Catching Up

So I'm completely overwhelmed with my life at the moment, but am trying to keep up. Trying to work and go to classes and then study too is defintely testing me. But I did want to catch everyone up on the few things I've been able to accomplish lately (mostly becuase I have a wonderful husband).

We tried our hand at making salsa the other day. The tomatoes and peppers are from our garden and Paul's mom's.

Here are the peppers, there is a total of 6 different types of peppers in this salsa. Way too spicy for me, but Paul is enjoying it.
I had to study, so Paul offered to finish up the processing. It was his first time canning without my help. I'm so proud of him, I just had to take a picture :) He's been absolutely wonderful these first few weeks of school. He's taken to calling himself the house husband. I haven't had to worry about anything but work and study, dinner is ready when I get home, the laundry is done and the house is clean. Thank you Paul!!!

The finished salsa. 7 pints in total, plus a large bowl in the fridge.

I did manage right before school started to volunteer at our Red Cross Ride for the Red fundraiser. It was very neat to see all the motorcyclists out for a great ride and a good cause. As you can see it was a wonderful day for a ride.

And perhaps my favorite pictures. Max (the grey cat) always has to look at the groceries when I bring them home. Then he'll find the potatoes and lick the bag. it's so weird.

I think he's trying to teach Reese how to do it too.

First Garden Bounty

Our garden is starting to produce and we are so happy. I'm so grateful Paul's mother planted a bunch of veggies for us in her garden. Most of the food above is from her garden. The picture below is our first bell pepper from our garden. It's so pretty and smells so good, I almost don't want to eat it. The tomatoes are starting to turn red, we ate a few little cherry tomatoes this week and the chili peppers are doing awesome. We'll have more than enough little red chilis for several months.

We worked hard all week to get everything put up for winter. So far this week we've done 2 qts and 7 pints of peaches, 3 qts of cherries, froze 12 cups grated zucchini, made 2 cherry pies and froze them, 4 pints of dill pickles and dehydrated a ton of squash and zucchini. The herbs out front are getting huge and I'll probably dry another batch of basil, sage, oregano, thyme and tarragon this weekend. Paul also worked hard to make several batches of his wonderful homemade wheat bread. It's nice to have the bread ready to go in the freezer.
I ruined my dehydrator trying to dry candied cherries. Luckily Paul was able to find me another one at the store. This one is slightly bigger and has a better fan setup, which allows for quicker drying. However, the best gift I got this week was from a friend that loves to go to yardsales, she picked up 100 canning jars for me for only $10!! That's an amazing find. We are set for canning jars for quite awhile.

School started today and life will be very interesting and crazy for awhile. I'm anticipating very little sleep but I am excited to get started.