It has been two years since I posted on this blog. I have since had a baby (Asher, who is now 2.5 and WILD), rearranged my house a few times, broken all those beautiful rules I made previously about household things having their own homes (and if not, throwing them out). I have been the Hospitality Coordinator for the MOPS group at my church (Moms Of PreSchoolers), helped run a homeschool PreK co-op with friends, and spent the first half of this school year teaching Emery at home.

Sometimes I would think about my blog and wish I had time to write and keep up with it all, but it just didn't happen. I'm hoping to turn over a new leaf, even if it means I post once a week (or twice a month, for that matter). I don't know if I'll grow a "readership" or "following," but writing helps me process, and there are some people I know who aren't on Facebook who would like to know what's going on in my life and my children's lives now and then.

I can already tell this is going to be difficult (yet fun), since while I'm typing Asher is crawling onto my lap saying, "Hol' me... hol' me!" I'll have to limit myself to post-bedtime posts, at least for now.

Wish me luck! :-D

Peach Honey Butter

Considering it is stone-fruit season (peaches, plums, etc), I thought it fitting to begin my Christmas canning now instead of waiting until the last minute in December when everything gets expensive. I grabbed about four pounds of peaches, some honey, sugar, and spices, and about an hour and a half later ended up with this:


Peach Honey Butter

It was a new recipe I found online somewhere--tweaked of course, because I never like to use exactly the same amount of sugar that's recommended, and I skipped a step or two because I'm just plain lazy sometimes.

Ingredients:

4 lbs ripe peaches

1/4 cup water

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup honey

1 cinnamon stick

A few shakes of ground cloves

3 tbs low-sugar pectin (optional--helps it gel up)

8 half pint (8 oz) canning jars

Ignore the "whole cloves" in the photo. I decided to use ground cloves after I realized I was using a blender instead of a seive.

The original recipe says to peel, pit, and quarter the peaches. Since I had a toddler climbing my legs and shouting for my attention (yeah, I know--next time save the canning for naptime), I saved some time and energy by not peeling the peaches. Two simple slices, a quick twist, and the pit came right out and the peach went in the pot. The BIG pot, by the way--I ended up not using all of my peaches because I didn't want to overfill the pot.

After the pot was full I added the 1/4 cup (approximately) of water and cinnamon stick and set it on medium-high until it boiled, then put the lid on and lowered the heat to a simmer for about 15 minutes (until the peaches were nice and mushy).

Yum!

Let me tell you, it smelled intoxicating. Who doesn't like the aroma of cinnamon and peaches? Next it went into the blender in smallish batches (making sure to get some of the juices in each batch to make it smoother). And don't forget about that cinnamon stick that's been marinating--I'm pretty sure you don't want that to end up in your blender. I just put it aside for some other project I'm bound to attempt in the next week or so.

Also, now is a good time to start boiling those jars if you're planning on preserving your concoction! I usually put them all in a huge pot and let it boil for about ten minutes, then just turn off the heat until ready to use.

Voila! Return the butter to the pot and add your sugar, honey, and cloves, and bring it back to a boil, stirring well to allow the sugar to dissolve. The recipe said to simmer uncovered for 10 minutes or until the mixture mounds on a spoon, but mine didn't get super thick which is why I added 3 tbs of pectin (stir it REALLY well to avoid lumps!). You also need to really watch it because I left it for two minutes to put Emery down for a nap, and when I got back it was a bit frothy on top.

After a little while you'll notice it starts to get a big thicker, and now would be a good time for a taste-test. Next time I'm using a little big less sugar. Put your jars on the counter--carefully--and fill them up until you've got about a quarter inch headspace. Wipe the rims clean and put the lids on, making sure to secure them with the bands! One time I was canning I forgot the band on one of the jars and it made a mess in the pot. Not fun.

I usually process my jars in a hot water bath (boiling water) for 10 minutes, then put them back on the counter and leave them undisturbed for about 24 hours. They usually starting sealing and making that satisfactory popping sound within ten minutes of leaving the hot water. You know they're sealed properly when you press down on the middle of the lid and there's no give and it doesn't pop up and down. If any of your jars don't seal, I've heard you can try processing them again, but I usually just pop them in the fridge and use them within two weeks. No complaints in this house! ;-)

For the past three days I've been addicted to a blog called The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking. The author, Kelly, did a 31 day blogging challenge where she blogged every day for a whole month on one topic--organizing your home. Of course I got sucked in immediately. If you've ever seen my home you know it resembles a college dorm/daycare being inhabited by pack-rats. In other words we have a lot of stuff and not enough places to put it all. It's not so much a lack of room as a lack of organization, hence the reason for this post.

