A few people have asked for the pickle recipe I used in canning cucumbers this week.  My recipe came straight from Complete Guide to Home Canning, Part 6, which is where most of my canning/freezing recipes come from.  I found mine for free at the local extension office.

A quick disclaimer:  If you're hoping for dill pickles like you buy at the grocery, this isn't the recipe.  I have yet to find a recipe that makes them taste like store-bought.  On the other hand, everything in the store seems to have Polysorbate-80 as an ingredient.  I have no idea if that's what makes the taste difference or not, but I prefer plain old sugar.  Anywho, these pickles are delicious, but have a little different twang to them.  I wanted to be sure you knew!

Oh, and it DOES make a difference to cut off the blossom end.  Your pickles will be much firmer.  Again, these aren't going to be quite as crisp as Vlasic pickles, but done correctly, they shouldn't be limp either.  And, cut the cucumbers up as you like - slices, spears, wholes.  These were cut into slices because they were a tad bigger than the typical 3-5" pickling cucumbers.  Plus, the jar holds more this way and jars are expensive!

Okay, on to the recipe....

Quick Fresh-Pack Dill Pickles

• 18 lbs of 3- to 5-inch pickling cucumbers
• 2 gals water
• 1¼ cups canning or pickling salt
• 1½ qts vinegar (5 percent)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 quarts water
• 2 tbsp whole mixed pickling spice
• 5 tbsp whole mustard seed (2 tsp per quart jar)
• 21 heads of fresh dill (3 heads per quart jar)
  or 7 tbsp dill seed (1 tbsp per quart jar)

Yield: 7 quarts

Please read Using Boiling Water Canners before beginning. If this is your first time canning, it is recommended that you read Principles of Home Canning.

Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch slice off blossom end and discard, but leave ¼-inch of stem attached. Dissolve ¾ cup salt in 2 gals water. Pour over cucumbers and let stand 12 hours. Drain. Combine vinegar, ½ cup salt, sugar and 2 quarts water. Add mixed pickling spices tied in a clean white cloth. Heat to boiling. Fill jars with cucumbers. Add 2 tsp mustard seed and 1 tbsp dill per quart. Cover with boiling pickling solution, leaving ½-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process according to the recommendations in Table 1 or use the low- temperature pasteurization treatment. For more information see "Low-Temperature Pasteurization Treatment" .

This document was adapted from the "Complete Guide to Home Canning," Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539, USDA, revised 1994.

Reviewed June 2006.

Over 100 quarts of beans have been canned, and I've decided to stop!  But the kitchen was still a busy place one morning last week as Mahayla and I prepared many of our homemade mixes for the year.  I'll be telling you my MSG story one of these days, but basically I can't have it in any form or fashion.  Finding spice mixes and such without MSG is nearly impossible.  So, for several years now, we have been making our own mixes. 

In less than two hours we made everything from taco seasoning to shake-n-bake mix to Emeril's BAM.  Here are a few pictures from our morning.   

I find the cheapest possible spices.  Usually, I can find most of what I need for 50 cents to a dollar at Save-A-Lot or Walmart.

I try to recycle old containers as much as possible.  Empty spice containers, baking powder containers, oatmeal boxes, sherbet containers and even yogurt containers all work well.  If I plan to use something a lot, like pancake mix for instance, I'll usually designate a hard plastic container (like Rubbermaid) for that mix.  Sometimes, I'll simply use zip top bags.

I always write the name of the mix and directions for using it on the container.  That saves a lot of time when using it, so you don't have to pull out any cookbooks or recipe cards.  If you write neatly the first time, the containers can be used over and over again and you will save yourself a lot of work for future mix making days, too.

Although we make other mixes, these are what we accomplished in less than two hours.  Really, it was probably closer to one hour's time.  Most of these will last me between six months and a year.  We made shake-n-bake, fajita seasoning, not-so-hidden valley ranch mix, cajun seasoning, french and sweet Italian dressing mixes, taco seasoning, a meat rub, chili mix, BAM, and fish fry batter mix.  I can't begin to tell you how much better these taste than most of the pre-packaged mixes and foods you might buy!

