In my defense...ahem...this summer has been out of stinkin' control busy. If I had to give this summer a name it would be The Work Your Pants Off Summer, because that is EXACTLY what we've been doing. On one hand, it stinks...who wants to work alllllll the time? Especially in the summer?? Not me! BUT, on the other hand, we are getting in a really comfortable place financially. Have any of you heard of the financial guru Dave Ramsey?? Well, I got ahold of his book Total Money Makeover (thanks Jess! ;o), and his plan roped me in immediately. I'm always on the lookout for some financial smarts books... because honestly, where else in the world am I going to learn how to make smart financial moves? It certainly wasn't taught in high school...or college... or in our home growing up. And let's face it... your entire life revolves around these little green bills. It does... and without it, you'd be living in a little brown box. Ha! But anyway, it's basically a common sense plan of paying cash for everything and getting rid of consumer debt like car loans, credit cards, and student loans as quickly as possible, and then making your hard earned money work for you by putting it in mutual funds, kids' college funds, retirement, and of course have extra to give away (one of my favorite parts of this plan... he's not preaching greed, and I think it's awesome that he includes giving to charities in his money makover plan.:). The idea is to never have debt to pay on...because with debt comes interest and you end up paying more for everything. Pretty common sense, huh? However...Dave Ramsey's plan says to basically take 18 months or so and use every extra penny you have to pay off consumer debt...which implies that you would spend no money on vacations...or christmas presents...or birthday gifts...etc. Yea right! We are altering his plan slightly to fit our lifestyle ;o)...plus Eric and I both decided that we still want quality of life! Not sure if this plan will get me to be a stay at home momma some day, and after realizing how much money really goes into my retirement account by my employer I'm not even sure if I should strive for staying home--ha! BUT...I am thankful to have a good paying job and a husband with a good paying job and side-work up to his eyeballs. In this economy...well, I don't even have to go there...we all know the economy stinks right now!
Speaking of spending money :) :)....We are having a heck of a time trying to decide where to go on vacation in mid September. We've been thinking about it for months....go to the beach? the mountains? stay-cation? Chicago? the lake? Ahhhhh!!!! I think we're coming to a conclusion....pack up and hit the North Carolina shore! I think we'd like to head to the Outer Banks, rent a little beach cottage, and do nothing but sit our bums on the beach for the entire week. Cook breakfast & lunch and go out for dinner....make smoothies in the evenings and go for beach walks at sunset and breathe in that salty ocean air. Okay, yep...just made up my mind! Outer Banks it is!! ;~))
These last few weeks have kicked off harvest time at the gardens! If I'm not working, I'm at mom's. It's been awesome...I love hanging out with the whole family for harvesting, canning, freezing, and cooking. It rocks. My mom rocks. She knows it all! (shhh...do not tell her I just admitted that! ;) My sister and I are a hot mess without her around to guide us through the tedious steps of preserving. Take this instance for example...
Last weekend, we were getting together at moms to can peaches. Mom had a Dr. appointment that morning, so she left Tammy and I some directions to get things started while she was gone. So Tammy and I show up at moms house, walk in the kitchen where all the equipment, towels, and recipes were all set up waiting on us. The first instruction: "put peaches in hot water on stove for 30-60 seconds and place in ice water bath; peel skins off, cut peaches in half." Tammy and I were like, "Okay...easy enough, we've got this." So we begin the process...heat the peaches, dump them in the ice water, start slicing them...and possibly by the 3rd peach that Tammy picked up, she went to cut it in half and instead sliced through her pinky finger!!!!!!!!!! My mom's knives are the SHARPEST things ever! As a matter of fact she sharpened them that morning so they'd be ready for 4 bushels of peaches. :) Immediately, my sister.... a nurse... about had a heart attack... pale as a ghost. Granted, the cut was deep...fat was busting out of it and she was convinced she could feel nerve damage kicking in. "We have to go the the ER right now!! Come on lets go...right now!" Meanwhile... I'm trying to hold in my giggles because she was completely overreacting like most nurses would. She was spouting off things like, "I'm gonna have to get a wound vac on this thing!" and "I'm diabetic Liz! Now I'm going to lose my finger!" and "It better not get infected with MRSA!!" Bless her heart... she did go to the ER and came home with 5 stitches. Proof that we can't do anything without mom's guidance. :)
So far this season we've canned green beans, hot pepper mustard, peaches, spiced peaches, pasta sauce, blueberry lime jam, strawberry jam, blackberry peach freezer jam, peach freezer jam, and froze sweet corn. We also made some butter the last day I was up at moms. She used to make it when we were little from the cream from our goats' milk. Since there wasn't a goat in the backyard these days we used heavy whipping cream. Just stick it in the blender and turn it on low. Before long (couple minutes), the whipping cream turns into a big blob of sweet cream butter. Then you drain off the buttermilk and wash the butter itself with cold tap water and work it in a bowl until the water runs clear. Easy peasy lemon squeezie! :)
I will stop boring you with reasons why I haven't been updating as frequently and just cut to some pretty cute pictures! Enjoy...
My faithful lil cheeser... :o)
Peach snatcher! She must be saving that blueberry lime jam for later. ;o)
This is what whimsical 8 year olds do to entertain themselves while the rest of the family slaves over the stove.... make flower petal paths!!
Mmmm....JAMMM!!!
Canning is a labor of love... Lesson learned: moms knives are even sharper than we thought!!
Pepper butter in the making (or mustard..whatever you wanna call it! :)
Pepper peelin' Dale!
The girls discovered the mister on the hose!
8 was a fun age! ;o)
Loooong day at Granny's... time for bed Ava!
Playground near our house...
My girl.
Love these girls!
Sometimes you just gotta... 8o)
Backyard pool time!!
Ava's new table daddy picked up in Iowa.
Hope you're enjoying your summer!! As you can tell, we are eating ours up!!! Leave some love--I'd love to hear how everyone's summer is going! I know you've got some Outer Banks info up your sleeve, too...we've never been there so I need some pointers! ;o) xoxo
