Laundry

I started sorting Norah's clothes, blankets, etc for washing. It took a while to get all the packaging and tags off. Not in the picture are the hand made blankets, some new ones and several my mom had made and used with my sister and me. Oh, and the cloth diapers, another good sized pile! Now if it would just cool down a little I might actually wash everything, but I don't want to run the dryer and we don't have anywhere to hang things outside!

Yummy Jam

Maybe it's a weird pregnancy thing, but this year I really got into making jams. I've never done it before, but I found out it's really pretty easy. I was able to make one batch of strawberry from our garden before they were done. Next year I'll be sure to start earlier! Then raspberries started. I had to buy those since our plants aren't very happy. I made several batches of raspberry. Then we were able to buy cherries wholesale with farm connections. Cherry jam is very good. I've made a lot of cherry jam. Then I got some free cherries from a friend, so I made more, I still have enough to do another batch. One batch is only about four 12oz jars. So here's my stash so far, left to right: Strawberry - Cherry - Raspberry

I remember my Mom making strawberry freezer jam when we were little. We don't have our big freezer anymore, but we do have a big pantry which is why I opted to can them. They are also all made with the low sugar pectin, so about half of the normal sugar amounts. We all think they taste great, I can't imagine what it would be like with the regular sugar/pectin amounts! Oh and our local grocery store was running a sale last week, buy two boxes of pectin get a free 5lbs sugar! That was nice :) We're going to start canning green beans soon. Not my favorite thing, but most people like them. Then it's on to peaches and pears, which we will probably be able to get wholesale this year also, very helpful. I am worried that we will get 60lbs of fruit to can and I'll go into labor....

*** I found this website very helpful:http://www.pickyourown.org/cherry_preserves.htm I also added some spices to my cherry jam from a recipe that I found in the Ball home canning book, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp cloves.

I just needed to complain a little more......

This forecast doesn't belong here! Where am I?!
**I guess I need to add that we do have an A/C unit for part of the house, it's in the kitchen sliding door. It does a good job of cooling the kitchen and greatroom areas but the bedrooms are still toasty! We've had the A/C blasting on the highest setting for a couple days now, and it's kept the temp at about 75 and about 80 in the other rooms. We also have several fans around the house to keep the air moving, so it could be a lot worse!

Oh icky hot

We broke the record for heat today.....103. They actually have Wednesday at 105. It's 11pm now and it's finally down to 85 outside, so so icky. Our bedroom is too hot to sleep. I'm going to try and sleep on the couch since it's only about 78 out here.....Oh and it's more fun since I've had cough since Thursday that makes sleeping tricky anyway. On the upside, Norah doesn't seem to mind any of it, she's still wiggling and hiccuping regularly just like she should.
George liked how well my bowl of watermelon was sitting on my belly, just a few more weeks and I'll be able to bend again!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RHEA AND EVOLY!!!!!!

36 weeks! WooHoo!!!

Whew, starting the ninth month! My belly doesn't look this big to me, but it sure looks big in pictures! She's still very wiggly and active, so she's not running out of room yet. I had an appt last week and everything is looking great. I go in again on the 27th for a routine appt. The heat has been icky, I'm not enjoying all the 90* days since I can't do anything outside. But overall everything has been going very well and I'm feeling pretty good still. And George will be home on Friday!!!!! YAY!!!!!