A Sense of Accomplishment

Good Morning! Don't know why but I feel good today. The past couple of days have been full of accomplishment. Yesterday I bit the bullet and went to the health department to get Gabriella and I on WIC. Not my finest hour but the benefits will help us immensely. It was funny. You always hear horror stories about how the staff are rude and stuff. I guess they realized that I wasn't the average joe because no one was rude to me. The head nurse who filed the paperwork for us was extremely helpful. I had lots of questions and I guess it was obvious that I had no clue what I was doing. The nurse helped a lot. We talked about the colorful people she encounters on a daily basis and I confessed that I never thought I'd be in my current position. She assured me that's what these programs were there for; people in my situation that need a bit of help. It felt much better after talking with her and the other staff. They answered all my questions and told me exactly what to do when I got to the grocery store. I commented on the large amount of food that we can get and the woman replied "That's where your tax dollars go, use them." Very true!!! So I came home with my head a bit higher. I know that we won't have to spend too much at the grocery store now although coffee and creamer are not on the program.....darn!!!!

Another accomplishment was Tuesday when I took this 27 pounds of peaches.....

And turned it into this.....

6 pints of spiced peach butter and 16 half pints of peach preserves, minus the ones we ate. Yep....accomplishment!! So my totals for the season thus far are 16 half pints and 15 pints of sweet pickle relish, 13 half pints of blueberry jelly, 1 quart of blueberry juice(for more jelly), at least 10 quart bags of tomatoes, 30 quart bags of sweet corn, 42 quart bags of Dixie lee peas and its not even apple season yet!!Not bad at all! And let me say that the peach butter is out of this world!! Can't wait to eat that this winter. Next on my list is freezing butternut squash for Miss Gabbie, applesauce, and of course, apple butter!!! Thank God that we have a local apple orchard where I can buy all in bulk!

I wonder what I'll accomplish today?! More yard work I think. Mother wants The Man and I to help her mulch her house now. So I think we will be packing up Gabbie and heading to her house for the day. It will be nice to get out of the house, something I don't do very much anymore. I think tomorrow I'm going to try and wrap up these sewing projects. My in laws are coming in next weekend and I have to have a BUNCH of stuff done by then. I'm just about finished with the purses for my sister and cousin-in-law. Then I have a couple little things for them to use up the rest of their fabric. Gonna do some zippered make-up bags and little things like that. Then I have several projects for my niece, Emily. Although I better just focus on the main one and then move on after that. I'm getting carried away!!! I want to make her all the things I wanted to make for Gabbie when I was pregnant!!! I just couldn't because I was pregnant!! Like I said, I'm going to start with the main one and as soon as its finished I'll move on to the next. I have a funny feeling that everything I make for Gabbie, from here on out, I'll be making another for Emily. I'm still trying to figure out if I should do all Emily's stuff in pretty, light, and feminine or bright, fun, and cheery. What do you think?

Speaking of Gabbie...look out world, she's about 2 steps away from crawling or walking which ever happens first. She's pulling her self up and all that good stuff. We have to lower her crib because I found her half standing up in it this morning! YIKES!!!! She's scooting along though and getting into a lot more than I'd like. Time to baby proof the house. God give me strength and patients with this!!! Every day she does something new, learns something new, develops something new. Its truly amazing to watch her learn and discover. She never fails to amaze me.

Well I better have one more cup o' coffe and get going. Lots to get done and then we have to go to Mother's!!! Oh, I think I hear a tractor outside. Looks like we will have hay bales when we get home. I'll make sure to show you! Until next time!