What other mixes do we prepare?  Pancake mix, biscuit mix, brownie mix, hot cocoa mix...  My mind is drawing a blank on others, but we've found mix making to be economical and easy.  A little preparation in buying the ingredients will keep your pantry well stocked with foods of which you know ALL the ingredients.

Instead of writing a post with my mix recipes, I think I'll just pass on a few websites to you.  If there's a specific recipe you'd like from me, please let me know and I'll be happy to post it!!

• Recipe Goldmine
• Southern Food
• Saving Dinner
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension
• Razzle Dazzle Recipes
• Make Your Own Mixes
• Vernalisa's Recipe Board

This isn't the first time I've found gum in the dryer.  The barber just loves handing out handfuls of gum to the kids as they leave.  Sadly, the gum rarely finds its way out of Caleb's pockets and into his mouth. 

This time, HE was the one who had the lovely job of scraping the gum out of the dryer.  Hmmm....I'm afraid it didn't turn out to be the punishment I'd hoped.  It seemed he was having way too much fun.  In fact, the fun didn't stop with Caleb.  Eli brought his tool and was ready to help, too!  Aack!  My dryer!!

Three LONG rows of green beans.....

One busy  pressure canner.....

Here and there over a  little more than a week, and we have over 80 beautiful quarts of beans put away.

And, apparently, we're still counting.  So, any of my friends who live close by are welcome to come by "Westward's Freebie Bean Pickin' Garden".  Take all you want as long as YOU do the picking!  ;)

As a fitting end to our Keepers At Home year, we had a little scrapbooking party.  What great memories come from this group! 

(And, yes, even our boys have fun.  But, ahem, shooting a foam deer with a bow and arrow in his Contenders of the Faith class at co-op was MUCH more manly!  Thank you , Debbie, for all his manly experiences this year!!)

Even Eli had fun with Mrs. Jody!

Next year, we're asking the girls to take over some of the planning and teaching for the group.  (The moms are weary! ;)  They already have some good ideas like teaching one another the waltz and how to safely ride horses.  I love the idea of the girls taking a bit of control over their group!

Garden #1 has been planted!  :o)  What do we hope to grow abundantly here?  Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, green beans, snap peas, corn, squash, zuchinni, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, beets, watermelon, cantelope, and honeydew.

Garden #2 will be planted soon.  The kids have already started their sunflower hideaway where you see the brick markers.  More corn and green beans will come soon, along with pumpkins, gourds and some flowers for cutting.  This garden has a pretty good clay base, so it's harder to depend on for a good harvest.

I'm not the neatest gardener in the world.  This is about the most weed free they'll be all season!  But, I attempt to keep the weeds down enough to at least walk through the rows.  :)  I have some pretty handy helpers this year - woohoo!

Yes, these garden plots probably seem excessive to some of you.  We try to plant enough to share with all the little critters that love to steal our food.  Otherwise, we don't harvest much.  We'd like to can and freeze A LOT, too.  Food prices keep getting higher and higher, so every little bit will help.

These were SO much fun!  I first saw the idea of making hot rocks at the Crafty Crow.  Since we just happened to be doing the rocks and minerals section of our earth science unit, the craft fit in perfectly.  The rocks turned out so well, we entered them in the craft division of our co-op's expo. 

You can find the original directions at Wise Craft, but put very simply - heat rocks in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.  While you wait, peel the paper from several crayon colors.  After 15 minutes, you place the crayons on the hot rocks and create your masterpieces.

I placed aluminum foil on the pan, so when the pan came out of the oven, we gathered around it, used old oven mitts to steady the rocks and went to town. 

***

My BFF, Melissa, recently posted about tempera monoprint art.  This was another fun project that turned out so well we entered it in the printing division of the expo.  I won't bother with directions, hers are great!

I know, you're tired of hearing how wonderful our co-op is!  But seriously, it is.  Friday night was our annual competition night.  The children choose from all sorts of competitions to enter - music, art, cooking, Bible memorization, science fair, construction, knitting/crochet/sewing, spelling bee - and maybe even more.

