to look for schools farther north, or at least somewhere that gets lots of snow!

364

That's how many days there are until I'm 30. It's kind of depressing, but kind of not . . .

So, what does a girl do the weekend before she turns 29??

MAKE APPLEBUTTER!!!!! :)

My family has made applebutter consistently since I can remember. When we used our 35-gallon kettle, we would make it every year or every other year. Since we've started using my Uncle Steve's 50-gallon kettle, we've had to make it less often. The last time we made it was in 2003 and we had about 10 people helping. This year we had to postpone it a day because of the rain, so we were down to me and my parents with a few people stopping by for a couple hours at a time to help out. If you've never been around for applebutter making, let me give a run-down of the process.

First you have to get a LOT of apples (12 bushels this year). I don't have pictures of that because it's not that exciting and Dad and my brother, Kaleb, went to get them after dark.

Next, starts the peeling. I have a video, but I'm not sure it will work, so I have a picture of me at the peeler, too.









You end up with a bucket of peeled apples that looks likes this.





Next you cut the apples into quarters and cut out the seed pit or "cutthroat" as a lady in our church said she heard it called. We call this part "snitting" :) We then rinse, drain, and bag the apples and put them in the freezer, fridge, or outside on the deck in boxes if it's cold enough! This goes on for 3 or 4 days before the boiling day.


On the morning of applebutter making, my dad sets the kettle stand up on bricks in the driveway and starts a fire. After it's going pretty good, he'll set the 50-gallon kettle in the stand.



Here's the kettle we used.




(oh, dad cleans it the night before -- this picture is actually after the applebutter was done on Saturday night) Dad started the fire around 6:15 am.
After the kettle is on, we put about a gallon and a half of water in the kettle and wait a little bit until it has heated up. Once it was heated, we added apples. Here's the kettle after there were enough apples to have to start stirring. We started adding apples about 7:30 am.






Once you start stirring, you have to keep stirring until it's done or it will stick to the bottom and burn.

Some of the stirrers were:

My mom




My aunt:





My cousin:



and me!





My dad obviously stirred the most, but for some reason we don't have a picture of him stirring. Some friends from my church came out and were a BIG help for a couple of hours, but I didn't ask if I could post their pictures. You'll just have to use your imagination!!


We started adding new apples every 20-30 minutes until we used all our apples. (the entire 12 bushels plus the 36 bags we found in the freezer.) When it was half-full, we added pennies to add some friction to the bottom and keep it from sticking. We added the last apples at 1:30 pm.





After the apples were all in, we kept stirring until it had cooked down to a thick applesauce. (about 4:00 pm.) This was about the time my arms started to get REALLY sore. I don't think my arms have EVER been that sore. My dad usually has more help stirring than just me, so I wasn't used to helping him quite THIS much! (and we haven't made it since I was 23!)




After all the apples have cooked down, we added about 65 pounds of sugar and let it cook for another 2 hours. At about 6pm, we added the spices (oil of cinnamon and oil of cloves) until it was just right.







By this time, my arms were completely dead and I had already taken 3 ibuprofen and a muscle relaxer and neither had touched the pain. Mom finally had the GENIUS idea of using a mentholated muscle rub to help relax my arm muscles.

By this time, my aunt was here to help take it up (aka put it in jars). I would stir while dad dipped it into an enamel pan and take it inside. There, my mom and aunt were ladling it into jars and sealing them. We eventually got into a routine where I would stir, dad would dip it and take it inside, he would come take the stirrer from me, I would go inside to help fill jars, then I would take the pan back outside so he could fill it again. We got into a pretty good routine and had everything in jars by about 7:30 or 8:00 pm. Then all we had to do was clean up! Everything was cleaned up by about 9:30 when everyone was so tired, we ended up eating cereal for supper! When all was said and done, we had 126 quarts of applebutter!




(Sorry this picture is sideways -- I forgot to rotate it before I loaded it and don't want to have to re-load it!)




So that's a day in the life of applebutter making. If anyone wants some, just let us know -- we have plenty!! :)

Happy 4th of July!!

I just wanted to post a picture of this cake I just decorated. It's by no means an original design. My mom got a book from Ollie's with some different cake decorating ideas in it - this was one of them. Doesn't it just look yummy!!!

Movers and packers

I guess 3 weeks is long enough to wait between posts! Since school let out, I've been trying to get some packing done, sending out resumes, and just generally not wanting to do anything at all!! I guess you don't really realize just how much "junk" you have until you move!! I keep thinking, "I need to get rid of some of this stuff!" but I just keep packing it away, thinking, "I may need it some day . . . " Of course, when I DO finally throw something out, I think about a week later, "Now, what did I do with ________, OH YEAH!! I threw it away!!" Maybe I'll eventually figure out what is worth saving and what can be disposed of!

