I am sincerely hoping I will be able to post a second method before summer is out. While I am happy with how my juice turned out, I’m curious to see how different ways of making juice could produce different results.

I wish I had documented the whole experience from picking to drinking, but I forgot to take pictures of us ladies, teetering up on ladders, determined to get those four or five apples that just look sooo much better than those lower down. We got them, by the way. I did, however, take pictures of the process at home. So here goes another photo post. I’ll try to keep it a bit shorter than the last one 🙂  Hope you didn’t miss that post!

After picking apples, I chucked them all in the sink and took a load off and rested myself up while Dekker slept. His nap didn’t last long though. For such a sore boy, he was surprisingly chipper when he got up. Seemed like just the right partner for juicing. So I set up my juicer the way I wanted it,

I got my trooper all set up with his Cheerios,

and we started! He was a total champ! Dekker sat in his highchair munching on Cheerios and some peppers the entire time! I dont know how long it was, but a couple of hours for sure. We did stop to have real food, and there were plenty of singing breaks and momentary dance parties. Dekker likes to party.

When the process finally began, the juice was actually pretty and pink! Minus the nasty layer of goo on top. Looove that fluffy brown crap on top of my juice.It was so nasty that I barfed in the sink.No, I didn’t. I just skimmed the junk off the top. Looks a bit like chocolate milk thats been shaken too much. Yet somehow, I’m not thinking “yum.”

I am disappointed to say that I let the apples sit too late in the season before I gained the motivation to pick them. There were more rejects than keepers 🙁 Behold, the rejects:Also, check out the juicer once about half of the apples had gone through it. It was all clogged up, and I felt so gross opening it up and seeing this…It looks like ground beef, doesn’t it? Believe it or not, it smelled great!

Ok, enough pictures of gross things. Once all the apples were run through the juicer, I had only one mixing bowl full of juice and foam. I skimmed to my hearts content and began the straining process. I strained everything through two layers of cheesecloth in my sieve, twice. That looked prettier!

From there, it went into jars. This is just the half jar that I kept upstairs.

Unfortunately, I only ended up with one more quart jar full for the downstairs freezer. Sad. That is why I’m hoping for a hypothetical “method #2” post in the near future. Maybe next week I will find myself at the farmers market, maybe there will be apple there, maybe I’ll buy a bunch and make more juice. Because it is sooo yummy! I’m disappointed there isn’t more, but I learned a lot!

My method was super straightforward. Stick everything in a juicer. Done. I’m curious if cooking the apples with cream of tartar would make more or less juice. Better juice? Pinker juice? Maybe the apple people at the farmers market would know…

I’m so done with thinking about apples. For today, anyway. Brady and I are finally  getting out of here! Just to Edmonton for a couple nights, but it has been a long time coming! We had an exciting plan fall through in the recent past that had involved us going to Edmonton, and decided that it would be fun (and make the whole situation less disappointing) to go anyway and just have some time away. I doubt I have to remind you know badly I’ve needed to flee this summer. BADLY! So we’re going. We booked a hotel at an amazing price, we have a list (yes, I do need a list) of what we’re going to pick up at Ikea and a few great other stores that we don’t have here yet, and we’ll even see some family in between. For both breakfasts 🙂 I am SO looking forward to it! We leave today, after a quick trip into the city to run some last minute errands. Dekker’s birthday hand drum has finally arrived! YAY!

Enjoy your long weekend!

 

I have been needing to use this title for a long time but obviously, it could take a while to find an appropriate post to pair it with. So I’ll just use it anyway. My dad will get the joke, right dad? So would Ed Nickel, but I don’t think he reads this…

My poor sunshine boy is really struggling with his teeth today. He woke up absolutely wailing at about 7:45 which is sooo early for him. I found him bright red from crying, his face soaked with tears. We will hopefully be getting him a replacement necklace today. Poor little guy has never felt the full pain of teething until now, and he’s letting us know.

Its the times when Dekker is feeling this way that he wants me the most. Now I understand very well that, even if we have plans, sometimes they change because Dekker just needs a squishy home day. I sometimes feel that way too. However, my lovely friend across the street offered me her crab apples and they’re really starting to come off the trees. I really want to make apple juice! So I got Dekker up, dressed, fed, and drugged up (don’t judge! Haters be hatin’ somewhere else please!) and we moseyed on over to Melissa’s. We stuck Dekker and Melissa’s son, Seth, side by side in playpens and went to attack her trees. Poor Dekker just cried and cried. He had spans of time where he would settle a little, or drum on an extra bucket, but he was pretty sad. Soon both boys were sad and ready for a sleep. Luckily we live close enough that we can put our boys down and get back at the trees. We picked every single apple within our reach, probably leaving…maybe four or five. And the gooby ones. Who wants the gooby ones? Being the end of the season, there weren’t tons, but I came home with almost a full 5 gallon pail. All of them! Not sure if you read this or not, but THANK YOU MELISSA!!! I’m so excited to wash them up, run them through my juicer, and then freeze them so I can have apple slushies anytime I want. Yummy fresh 100% juice! Delicious.

