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The great irony during canning season is that we rarely eat a homemade meal because all of my thought and energy is focused on preserving the foods that currently occupy the shelves and drawers in the fridge.  As of tonight, I have the following waiting for my attention: 1 head of green cabbage, 1 head of red cabbage, 5 large cucumbers, 1 gallon bag of sliced apricots, 1 qt. bag of gooseberries, 1 gallon bag of tomatillos, 4 pickling cucumbers, 4 zucchini, 1 qt. bag of shredded zucchini, 1 qt. bag of chopped cheddar cauliflower, 6 crookneck summer squash, and 1 gallon bag of beets.  On my kitchen counter there is a bin of apples, a bowl of tomatoes, the dehydrator currently drying apples, and 8 pints of canned German red cabbage are just starting to cool.  And Justin wonders why the laundry doesn't get put away!  I picked all of the produce in the above photos over the last two days and yet the kids ate mac and cheese for dinner tonight (J was out fishing until 10:30pm and ate leftover mac and cheese when he got home).  Granted, we do have leftover grilled eggplant, zucchini and squash in the fridge but it's buried underneath the cucumbers, I think.  The tops of the cupboards are starting to fill up with beautifully colored jars of raspberry jam, apricot syrup, and brandied cherries.  If all goes according to plan, I should have almost every color of the rainbow represented by the end of canning season.  Of course, we may also have a garbage can full of empty McDonald's cartons.

Fire in the hole

I currently have 16 half-pint jars of apricot syrup cooling on my counter but a few hours ago I had a small kitchen fire blazing in one of my drip pans.  Darn me for trying to double a recipe in a not-quite-big-enough pot!  Fortunately Justin kept his cool and turned the burner off while I was delicately balancing the still full pot of apricot syrup on the edge of the oven while trying to not get burned by the bubbling water bath next to me.  My response to the fire was to keep blowing it out whenever it flared up, all while digging through my cupboard for my baking soda.  I knew the fire extinguisher was under the sink but again, I wasn't about to let my picking/pitting/cooking go to waste.  Smart man that he is, Justin realized I was panicking and coolly turned the dial off.  He's awfully handy to have around in moments like this! 

I'm still pretty amped up by the apricot adventure.  I failed to add that I attempted this new canning recipe during the evening of one of the hottest days we've had this summer.  And there's a new forest fire that's close enough to add the smell of smoke in the air.  At least the house already smelled smokey when my fire started :)  So I'm sitting here late at night trying to calm down, cool the house off, and care for Mr. P who has a bad cold.  I think colds in summer should be illegal.  Not to mention it's almost impossible to hear his cries for help above the roaring fans we have in the windows.  I just can't win tonight.

This already sleepless night lends itself to helping me catch up on those elusive photos I keep bragging about.  JoAnn and George came for a full week about two weeks ago and at the end of every day we were wiped out!  The kids went to bed late and it felt like we were constantly on the go.  We had a lot of fun adventures with them in spite of not covering our whole to-do list.  Maybe next time!

Photo overkill

I have a gazillion photos to post.  I really do.  Justin's mom and her husband were here for a week and we did it all: raspberry picking, the rodeo and fair, fishing at Georgetown Lake, gem mining, playground fun, the market, everything!  And I have photos to prove it.  BUT I've run out of room to add images to Picasa to post them here.  Any suggestions?  I think it may be time to move my non-blog photos over to the external hard drive to see if that helps but it seems like a headache to save each picture individually.  Does anyone know a faster way to do it?  I'm hoping you do.  Help a girl out so you can delight in some awesome photos of Madeleine in her Christmas dress sitting on the ground trying to confine 20 worms in her hands.  Seriously, you're gonna want to see these!

Cline-isms

Things recently heard around our house:
1.  Parker just flushed his toothbrush down the potty!
2.  If you stand there you're crotch will get soaked.
3.  Don't pull his leg off!
4.  Brush the dirt off before you put it in your mouth.
5.  Did he just eat the stem and all?
6.  If you try to chase it you'll probably get stung!
7.  It's okay Daddy, you can say a bad word.