Here are a few pictures from the night.  Mahayla entered knitting, science fair, cooking - pies, and art - painting, crafts and printing.  Caleb entered wood construction, cooking - cakes, and art - printing and crafts.  We'll have a fun ceremony in a couple of weeks where the kids will find out if they placed.  Pretty ribbons and certificates are given to all winners and participants.  They make for a nice addition to a yearly portfolio.

Yesterday was a b-u-s-y day!  Between a 15-month checkup with shots (ouch!) for little one and his first haircut, we really put Eli through the ringer.  I'd been waiting until we got the new camera before taking him for his first haircut and this picture shows just how badly he needed it.  :)

You'll see the haircut started out without a care in the world.  Eli had a sucker (and no idea what was coming.)  I've spared your the worst of it, but needless to say, the sucker didn't distract him from the strange man tugging at his head.  The last picture shows him escaping to the other side of the shop when it was all over. 

The barber used a vacuum attached to his shears and I didn't get a little tuft of hair to save!  I didn't even think about it until I came home, when I almost broke out in tears!! 

Later in the afternoon, our Keepers At Home group visited a local greenhouse for a tour and a class in flower arranging.  It really put us all in the mood to start planting! 

All this fun doesn't even include the THIRD trip we took into town for ball practice.  So much for trying to save gas now that we're paying $3.45 a gallon!

For the past couple of weeks, we've been having Question Box Topic days at co-op.  Here's #1 of the four topics we covered this week: 

Kids and Money - Teaching Biblical Stewardship and Allowances

This topic can go so many different ways based on the preferences of the parents, so I've tried to give just a brief overview of what we do. 

God tells us to give - to Him and to others.  Biblical stewardship can come in the form of money, things and time.  That's something we try to teach our children.  When they were little, we bought the tithing bank.  They would put their little bits of money in the tithe, save and spend sections and it gave them a good picture of one Biblically sound way to organize their money.  We would transfer the same idea over to time, for instance, too.  "Make sure your time is being spent on God, others and yourself - not necessarily in the same percentages as the money bank, though."

As time has gone on, chores and allowance have been added to the mix.    We, personally, use allowance as "pay" for chores.  The amount is set.  Chores aren't an option, so they get paid the full amount each week.  The older you are, the more you make.  (You also do a few more chores.)  Our children are expected to tithe and save part of their allowance.  They are responsible for purchasing all their "wants".  Of course "wants" can be placed on a birthday or Christmas list, but the rest of the year, the "wants" are their responsibility.  No money may be removed from tithing or savings to purchase a "want". 

We do not give loans.  Brother or sister may choose to make a loan to the other, but nothing else can be purchased by the borrower until the original loan has been paid off.  A fair interest on the loan is acceptable if the loaner wants to charge the borrower.  :) 

If a big-ticket item is on the "want" list, our children may offer to do extra big-time chores and negotiate a fair wage for the chores.  They are also free to offer house cleaning, baking, pet-sitting, etc. to grandparents and neighbors if they'd like to try to earn even more money. 

That's our plan.  I'd love to hear what you do!

Here are some resources that were mentioned in co-op:

Allowance Game

Financial Parenting

Stewardship Street

Here are some fun and helpful websites:

CBD Money Resources

Dave Ramsey's Kid's Kit

US Government's Online Money Games for Kids

Practical Money Skills for Life Online Games

Money Matters For Kids

Wanna see who I just added to my Bloglines feeds??  If you love finding all sorts of wonderful art and craft ideas for your children, you won't want to miss this blog!

The Crafty Crow

Okay, so my Charlotte Mason friends may raise their eyebrows to this post.  I can get overwhelmed with all the "stuff" that's out there to teach.  Good stuff like artists, composers, Latin....  Things that just seem to slip by the wayside sometimes when the phonics and math lessons drag on far too long.  

Mind you, there are times when all is right in the homeschool week and we joyfully sit down to gaze at beautiful artwork, learn about an artist and  try our hand at some fabulous technique.  But, ahem, those weeks are coming fewer and farther between as the school year plugs on and the baby becomes more mobile!  So, just how do I try to teach art without really teaching art?

