Well, kinda. For me, anyway. I walked in the graduation and ceremony and everything, and am definitely part of the class of 2014 … but I also have 3 credits to finish up. So I’m taking an online course this summer to wrap up those last few credits. It’s a 12 credit course, so I could conceivably just phone it in and still get enough credits — I just don’t feel comfortable with that in any way whatsoever.
I like school.
John’s vacation ended this week, so today was pretty much spent in a blur of housework and canning. I don’t know why, but for some reason I don’t really do chores as much when he’s home. It’s like, I know the laundry and dishes and whatnot need to get done, but I also just want to hang out with my guy. Generally, timing my workload to do the housework while he’s at his job is a good strategy … it just doesn’t work well when he’s on vacation, lol.
I did at least get to try some new experiments in food this week: I made homemade pho yesterday, and tonight we had wienerschnitzel with spätzle. I’ve made wienerschnitzel plenty of times before, but this is my first experience with spätzle. Man, I love testing recipes.
Today was canning day. I made my homemade applesauce, which I’ve decided to call awesomesauce, since it was the surprise hit of my canning ventures last summer. I use a basic recipe I found on Allrecipes, and add some lemon peel and cinnamon to it. I don’t know how much, exactly. I just kind of eyeball it. It tastes … bright. I don’t know how else to describe it. I don’t even like applesauce normally, but this stuff is really yummy. It disappeared so fast last year that I’m making tons of extra this year.
Awesomesauce
I also tried something new: Apple cherry jam. The base recipe I worked off called for apple juice, but I was like screw that noise. Instead I used two diced apples and a cup of cold water (I doubled the entire recipe). Oh, man, it’s really good. I’m actually pleasantly surprised … believe it or not, I’m not a huge fan of cherries. We only got these because John wanted them. I’m more of a raspberry girl.
Apple cherry jam
This picture so does not even approach doing this jam justice. Seriously. I cannot wait until that first loaf of homemade potato bread comes out of the oven tomorrow, and I can slather it with this jammy cherry goodness. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Man, I wish Rini and Luix had visited this week. I could give them some jam. Can I mail jam overseas? Is that allowed? I bet that’s not allowed. Side note — I asked Rini if she takes half and half in her coffee, and she said she takes her coffee with milk. I gave her a kind of funny look and was like, “You mean whole milk?” because who wants 2% milk watering down their coffee? Well, apparently in the UK, they don’t have half and half. I don’t even … I can’t even …
But … how do you drink coffee?
I don’t know why I remembered that. Probably because Rini imitated the way Americans say “half and half” (dropping the l so it’s pronounced haf n haf), and it was so nasal and twangy and hilarious sounding that John and I have been exaggerating our American pronunciation ever since. And tonight we had to buy half and half.
Seriously, try pronouncing half and half with the “l“. It comes out, hallf and hallf, with the same “a” sound as in “hall” instead of the flatter “a” we usually say half n half with. It’s very weird.
Anyway. So. Today was canning and drying fruit day (yes, we dried some fruit) and grocery shopping day. Tomorrow will be baking bread and doing laundry and canning more awesomesauce day. I also have to bake some cookies with Kidling — I promised him we would try out this recipe for Jell-o cookies. And over the next week, we have soccer practice and games, homework, class readings, and I need to schedule some informational interviews. Oh, and it’s the 4th of July next week. And we want to ride over to Eastern Washington at some point to pick up raspberries. This summer is shaping up to be pretty busy! Man, remember the lazy summer days of childhood, when you didn’t have to worry about chores and laundry and practices and schedules? Ah, well. We all must grow up sometime, I guess.
this is a work in progress 
Haha…. Yay for homemade food and canning. I love experimenting with recipes. I used can almost 20 yrs ago. I haven’t canned anything since maybe 1997. It’s not because I don’t want to. The change in my lifestyle made is more difficult to accomplish. Now, I can buy from the farmer’s market or organic at the grocery store. However, I don’t have the resources for canning anymore. And, the people around me are uncooperative in such an endeavor. I’m not living in my “own” house. I have to respect the owner’s space. Also, the owner is a curmudgeon. If you look at him a certain way he goes ballistic. I give him his space and basically avoid as much interaction with him as possible. I usually wait till her leaves the house before I do anything that involves the downstairs [his space]. I don’t bake. I don’t even use the oven very often. His stove is not ancient, but is an old gas stove. His microwave oven isn’t ancient, but it’s a low wattage unit. 0_o
I’m just grateful I have a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in, air conditioning, food, transportation and the companionship of my guy and our four legged kid, Misa.
We went on a great ride yesterday. I posted in image online yesterday. We even went out to the High Desert to visit some friends we made after moving here. It was getting late and we were tired or I would’ve grabbed some awesome sunset shots. It’d been a LONG day and I was getting a mild migraine. It was time to lay down. I think I passed out asleep after I peeled off my clothes from my hot sweaty body. My headache is almost gone this morning. My ribs hurt though.
This new chiropractor is making things in my spine re-align properly and my body is rebelling because it got used to things the way they were, dysfunction and dis-ease. Things are slowly improving. Hopefully with the next adjustment or two it’ll all be worked out and my body will finally be happy again. And, hopefully I’ll be able to lose this weight I gained after moving here. I had lost 4 pants sizes before moving. After moving, getting sick and injured over a period of 6 months and in recovery for 6 months pull a huge toll on my body causing me to gain all that weight back. It’s like starting all over again.
My hair is longer than it’s ever been. It’s below my bra strap to my mid back. I’ll see if I can get Paul to take a picture of it before I cut it and donate it to “Locks of Love”. I researched their website to find out what the guidelines are to donate.
Ok, sorry I went on so long and wrote a short story. One thing led to another. You know how the thought process goes. LOL
Stream of conscious writing, lol. I totally do that, too (see above entry for example). Man, your landlord (?) sounds like a nightmare. How stressful, not to be able to bake or cook or can. I’m so sorry to hear that. You should e-mail me your address and I can send you one of my little jars of apple cherry jam.
Oh, that would be so very nice. I’ll email you.