Canning the moment

Here's our lives at a glance right now at 4pm Monday, August 22, 2011:

• Juju is wearing size 9/10 mud boots now
• She potty trained herself in three days a couple of weeks ago.  I'd asked her every day for months if she'd prefer big girl undies or a diaper.  She was finally ready.  

• Z is size 13, but can wear his first pair of men's size 1 that I never thought he'd grow into...

• Both are in bed napping, probably growing their feet more...
• Ben is at a church checking to make sure the air conditioners are working, he split wood all morning as today is his day off.  Here he is cooking pizzas at the Farmer's Market:

• I am listening to "Yesterday" by the Beatles on Pandora while I sit here updating you.  I spent all morning making pancakes and canning tomatoes.  I am surrounded by little messes that I want very badly to disappear, but they wait for me, sleeping, and probably growing too.  
• We had a family lunch together before naptime...I asked Juju what she wanted for her birthday, she said "stars".  She continued, "I like stars, toys and flowers."  I misheard, "You like boys?" I asked.  She quickly responded, "I don't like boys, they're wild...I like you."  I like you too, Juju.  

• Baby #3 wiggles more than her siblings ever did, but right now tries to sleep through her hiccups.  
• Yesterday, Ben canned his third batch of pickles.  
• Last week, I had the best day ever canning peaches with my little ones.  Z loved peeling the skins off.  They told me stories for an hour as I cut the peaches open and they removed the pits.  I told Ben I wished I could can our day today.  He said, "You did."  

Here's hard worker #1 canning peaches last week

This is all that remained and I found this awesome peach jelly recipe to make using the pits and peels.  Ours turned out great and we didn't even have to water bath them!

Here's hard worker #2 this morning using a big girl knife for the first time!!!

Our dining room table hasn't been this happy since it had authentic Indonesian food served on banana leaves on it!  

We have lots of work yet to do, but it's all very rewarding.  Time to wake the sleepy hard workers.  I need to make dinner too.  Stir fry again (so many veggies this time of year!!!)