This Week's Bountiful Basket

This is actually from last week, but blogger wouldn't let me publish! So, trying to share now... we'll see if it works...

This week's basket of yumminess included 1 eggplant, 1 honeydew melon, 2 mangos, 3 nectarines, 3 lbs onions, 1/2 lb mushrooms, 7 bananas, 2 bunches spinach, 1 head leaf lettuce, 2 heads broccoli... and I think that's it! Whew!

Isaac Awesomeness

Practical jokes at our house

My First Bountiful Basket!

(k, just FYI, I am getting frustrated with Blogger! It's spacing out my stuff, and not letting me center things... and signing me out and in and out and in.... GGRRRRR! so sorry about the annoying formatting, but I can't fix it...)

I was so excited today to go pick up my first bountiful basket! The kids were too- it's all a suprise what you will get! So much fun!

In our basket, we received:

2 cucumbers

1 eggplant

3 heads broccoli

1 bunch kale

10 baby bok choy

7 peaches

3 fuji apples

1 pineapple

5 oranges

5 bananas

2 mangos

Here's how this works: It's a produce co-op, where the money is pooled to get better deals. You sign up, and then each week you choose if you'd like to participate or not. Each week is $15, plus $1.50 handling fee (plus a one-time starter fee of $3), and you are supposed to receive approximately $50 worth of produce.

A friend from church shared this with us. I had read about Bountiful Baskets around the blogosphere, but knew that it wasn't available in our area... until now!!! Check out their website (http://bountifulbaskets.org) for more information. I love that I don't have to do it every week; I can pick and choose when we want more produce. Plus this will be a stretcher for me- I've never eaten eggplant OR bok choy! FUN FUN FUN! :-)

Canned Butter

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but just never got up the motivation. Well! Yesterday, we discovered that the sun tea jar had leaked into one of the drawers in the refrigerator... and that's where I had the butter stored! Hello Motivation!

So Gabe and I worked together last night, boiling and canning our butter, then shaking and shaking to make sure it "looked pretty!" I'd say it turned out beautiful! :-)

It did separate a little more, but it was late and we were tired!

Wisdom Beyond Her Years...

Melia and I were talking about it being the Fourth of July, and what that means, where we came from, etc... She's asking what kind of men they were who signed the Declaration of Independence, and I'm talking about how they were brave men, willing to risk their lives in order to attain a better life for everyone, and she interuppts...

"Mommy, I'm guessing that they were men of God, right?"

choke, tear, choke tear, "Yes, dear. You are right; they were men of God."

:-)

Yay- What a great vacation!

We are home now from our 7 days away! We feel so blessed to have been able to get away and have a great time with our kiddos. We stayed at a 4-person cabin at the Little Diamond KOA/Thousand Trails campground north of Spokane, and took one day to do Silverwood. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pics up and tell some of the FUNNY stories we had.......

For now, here's a quote from Melia this morning:

Melia: "Mom, what does 'be continued' mean?"
Me: "It's like when you are watching a show, and suddenly the show is over, but you haven't heard the end of the story yet. You have to wait until next time to hear the ending!"
Melia: "Hmmm... I don't like 'to be continueds!' "
Me: "Me neither!!!"

Pressure Canned Chicken

What do you do when you have a feverish child? Can chicken of course! Because it takes a significant amount of time! I was suprised at just how easy this was. I cut up the chicken, closed the jars, put them in the canner, added boiling water, turned it on, and babysat it for 2 hours :-) I followed the tutorial HERE (http://www.thriftyandthriving.com/2011/06/step-by-step-instructions-for-canning-chicken/) (since it won't let me put the link in!) and the directions for my own pressure canner.

Ice Skating after the last day of Co-op!

Kiera: revelling in her "big friend" time!

Yes, I did skate too! Brought back lovely memories... and made me very empathetic to Melia's requests to take lessons... :-) But she needs to learn to swim first!

David Thompson Tour

A couple of weeks ago, our co-op went on a tour at the Wenatchee museum through the David Thompson exhibit and to go down to the river and canoe like they would have done back then.

(Note: David Thompson was the first white man to travel the entire 1200+ miles of the Columbia River, mapping it out, and trading furs. He was a strong Christian, refusing to trade alcohol for furs to the Indians. Thompson has been called the greatest land geographer who ever lived.)

I was thrilled when both girls were able to participate in the canoeing, even though we were warned that the public school age limit was 4th grade. This thrill helped to ease the concern that my two daughter just disappeared down the river in a wobbly boat...

Learning how to row.
Kiera was struggling to make it through the tour. I thought she did fantastic, even though she was tired :-) At least she wasn't being naughty!

I was a little afraid that her rowing might flip her little bod right on out of the boat! Look how little she is compared to the oar :-)


In the inlet...


And out of sight... They did make it back safe and sound, having had a GREAT time!
Interesting tidbits: Thompson special ordered peppermint oil to help ease stomach troubles for his men. And they ate porcupine :-)