They came up with this themselves, I tell you!

I know, I am waaaayyyy behind on sorting and uploading pictures. The good news is that most of the people who read this blog have had some opportunity to see at least one of us in person this summer. But I know that for us, as well as for our beloved family, that is (almost) never enough.

So if I can manage the bandwidth, I will start with high-value per-upload: VIDEOS!

This is what our family is up to lately.

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We have only girls. They do things like this. I promise I did not teach them this.

whisper whisper whisper

giggle

SCREAM WITH LAUGHTER!!!!!!

Noelle Plays with Fire

Independence Day in the state of Nebraska is one fantastic celebration. Last year we were surprised (pleasantly) by all the booms and sparks flying around town - and enjoyed just laying in bed (no mosquitos) and watching fireworks go off in the sky through our bedroom window.

Arch bought a few popping fireworks for the girls last year, but this year I wanted to join him in the shopping experience (a novelty to me). So the whole fam went down the street and surveyed all the explosives - COOL! We invested a whole $3 in snaps and sparklers and a few other little popping things, then raced home to our Independence Day block party! Once everyone had eaten and the sun went down, our neighbors and friends all got out our fireworks and started playing.

Suffice it to say, that at camp the following week, Noelle listed her favorite thing as "FIRE" and "FIREworks".

Starting off with snaps:

Then these stringy bottle-things:

As it got darker we started in on the sparklers:

And more sparklers:

She watched each one with the same intensity.

Again.

And again,

For hours,

and hours.

Really, this child should be in bed, but she is sooo excited about her fireWorks!

In her own words:

Some Summer Shorts

Lily learned how to tie her shoes in 2 lessons from Dad. When we recently went to buy her some new sneakers she requested shoes she could learn how to tie. How she feels about her new-found independence:

How cute she is accomplishing her feat (feet):

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This afternoon, I took a shower for 5 minutes (downstairs) while all three of my children were awake (upstairs). I came up to find: Noelle, playing happily with her baby dolls. Lily, cozied up in the guest room with soft things, and Clara:

playing in the toilet water, pulling off toilet paper and putting it (splashing it?) into the potty. Still, they all survived and she got washed, so I consider this a success.

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This evening, my hubby bounces into the living room, "Hey guys, you want to see how the skin has layers?" The girls "oooh" and "aaaahhh" while he displays his peeling sunburn, and they discuss how dead vs. alive skin feels if you try to peel it.  My daughters will be looking for one-of-a-kind men. Real charmers.

Sparklers on Independence Day!

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Have I mentioned that Noelle loves FIREworks? Oh, and Fire.

Peach Adventure: Part 1

So we ran out of my mother's famous peach jelly earlier this year. For those not blood-related to me, it is important to note that this peach jelly has been entered in the Texas State Fair. Why it didn't win is mind-boggling to me. It's like gold in a little sparkly jelly jar.

At our house, it is called "Ritter's Jam". And everyone wants it. Every time we have toast. Or biscuits. Or crepes. Or anything else that could possibly require jelly or jam. As a matter of course, I put other jams and jellies on the table, and leave Ritter's Jam in the fridge, hoping my jelly-gluttonous munchkins will not notice its absence. We pray. Lily will then sigh discontentedly with whatever other perfectly good jam options are on the table, and ask (maybe even whine?) for Ritter's Jam. Depending on the mood, either she or I will return to the fridge for the golden jar. Then I pull a Minerva* and spread a microscopic film of jelly on her toast, and anyone else's - provided they remember to ask nicely. No giving this stuff away for free. This is our last jar, girls.

In related news, most people are aware that I love to stockpile food. Especially in my freezer(s). When I went to a perinatal mood disorders clinic 2 years ago (in an attempt to prevent PPD) this habit was described as "obsessive compulsive tendencies". I thought this was hilarious. Not every mama of 2, being 6 months pregnant, had a freezer full of 50+ entrees and hundreds of muffins, breakfast cookies, and burritos? Anyway. I planned a garden this year for hours, only to be stopped in my tracks by the idea of protecting my produce from the prolific deer that live in the verysmallforest behind our house. So my grand ideas of canning hundreds of jars of tomato sauce were thwarted. So I decided to make peach jelly.

