Canning it

I've learned a few things about having three kids after three months at it but the main one is that you have to seriously lower your expectations about what you can get done during a day. If I'm going to go out and do something with them, very little else will get done. If I'm going to unpack a few boxes (and there are still many, many to be unpacked - you should see our garage, my word - little piece of advice, do not move when you have three kids, one being a very small baby), the dishes won't get done. If I need to buy groceries, the laundry will sit untouched that day.

Time moves fast but everything else seems at a snail's pace. And unfortunately blogging falls to the bottom of the to-do list. And oh, how I miss it.

However, I have managed to do some canning this week. I love canning at this time of year - jams, pickles, tomato sauce - I love doing it all. This week, to the detriment of box unpacking etc, I put up peaches, made red pepper jelly and tonight, crabapple jelly. The crabapple jelly is extra special because we picked the crabapples from some trees nearby on city property; the apples were free for the taking. I've never made a proper jelly before, using a jelly bag; I really liked it. And the result is a lucious looking ruby red jelly that will be spread on my toast tomorrow morning. Mmm, mmm.


Later this week I'll ignore the garden and make tomato sauce!