Jammin’

Today is one of those days. It’s chilly and raining outside and all plans for putting in new fence were put on hold for a job that could be done inside.

These decisions are always ultimately left up to the hubby, because if he really wants to get something done, the weather won’t stop him.

Well, today he decided it was time to make jam, Rhubarb Jam. YUM!

But this made me feel a little sad, ya see, I work part time from home for a small business, updating their website and social media sites.

Today happened to be a day I needed to work, so I wasn’t going to get in on the yearly jam making, except for drooling over the mouthwatering sweetness that would waft down the stairs.

I had already pulled some of our rhubarb just after Mother’s Day and made a few little cobblers to deliver to my mom and some others on the way.

Kayla pulled the majority of the rest of ours last night, and Chelsey picked some of our neighbors’ this morning.

At lunch time I came up from the basement to make Fajitas. I had taken a Beef flank steak out of the freezer and settled on a Pinterest recipe from one of my favorite cooks, Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman.

I whipped up the marinade and sliced the peppers and onions last night and combined them with the flank steak to marinate overnight.

I cranked the stove to high, added the peppers and onions to the pan and in 5 minutes flat I had the house smelling like a Steakhouse! Man it smelled good!

While I was cooking, Chelsey washed and trimmed the Rhubarb. Dan set the table and shredded the cheese and we called Reed for lunch and sat down to try the new recipe.

It was pretty good and I think this recipe is a keeper.

As we put the leftovers away I dreaded leaving the kitchen. I absolutely hate days like this when I would rather be doing what the rest of my family is, especially when they’re in the kitchen!

Uhhh…  to the basement I went.

I could hear the progress upstairs as I clicked on the keyboard below.

Chelsey chopped the Rhubarb while Dan did the cooking at the stove. After it was cooked down, he added sugar, pie filling and jello, and Chelsey pureed it and poured it into the jars.

Kayla got home in the middle of the afternoon and jumped in to help.

By 5 I couldn’t wait any longer for a taste. I headed up the stairs to see what progress they had made. I noticed that the sweetness of the jam cleared up all signs of the Fajitas I had made for lunch.

Cherry, Strawberry and Blueberry flavors had been created and I couldn’t wait to try my favorite, the Strawberry Rhubarb!

There were quite a few jars on the table and they had set a few of the big jars aside for the neighbor who had shared their rhubarb.

Reed, the official taste tester, sampled some of the Blueberry and his eyes got big and he “Mmmmmm’d” how good it was.

Chelsey and Dan told me that Reed had wanted to try a chunk of rhubarb earlier. He popped it in his mouth, made quite a face, and ran to the trash to spit it out! Ha ha!

Here are some pictures of them working on one of the last batches.

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This is where, “Food, Family, Farmin’ and Fun” come together on rainy, Spring days in the kitchen… Jammin’

“Me” Time

After chores tonight I needed a little “me” time. With supper in the crockpot, I stole away to the basement.

Last Fall, I had taken a painting class. All by myself! I saw it offered on Facebook and signed up and went. Sometimes you just need to do that.

And I had a great time painting my pumpkins! I was as proud as a peacock when I came home and showed my family. 🙂

Pumpkins

Now, I don’t know that my pumpkins were all that great, but I wanted to do that again sometime. In fact, before I left that night I asked the instructor if I could host my own party?

And the following month, that’s just what I did. I had a dozen or so friends and family over for my very own painting party!

We had a ton of fun painting a happy little snowman! I loved how we could choose whatever colors we wanted and make our snowman tall or fat or…  whatever it turned out to be!

This is what my finished snowman looked like…

Snowman

But I also LOVED how everyone else’s turned out too! And they were all just a little different!

So back to tonight.

I came downstairs to the drawer full of acrylic paints and brushes I bought after my party. They were still in the wrappers, along with the various sizes of blank canvases I bought too.

So after doing a little thinking about what I wanted to paint, I decided I wanted to do a night scene with our barn in the background.

This is what it ended up to be…

Night Barn Painting

It turned out a lot like the post I did last week. You can read about it here.

I still wanted to paint one more picture, so I found a picture that made my heart a little happier. And then I went to work creating it in my own style.

Flowering Tree Painting

This one was fun because I got to use my fingertips to create all the colored dots!

Now… A question for you…

Have you done anything lately worth remembering

Taking One for the Team

Family is pretty important to us, and we’ve always tried to support our girls in whatever they are a part of.

Whether it was 4-H, church, sports, FFA… You name it and we were there. (Maybe a little late, but we were there, ha ha)

Last Fall, Chelsey joined the Fair Board. We have been hearing how they are working hard to get everything planned and booked for the upcoming fair in August. Sounds like she’s been attending lots of meetings and doing her part to help where she can.

She mentioned to her dad during milking the other morning that she was working at BINGO this Sunday and that we should come.

So yesterday he told me about their conversation and he said he was like “Yeah, right. BINGO isn’t my thing.” (I can just see him shaking his head like “No. Way.”)

Besides, I’m sure he already had made his own plans… a Sunday afternoon nap!

And knowing that’s not the kind of thing he would get excited about, I asked him if we were going… and he says “I guess so!”

I couldn’t help but laugh!

And so he asks me if I was going too? And I said “I guess I’ll have to take one for the team too.” 🙂

We rounded up the troops… Cozie, Reed, Kayla (and a friend), Chelsey’s husband Jason, Dan and I… and we headed to the fairgrounds to play BINGO!

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Well, we didn’t win. But we did support Chelsey and the Fayette County Fair!

And we know that THEY win when all of us do our part!