Yummy in a Jar

26. Can Something-- Done!

Last year, I found a cool canning blog and tried her recipe for blueberry butter. It sort of worked and I vowed I would to can something again.

Well last summer we had to spruce up our old kitchen to make it show better and that left me limited to what I could really do. And once it was done in the fall, peak fresh, local goodies were limited.

Fast forward to this summer and the fact it seems at the new house there is a farm stand on every street. I even found a local blueberry farm near by. And this meant I was determined to can something.

And I have. I found that Ball canning has some pectin and pickle spice mixes that you can use to make small batches. The jam makes 16 ozs and the pickle mix makes 3 cups of liquid. No large batches of things for me to forget about. I mentioned the strawberry jam a couple posts ago, but I also made 2 batches of blueberry jam. I also made 5 jars of pickles.

I think the next item is some salsa. And I'm saving some 4 oz jars for a batch of apple butter in the fall-- yummy!

(I mention Ball products but I'm not getting anything to do so. I've actually given them some money this summer for all the jars and stuff I needed to do this)

Baking with Lexie Update

I have been baking with Lexie at least once a week. The past few weeks we've done a couple things. Lexie helped smash the strawberries for jam. And then helped clean the sugar measuring cup by licking it.

Today, she helped shape the pizza dough for dinner. Since I was grilling the pizza she was not able to help put the toppings on. And since it was close to 100 degrees out today, I wasn't even letting her on the deck to watch.

In both cases, she refused to try the end product. In both cases she loved the products that made up the final product but still won't eat it. So those who say cooking with your kids helps them eat more needs to meet Lexie.

Hopefully the next projects go better. I'm going to think of things she'll be willing to eat and participate more in making.

July's Date Night

July's date night was sort of a whole weekend. We had a good friends' wedding this past weekend. And since I was in the wedding party, we decided to stay at the hotel that was near the events. The tots went to my in laws on Friday morning so Jeff and I kinda had all weekend to hang out.

Friday afternoon, we ran some exciting errands-- Lowes and Toys R Us. I had my nails done in Warwick and we needed a couple things at these stores. Then we checked into the hotel. I had to help with flowers and Jeff had to pick up a wedding guest, so we were divided for a bit. But we ended up having a nice dinner together, with 2 other couples, at the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday was a bit of a crazy day. The mornings of weddings are busy for the women involved. Jeff came by when it was safe, but i think it was more for the entertainment of seeing us get prepped vs spending quality time with me. Once the troll showed up, I didn't get to see Jeff really for awhile-- the service and pictures. It wasn't until I was formally introduced at the reception that I was able to relax in my bridesmaid duties.

The reception was great. We got to catch up with some friends during dinner. A dance or two on the floor. And best of all, no tots to come home too. We could stay up late since we knew check out wasn't until 11 am.

Sunday was the end of the weekend, but we went out with a bang. We went to Cardi's to order Lexie's new bedroom furniture. Sadly, even without the kids we still end up doing things for them. But it was nice to look around without them climbing over everything like when we bought our mattress last spring. And I got to order what I want Lexie to have, no arguing with her about the really "princessy" type sets.

Cars 2

6. Aiden's First Movie--done

This may seem like an odd goal but here's some of the backstory. When Lexie was an infant, I would take her to the baby pictures at the movie theaters. These were adult movies, but with lower sound and house lights on. There would be areas for changing diapers or stroller parking. I took her to three movies by the time she was 9-10 mths olds-- Iron Man, Mamma Mia and a romantic comedy I don't remember the name of. Mamma Mia was the last one because she had become too mobile to sit through it, even though she stopped every time they sang. We took a brake from the movies until Toy Story 3 came out last year. She loves ts and loved the movie theater. She still knows which theater we went to and "see toy story on big tee tee" (She has trouble with the v's) But when we went, Aiden was not at the age of seeing a movie so he stayed home with Jeff.

