Jam-making tutorial- just kidding. :-)

 Since Dan got a deer about a month ago, I thought maybe I should try to free up some freezer space a bit.  One of our freezers is plugged up with frozen fruit a neighbor man gave us.  

Well, I looked through my cupboards and found one package of suregel, for jam-making.  

I tried jam one other time back in 2018 one week before I had Gwendolyn.  It was a disastor and tasted so gross and I was so discouraged to have wasted all of that fruit, that I didn't try again.  

That might seem appalling to those of you who are jam-making pros.  Whenever I've said to people "I've never made a successful jam", they say "WHAT?   How was it unsuccessful if you followed the directions...it's a foolproof recipe."  

Well, I must be the fool that proved the foolproof recipe wrong last time.  ;-) 

This time however, is a different story.  

At first, it seemed a little runny...

But after I gave it a water bath, it seemed much more normal. 

And by the next morning on my breakfast toast, it was perfect!  I was so happy!

So yay!  I can no longer say I've had only unsuccessful attempts at jam-making. 

All you people like me, who have been to scared to try again, go give it a whirl!  

Christmas 2021

I hope you all had the merriest of Christmases this year! 

Our Christmas was different and quiet, but I had so much fun watching my girls enjoy their day.  

We had such a wonderful time on Christmas Eve with our church, celebrating the birth of our Savior.  It was so nice to have visitors in church, and a very full church.  We had a candlelight service which was very nice.  We stayed rather late, so by the time we came home, we were all very hungry and didn't get a chance to get a family photo by the tree, which has become a sort of a tradition.  

I snagged this photo of the girls though, before they had a hanger fit.  

One of the dear ladies at church gave Gwen and Lucie gifts: these new dresses!  When they woke up Christmas morning, they begged to wear their new dresses.  Another lady at church gave them the fuzzy, Christmas socks they're wearing.   

I made a crescent roll/cinnamon sugar breakfast with scrambled eggs.  We ate, and then I had the idea to do a scavenger hunt for Gwen and Lucie to find their presents.  

I remember when I was growing up, my parents would do elaborate scavenger hunts (which could include hiding spots on the entire 5 acres) and we would hunt for our presents.  Sometimes there was a present with each clue...other times your present stash would be at the end of the hunt for clues.  

I loved it so much and each Christmas I have fond memories of them. I had Dan draw some clues

Then I went and hid the presents at the locations. 

We explained what they were to do, then I went with Gwen while Dan went with Lucie to find their presents.

Here's Gwen, looking for a present under the piano.

And Lucie found hers under the rocking chair!

Gwen, at the manger scene.

Gwen even had some in the bathtub!

This is Lucie, finding her final presents.

Then we let them open the presents they found.  

This year, I found quite a few nice things (keep in mind, my kids are 3 and 2) at the dollar tree. Don't think I'm a cheapskate.  I just know my girls and I know that they'll enjoy something that costs $1 just as much as they will something that's $25.  Plus they get overwhelmed with too many new things at once.  So we got them about 10 dollar tree things each.  Plus I got them some things they'll share, like new hair bows and baby doll bottles with the disappearing milk and orange juice.  

Gwen, opening her pretend jewelry.  She loves it so much.  

 

These are $1 dolls from dollar tree.  I got one for each of the girls.  Each doll comes with a purse, comb, shoes, and necklace and outfit. Sidenote: has your local dollar tree raised their prices yet? Ours is $1.25 now for every item.  I did my Christmas shopping for the girls before that happened though.  Whew!  hahaha

One of the guys at church got Dan this present!!  It's a remote controller backhoe!  Yes, Dan is 34 years old.  But Dan LOVES remote controlled toys...I attribute it to the fact that as a child he didn't get many gifts like this perhaps?  Whatever the case, he thought it was a fun gift and enjoyed driving it around, trying to pick up wrapping paper and bows off the ground with the bucket (Of which he was unsuccessful). 

Mimi (my mother-in-law) made and sent these hats for the girls!  They love them and wear them each time they go outside.  Okay, Eliza does not love hers...but she never loves hats.  :-)

After we finished wrapping presents (We have not actually finished FINISHED yet- we are saving a few of the girls gifts from friends for later when the "new toy" fascination has worn off of the $1 items), we drove to Queensbury and ate lunch at the Asian buffet (of all places!)  

The price was very steep...I suppose because it was Christmas, they gauged their prices because they knew they were the only place open.  

But it was nice!  I enjoyed eating the food on the buffet!

Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Christmas!!!  Did you do anything special?  Please let me know if you have any neat traditions!  I'd like to implement some new ones next year and need fresh ideas!

  

Family Photos Fall 2021

I was glad that we could have our family photos taken before we went on our vacation.  We were able to take them before the leaves officially changed color completely.  Peak season as they say here.  But our photographer did a fine job of still making them look nice.  

A fun thing about these photos is that they were taken on our latest real estate purchase.  An abandoned, let-go, run-down (etc. etc. etc.) farm.  

The back of the barn made the perfect photo backdrop for the girls.  Any higher and the camera would have picked up that the entire back of the barn is literally missing.  It's gone.  :-) 

Fun fact 2: The railroad tracks run through the farm! So while the rails do not belong to us, it's fun to have them there and hear the trains.

Fun fact 3: The farm has a creek as well.  It's dubbed "mud creek", rightly so, since near the bridge, it is very very murky and brown-looking.  

Fun fact 4: Dan has gotten several breeds of wildlife so far on it!  

Venison for the freezer...

Fox pelt because...well, they're fun to hang up and because there are a million foxes around here.  

And still others...which Dan caught on trail cam photos, but has yet to see in real life.  Hunting season ends on Saturday, so the last opportunities to see him are less and less.  There's always next year though!