Ahoy matey

The only time I've remembered to take a picture of P's new captains bed is when he was at preschool so forgive me that you don't see his cute mug snuggled somewhere inside that transportation bedspread which I snagged at goodwill a few months ago.  I'm starting to feel some guilt about not doing a better job at personalizing the kids' rooms.  M has said for over a year that she wants to paint her room purple (not my favorite but it's also not my room) but we wanted to get new windows in (done) and replace their old carpets (not done) before painting.  Now I'm starting to think it's time to just buy some stinking paint and go to town while it's nice enough to leave the windows open to get rid of the stinky paint smell.  I got crafty with a few pictures in P's room (you can't see them in the photos) and I want to do some more.  I've bookmarked hundreds of inexpensive crafty decor ideas that I want to do for M as well.  I'm sure that I'll get it done...before they turn 18.

Adios crib

We've been really lucky that Parker hadn't yet decided to start climbing out of his crib.  He's been tall enough to do so for almost a year but the urge hadn't hit...until tonight.  I've put him back in bed 3 times and I think I just heard him climb out again.  We have been dreading this day to a certain degree.  For the first two years of his life, Parker was a horrible sleeper.  When he started sleeping through the night consistently a little before Christmas last year, we began to remember what it was like to feel rested.  We suddenly had energy that we thought had escaped us permanently.  We actually started to feel our age instead of 10 years older than we really were.  But this new change was inevitable.  Parker has grasped this idea of change and is running full-force towards the end zone.  He's completely potty trained (all within a few weeks), can ride a bike, goes to preschool, and now wants to be the decider of his own night-time destiny.  I totally get it; I just hope we transition through this phase quickly because sleep and I've become pretty close and I'm not going to give it up without a fight (which probably means I'll end up sleeping in bed with him, whether he's sleeping or not).  I guess I'll add shopping for a twin bed to my errand list for tomorrow.

Update: I snagged an awesome wood captain's bed off Craigslist Friday afternoon for $60!  It not only came with a mattress (which needs to be replaced but will hold for a month or so) but the woman delivered it to the house!  I took the crib apart and put the bed together and P successfully slept in it that night.  Then we went camping Saturday night and he slept in it Sunday night with no problem.  Last night was a different beast (up for over 2 hours leading him back to bed from 10:45pm to 1am) but he's getting the hang of it.  Pictures to come.

Mid-summer

It's hard to believe it's already the middle of summer.  Or at least it's supposed to be.  I've decided to officially include June as one of our months of spring so I won't be disappointed next year when it doesn't get over 60 before the solstice.  Nevertheless, despite the cool and wet spring and summer we've had, the garden is flourishing as is our family.  I can barely make the kids eat breakfast and change out of pajamas before they're running out the door to play outside.  Four outfit changes and three applications of sunscreen and bug spray later, we are usually eating dinner outside, exhausted and sun-kissed (I don't ever let the kids get burned...however, there is that one spot on my back that is really hard to reach...)  We've managed to go camping twice and have a few more outings planned.  Our great friends the Tippens spent 8 days of their summer vacation hanging out with us.  It was a fabulous way for us to have a staycation!  We couldn't imagine a way it could have been better!  My dad was also able to sneak out for a quick mountain getaway.  Besides running the Missoula half-marathon (my dad finished first in his age group...the kids/J/I all slept in and cheered him on in our dreams), we snuck in a kid-paced hike up Waterworks Hill, fishing at Rock Creek, downtown shopping, and lots of great food.  We have about a month break before our next round of guests arrive at the end of August.  I hope to make the most of these next few weeks to help solidify Parker's potty training (he's diaper-free when awake with only the occasional accident) and to get some back-to-school sewing done with the hopes that the kids don't grow too much before school starts in September.  I still haven't downloaded our camera's software yet but plan to do so while Justin's at a work retreat this weekend.  Then you'll have some proof of our unending fun!

Quick update: I can't help but brag that Parker just figured out how to ride a 2-wheel bike this evening!  Tricycles are headed to Craigslist and I've put out a request on Freecycle for another 12" bike because changing the seat height on the one bike we have for each kids has already gotten old :)  My little P is getting so grown up!