Concerns about The Boy.

Our vacation was wonderful, full of family and canning. I will be posting pictures soon. I know that The Boy had a good time, however he started to have more of the uncontrolled head shaking, sometimes his hands and shoulders were shaking as well. He didn't seem to notice and when I brought it to his attention he said that it was just happening on it's own. I don't know if it was stress, because of being somewhere out of his normal setting, all the people around when he's not really used to it, or just something that happened. I'm worried about it though, it could mean something else is wrong. I'll have to watch and make sure I tell his Doctor when we see her next.

He is also complaining about not being able to see to read unless he is up close to the book or the computer screen. So, we will have to go get his eyes checked soon as well. I'm about due for a new pair of glasses myself so maybe we can go together.

He is still a bit on the innocent side compared to other kids his age. Not so much a problem for the most part, but it could lead him into trouble.

Making blueberry jam.

Last year I tried to make blueberry jam without pectin, well actually I mean without added pectin since they already have pectin in them. Anyway, it didn't set and I was disappointed by it. So this year I decided to give it a try with store bought pectin. My downstairs neighbor gave me a nice size bucket of blueberries after I sent down some green beans from our green bean harvest.

First I had to smash or squash or smoosh or crush the berries.

Then I put the jars in the canner to heat up while I cooked the jam.

It took a lot longer to reach the proper temp for the jam to set than I expected. I tried dipping a spoon in and watching the jam drip off to see if it was "sheeting". I don't even know what that really means LOL. And then I tried putting a little on a cold plate to see if it would thicken up enough in a minute or so.

One it finally got there I ladled it into jars and got them ready for the canner.

I put them in the canner for 5 minutes as the directions said. By this time the water in the water bath canner had been boiling for a couple of hours and I discovered that the steam was condensing on the ceiling when a big fat drop landed on my head. EEWW! It was a little gross, because there was a little build up of grease up there. But on the positive side my ceiling is clean now!

I then took the jars of beautiful blueberry jam out of the water bathe canner and set them on the counter to cool. It was so satisfying to hear the ping of the jar lids sealing.

Here are the finished jars all ready to go on the shelf.

It tastes wonderful too!

Canning season starts.

Well, canning season has started. I've been able to can a few things so far this year. In June I started with strawberries that my niece picked. We, my neice and I, made strawberry lemon jam and just plain strawberry jam. They both turned out great.

 Strawberies ready to make jam.

 Strawberry jam.

Strawberry-lemon jam.

Then I picked cherries with Jennifer, and made cherry jam and cherry preserves, then made a pie and put the last of the cherries in the freezer. The jam didn't set up at all, it was a no pectin added recipe. I'm not sure how the preserves are supposed to be, but they didn't do what I thought they would either, the pie was good and I'll probably be able to make another pie with the frozed cherries I have.

 No pectin added cherry jam.

 Cherries.

 Cherry preserves.

 Cherry preserves a different view.

Cherry pie, it was a little sweet but I liked it anyway.

July 23rd Jennifer and I took our kids to a harvest for green beans. It was fun and we picked quite a bit, about 5 1/2 5 gallon buckets. I brought home almost 2 buckets full. I made some pickled, Dilly Beans, green beans with nearly half of them, I'm going to blanch and freeze the other half.

Dilly Beans.

I'm looking forward to canning more fruit and maybe even more vegetables if I can get a pressure canner.

Cherries.

Today my friend Jennifer and I went out to pick cherries. It was with Salem Harvest, which sponsors harvests to harvest fruit and vegetables from professional farmers as well as private people who have fruit trees, vines or bushes that produce more than they can use. We harvested cherries from an orchard that had been professionally picked before, what we harvested was what was still green at that time. We donate at least half of what we pick to the local Food Share and get to keep the other half for free. This was my first harvest, I can't wait for the next one.

I am tired, but part of that is I went to bed late, around 2:30 this morning, and got up early, around 7:30. And part of it is that I'm not in very good shape.