I use the same learning center plan that I've used so many times in the past: 

*Choose an artist. 
*Find info books about him/her from the library. 
*Set the books out on a table with various art supplies.
*I might try to find a poster or print some pictures from
the internet of some of the artist's work to tape to the wall.
*Let the kiddos read the info books, look at the art and
use the art supplies to try their hand at what they've seen.

They typically enjoy the free art time.  I do have to admit, though, they almost always do better artwork after a lesson with me.  But, masterpieces aren't my main goal (although it would be nice.)  I'm simply aiming for art appreciation and enjoyment right now. 

As a side note:  Discovering Great Artists is a WONDERFUL book for ideas and artist information!

Also, Month By Month Masterpieces is a nice addition because it comes with poster sized prints of ten pieces of art that are studied in the book.  Although, as I linked to it from Amazon, it's looking like it might be out of print.  It's good, but not worth the $49 dollars that someone is trying to sell it.  ;)

Have you ever heard of Warm Fuzzies for Cancer Patients?  I hadn't either, but our 4-H extension agent did some research and found this wonderful program for us to take part.  Groups (or individuals) make fleece lap blankets and donate them to cancer centers.   So, that's what our 4-H group did this week.  Our blankets were headed to Markey Cancer Center in Lexington, KY.  That's our pile of rolled blankets and all the loving and capable hands that made them.

Making the blankets is a cinch.  You take one yard of fleece and cut 4" squares out of the corners.  Then, cut slits up 4" about an inch apart on all sides.  Loosely tie two "slits" together in knots until you go all the way around the perimeter.  There you have it - beautiful lap robes that kids can easily do on their own. 

Here's a site I found that gives directions for other fleece blankets, as well as ideas for other worthy groups to donate to.  There are also some literature suggestions if you want to make a mini-unit out of the project. 

Our Keepers At Home group met this week and it was my turn to lead the project.  This meeting's focus was on the art of Paper Quilling.  I thought I'd teach the girls just a bit of history and some basic quilling techniques.

I found a wonderful webiste called My Paper Quilling that gave just the amount of history, basic quilling techniques and sample designs that I was looking for. 

In preparation for Valentine's Day, bright colored paper and some precut cardstock were set out so the girls could design their own Valentines.  We didn't have quilling tools, so they coiled the paper on pencils, chopsticks, toothpicks and other skinny round objects I found around the house. 

We just used plain old paper and plain old glue.  I'm certain there are fancier papers and glues to use for professional quilling, but the plain stuff worked fine for our purposes.  Using toothpicks to place the glue worked very well.

Aren't the finished cards and tags cute? 

I know I gush often about our Keepers At Home Group, but it really is a wonderful thing!  Yesterday we took a break from "practical" stuff to party!

Each of the girls was asked to prepare a dish and bring the recipe.  (We're putting the recipes together in a little booklet for them.)  After reading the Christmas story together and snacking on the delicious goodies, each of the moms had prepared a fun game. 

Besides a rather unfortunate incident with the girls' brothers who were playing outside with stick swords, the day was great fun.  Yes, Caleb was involved, but it really was an accident.  Hopefully, a bit more ice and a little more time will heal the giant goose egg under the other boy's eye.  Caleb was very worried about him and didn't think twice about apologizing.  (Hey, that's a pretty big step for him!)  Here's what I overheard Caleb say after ice had been on the goose egg for about 20 minutes...."Can you open your eye?  How many fingers am I holding up?"  T, if you're reading this - we hope your eye is better!

Anyway, back to the party.  Mahayla prepared a very yummy cheesball and Caleb made a chocolate fondue with marshmallows for dipping.  

I missed out on most of the games because of the unfortunate incident, but here's a picture from the gift wrapping relay.

We're officially on Christmas break!  I had planned to school lightly through Friday, but sometimes life just calls for a change of plans.  :)  Merry Christmas! 

Just recently, our local 4-H agent, Lois, started a Homeschool 4-H Club.  Can I just tell you how awesome it is??? 

We decided early on that we wanted it to be hands-on, meaningful and service oriented.  Forget the meeting minutes and officers and such!  Well, we met for our first meeting this week and it exceeded every expectation I had!

