Busy, Jam, Amish

My week has certainly been a busy one. Thankfully, I am pretty much ahead of the game plan. Today, I have to sew a hat for Bubby, fix one of his petticoats (boys wore petticoats until potty trained in the 18th century), and possibly make a little shirt for him. I have two shifts, but we soon found out, where there's a bucket of water, Bubby will play in it. I think extra clothing is going to be wise. There's his 18th century wagon to paint today. I have to run down the road and pick up an adapter for the truck and trailer, then run over to my parents' house and pick up the re-enacting table and chairs. I have to call the historical site and see where we are going to be camping. I also have to buy bread and milk. Bubby's almost out of milk and the bread went moldy overnight. Oh, and I should return the wrong adapter and the fan I don't need. Oh, and hubby asked me to pick him up some brass clips for a project he's started. I also want to get all of my stuff packed and ready to go so I don't have to worry about it.

I'm not sure what to make for dinner tonight. Maybe chicken and rice.

I made my jam Monday evening. Out of two pounds of cherries, I got 3 1/2 jars, but it is so good! I love homemade jams and I love knowing I'm not injesting high fructose corn syrup or other ingrediants I can't say let alone spell. I'm a jam lover. I rarely bother to make jellies.

Making jam is actually easy. However, you need the proper equipment. You need a large stockpot with a trivet or drop-in basket. You need glass jars with the proper sealing lids. You need a jar lifter. Then, all you need is fruit, sugar, pectin and sometimes lemon juice. (Some make a parafin seal over their jams. I don't.) The jars and lids must be sterlized before use. Instructions for jam-making are on a pamphlet included with the pectin.

Canning is a little difficult for me because I have a tiny stove with a low hood. My regular canning stock pots are too big. I use my steamer pot and place metal cookie cutters I don't use on the bottom for a trivet. I learned that without some form of trivet, the jars have a tendency to explode while processing. This works well, but instead of processing 6 jars at one time, I can only do 3 to 4.

I saw 3 lovely Amish ladies in Walmart the other day. Every time I see the Amish, I always feel like I'm not doing something right with my life. So, after some contemplation, I realized what that feeling was stemming from. I'm not happy with the way technology has seemed to cause more distractions and wasting of time in my life. So, I've been really careful about the amount of time I spend online and I've pretty much stopped watching TV when I have things to do. Now, I don't feel so bad and I love being able to sleep at night knowing I got my chores done.