Determined to at least have enough jelly for my own family, I decided to make a double recipe, which would (according to my mother) make about 16 half-pints (8 cups) of jelly. I got the recipe. I called mom to clarify amounts. I called again from the store. She said 12 lbs for 1 batch. REALLY? 12 POUNDS of fruit for only 4 CUPS of jelly?!! No wonder she only gives me one jar a year!

I bought a 24lb box of peaches.

 I counted and weighed them. I called again. This sure is a lot of peaches!

Then I started chopping. I did not peel. But I chopped.

And chopped.

And chopped. 

This is my canner (aka REALLY HUGE POT) filled with chopped peaches.

Then I started cooking. All these peaches got cooked. Then with Superman's help I put them all into a clean pillowcase to drain out the juice. "Hey Mom? What do you do with all the leftover fruit after you squeeze out the juice? Surely you don't just throw it away?! This is a lot of fruit!"

Typical of my genetic inability to completely read directions prior to following them, I started to drain the peaches by hand. My sweet hubby came by to see how it was going, and noticed my statuesque behavior - it was SO HEAVY with just half the peaches I could hardly hold it up! Then I read the instructions to "tie it up and let the juice drain out, pressing lightly". So while I held the pillowcase against the microwave for support, Archer rigged up a juicer for me with a broom between two chairs:

The contraption was then covered with a king-size sheet, because I was NOT about to share my golden liquid with any annoying, disgusting flies.

Then I went to bed. When I woke up in the morning, I had 2.5 GALLONS of juice. 

Did I mention it only takes 3.5 cups of juice to make one batch - 4 cups of jelly? 

I hope I have conveyed that really, I was not trying to stockpile jelly until 2025 (when Lily will graduate from high school. yikes!). However, everyone who is related-enough to value it, will receive peach jelly from me for Christmas.

That is, if it comes out. Overwhelmed even by the math of trying to figure out half-pints from gallons of juice, I must admit that I have not yet made the jelly. I had company coming, Archer was by then out of town, and as soon as he was back and our sweet friends were gone, I was heading out of town for a FANTABULOUS wedding in which I had much responsibility. Not a great time to deal with gallons of juice.

So. The first part of the Peach Jelly Adventure ended with:

Several bags of juiced chopped peaches frozen for smoothies.

A triple batch of acceptable, but not phenomenal peach muffins. (Now frozen.)

And the juice (isn't it pretty?) in these containers, also frozen, awaiting the day when I had enough child-free time to both do the math required for this massive jelly-making-scheme, and then actually make it. In preparation I have already bought more jars, lids, and gelatin, but I'm still not sure I have enough sugar - since for every 3.5 cups of juice, I need 7 cups of sugar.... 

That's why it's golden sweet stuff!

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* My mother has always complained that her mother, Minerva, for whom my Lily M. is named, would never put enough jelly on her toast. And whenever any of her offspring do something characteristic of our matriarch, we call each other Minerva. And even though only my aunt and my daughter actually bear the name, somehow we all have retained some of those odd behaviors - like tearing off minuscule bits of paper towels, wrapping bite-sized bits of leftovers with saran-wrap and rubber-bands, etc. I did this last one just yesterday at with someone else's leftovers! HA!

Alphabet Personalities

We are on the road back to the scorched corn fields. Arch is loving the personalities coming out in the alphabet game (which letter comes before B):

Lily quietly thinking until she figures out the correct answer.

Noelle randomly shouts out her guesses until she gets it right.

Clara yells out the last letter she heard, and maybe more if she can think of them- she gets cheers just for participating so she keeps chiming in at top volume!