Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Here we are!!!!

Finally, I got the picture scanned of our five generations. Moments like these I'm thankful I never did get dread locks like I'd wanted for so long. From Juju clockwise, there's Great Great Grandma G from Iowa, me from Ohio, Great Grandma VN also from Iowa, and Grandma from Germany. We all have the same chin, don't we? I only wish I'd inherited more of that curly hair of theirs. There's some hope for Juju, she has curly wisps that Z never had. I sure love these ladies!!! It was so fun to all be together in Iowa for Mother's Day weekend.

Cooking with Becca

I made strawberry freezer jam today. I've only made raspberry before. I'm liking the strawberry! Probably helps that the berries were freshly picked, thanks to some help from my sister-in-law, Debbi. Ben's Grandma H. taught me how to make this kind of jam. I've made it under her watch several times before I was adventurous enough to make it on my own (twice now).

To make your own, just buy PINK Sure-Jell boxes, which require less sugar than the yellow and allows you to taste more fruit. See the instructions inside for how much fruit to buy and sugar to add. For strawberry freezer jam, you need 4 pints of fresh berries. After crushing them, they need to add up to 4 cups, so you can use frozen berries to make that amount. Get them to room temperature. Follow directions in Sure-Jell box for "Quick & Easy Freezer Jam Recipes". The only moment we veer from the written instructions is when it says to boil and stir for 1 minute. Grandma H. says boil for 1 minute 15 seconds. Do not boil too long though!!! I did this once and had plastic pectin chunks floating around in jam that barely set. What you see above is three recipes worth, so it doesn't make a ton, but it's ever so yummy!

Juju's recently started a baby blog about natural living...
...I think she's a little excited about moving to the country!

Little cabin in the woods, little man by the window stood...
As promised...here's some pics of our new abode.
It's a 100 year old farm house that was added onto and added onto, then resided.

See Ben and his Dad peeking in the windows below?
Juju's in the grass on the left, if you can squint really hard. It's more house than we'll ever need, we know that. We're pretty sure God has other plans for the use of the upstairs. There's 3-4 bedrooms and 2 baths upstairs alone. We'll be able to live on the first floor solely in the master bedroom and 1.5 baths until the kiddos are bigger. I wasn't blogging when we first pursued foster care, and I don't think we'll be doing that again, but it'll be fun to have readers to share with as God unfolds plans for this place and our lives. We love our readers!!! Thank you for your time and your prayers!!!!

3 comments:

Nicki said...

Wow that house is huge! It sure doesn't look 100 years old. I can't wait to see picture of the inside.

Once upon a time, we had a huge house. The cats had their own bedroom. Three kids later the house isn't feeling so huge! You'll figure out what to do with that space before you know it.

Ivymamma said...

Congrats on the house!!!

Juju is too cute in that pic!!!

The first house I can remember living in was huge (I'm sure that had nothing to do with my age!) and I was an only child. My parents had two rooms that they called Elijah's rooms. They housed missionaries and their families when they were home on furlough. Just an idea :-)

Zed said...

I love that top picture - I have a photo of just four generations - you have a healthy family for sure!

The house looks ginormous - I hope you like living there too :-)