For the past few weeks(possibly a couple months) every time something Cars 2 related shows up on TV, Lexie states "Aiden loves cars. We go see." So this led me to realize that Aiden's never seen a movie. I kinda knew I wanted to take the kids to see Cars, but a. not by myself and b. not around the holiday or opening week. Yesterday I saw an ad for the new Pooh movie and realized that would be out on Friday, possible cutting into Cars showings. I also checked to see that Tuesdays are still discount days at the movies. So Jeff was able to get out of work in time for us to catch a 4:50 show(Jeff wanted to see the movie as much as Lexie did).

Snacks for the show, yes I found all the Cars related goodies to load my bag with. But we ended up getting popcorn since it was dinner time. Aiden did have a juice box which I think both of us wore a bit of.

The biggest TV Aiden has ever seen.

While the beginning of the movie went fine, the fun of sitting still and eating over priced popcorn wore off. Aiden saw another tot wandering around and that was it. He was off exploring. And I let him. Now before everyone thinks I'm a bad parent, let me just say the theater had about 12 people in them, one of the families had the other wandering tot. And no one was sitting in the lower level. And Aiden was just walking around and wasn't really making a ton of noise. Lexie was mad that she couldn't be with mommy but that was short lived. Not sure what Jeff did but when I looked up a bit later, they were happily chilling.

So Aiden saw his first movie and probably his once a year movie since I don't think I'll take him again for awhile. Any other movie will just have to be seen at home for awhile.

Fourth of July Stars

So starting a goal of cooking weekly with Lexie the week before a holiday week and then a big family event the week after was not the best timing. We did one project, but pictures are lacking.

I saw these stars mentioned on a blog. I thought this would be a great idea to do for the holiday. I had mostly everything already. I made a quick trip to the market for the milk and clear jello and was all set.

After swim, I broke out the dishes and electric tea kettle. I figured I would have Lexie mix up the jello and it would sit for the afternoon while we went to the beach. Then we could cut it up after dinner, add the milk jello and let it set overnight. Then cut in the morning before heading to the beach again.

The first part went well. That's the picture above. But once the beach part came into play, things changed. The beach was actually my parents' beach house and my niece was staying the night. So that meant Lexie needed to stay too. So I did the cutting part at home and brought the pan and milk down to the beach the next day. The two girls loved finishing and cutting the jello. And all the kids ended up enjoying the jello. I just forgot my camera to capture the rest of the fun.

Student loans are forever!

11. Pay down off 3300 on my student loan principal

Stating balance $x6,610.01 (you really don't need to know the first number)

When I learned about different debts in school and at jobs, debt was always broken into three categories. First, good, necessary debt such as a mortgage. You need a place to live and if you were staying within 30% of your income, you should own your house vs rent. Second, unnecessary debt such as revolving credit aka credit cards. These tend to lead people into trouble with their low minimum payments and higher interest rates. And the third, if needed debts such as student loans or medical debts. Things that if you could pay for out of pocket you should but if you need to add these debts they are not as bad as credit cards. And in my case, student loans paid for the extra expenses of my undergrad degree and my grad school classes i took.

For undergrad, I split the cost of school with my parents. They paid for half and i had to cover the rest. Since I was at an instate school, I was able to use loans to pay to live on campus or even take some summer classes. Upon graduation, the loan amount wasn't that bad and I just started the monthly payments. After a couple years of working, I decided to go to grad school. I applied to a program I thought I would love and would give me a career I wanted. I got in and signed right up to get loans to cover the tuition and some extra for living expenses. But after 3 semesters of classes and 2 of an internship, I really didn't like what I was doing. I never finished the program but now have a monthly reminder of those 2 years.

Recently I was updating address and contact info. One of which was the student loan account. I started poking around the site and saw that since 2006 I've only paid down 3500 on my account. Insert jaw dropping here!!! Since I automatically have the payment made every month, I never view my statement. I just pay a bit over 200 each month for an account that I pay over 1900 a year on. Total stupidity on my part, especially since some of my undergrad classes were in financial planning.

So this year's goal to pay off 3300 will be a bit tough since I'm starting 2 months late. The only way I think it will work is to set it up automatically, which to some might be cheating. But in my budget the extra 150 a pay period it will cost to beat this down will be a tight squeeze. And if I don't start making small yearly dents in these loans, Lexie will be holding a college degree before they are paid off.