Canning Tally

I start every post with an apology for not posting in so long...but I can't help it. I had a busy summer with work and running around and I don't know what all.

Today I just wanted to show you what I was up to this weekend.

The total was:

60 pints of salsa

24 quarts or spaghetti sauce

14 quarts of tomato soup

29 quarts of canned tomatoes

8 dozen no-bake cookies

10 dozen peanut butter cookies

4 dozen butter cookies.

We bought 10 boxes of tomatoes at the Farmer's Market and spend two long days processing and canning all the things we love to eat all year long. The soup is a new recipe from a friend of Shane's at work, so I haven't tried it yet, other than a spoonful to check the spices while it was still really hot. I think I will heat up so and make grilled cheese for dinner in a couple of days. We still have two boxes of tomatoes to do something with, so if the soup is really good, I might throw together another batch later this week. It was a huge pain and a very tiring weekend, but I am so glad that we will have all these yummy things to eat this year, it is just so much better than store-bought...and easier :)

Getting Going

It has been a little over a week since I decided to try out SparkPeople. (Yes I know, I ditched that blog once a day thing pretty early. I just don't have the time.) I think I am getting it figured out, but there is still a lot to explore and more decisions to make. I am still working on eating better and getting enough water. (I just love going to the bathroom so often, so much fun.) I am doing well at sticking to the exercise plan, since it is pretty basin and doesn't take too much time.

Overall, I guess I am getting going. Not too bad, but maybe not that great either. Sometimes I eat a lot and then wince when I put it is the counter. I figure, I could fib about it, who would know...other than me. That is the sticking point. I feel guilty for cheating, eve though this plan isn't about cheating or rules, just about eating better and hopefully less of the things that keep me chubby.

I need to practice not feeling guilty. Is there an easy way to do that? Is there an easy way to say "It's ok to eat that much garlic bread, but don't do it too often"? I will work on it and let you know. :)

Other than that, I think I am going to be able to do this. The articles and posts and messages are very positive and that is a big boost. Here is to trying my best and success.

Day Two

I made it one of my goals on Spark People to write in a journal once a day. This may prove difficult to keep up, but I thought it might be helpful. Accountability is a good thing.

Today was pretty good, I made most of the goals set for eating and I did all the exercises I was assigned. The program set me up to do 30 minutes of cardio and a full body weight training routine three days a week. Hopefully I will be able to do it more often as I get going, at least the cardio. I am riding my stationary bike for now, but I will be able to do more outside things like yard work and walking as it warms up. I don't know if walking counts, but maybe I can even get in shape to go jogging. Cross your fingers.

I am ready for spring. It is sort of here, but the weather keeps going back and forth between grey and sunny. This weekend we are taking out the old cherry tree in the backyard and hopefully we can buy a new lawnmower. Ours in kinda toast, but since we got it for free two years ago, I think it's OK. I still feel a little bad about the cherry, since it is a great tree, but it doesn't fit where it is and it is splitting and if it loses a limb, that limb will fall into my bedroom. Not a pleasant thought.Once the tree is out we will have more space for the vegetable garden. I want to put in some vine crops this year and hopefully we can work them into that area.

For now I am going to go relax. I think I will be a bit stiff tomorrow. It has been a while since I have worked with weights. Night.

Spark People

I am now a Spark People...or is that Person? I don't know yet. :)

www.sparkpeople.com is a website that I heard of through my sister-in-law. She started it last summer, and really got going with it the first of this year. It is basically a healthy living site with diet plans and exercise plans and lots of groups for support. There are articles and a recipe database and chat groups on tons of subject.

I have not yet explored a tenth of the things available on the site, but I think that it has promise.
The site is really full of stuff, so navigating takes a bit of memorization, but the tabs and such are pretty self explanatory.

The plans encourage you to set goals and track them daily. Doing so earns you points, but I am not clear yet on what points get you, other than kudos from your friends. One of the goals I am working on for now is journaling every day, so most of the time I think that will take the form of blogging. I will try to keep them brief, since a daily ramble through my vocabulary would be boring for both of us. I will post recipes from the site and let you know how my goals are coming along.

The biggest reason I am doing this is to try to get active and lose weight. The site and I agree that I need to lose about 50 pounds and I am aiming to do that by my birthday in October. Wouldn't that be a nifty birthday present?

For now, I am off to get some work done. I will hopefully talk to you again tomorrow :)

Mistress Mary, Quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

Mine is doing nicely, thank you. :)

My bulbs are coming in now and I think that some of them worked very hard at multiplying last summer.
We still have 15, count 'em, 15 bell peppers.
And 16, I know it's crazy, tomato plants. The are all doing very well, although the tomatoes are ready to be move up a pot size. They are getting rather tall and want to lay down.

I am super pleased though, since there is at least one plant alive in each peat pot. Which is much better than we did last year. I think we might be getting the hang of it. Soon it will be time to plant the rest of the early seeds. Hopefully this weekend we will have time and can get some yard cleanup done. The flowers need to be weeded and the lawn mowed, although I need a new mower for that, since ours gave up the ghost last year. The only problem with that plan is that it has been cool and windy and grey for the last few days and it is not nice to work outside when it is not nice. Oh well. Later!

All right already

So shut up already, Chantel :)

No really, I have been getting nagged by my office mate about how hard it is to stalk someone online when they never post new blogs. Silly child.

I haven't posted recently for 2 reasons. One is that I am not very exciting and the other is that I keep forgetting to get the pictures I want to post off of my camera.

So, for a brief, pictureless blog, I will give a summary of what is up.

This weekend is game night! Yay for many people and food and entertainment and such. So far we have a total of 9 people, which is great and hopefully there will be at least three more than that. Shane has always wanted to try having multiple tables playing different games during the evening, so people can try more of our giant selection of games. Including the 6 or so new ones in the last three months. It's not an addicti...wait, never mind.

Other than that, I went to the taste of home cooking school last night with Chantel and got many yummy recipes and snack ideas, at least two of which will be used for dinner tomorrow. I also went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry last week with a teacher friend of mine as a "chaperone", sort of anyway. It was nifty, with a big t-rex skeleton and a planetarium and lots of neat exhibits.

We also letterboxed for the first time this year and found all four of the boxes we went after. I think that might be a record for us. :) It was a gorgeous day and I will get some pics from Nikki for that.

Other than that I am obviously working hard and keeping busy with some new miniatures for a wargame that my husband enjoys. You buy tiny (2-4 inches) pewter miniatures, put them together, and paint them, and then fight long battles on the plains of some imaginary place. Sure nifty!

I will do my best to put up another post tomorrow or Sunday with pictures and info on my seedlings and flower garden (already tons of flowers!) and maybe even recipes of the tasty things I will make for dinner for my friends.

A picture post

These are the first of the seeds we planted for our garden this year. 16, count 'em, 16 tomato plants, in 7 different varieties (yes, we are nuts, no, I am not quite sure there will be enough tomatoes for canning). The round ones are green bell peppers. :)

This is my shamrock plant, which I am showing off because it is happy enough to bloom. Yay!

Tiny green points in my bulb garden. These are snow iris.

Flash on weighing day. He is 5 months old now and I think he is getting bigger, but I need to start measuring him more carefully to be sure :)

I baked an apple pie with some of the apples that I froze last fall. Shane thought it looked pretty and told me to take a picture of it. It tasted pretty good, too.

We visited my parents at Christmas and drove over to the coast one day. The waves were coming in and the sun was shining through the clouds. I loved this picture.