I’m really looking forward to today!

Brady and I have been tossing around an idea in the recent past and had gotten really excited about it. Last night, we decided to completely nix the whole thing. It was very discouraging. It set the mood for a frustrating evening and a later night. My morning, however, has been wonderful so far. I’ve only been awake for about an hour. My room is nice and cool with the fan going, which is always nice. Plus, I woke up on my own accord. Not to my son crying, not to a lawn mower outside. Just to my body being rested. Sooo refreshing! Since I’ve been up, I’ve chatted with my brother on the phone, made an inquiry into purchasing a djembe, and put on deodorant. And that’s really about it!

My mom will be coming over soon to help me fix my house back up since Dekker’s party. One day I will be better at doing this on my own but she and I have decided I don’t have to feel lame or guilty about it, and that we’re going to just have fun being together. So thats the way I’m gonna take my attitude 🙂 I’m so glad to have the help! Especially today. Dekker is teething. He’s a really great teether, always has been, but these next ones (molars or eye teeth, not sure yet) are proving to be a bit more challenging. And his amber necklace broke yesterday. Sooooo today could be interesting with him. An extra pair of hands will be super helpful!

As I’m writing out the list of things to accomplish today, I’m definitely adding things my mom shouldn’t have to assist me in 🙂 Measure opening for baby gate. Schedule Dekker’s shots. Figure out why basement phone is dead. Oh well! Its gotta be done!

I’m having trouble deciding whether or not to do something. Not like one specific thing, but anything.

I have been completely slammed busy for pretty much this entire summer. Maybe not always running around like crazy, that was only August really, but my mind has been so full all summer and I feel like I haven’t had time to stop and rest. I don’t know. I’m just babbling, I guess.

As of right now, our deck is built, our picnic table is built, and Dekker’s birthday went off without a hitch. Those were the priorities. There were a few other things I was hoping to have done before his birthday that we just didn’t get to, though. We really wanted to build a few adirondack deck chairs. We wanted to do a few minor house repairs. The handle busted off our barbecue so we’d like to have it fixed sooner than later. Things like that. How much pressure do I put on myself to get them done, even though the “deadline” has passed and the rush is off?

Now, add to the list “putting my house back in order,” as we worked like slaves to get it together and I have no gumption left to tidy it up again. Its not in bad shape really at all, just have to locate a few of Dekker’s favorite toys and catch up on dishes, but I can’t imagine cleaning another day in my life right now. Another thing I really want to do is make apple juice. Soon. My friend across the street has graciously offered my free reign of her apple trees in her backyard, but I now have to drag my hiney out of the comfort of my home and go get them. See?! I have things to do, most of them good things! But I’m not sure at what point my body and mind deserve a break. One day. A quiet, lazy, bra-less day.

On top of all of this, Brady and I may be going to Edmonton for a day at the end of the week. And that needs to be decided by the end of the week, believe it or not! I am not set up to make decisions right now.

Everything in my noggin is foggy. Or foggin’. That would have been wittier. Bummer.

So in this scenario, I would normally say something like “I apologize in advance for posting waaaaay too many pictures!” But I can’t! Dekker’s party was so much fun and there are so many things to remember. These photos are all courtesy of my mom, as I completely forgot to even pull out my camera! Who can blame me, really. I was totally wrapped up in everything else! So, I hope you have lunch in your lap or something to do while you you look through this enormous post. Enjoy!

 

 

 

I’m hoping this week is a bit more relaxed than last week. Not that last week wasn’t fabulous!!! But it was crammed.

I was going to write a full crazy report on Dekker’s birthday party and all the events that took place, but I summed it up in my pervious post and I think too much follow-up would be redundant. So I would prefer to opt for a photo post. However, I want to make sure I have permission from everyone to post them on the dreaded interweb. So that may have to be tomorrows post. Or tomorrows tomorrows post. We’ll see.

We spent the morning at church with almost everyone who attended Dekker’s party sitting in two benches, one in front of the other. From there, we spent our afternoon with dear friends, eating bush pies and holding babies. I feel like I ate all afternoon. We hit my parents house for a quick supper and visit before we headed home. I suppose it wasn’t super eventful, it was quite perfect actually! However, I want nothing more than a lazy day tomorrow and already know I am not that lucky. I discovered this morning when I went to change Dekker’s diaper that we have about ten diapers. Ten. Thats it. So a diaper run is in order! That amongst the several things that get added to the list every time we go into the city.

One day things will slow down, right? Not quite yet. Not this week.

What a fabulous day 🙂 I am completely tired and if I wrote all about today right now, you would get a very poor, watered down playback of the events. So all I’m going to say is that we had a full afternoon and evening with family from close and far, all of our favorite friends that could make it (missed you Cody and Jessica!), our pastor and his wife, a couple beautiful baby girls, honorary grandma and grandpa who we thought couldn’t make it, and our great neighbor whose son is the exact same age (as in born on the same day) as Dekker.

