Green Beans

Green Beans and More Green Beans!!! My SIL was nice enough to let me pick beans from her garden since I didn't get many from mine. This is the second time that hers has produced and so I didn't know if I'd get many or not. Well, I ended up with 40 quarts of beans and 12 pints of dilly beans. We picked Sat. and than this morning as well...than we snapped, stuffed jars and canned...I'm so sick of seeing green!! But I'll be thrilled when its cold outside and I have the awesome taste of home canned greenbeans...there is no comparison to storebought!! YUCK!!!

So, while I'm in the process of doing beans my other SIL stops by and wants to know if I want some pears...Shalene is in the background snapping beans saying...no, no, no pears!!! Giggle, Steve said YES, we'll take em. So, I'm thanking the Lord for sending all this free food along our way -- even if I'm dragging at the moment.

Update on Steve's Eye

Here is an update of how Steve is doing with the eye situation....first, as I type he is at the Geisinger Hospital (His brother took him today since the kids start cyber school today) so back to the tale....he is seeing a specialist today. I guess there is only a handful of specialists for this problem in the entire nation and we are blessed to have one about an hour away.

When he went to the doctor last week it shows that both eyes are having problems but the left eye is really bad. He struggles quite a bit right now so hopefully they can do something. The first doctor does not think that he will need surgery...meds and drops possibly. But he wanted the specialist to check and determine for sure. I guess that inside your eye you have a spot that is to be dipped in and his bows out with lots of swelling and such. They have a HUGE list of things that could have caused this and we may never know what triggered the problem.

So please continue to pray and I'll let you know what happens today.

Thanks so much to all of you who have asked about Steve and are praying. This is a blessing to know that others care.....and I know that God can heal him if it is His will.

Well, Steve has gotten home and it appears that it is still undecided as to what needs to be done...he had some blood work and tests done today and he is to go back to Geisinger Friday to find out what the results are and what they think the coarse of action should be.

Keep Praying

Tomatoes & Corn -- What a Day

Today we worked on freezing corn (almost 300 ears) and making some spaghetti sauce. The corn we bought -- got a deal and paid 1.50 a dozen -- at least I think its a deal for us in PA. The tomatoes were grown in our garden.

Alyssa and Clayton had fun using the squeezo to make the sauce. Seems to be a fun "tool" to use - squeezing all those tomatoes and peppers through the sieve!!

And of coarse we need sugar to add to the corn before freezing it!!! I use a recipe that I use ice water, salt and sugar before freezing!! YUM

I think you can tell by the pic that Clayton LOVES sugar.

The next several photos would be the evidence of the work we did. We were working on this till around 9:30 p.m. but it sure is a great feeling to have stuff stocked up -- Nothing like frozen corn in the winter.....that was fresh out of the garden.

I really love to smell the sauce as we work on this. Here it is in the beginning stages!! Lots of peppers and onions. Later more seasons are added. UGH - by the photo you can see that I need to clean the oven!! Something else to get accomplished.

I'd like to do a bit more corn as well as green beans. I'm also gonna try "bread in a jar" -- I'll let you know how that works since I've never done it but have several recipes to give it a try.

Busy Summertime

It seems like everytime I turn around we are running one way or the other this summer. We have delivered so many dogs, stayed busy with church missions trip, camp and activities. Traveled to visit my family. Ran to violin and piano lessons and all of that good stuff. Now, I'm not complaining!! I'd rather be busy than bored.....However, I am one that enjoys a bit of a schedule and so I'm hoping that we will have one soon -- or at least a semblance of a schedule. School starts back up on the 31st...now we cyber school...so the kids are still here but with a schedule of when they have to be in their classes since they are online and live!!! And maybe, just maybe, I may get caught up on things. I need to can beans and tomatoes this week and I'm hoping to get some corn.

This past Saturday we had a party for my pre-teen Sunday School class here at the house....and guess what? No pictures!! UGH!!! I'm behind. After the party I had to dart out to deliver another puppy about 1 1/2 hours away...Alyssa had Phoebe spend the evening so she traveled with us....after delivering the puppy we stopped at a mall...here are a few snaps of Phoebe & Alyssa shopping. This were NOT boring with those two!

Not sure if many of you remember the post I had made several months back about Steve's eyes....seemed like things were getting better. However, he started having more problems so he visited the eye doctor yesterday...he is being sent for some tests (in two weeks) because things are getting worse again instead of improving. He has swelling inside of his eye, always sees floaters and has trouble with lights etc. Oftentimes it appears that his eye simply gets tierd and gets red and aches at the end of the day. This could become a very serious issue -- so I am asking for prayers...that God would give wisdom to the doctors or better yet...that God would HEAL Steve.
Thanks.

CK CONVENTION

I had the wonderful privilege of attending the CK Convention this past weekend....I went with Sue (above) along with her daughter in law and several other ladies. We all had such a blast....we shopped, giggled, went to classes, shopped some more, laughed and hooted, ate (Chilli's, Texas Longhorn, Cheesecake Factory, Coldstone Creamery -- YUM YUM) shopped some more and laughed again...went to more classes and just had a wonderful time. Learned some new things and found some wonderful new items.

Was able to take several classes with Melissa Frances...had the chance to visit with her some as well....what fun

Went to the Thursday evening class. ... here is Sue, Carolyn and Tara -- they work at the local scrapbook store with me.