How did I spend my Fall Break? Canning! Brooke and Brittani came over and we did lots of canning-with a little help from Mara. Here are our totals: 22 pints of raspberry jam-raspberries from Marcie, 20 quarts of apple pie filling, 34 pints of salsa-the girls did 21 pints all on their own one day when I was at work, 27 pints and 12 quarts of applesauce, 24 quarts stewed tomatoes and still drying apples. I think we could survive for a while! I know this sounds like a lot of work and it was, but we grow a garden and have fruit trees so we can be prepared especially with the economic state we're in, it's a good thing to know how to do(not to mention all the money we'll save this winter not having to buy all this stuff). While we were doing the canning, Brittani kept reminding me that this was something I was doing to blog about-not something one of my kids was doing-but me. Although clearly I can't blog without pictures of Mara! It was fun for the boys to harvest all the fruits and vegies and then the girls were working inside. Brooke and Brittani did comment on how much more fun it was now than when they were being forced to help when they were growing up. It was definitely more fun for me because there wasn't any yelling and threatening going on on my part. Here are some pictures of our fun weekend! Oh yea-I went through the whole canning season without stitches!!!! That's a first in a long time!
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