My yearly torture...

Canning is one of those things that I HATE to do, but LOVE the end result of. As of right now, I think I may never do it again. My back aches, my feet are sore, my thumb is brown and icky, I have several little cuts and burns on my fingers, and my hands still smell faintly of onion. And I still haven't done my pears! At this moment, it all seems a bit overwhelming. But ask me next week when the pain has faded and my kitchen is clean again and I'm sure I'll speak with pride of the quarts of peaches, pints of salsa, and various jars of pear sauce I have stored up. And I know my family will be enjoying the "fruits" of my labor all year. Like I said, I LOVE the end result, but it is such a (literal) pain in the neck!

Oh, and as soon as I'm done with my canning, I'll be pulling out my dehydrator so I can get to work on beef jerky, onion flakes, and other herbs and produce... Why oh why do I torture myself like this?

STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!

Our school teachers are officially on strike. Which means we have no idea when school will actually begin for my kids. I remember going through this when I was a kid (anyone remember how long that one lasted?) but it's totally different from the side of a parent. I have not only the frustration of constantly bickering kids with no end in sight, but the added issues of Rachel's tears of disappointment and constant questions about when school will start. Contract negotiations have gone so poorly the state appointed a mediator to help them sort things out. There has been offer and counter offer after offer and counter offer, and from what I hear, the sides are still so far apart there's no telling when a compromise will be reached. But then, that could just be the rumor mill working overtime. At this point, when the first day of school will actually be is a complete mystery. Let's hope my kids and I don't kill each other in the mean time...

When it rains...

Because I didn't have enough to deal with, we're now looking at yet another repair.

When Scott was mowing the back yard on Saturday, the lawn mower shot out a small pebble and it hit the stationary piece next to our sliding glass door, shattering it. Fortunately it's double paned so we don't have to fix it right this second, but we do need to replace it. The glass didn't fall out right away, it stayed all spiderweb like in the frame for a day or so. All afternoon it crackled and crinkled as the glass continued to break more and more. It was kind of a cool sound, and fun to watch new "webs" form on the glass. Of course that didn't last and eventually glass pieces started falling to the ground. I spent a good hour cleaning up the glass yesterday, getting it off the ground and knocking the last of it out of the frame. We're getting estimates on repairs this week, so hopefully we'll get it fixed soon.

Oh, and the starter on my van is going out.

Catch up... again.

I feel like my entire life is spent doing catch up sometimes. For those who want to know, here are the highlights of my past few weeks:

• Someone tried to break into my van by breaking in a window while we were at a concert in the park a couple weeks ago. Fortunately the safety film on it held so they didn't actually get IN my car, but we still obviously had to have it replaced. It actually held for a few days, then blew out unexpectedly while driving to the library. My kids thought it was hilarious. Fortunately it blew OUT of the car, not in.

• A couple weeks later, at the same park, Rachel's purse got stolen right off our blanket. We were playing in the wading pool, and it was there with all our other stuff. It was the only thing taken. She was heartbroken. We're not sure we're going back to that park anymore, even if it is where the concerts in the park my kids love so much are held. (By the way, the concert that afternoon was Taylor Ware, the yodeling girl from America's Got Talent. She was darling, and very good.)

• My kids got to go bowling for the first time ever a couple weeks ago. It was awesome! Bumpers came up automatically for the kids then went back down for the grown ups, and they even had a cool little ramp the kids could slide their balls down to give them more momentum. That ramp was a life saver. The first few balls Becca sent down the lane went excruciatingly slowly. Even SHE got bored of watching it, and there was one that didn't even go the whole way. It got stuck in the pins. But once we found that, the kids' scores went way up and they had much more fun. Of course Rachel was too old for that kind of thing and did just fine on her own, beating me in all 3 games. She also had the bumpers, but that's beside the point. :D

• Scott and I celebrated our anniversary a couple weeks ago. I can't believe it's been 12 years already!

• Scott and I and some friends went to a great club called the Triple Door last weekend. It had great food, and the entertainment was fantastic. We'll definitely go back.

• We made it (EARLY) to 9:00 church in Mill Creek (north of Bothell!!) on Sunday to be there when Devin Williams blessed his baby on Sunday. It was so nice to see them again.

• We finally decided to have our septic tank pumped this week for the first time in 5 years and found our pump had gone out. It turned into this whole ordeal. Instead of being an hour long, $300 job, it was a 2 day, $3,000 job. Fortunately the pump went out recently, or we would have had sewage backing up into the house. We're lucky it was caught when it was.

• I'm on my third medication for my insomnia, and it's working fine without all the weird side effects the others gave me, but I worry about the dependency rate and withdrawal problems of it. I talked to a friend who's on another medication in the same family of drugs, but it has a much lower risk of dependency, and it doesn't have withdrawal symptoms, so I'm going to ask my doctor if I can be switched to that one instead.

• We had a fantastic Activity Days activity at my house last week. A couple weeks ago we had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom. Last week we put it into action by making a meal together that was based on what we're told we should be eating. The girls had so much fun, and the dinner was really yummy! We had spaghetti with home made sauce full of fresh herbs and just enough garlic, home made meatballs, a really great salad filled with lots of yummy stuff, and home made bread sticks. The girls had the most fun forming the bread sticks. None of them had ever done it before! For dessert we did my crock pot peach cobbler and home made ice cream. I'm not sure how I'm going to top this activity.

• I finally got my eyes checked out for the first time in a few years. I'll be getting new glasses and contacts in a couple weeks!

That's what I can think of about my last couple weeks. We've been spending a lot of time at the park and the library this summer. This was supposed to be my relaxing summer at home, but I'm never home! Does life ever slow down??

Hippo Birdie to Ewe...

Happy Birthday to the bestest, most wonderful, most amazing woman I know!

I love you Mom!