Canning...a hobby?

Since my last post, I have still been purchasing Bountiful Baskets, occassionally buying a case of extras. I have learned to make and successfully canned peach jam, peaches, pears, bananas (yes, you can can bananas for banana bread/muffins etc) and made strawberry jam. I am growing to love the "ping" of the seals taking after I pull them out of the pot to let them sit. The kids are loving this, as they are my taste testers. Occassionally I dont have enough for a full jar so that is left for them to enjoy now. My youngest wanted a jar of peach jam for himself for lunch....nothing else, just jam. As I type this I have made my first batch of Pear Butter. My beloved tried it and gave his thumbs up... Archery season has started. My beloved has been out a couple of times, but to no avail so far. I am praying he fills all of his tags. I will can at least 1/2 of what he brings to us, and freeze the rest. I have to find the instructions again, but I once read that I can take the bones and roast them, and make venison broth. I want to try this rather than buying beef broth. In today's basket we got leeks and potatoes. Tomorrow I shall make a huge batch of soup and freeze part of it for use later. We also got leaf lettuce, tomatoes, corn on the cob, plums, peaches, bananas, and broccoli. I also got the "italian pack", which contained onion, garlic, zucchini and eggplant. The eggplant went to my mom as no one here likes it. I love the baskets, they feed my family and I am always able to send some down to my mom. She loves it!!! and I love doing for her. With each batch of jam, I have been sending her down jars as well and she has enjoyed the fruits of my labor! With co-op starting on Monday, I have been pulling together the final bits for our science class (I am teaching this). I have gathered together all the binders and bits for the kids that they will need, and last week we actually started our schoolwork. We are off to a slow start. My oldest is feeling a bit overwhelmed as he is taking some classes that are totally new to him, including Institute of Excellence writing and literary analysis. Because he struggles with his handwriting, I have purchased a voice program for his laptop, his "writing" will be done on this while we concentrate on handwriting as a separate subject. He did his first writing assignment on this and was thrilled as he did not have to write it out, so the project was more managable for him. The other two will also be doing writing this year, which is not much different than we have done in the past. Lil miss is also doing a Thomas Kinkade drawing class and she is soooo excited. Even after just four lessons, she is thrilled with what she has learned. The youngest is starting guitar, he is excited to be learning an instrument, and he hopes to do this for one semester then move to the harmonica. In the meantime. My garden this year was just a battle that I gave up on. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to kill off the canadian thistles which are the only thing that have prospered. I have ordered some hazelnut seeds and need to have everything prepared to plant those in a few weeks to overwinter then start growing in the spring. I have also ordered a some heirloom seeds rather than the GMO/hybrids that our stores offer. I have already starting planning next years garden so we shall see what we can do. My mom has returned from her trip overseas. She truly enjoyed visiting with her sisters and niece and nephews...along with their families. She brought me back a couple of treats, but with the weight restrictions in place from the airlines, no where near what she wanted to. I did not get done all that I wanted to, but I did get her garage cleaned out and most of the yardwork done. God is good with the provision of food for me to can, health to work and never ending faithfulness toward me.