 

So there you have some of the photos from our family photo shoot as WELL as some significant news!  Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Christmas with your families.  I'll be posting about our Christmas at some point...but I still have lots of fall news to catch up on.  :-)  Keep posted!  I'll make every effort to post again in the next week.    

Vacation to Tennessee 2021 Part 2

After we left Lake Tansi on Friday at noon, we began the drive up north a few hours to where the Ark Encounter is in Kentucky.  The road we were on "happened" to be the same exact road that Alvin C. York's home was on!  *Sidenote to say If you've never watched "Sergeant York", you should!* 

We didn't have time to tour it or explore the grounds since we were hoping to do the Ark on Friday and the Creation Museum on Saturday.  I just took this quick photo by York's home and then we were on our merry way again.

I absolutely loved driving thru the mountains of TN and Kentucky.  

We got to the Ark Encounter much later than I'd hoped (about 4pm), so I couldn't justify paying the full amount (it's not cheap per se) just to stay for 2 hours.  We got free admission into the grounds (just not the ark) for that evening.

It's absolutely HUGE!

There was a petting zoo, and camels to ride.  Gwen and Lucie both had a camel ride together.  

The playground there was one of the best I've ever seen.  I laughed with Dan because since having kids, we felt like we spent the majority of our vacation at playgrounds.  :-)  But hey, they're free and the kids love them.  

This one was complete with fun stuff to climb on, tunnels, interactive equipment, and even small ziplines and swings!

The following morning when we woke up, we went BACK to the ark to actually go inside.  I had been debating whether it was something we should go do or not since our kids are so small.  I'm glad we went though.  It was powerful!  The last floor was mostly reading, but there were still neat things for children.  Dan and I split up on the floors (there were crowds of people so staying together was kinda tricky).  He took Lucie and I had Gwen and Eliza.  

Here is Gwen, by the massive ark door. 

I got lots of pictures of the inside, but most of them are incredibly blurry.  When we came out, it was late afternoon (probably about 3pm).  The girls were begging to go back to the playground, so we took them there and they loved it so much.  

When we were finished at the playground, Dan suggested we eat at the restaurant there.  We managed to get in just before they closed, but wow, it was a fantastic buffet!!!  While we were there, my choice of foods has changed so drastically from when I was a child that I couldn't help but laugh.  Of all things: my favorite dishes to eat there were spinach casserole and brussel sprouts!!!!  If you'd known me as a child, that would make you laugh like it makes me laugh now.  I was the world's pickiest eater.  

For anyone like me, wondering "Wonder if its worth it to take little kids to the ark?"...etc. GO!  It was really awesome.  For nursing mothers, there are lovely nursing stations on each floor of the ark.  There are drinking fountains all over.  We were allowed to bring in our own sack lunch of PBJ's.  The zoo was vey neat and they have a kangaroo area where you can walk in and be WITH the kangaroo's.  You can't touch them (naturally), but they walk (hop?) on the grass right beside you.

We were staying not too far from the ark at a church property that hosts pastors, youth groups etc.  They had a large facility where we stayed which was very very nice.  The next morning was Sunday.  We went to the Sunday School service and morning services there at the church, and then left after church to continue driving north to Columbus OH.  

We stopped for lunch at a cute, fun place called Fleisch's "Big Boy".  The girls loved it there and thought this little "big" boy was cute.  

We went to a church in Columbus OH that evening where the people were so sweet and kind and the pastor was an encouragement!  More news about that in the next few months! :-)

We stayed the night at the cheapest hotel I could find that said it served a full, hot breakfast in the morning.  *insert eye roll*.  It was in a bad neighbhood where Dan and I spent most of the night listening to the men next door screaming at each other, and the other part of the night fearing for our lives.  Also, there were cigarette burns on everything.  

You get what you pay for!!!

We survived the night, went down to get "breakfast" and there was nothing... 

The lady at the counter said "Oh, let me go fill the breakfast bar up for you."  

She left and came back with 3 granola bars and put them in a bowl by her computer.  

haha!

Dan took all of them and I said they really should change their website since there wasn't even a semblance of a breakfast there.  

Ahh well.  Again, I got what I paid for.  Lesson learned, Virginia.  Don't be a cheapskate!

We left Columbus, and headed northeast.  Since Kidron wasn't far off the beaten path, I asked Dan if we could stop there.  My mother loves Lehman's store there and I thought perhaps I would as well.  I did!  The free samples of food were a lovely touch, and the place reminded me a lot of the Vermont Country Store, which is a huge favorite of ours.  The girls ESPECIALLY loved the toy section.  

While we were there, Dan bought me a big, non-stick pan!  Wow...it cleans so well and is lovely!  I am being careful not to mess up the finish!

We left Kidron in the pouring rain and drove up to Erie.  When we got to Erie, we stopped at this lighthouse and went out to the lake for just a couple minutes.  By this point, Lucie was getting very fussy (I attributed it to being in a car too long). 

Then we drove the rest of the way up to Niagara Falls where we were staying the night at an Airbnb.  Our airbnb host was kind enough to lend us his umbrella since it was absolutely POURING.  It never really let up and rained non-stop all night and the following day.  

We woke up early the next morning and drove home the rest of the way.  Boy was it good to be home!  It was the longest vacation we've ever had. Granted, at least 4 days of it was driving alone, but still.  

Lucie and Gwen came down with a nasty case of hfmd, which I also contracted.  Eliza had a mild case, an Dan was unscathed. I assume they picked it up at the petting zoo or the playground most likely. 

We all healed just fine though and are none the worse for the wear.  

And THAT was our 2021 vacation!