Making Jam

I was able to go home last week to visit my parents. The kids were at camp and my neighbor wanted to go to Lubbock so we just took off. It was so nice to spend time with them.

Dad decided that I was ready to learn something new. Something he used to watch his mama do and then he taught himself - the art of making jam.

Anyone that knows my dad, knows that when he teaches you something the instructions are very well planned out and timed down to the minute. That's not really how I roll. I do a lot of guessing and adding this and that when I'm at the stove but since he was instructing me, I followed his directions to the letter and the results were AMAZING!




First of all, he had all the supplies laid out that we would need. I would never have thought of that but I found out quickly that you have to be able to grab what you need in a hurry so that things don't get out of control while you're frantically searching for what you need.




Exactly 31 apricots make one batch of jam. Yes, there is one extra. That was for the cats. They like to play with apricots.



I was super excited to learn that you don't have to peel apricots. You just halve them, take out the seed and any blemishes and that's it.



The apricots go in the food processor until this beautiful orange, thick, a little chunky consistency is made. You put this on the stove with some lemon juice, pectin, and a little butter. When it starts to boil, a whole bunch of sugar is added and I mean a whole bunch, like a mountain of sugar.



It cooks until you get a nice rolling boil and then you let it keep boiling for 1 minute. Now you have a beautiful orange gold liquid that goes into the jars.



Lids go on.



Now they are ready for a 20 minute bath in boiling water.



Beautiful and delicious.

We made 2 batches of these and they both turned out great. So, of course, I think I'm a jam making expert now. On the drive home, my neighbor and I were talking about all things we could start putting in jars. I was even imagining all the Christmas gifts I could put together with homemade jam and fresh baked bread.
Upon my return home, I rushed to Sam's to get supplies to make strawberry jam. I followed the directions from Pioneer Woman and now I have 12 jars of strawberry syrup.
Back to the drawing board. I'm not quite the expert I thought I was.

Tubing on the Guadalupe

 In my opinion, one of the best ways to spend a hot summer day is tubing on the river with a bunch of awesome people.

 That's just what we did yeaterday.  We had 19 people in our group, mostly teenagers, and we spent a lazy day in the very cold water of the Guadalupe just below Canyon Lake.  There is an area where the river makes a horseshoe.  It takes about 2 hours to float the horseshoe and then you can get out and do it again. Which we did.

 Alan wasn't going to go, but he decided the night before that he would go with us.  I'm so glad he did. 

 Here's all the kids.  I can't call them kids much longer.  Some of the guys are 18 already.

 Why didn't someone tell me to take off the hat for the picture?  Did I look that ridiculous all day?

 Katie and one of her best friends, Hannah. I don't know what's up with Armor.

 There was a rope swing that came out over the water and of course they had to try it. 

We ended the day by eating at the Gristmill in Gruene.  That is one of the coolest restaurants to eat at.  Of course, we were so hungry by then that it didn't really matter.  This picture was taken inside Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas.  Isn't that where you are supposed to take a bunch of Baptist teenagers?

Back From Camp

I got to go to Youth Camp this last week. I haven't been to Youth Camp since I was a teenager myself.




Here we are before we left.




Like all Youth Camps, there was a music leader and a speaker. Jason Gray lead the music and I didn't realize until I got home that I hear him on the radio. I should have gotten his autograph. The speaker, Tom Richter, was fantastic. Every night there was some kind of entertainment. The first night was a big party with Travelin' Max. He gave everyone hats, leis, and maracas.




There were several different competitions during the day. Tom and his team almost won the paintball tournament.




Katie played paintball too.




There was a Dodgeball Tournament.




I'm so glad I got to go. I've known most of these kids their whole lives and it is so awesome to watch them grow in Christ and mature as Christians.

2011 The Year in Review

Since I didn't blog much in 2011, I'll catch up in one post.
So here goes:
Apparently, it snowed last January. I have no memory of this, but when I was looking for pictures, I found some with snow. I do know we had to make up 2 bad weather days in school so this must have been one of them. I wonder what else I have completely forgotten. It scares me a little. This is a reason to blog more.

Spring Break was a little different for us. My mom had surgery that week and I wanted to be with her. The kids wanted to come. We often go to Amarillo that week, but I told them that I wouldn't be able to keep them entertained like we usually do because I would be there to help my mom and dad. So they decided to stay home. Alan was able to take a couple of days off, so they went exploring. One place they went was the Hamilton Pool Preserve. The pictures are beautiful. They are going to have to take me some day. One of the kids almost got bit by a rattlesnake. It's probably a good thing I wasn't there.

Katie turned 15. She wanted this Mocha Raspberry cake which I totally messed up. It tasted ok, but it was not pretty.

I love this picture of Tom and Emma. He needs to be around little kids more.

Easter is always a big deal with our family. We go to Rockdale for a big Easter Egg Hunt. My kids are too big now to hunt for eggs, but there are always plenty of little ones around. The big kids just like to sit around and talk. If you hand them some candy, they'll take it, but they won't hunt anymore.I tried my hand at gardening again this year. It had been several years since I tried to grow anything. I wish I had known that this would be the driest, hottest, windiest summer ever in the history of the world. My poor plants didn't have a chance. We protected them from the deer, but I couldn't do anything about the heat. I didn't get even 1 tomato. We got a few peppers. I really don't like to sweat, so it didn't take long before I gave up.

We took a family vacation to Orange Beach in June. It was a lot of fun even though we almost died.

Alan picked the hottest, driest, windiest summer ever in the history of the world to cut down some dead trees. He hired Tom and his friend Drew. They got a lot done but because it was so dry, none of it could be burned. The dead stuff was just piled up in a huge barricade around the front of the house.

Tom got a car this year. This was the first time he drove himself to school on the first day.

Tom played football again this year. I am happy to report that he had no broken bones or injuries of any kind.He also played in the band, sometimes he did both in the same night.

He turned 17 this year. I secretly invited his friends over to celebrate. He was surprised.

Katie is on the varsity basketball team.

For the first time ever, we didn't go to Amarillo for Christmas. Tom was working and Katie had a basketball tournament so we couldn't get away. It was a little sad, but we had some good family time at home. Kim and her family came over Christmas day. We just needed Memaw and Grandpa.

We ended the year in true Kyle style. Fireworks! We finally got enough rain that Alan was able to burn the barricade around the house and the kids could buy fireworks. We had about 20 people over on New Year's Eve and enough fireworks to possibly be illegal.