Now I have a 5 gallon bucket nearly full of cherries. I'm planning on making jam and preserves. I don't think I'll have enough to put some up in light syrup this time, but there might be another cherry harvest soon. I'm looking forward to picking pretty much anything else. Blueberries, peaches, apples, pears, maybe even some vegetables.

About Cars 2: The Video Game

As most of you know I'm a Bzz Agent, which means that sometimes I get products to try or I get to see some content about something before it's available in the store. I'm then supposed to tell people about what I've seen or tried, the good and the bad. I sometimes have coupons to give for those items as well.

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Anyway, today I'm Bzzing about Cars2: The Video Game. From what I've seen so far it looks like it will be a fun game for families to play together. You will be able to join C.H.R.O.M.E. and play spy's and have combat races! I like racing games so I'm particularly interested in this game, I think that The Boy and Messed Up Daddy will enjoy playing it with me. We like the characters from Cars so that should help make it fun too. You can go to their facebook page to check out some of the content. The game will be available June 21st, so we don't have too long to wait. You all know how much I hate to wait for things. LOL So go check it out and let me know what you think. Does it look like something you would like? Why or why not?

Work out issues.

I have to admit that I've fallen off the work out wagon, so to speak. I got discouraged when, after working so hard for months, all I was able to loose was 15 or so pounds, but I continued because I thought I was building muscle mass, which weighs more per inch than fat does. Then I was over whelmed when I gained it all back plus 5 more pounds, all while working out 4 or 5 days a week. I don't think that I started to eat more, or eat bad stuff while I was working out, but it's possible. So I gave up on working out all together. I tried to walk 15 minutes a day, but the weather got in the way, and I wasn't really feeling into it anyway. Now I'm feeling like a failure, and I don't know what I'm going to do about it.

I NEED to loose the weight. It's a health issue. So far I haven't had any really problem because of my weight, but it's only a matter of time. The Boy is still very young, I need to be healthy for him. I need to live long enough to see him grown and on his own. I worry about him because of his special needs and his other problems, he still needs me. I just don't know what to do.

I've been thinking.

I've been thinking about my weight problems. I am easily distracted from working out or any other kind of exorcise, that's one problem. I like doing it when I do, but ... it's easy to find something else I "should" do instead.

My biggest problem however, is my relationship with food. I really like food, the taste, the texture, the action of eating. This makes it easy for me to over eat, it's the "just one more bite" syndrome. I also get obsessed with some foods, it's more than a craving, it's much harder to ignore one when it hits. It's not just one food either and I never know which food it will be or when it will happen. I'll eat a whole chocolate cake because I can't stop myself, or recently it was Honey Barbecue Chicken Bites. I got them by accident a couple of weeks ago and ended up eating the first bag in one day. We had some the other night, The Boy didn't eat all of his, I sat here thinking of his leftover bites trying not to go get them. But I couldn't stop thinking of them, just sitting there in the fridge waiting for someone to come and eat them. Finally I couldn't stand it any more and went in there and took them out, warmed them up and ate them. Even though I wasn't hungry, in fact I was still full from my own dinner. I have to get control over this, I have to stop eating when I'm not hungry, and I have to stop spending so much time thinking about food.

A double knit hat.

I decided to try a double knit hat. I wanted it to be reversible. Or as The Boy said "completely reversible" LOL. I've made one other double knit project before, a pot holder. It was fun, and I wanted to try it again. I already had two shades of blue so all I had to do was find a pattern for the colors I would stay interested in doing but wouldn't be too hard to do. I found an snowflake pattern that was just right. Figuring out how to do ribbing in double knit was interesting and took a few tries, but  got it done. Then I had to figure out how to work it in the round with double point needles. I had some problem with laddering between the needles especially on the "back" or inside because I couldn't see that part as clearly as I could the "front" or outside. But I think it turned out pretty well. Here's some pictures.

You can see the laddering a little bit here.



The ribbing is a bit loose, but it works for The Boy.