We ate awesome burgers (shout out to the BBQers!), lots of fruit and veggies, and drank freshly squeezed lemonade. Our rainbow cake was a bit of a flop though. I suppose it was warm in our house with all the people, and the top layer split and started to slip away. It was a total mess but tasted the same.

Dekker hauled in tons of awesome gifts, which I’ll list off when I have them in front of me, since I don’t want to miss anything!

It is now before 10am and I am completely finished. In a good way. Now to gear up for an early morning tomorrow.

I was feeling guilty that I hadn’t blogged yet today (you’re about to hear why) but when I came to my page stats, I saw that I’ve only had six views! So I don’t feel as bad. I feel tired.

My mom came over and officially saved my life today. She was here at 9:00am and we worked our crazy little bums off until about 10:00pm, stopping only to eat. Of course, Brady and I dad also arrived around 5:30-ish and joined the fun. Dekker’s party is tomorrow, and our house was a complete mess. Sweeping, dusting, organizing, tidying, dishes, dishes, more dishes, vacuuming, laundry, mowing, and getting our new picnic table off the deck and onto the lawn. Plus, cakes needed to be bakes, lemons needed to be juiced, presents needed to be wrapped, etc. Everything went surprisingly smoothly though! It is amazing how days like that can be so fun! And how having a friend to help can be such extra motivation.

Only once were we held up. Mom was mowing and it started pouring! I ran out to convince her to come inside. We have mowed and bagged enough these last few days. As I was putting my sandals on, the rain got crazy loud, and I realized it was actually hail! I bolted outside, getting blasted in the side of the head, my ear filling with water and ice. I yelled at my mom “Come inside! Its hailing!” and she goes “Its hailing?” My mom is always so happy to help anywhere she’s needed, even if it leaves her mowing my lawn in the a hailstorm. I love you, mom.

I had a big scary list of things to accomplish today. Wanna knows whats left on it? Bathing Dekker. And then the obvious stuff, like setting out the tables and condiments, fruit and veggies, put the lemonade in the drink dispenser thing, etc. Obvious party stuff. But tonight, I am done. I will have a bubble bath, paint my nails, and watch something light-hearted on Netflix.

My feet hurt. A good hurt. *Sigh of relief*

So. Dekker climbs stairs. When no one is looking.

I was having lunch with my mom this afternoon. Dekker was playing on the floor in her sunken living room. We figured we’d let him play there as long as he was happy, and if he got sad we’d stick him in the high chair and feed him Cherrios while we had soup, leftover chicken chunks, and strawberries. Yum! We hadn’t been eating too long at all when I looked over for Dekker and saw him standing on the first stair. I was surprised and caught off guard, uttering the life-saving “um…” My mom was quicker on the draw than me and rushed over to hold her hand behind his back. I followed and we celebrated Dekker’s big step. He looked totally bored. Then he climbed up the last step and sat down, looking around for toys.

As said by a friend, nothing is safe anymore.

Yesterday we just wanted to celebrate Dekker! Brady took the day off work, we had Dekker’s one year check up in the morning, and then head plans to go for a ride on the carousel, go out for lunch, let him have a little ice cream maybe, and then go to Long & McQuade and let him pick out a shaker or little drum.

We started at the doctor. As usual, she was lovely and interested and full of information. When she listened to his lungs, he grabbed onto the stethoscope and pulled her really close to him. While I was dying on the inside, waiting for him to grab her glasses off her face or pull her hair, she just asked him ” Are you pulling me in for a secret?” He just smiled at her and let her complete her exam. As good as he was though, he was tired, and hot from being held. He was so loud the entire time! When we finally got him out and into the car, he was asleep. Brady and I found ourselves disappointed. We wanted him to feel so loved and special that day, and this was changing all of our plans! I was then reminded by a friend that if he wants to spend his birthday sleeping, let the boy sleep! Of course! I think a lot of people want that for their birthday! So we scrapped lunch out and instead went pretty much straight to Long & McQuade so we could get him something to play with on the drive home. Turns out they have nothing! They had one brand of a 6″ hand drum and when I pulled it out of its box, the skin was all puckered! Ridiculous. So we ended up ordering one that won’t come for another 2-3 weeks. I had to keep reminding myself that Dekker didn’t know what was going on and wouldn’t be disappointed even if I was. We bought him a teeny little set of shakers and took him home. He stayed awake the whole drive home, fussing a little here and there. When he got home, he had lunch and went to sleep for about 3.5 hours. I finally had to wake him, since he was sleeping too close to bedtime. He lasted maybe an hour and then was down for the night.

Now today, he is awake and bright and happy. We’ll see how long that lasts before his teeth start bugging him and he gets tired. But until then, we play!