Strawberry Peach Freezer Jam

Last night I tried making freezer jam for the first time. I received a ton of peaches in my Bountiful Basket this weekend (post coming on this). Neither DH or I enjoy the texture of fresh peaches but we sure do love the flavor. Therefore, I decided to try making some peach freezer jam. You would think that if it was my first time I would follow a recipe exactly right? Instead I decided I didn't want to make just plain old peach jam. I wanted to make Strawberry-Peach Jam. It sounds so delicious and such a great way to carry over the fruits of summer into the Fall and Winter. The color of the jam turned out absolutely gorgeous! I am now plotting creative ways to maybe gift some of my jam to friends and family. I will definitely consider making another batch of jam with the large number of pears I also received this week. Here is the recipe I used:

Strawberry-Peach Jam

2 cups fresh peaches, pitted, peeled, chopped and mashed (I used a potato masher, worked wonders)

1 cup fresh strawberries, stems removed, chopped and mashed

4-1/2 cups  sugar, measured into separate bowl

2 Tbsp.  fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup  water

1 box  SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin

 

1. Rinse clean freezer safe containers and lids with hot water. Dry thoroughly.

2.  Measure exactly 2 cups prepared peaches and 1 cup prepared strawberries into a large bowl. Add sugar and lemon juice; mix well. Let stand 10 min., stirring occasionally. 
 
3. Mix water and pectin in small saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 min. Add to fruit mixture; stir 3 min. or until sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy.
 
4. Fill all of the containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops (I used a canning funnel and I definitely recommend one). Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or freeze extra containers up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator before using.  

Note: This filled 8 half pint sized jars (8 oz.) with about 2 tablespoons left over. It doesn't matter what brand of jars you buy just make sure they are freezer safe. I also read a recommendation that you buy jars with straight sides and not ones that curve outwards from the lid because your jar could break when the Jam expands in the freezer.  

Happy Jamming!  

Budgeting Fail

As I begin this post I let out a big sigh. Recently DH (dear husband) and I decided we need to get our finances in order. He is currently in school and on an army scholarship. Through the scholarship we earn about $2100 a month to live off of and support our family. Well the first year of his four year program flew by.....and so did a lot of our savings. We took a good hard look at our finances and found that we're overspending our monthly income by nearly 1000 a month. Ok, time to roll up our sleeves and start cutting back, right?

Wrong. This month we made a big push to keep our expenses down. Only problem is we have a lot of expenses that we just can't get out of, which leaves very little wiggle room once all the bills are paid. We have 7 days left of this month and we are already over budget by about 500. Gah!!

There are a few explanations for this:

1. Our electricity bill is much higher than average due to the soaring temperatures. It should be much more reasonable next month.

2. We got behind in our tithing payments while we were out of town...and DH decided it was time to catch up. There goes another chunk of money.

3. We found out we're having a baby girl. Which means I can get out of control with "getting ready" for baby expenses. For fun this month we went and made her a Build-A-Bear like we did when we found out we were having DS. We also stocked up on some clothes and diapers that were on sale. I'm hoping the buy now to save later approach works on this one. Luckily we only need a few more items for her and they're pretty inexpensive so this expenditure should go down next month.

4. My birthday is next month. To celebrate DH wanted to go see a Cirque show. He bought the tickets early to get good seats. Not easy on the budget.

5. Lots of various little expenses that we weren't expecting. A bill came through for some lab work I had to have done a few months ago, DS got sick so we had to go stock up on some medicine, etc. I guess we need to plan for these things a little bit better in future.

The good news is is we've saved about $70 on what we usually spend on groceries this month and about $100 on what we spend on eating out. This month I really cracked down on meal planning and DH really cracked down on eating out at school. Hopefully we can carry this over to next month.

We are using Mint.com to keep track of our finances. We've set up all of our budgets for things we have to buy and things that are likely to come up. We  may have failed this month but we've heard it takes a few months to get it down to a science. So far seeing everything on Mint has been really motivating and we're going to keep trying. Wish us luck!!I will have an update with October's results.

Toddler Learning

I am currently working on trying to find good ideas for teaching DS (Dear Son) the basics. He's 16 months old and I know once toddlers hit about 18 months their language is supposed to begin to blossom. I want DS to have a good head start in life since he will be one of the youngest kids on his class when he starts school. Also, when volunteering to help in the junior nursery (18 months-2 years) at church there were several kids in there who were great with their alphabet and their colors. I was shocked! I am a first time mom and I definitely don't want DS to get behind. So I've been researching various blogs and internet topics and trying to come up with some ideas for my son.

Now, like most toddlers, he has an attention span of approximately 60 seconds. So my goal is to chose one letter a week that corresponds with one color a week and a special word that goes with the letter of the week. Throughout the week I plan to point out words that start with that letter and things that correspond with the color of the week.

So to start out easy I'm going with the letter A. Here is the plan:

A is for Apple

 

Letter of the week: A

Find the letter A in his picture books

Print out Letter A printable and post on fridge for the week. Help DS to identify it       

 

Color of the Week: Red

Ideas: Make homemade red playdough

Identify the color red on toys and picture books

Try coloring an apple picture with red crayon

 

Number of the Week: 1

Count items around the house we only have 1 of

Show him one on his fingers

Look at the number 1 in his picture books

 

Word of the Week: Apple

Show him apples when we are out shopping and at home

Give him apples for snacks

Identify pictures of apples in picture books

 

Obviously when he gets a little bit older and has a longer attention span and better motor skills we will incorporate coloring sheets, matching activities, etc. I really like the printable "mommy school" packets put together by Alison on her Oopsey Daisy blog.

 

Right now I think that is too advanced for him, so we're just going to focus on incorporating the leter A "plan" into our daily conversations and activities.