Up to. . . Up to?

What have I been up to? I started my class in Provo the beginning of October. It's the master gardener class through the USU Extension, and I love it!!! I'm having so much fun!! It's great getting out 2 days a week, but I tell you I'm falling behind in all my house work.

I have finished up the written part of my vegetable report on Rhubarb. Now I just have to get the PowerPoint wrapped up.

I have also been scanning in all my pictures. It's good to have all that done and know that it's all been backed up.

Apple Butter

This year we picked almost 1 bushel of apples from our little tree. The poor thing was all tipped over from the weight of the apples that Dennis had to tie a stake to the tree to keep it supported upright.

I have been looking up apple recipes and found some really good ones that I'm excited to try out. The first thing we made with them were caramel apples which mostly ended up a flop or a glop. . . of caramel at the bottom of the apples. We did have a couple that looked pretty good, but I need to work on my application technique because they weren't pretty. They sure were tasty though. Let me assure you that they didn't go to waste.

Our second product was apple butter. I've never made apple butter before but this recipe was so simple and easy and used a lot of apples that I had to give it a try. It's also a crock pot version so double bonus. After two batches my hands are pretty tired from all the pealing and chopping, so I think we'll take a break and move on to number 3. I have a 1/2 bushel of peaches to use still so maybe we'll have to make it peach pie filling and come back to the apples.

APPLE BUTTER

from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 pounds apples - peeled, cored and finely chopped
• 4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Place apples in a slow cooker. Combine sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt; pour over apples and mix well. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Reduce heat to low; cover and cook for 9-11 hours or until thickened and dark brown, stirring occasionally (stir more frequently as it thickens to prevent sticking). Uncover and cook on low 1 hour longer. If desired, stir with a wire whisk until smooth. Spoon into freezer containers, leaving 1/2-in. headspace. Cover and refrigerate or freeze. I actually processed mine for 10 minutes in a water bath.

5K

Our Stake held a 5Krun/walk on September 10th. I wasn't planning to do it with the boys because I had been up with Khora who was sick all night. But when I got there with the two boys, our ward kind of talked me into just walking it with Bonnie in a stroller. Our ward had 6 team members. Jacob did a great job and ran it in a little over 29 minutes. He won our team a 2nd place men's award. Our team also won 1st woman's award. Yea, I think that Jacob needs to keep up on this running thing. He's a natural!!

One and Only One

We made it up to the mountains over Labor Day for our only camping trip of the season. (sad sigh) It was beautiful and cool albeit a bit busy because of the bow hunt. Mahonri and Melissa took Isaac up with them a little early to look for elk. I guess Isaac was a bit . . .concerned. . . that we would get to the trailer before they did so they drove to the trailer, but it ended up that we got there kind of late that night.

I was up pretty early the next morning, probably because Afton had her feet in my back most of the night, so I took a little walk pretty close to camp. I spotted a doe grazing pretty close to the trailer then another doe with a small buck down the road a little. I did manage to get a very dark and blurry photo of him, but at least I had my proof. Shooting it with my camera was better than anyone else I saw though. When I made it back to camp everyone was waking up. Grandpa and the kids took a little walk around camp while we were getting breakfast ready. The boys threw a football around for a bit and did their best to make it into the only mud puddle by the trailer. I had fun doing the girls hair in braids, which was how my mom used to do my hair when we went camping. Bonnie had fun putting on grandpa's hat. Then we packed our lunch and loaded into the suburban so Isaac could do a little fishing at Willow. All the kids had fun and they did catch one fish which Afton affectionately named "Spotty". Khora got a little too close to him in the water and ended up getting her feet wet, of course. It was a nice trip though and a great weekend together.

Grotto Falls

Last week our family went on a little hike up to Grotto Falls. We picked up some pizza on the way up. It really was a very mild hike on a well kept trail only about a mile in. Log bridges go over the small stream a couple times and all the kids all did great, meaning no one fell in, on the way up anyway, (Jacob got his shoes wet on the way back down.) Khora kept calling it the rain forest, because it was raining while we walked up the trail. The fall itself was much more impressive that I had been expecting. Not much wiggle room once you get up there in the mouth and the kids can't help but play in the water just a little bit, even Bonnie let me dab her toes in it. One the way down Khora was doing a potty dance and did a pretty good speed walk back to the van. We left our water bottles at the falls, so Dennis and the boys raced back up to get them, it only took about 5 minutes.

Homemade Bread

I was talking today with my neighbor about what a great experience it is for children in our church to be able to get up in front of a crowd and give a short two minute talk. What a great life experience! My family had this opportunity on Sunday at church. We were given the subject of welfare. Everyone did a great job. Jacob pulled in a Scouting theme, Isaac was baseball, and Afton talked about giving "warm fuzzies". We also sang a song together with Dennis on the piano called, "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus". My parents drove up and came to support us as well as stayed for dinner. They brought lots of things from their garden. corn on the cob, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon and cantaloupe! And can I just say I love my crock pot!!! It all just gave me lots of warm fuzzies all day. I am just so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.

Afton found a cute little project this week in preparation for her talk. She made quite a few "warm fuzzies" (pom poms) with yard. She and her friend spent a lot of time on them this week. It turned out to be a fun little project for her. She took them to church and shared them with her primary class.

This week in preparation for my talk, I read a short little thought by Sister Marjorie Hinckley about making bread in her home years ago. She told of an antique bread maker their family had that consisted of a simple bucket with a hook attached to the handle. A clamp secured it to the table and it was operated by her children who took turns "spelling each other off" to knead the bread. After church I had two lovely sisters come up to me and tell me that they still have a maker like this in their storage. I'm so excited to see them! It put me in the mood to make bread. It was kind of a fiasco with a new recipe and I'm not really that great at it, but I managed to make 2 lg loaves for my family and 4 smaller loves to use as gifts.

"Even still the smell of bread baking somehow slows down the world and feeds my soul in a small and simple way." Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Homeschooling Negatives

I'm pretty sure that the thing Afton misses out on most, not going to a public school, is the fashion show. She got up early this morning, got dressed in a fun outfit and even let me do her hair today all before we got our day rolling. I should take a picture and post it so she doesn't feel neglected anymore. hahaha