Monday, August 16, 2010

Tomato sauce it is!

Wow, it has been a long time since we have posted. These days and weeks seem to fly by! We have been keeping busy with all sort of things this summer. I will try to get you up-to-date!! :O)

We have been gardening all summer. We had a great crop of grean beans. I canned 14 quarts and we ate at least that many! We have been using our potatoes and onions all summer. What a blessing! The peppers are doing very well. We had a little trouble with the pumpkins, yellow squash and cucumbers. And then there are the tomatoes . . .



I have already canned 10 pints of tomato sauce and am planning on preparing these today for some more. I also like to can some tomatoes whole and I have yet to make salsa with them. We did make some tomatillo salsa about a week ago and it was very yummy. Anyway, the garden has been keeping us busy.

We also had our patio project. The last pictures we showed you were of the kids moving the playground mulch. After we removed all of that, we put down a layer of limestone gravel. Here are a few pictures of that process.

Watching Caleb work - I like to call this "supervising"!

We did do some work as well. We had to move the piles from the front of the patio (where Caleb dumped them) to the back.

Caleb and Don starting to lay the bricks.

A few bricks were laid then we had a break for lunch. Unfortunately, we also took a break from taking pictures!

The bricks are all laid now and the pea gravel swept into the cracks. We also put up a swimming pool on half of the patio for the kids. The project is not yet finished but it is usable now. I am hoping to get some pictures of the kids swimming before we put the pool up for the summer. We shall see . . .

Our summer has also involved taking Don's mom to chemo appointments. She is halfway through that process with 4 more rounds to go. Then she will have to have surgery. She is doing great and is handling the chemo very well. We are just taking one day at a time with all of this. We are confident of the Lord's grace and mercy.

A couple weeks ago, we hosted some missionary friends of ours for a week. It was great to see them and spend time with them. It made our hearts long for Guatemala. We are seeking the Lord and His plan for us as a family. We know that we need to be here for Don's mom right now. We are also working hard to pay off our mortgage so we can be debt-free. We feel like the Lord is maybe giving us the beginnings of a plan but more on that later . . .

The kids are having a great summer. Here is an updated picture of the baby birds that they were watching. They are so much cuter with their feathers.


We took a few weeks off of school this summer but have tried to keep going with a few subjects like science, history, geography etc. The kids have had some free time. One particular day, they decided to "dress up" their pets. They took a few pictures.

Bandit is not really enjoying the whole process!

Ashes was more agreeable.

Shadow is just great as long as she is getting attention!


There, now you are all updated . . . I'm off to make tomato sauce!