The first thing that caught my eye on the blog mentioned above was this:

A place for everything...and everything in it's place.

If it doesn't have a home, make a home for it or throw it! This makes so much sense to me since Andrew and I are both "pilers": if we don't know where to put it, we put it on the dining room table. Or the cabinet. Or in the office cubby.

No more, my friends! Perhaps it's just the nesting instinct that's causing me to overhaul my house and my organizational habits, and perhaps it'll only last as long as the pregnancy, but at least it's a start. Unfortunately I need to learn to take "before" pictures as well as the "after."

Sunday evening after Emery went to bed I organized my office cabinet. It was yet another place where we piled stuff when we didn't know what to do with it: invitations, random notes, nails, electronic cables, you name it. Any time I wanted to use the printer I had to shift everything out of the way. This is what it looks like now, after an hour and a half of work:

I know, it doesn't look like an hour and a half's worth of work. But believe me, if you saw the "before" and how much I threw out, you'd be impressed. I also cleared off the top of the cabinet (no picture of the bottom half because it's just a file box and printer paper. Boring.), which was also incredibly overcrowded. Now it's just some decor and--wow, this is new--FREE SPACE!

Today I worked on my linen closet which currently rests above my dresser in my bedroom. I've always been a sheet-rolling type of person, especially with fitted sheets (who really folds those anyway?). After reading a very thorough tutorial on fitted sheet folding, and taking advantage of Emery's second hour of napping, I re-folded every sheet and organized the closet. Again, sorry for not having a before picture. Just imagine a pile of rolled up, wrinkled sheets, pillowcases, and blankets.

I even tied up the individual sheet sets with ribbon so they won't get all confused! :-)

A few more things that I've done in the past two days: re-organized my file cabinet, cleaned the dishwasher (with vinegar!), cleaned the kitchen pantry shelves (also with vinegar!), and re-organized the bathroom closet. Looking forward to organizing our miscellaneous electronic paraphernalia, taking an inventory of our freezer, and prepping the bedroom for the crib, changing table, and glider! And hoping to end the week with a bit of canning, although let's not get too crazy.

Who doesn't love bathtime?

I've come to the conclusion that hot, sticky, humid days are just as bad as rainy days when it comes to keeping a toddler entertained. Poor Emery just wants to go to the playground--the heat doesn't bother her so much. But I'm in my third trimester, and even armed with an ice-cold bottle of water and dressed in my lightest clothing the heat is still unbearable to me. This may be the first year that I'm actually looking forward to Fall!

Thankfully I've been browsing the web in my spare time for things to keep Emery and I busy. I stumbled upon another blog which listed 75 activities for kids (ironically we have the same background for our blog). The very first activity the author has listed is glow sticks in the bathtub, and I thought, why have I never tried that before?!

So tonight, as the sky darkened with storm and Emery and I ran low on pre-bedtime fun, we scooted upstairs, covered the window with a towel, filled the bathtub, and a new source of bathtime entertainment was discovered.

Needless to say, I'm pretty sure my next shopping list for the Dollar Tree will include a few more packs of these incredibly versatile wands of amusement.

A New Beginning

Greetings!

Now that my header is to my satisfaction and I have a moment to write, I'd like to introduce myself. I am an artist, wife, mother, sister, incubator (yes, I'm pregnant at the moment), home cook/baker, and many other things. I have been married to my best friend for four years (that's Andrew), and we have a beautiful little girl named Emery who just turned two in May. We are all getting excited to welcome Emery's little brother, Asher, into the world sometime in October! The four of us live in a comfortable home situated in Warren County, NJ.

My hopes for this blog are high but reasonable: I would like to cultivate a place where great ideas are born, and where great ideas are shared. I want to eventually be a blog that pops up on pinterest and people say, "Wow, what a useful site!" I'm very interested in repurposing things, although I have very little experience, and I love DIY tutorials, delicious recipes, and money-saving tips. Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate these into my blog.

Another goal is just to share my life experience with the world; the ups and downs of parenting and marriage, home schooling tips and projects (I'm hoping to home school the kids when they're old enough), etc. I'd like a place where I can keep in contact with family and friends and share what's going on in my life without having to post every five minutes on Facebook.

Sounds a bit ambitious, but I'm not in any hurry.

Hello! Please bear with me as I construct the site. I have to feel at home before I can begin writing--much like in college, when I had to unpack everything when I moved into my dorm room before I could go to sleep.

Thanks!