Is there anything you have thrown out and then later wish you would have kept? Or maybe the opposite?? :) Let me know!!

Frogs and fingers

The past two weeks, the High School Bible class has been teaching Bible lessons for my class. They have done an awesome job so far, and I've really enjoyed having them around. I think it's been really good for all of them. This week we've been learning about Moses. Today they taught about the 10 plagues in Egypt. At the end of the lesson, they gave the kids cupcakes that looked like this:

















Isn't it adorable!! The green gobs above the eyes are marshmallows rolled in green sugar. The eyes are chocolate chips. She said it took her and her sister 2 hours to do them all!!! I can tell she really put some extra effort into it! Thanks!!!

Going backwards in time, I was playing volleyball last night -- you guessed it -- I hurt myself again. This time it was my left ring finger -- I guess I'll have to postpone my wedding a few more weeks :) That must be why I haven't gotten married until now -- God knew I would have probably needed it cut off because of the swelling. This one seems to hurt a lot more than last time. I don't think it's broken, though. My aide says she thinks she has a splint I can use to keep it stable. Speaking of which, I probably shouldn't be typing with it right now . . .

Backing up about a week, MY BABY BROTHER GRADUATED COLLEGE!!!
















We are all so proud of him!! Now he can get a JOB!!! :)
























The speaker for his graduation was Ben Stein (remember the movie "Expelled" and those eye drop commercials?)


You can sort-of see him on the screen -- please pardon the random backs of people's heads.

















So now, it's just a matter of getting through the last couple weeks of school. Only 10 1/2 more days of school left!!

(as a side note, I sent out applications to 8 different schools. Please continue to pray that God will direct the recipients in the way HE would have me go.)

Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. I am so blessed to have such great parents!! So far, they've given me flowers, chocolate, a book and an apple-shaped pin. One parent even invited me over for dinner in a couple of weeks! The parents in the school as a whole have been great, too. I haven't had to pack lunch all week!! They brought BBQ chicken on Monday, a meat and cheese tray on Tuesday, Lasagna on Wednesday, and Chick-fil-a brought us chicken, fruit, and brownies today!! Tomorrow, we have a hot breakfast served to us compliments of another family in the school.

Being a teacher is awesome!!!

Balderdash

This weekend I lost my mind.

I had 8 teenage girls spend the night at my apartment. My friend, Karen, leads a girls Bible study on Saturdays, and they have had a sleepover once or twice. When Karen started planning this one, I said, "Hey! They could just stay at my place -- that could be fun!!" Fun -- right. It actually was a really good time. They made spaghetti and I got to show a girl how to make cheesecake! We had to improvise a little since I didn't have all the ingredients, but it still tasted great! They even cleaned up the dishes when they were done!

Karen is currently raising support to go on the mission field. She has such a heart for missions and wants to spread that compassion to these girls, too. She had them pick a missionary our church supports and write them a letter of encouragement. The girls did an awesome job! After supper and the dishes were cleaned up, we took some time to pray for the missionaries they had written to. I prayed for 2 Karens -- my friend who leads this Bible study and my sister and her family.

After we prayed, we played Balderdash. If you aren't familiar with the game, I'll give a summary. In the classic version, one person reads a word and everyone writes down what they think it means. They try to make it as convincing as possible. When everyone is done writing, they give their paper to the person who read the word. That person reads all the fake definitions, along with the real one they wrote down, and everyone votes on which one they think is real. I have a version that takes it a step further. In the version I have, they have 5 different categories: Weird Words -- as described above; Peculiar People - names a famous people and you have to say why they are famous; Marvelous Movies - gives a movie title and you give the plot; Incredible Initials - gives initials and you have to say what the letters stand for; Laughable Laws - gives the first part of a crazy law and you have to finish it.

You can really learn a lot from this game. For example, even though we only did about 6 or 7 rounds, I learned that a mormoop is a type of ugly bat; that in Baker, California it is illegal to ride a bicycle into a swimming pool; and that in Spartanburg, South Carolina it is illegal to eat watermelon in a cemetery. (I really like the laughable laws category!)

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I felt really old, though -- they started a movie after midnight and I just went to bed!! They said most of them went to sleep about 3 am. I guess I'm just not as young as I used to be!!

Any other interesting facts you'd like to learn?? Maybe we can do a blogging version of Balderdash!! This could be fun! Let me know if you'd be interested. :)