running vacation and tomatoes

6 miles today! SO SLOW. I may have run the slowest I have ever run but that is the way it is until I am no longer so post partum.

We had a fantastic vacation in Central Lake. I realized that one week just was not enough, I was only starting to unwind. The kids love it there because they can play in the lake, on the shore, take boat rides, eat smores and be. Ahhhh. I wish we were still there. All that to say I came home and was slammed by our life. Canaan is back in school, 1st grade to be exact. He seems to like it but he will not really tell me so it is hard to say. I will miss him during the day but it is really important for him to have that structure to his day, the school year rhythm helps all of us. Mags will start preschool in a week and a half. I am excited for her too. The YMCA preschool seems to be leaps and bounds beyond Columbus Public as far as what they offer. I guess that would be what you get when you pay. Canaan's preschool experience was what he needed and this seems to be a good fit for Maggie also she will love her school year. Mr. Francis is now officially talking my ear off. Even as I type he is still talking to me so this post is probably disjointed. He is happy, crazy, and has more energy than the rest of his family combined. We are laughing ALOT with him these days. Marion now has two front teeth, rolls both ways and has a smile that will light up the room. If anyone even looks at her she grins from ear to ear. She is still super content to hang out as long as someone is in the room with her. She also sleeps all night say from 9pm-7:30am the next day. She is my doll and I adore her.

I was really nervous that our vacation timing may have messed up canning this year but today I was able to secure 100 pounds of tomatoes. this may be close to what I need but I am still trying to secure another 50 pounds. More and more people are canning so it is harder to come by large amounts of tomatoes at one time. anyway, I am looking at all of these tomatoes and feeling somewhat overwhelmed. grammy is coming to help this week, which is awesome. She can slice, cut and chop like nobody's business. It is hard work but will be worth it. my goal for the year is 74 pints of HOT salsa (kyle's exclusively), 12 pints of mild salsa for the rest of us, 24 quarts of spaghetti sauce (Maggies obsession is spaghetti and meatballs), 36 pints of pizza sauce and 24 quarts of applesauce. the applesauce is not for another month or so but as for the tomatoes, here goes nothing uuuggghhhh. We did not get the freezing done this year that I wanted so next year I hope to freeze several pounds of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches and corn. To do this amount of freezing I probably need to make a few trips to pick each crop. We are on a continuous learning curve but I am realizing that really, summer, the whole summer is food work. I want that to feel normal some day.. If we are efficient we should be able to have a decent store for the rest of the year. Each year has been different and we are learning as we go. fun.