The children were asked to bring ingredients to make their favorite Christmas cookie.  They each got to be "Emeril" as they demonstrated their recipe to the rest of the group.  After a cookie tasting party, they loaded up the leftovers and we delivered them to our local fire stations as a Christmas gift.  What fun!!

Next month - making lap quilts.

Have you ever seen the colored bells from Krystal Bell Method???  We've been using them at church for some time.  They're SO incredibly easy and make music that puts a broad smile on every adult listening. 

Today, our Keepers group (+ brothers) borrowed the bells.  We visited a local nursing home to sing and play several Christmas tunes for the residents.  Smiles abounded.  Our hearts, too, were filled to the brim. 

Oh, I so want to be able to do wonderful handicrafts!  Crafts so beautiful they are worthy to be placed in a cozy little shop on Main Street and sell out the day they hit the shelves.  I would love to quilt, sew clothes for my children, knit colorful sweaters, make bars and bars of homemade soap and lotions, concoct all my own cleaning potions, and decorate a wreath Martha Stewart would want to hang on her door.

Even more so, I would love to pass down all those wonderful handicraft abilities to my children.  But, alas, no cozy little shop has approached me.  They probably have little need for the straight-stiched curtains that hang a little crooked in my bedroom.  They probably have no need for a pile of scrap fabrics that I've never had time to turn into a pillow for my couch.  They probably don't need my wreaths whose decorations may or may not stay on long enough for the season to pass.

But, I try.  I pass on to my children what I know and hope the Lord will bless them enough to be able to take those skills farther than me, if He so desires.  I think this plan is working pretty well.  My oldest (10)can sew a button, use a sewing machine, knit, crochet, follow a pattern, cook, bake, clean, do laundry, create small floral arrangement, and decorate her room nicely, among other things. 

I've taught her some of these things, but the Lord has also sent some very lovely people into her life to teach her the things I don't know.  For instance, she really wanted to learn to knit.  I haven't a clue!  But, our 91 year old neighbor loves to knit and has been working with my daughter occasionally!  I also pick up how-to books at yard sales - how to sew, how to plant a flower garden, how to do small woodworking projects.  Both my older children devour the how-to books.  They've learned a lot (through trial and error sometimes) on their own.

 

Finally, my daughter is part of a Keepers At Home group and my son is taking a Contenders of the Faith class this year at co-op.  I can't speak highly enough of these programs to teach both boys and girls handicraft and life skills!   The Contenders teacher is doing a wonderful job teaching "boy skills" like outdoor survival, fire safety and using tools correctly.  Our Keepers group uses the various talents of each of the moms involved to teach the girls homekeeping and handicraft skills.  We even schedule outside speakers and field trips sometimes. 

 

Take it from me, your children can learn all the handicrafts they like and need even if you are "craftless".  It just takes a little bit of effort to find others who love sharing their gifts and talents with your children.  And, never count yourself out as being "craftless".  When you really think about it, there are all sorts of wonderful skills, habits and crafts you are passing on to your children - even if they aren't worthy of sitting on the shelf at the cozy little shop on Main Street. 

 

Here are some past posts about our Keepers At Home group.

 

The Beginning of Our Group

 

A Recent Keepers Project

 

 

Look what I woke up to this morning!!  Mahayla found an old time alarm clock in the basement that she wanted to try out.   It woke her, or should I say EVERYBODY, up at 6:20 this morning.  While Eli and I snoozed on, she put her Betty Crocker cookbook to good use and brought warm cinnamon struesel muffins with grape juice right to my bedside.  Yummy!

We jumped on the bandwagon today.  Several of my blogging friends have followed Jamin's instructions for making a solar oven, and it looked like so much fun that we had to try it, too!

It was fun!  And easy!  A pizza box, some aluminum foil, pencils, tape and sun are all you need to make the oven.  Today was the perfect day to try out some solar s'mores with our good friends.  A little swimming while the s'mores sat in the sun made the wait more bearable!  (Not my pool - wishful thinking by my kids, though!)

The chocolate was a little runny, but that didn't seem to matter!