And it's always in my face because #1 I like to eat and #2 My family likes to eat so I'm always reading the list and working at shrinking it. It's been a good thing and I still use the notebook for shopping lists and menus.
In my April month in review I shared a picture from Nick's turkey season. He's a huge protein nut and cooks plenty of his own food. Well, the day he shot the turkey I was with Amber at the hospital while she recovered from her appendectomy. He breasted out the turkey and baked it just as he would for chicken breast. It was so tough, basically inedible for those of us with average jaw strength. Hah! I suggested he turn it into crockpot turkey and rice soup. I walked him through the process, but he did all the work of chopping vegetables, etc. The turkey tenderized pretty well in the crockpot and the soup was delicious.
The season changeover called for a great big shoe cabinet clean out. With a family of 9 we have a ton of shoes, not because we believe in excess, but we all have a number of interests and many of those interests call for certain shoes. And country life requires a good stash of junk shoes so we tend to keep shoes for gardening, lawn mowing, cranberry planting, and all sorts of outdoor activities until they fall apart. I know, that's very green of us. Below you can see what we took from the cabinet; we sent seven pair off to Goodwill, 10 pair went into the trash, and the rest were placed neatly back in the cabinet.
Maria and I baked a giant 2.5 pound of whole wheat bread in a very old pan found in my Grandma's basement. I wish I knew the story of the pan - where she got it, if she used it, why it was in the basement and not in her kitchen cupboard. I suppose I'll never know; even though, using it still brings out stories. Stories I share with my littles who never knew their Great-Grandma.
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| Mother's Day flowers - we spied three huge Bumblebees pollinating this day. |
One of Joseph's favorite games is jumping on the trampoline with toys. This day he grabbed his horse, but he's also jumped with balls and sand pile trucks (that one I put a stop to, I don't want him to fall on a metal truck - that'd probably hurt).
Amber loves finding paintings on Pinterest for inspiration and painting them with her own style. She uses this fold-able easel and a variety of supplies to create some really fun paintings.
It is rhubarb season; I've been baking with rhubarb and juicing it. This weekend I put up 15 quarts of rhubarb juice. I'll share a post on how I do that soon. This little number, though, is so good. I doubled the recipe and reduced the sugar. That way there was enough to go around and it still tasted like rhubarb should - sour and puckery.
The virtual homeschool program end of year field trip took us to Circus World Museum. See Maria clinging to Dad; she was nearly scared to death of all the newness. She warmed up a bit for a carousel ride.
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| 107 year old carousel |
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| Circus snacks: popcorn and ice cream |
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| Apparently we raised a little lady. |
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| Fishing....always fishing around here and an endless supply of cheesy smiles. |
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| He's not riding yet. Matter of fact, a couple weeks back he actually punched me when I lifted his foot onto the pedal. I'll give it some time before I try again. Until then, though, he walks the bike around the yard every chance he gets. And in the background was my Memorial Day treat, a tilled garden ready to plant. |
That's a wrap for May. Another blink of an eye and it'll be the end of June; all our much anticipated events of early summer will be over. Enjoy every day, each is indeed a gift from God.
